A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, September 21, 2008
Matthew 20:1-16
The stock market groans, corporations collapse, the government steps in – or it doesn’t – while chief economic advisers for the political campaigns tear their hair out.
You and I try to calculate how we’ll pay the rising costs of gas and oil and groceries and health care. At the same time the non-profits, whose mission is to help those is need, realize their costs are rising too, while cautious donors pull back. Our own Church Council recognizes the collision of these factors just as we prepare for our 2009 program year and anticipate the costs of doing business.
I don’t know much about financial markets, inflation and recession and all those other terms, but I do know what anxiety looks like. I’m no expert of the economy or what the Fed should do next. That’s above my pay grade. But I do know about scripture and find there the reassurance that God has always walked with us through floods and storms and plague and catastrophe.
Certainly God has shown us what is good and right. And God calls us to live with faith and purpose, no matter what. Today’s scripture can open us to a deeper understanding of God’s ways in what I’ve called Christian Economics, 101.
In today’s parable the land owner needed workers to get the harvest in from the vineyard. He went to the community well at the center of town and hired some. When things weren’t moving well enough he went back at 9 and noon, then at 3 and 5, to hire more laborers, promising to treat all of them fairly. That’s the first half of the story.
It’s clear the later hires were still hanging around and hadn’t found work when the manager returned. You can imagine how fearful they were – mortgages and taxes to pay, families to feed, and no work or income. So when the owner came back it seemed like a win-win: he’d get workers and they’d get a few shekels to help them through another day.
Then, as you heard, the focus shifts. The work was finished and it was time to settle accounts. The owner told his manager to pay the workers, starting with the ones who’d come at 5 p.m., just an hour earlier. He gave them a full day’s wage. The ones who’d worked 12 were suddenly salivating in anticipation of how much he’d reward them. The manager paid each, and to each he gave a full day’s wage.
The anger erupted. The ones who’d worked all day felt cheated. No surprise. Then the punch line as the owner steps in: “You have no complaint. I gave you what I promised. Do you begrudge me being generous?” Frankly, yes, they did. And we do… at least for a moment.
But I must ask: have you ever received a full day’s pay for one hour’s work? I have. Have you ever shown up after most of the work was done and still received praise for the outcome? I have. That’s not fair either, is it?
Preacher and scholar Leander Keck writes about this theme:
if life were totally a matter of strict fairness, it would be scarcely tolerable. Who wants to receive back from others — our roommates, husbands, wives, parents or siblings — exactly what we give them? Is not life made tolerable, and sometimes joyous, by the fact that those closest to us overlook our tart words, ignore what is said in times of fatigue and bad moods, and set aside the deeds that hurt? Is this not what love and compassion are all about? Why, then, do we not see ourselves among those who came to work at the end of the day? {The Bible in the Pulpit, pg. 147}
He’s so right. Most of us want to think most of the time we deserved more than we received. And most of us, most of the time, take for granted the comfort and security in which we live day after day. As someone once said: consider the man who was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple! Maybe you weren’t born on third – maybe it was second or even first – but chances are you’ve advanced because of other’s sacrifices. It’s all grace – and the kindness of others.
The parable introduces us to Christian Economics 101 – strictly speaking you don’t get what you deserve. God isn’t confined to acting in ways that meet our approval, our idea of what’s fair and right.
We make our god too small when we assume She deals with us pretty much the way we deal with each other. In our world we too easily believe that we should return more for more, less for less, and nothing for nothing.
Like all his parables, Jesus plants the hook and pulls us in as we identify with one character or another. You may be the one-hour laborer who got a 12-hour wage; or the 12-hour laborer who got just what you were promised and nothing more. You may be the manager wondering what’s right and fair while others sit in the bleachers and shout their judgments.
The story is rich and deep, but let’s it to heart:
• When it comes to grace there is always enough, because grace is a gift from God.
• When it comes to grace you don’t have to keep score, because grace is a gift from God.
• When it comes to grace there’s plenty to go around, because grace is a gift from God.
Everyone is valuable and vital in completing the work at hand, no matter how many hours you labored. It’s not the work that makes us worthy. It’s our willingness to go when we’re called. At the end of the day the manager has a bunch of workers who are treated fairly and a whole bunch more who are treated generously.
Still, there’s another side to the equation, isn’t there? When grapes are just right you either gather them in or you lose them. The manager isn’t in the business of paying us to hold hands and sing “Kumbaya.” At the end of the day everything depends on getting the grapes off the vines and into the vats; getting the wheat from the field and the bread on the table of everyone who’s hungry.
As we talk about Christian Economics 101, we have to remember grace is not a license for laziness! Forgiveness is not permission to keep on sinning and pulling away from God. You can’t get the work done if no one shows up and pitches in and does the heavy lifting. You can’t have a harvest if no one is willing to pick the grapes.
God’s amazing grace has the power to transform us. You’ve heard me quote the old black preacher who called out: “God loves you just the way you are… and loves you too much to let you stay that way!”
The manager knew what he was doing. He hired the workers and got them working, then saw that more were needed, and then still more. If he hadn’t found enough willing workers there’s no telling what would have happened at the end of the day.
So let’s thank God for the gift of grace. But let’s also thank God for the workers who pitch in. And for God’s call to us to labor for the common good.
Our church is blessed with so many faithful folks who labor together side by side, who roll up their sleeves and get things done, who understand that being the church is not a spectator sport.
And today, especially, we celebrate the way that grit and grace are lived out in our music ministries, guided and inspired by Shirley Curry. She began her ministry with us in September, 1968 – as organist and accompanist for the choirs. Over these four decades she has directed the Children’s Choirs, the former Youth Choir that became the mixed Maranatha Choir, the Hilltop Ringers, and the Chancel Choir that we now call the Meetinghouse Choir. She has played countless weddings, funerals, festivals, and concerts. She has nourished the love of music in the lives of countless people – children and adults. She has given countless hours to others in coaching, mentoring, tutoring – all for the love of God, the love of music, the love of our church, and the love of laboring with us in the vineyard.
Anyone who has sung with Shirley knows that she exemplifies the truth of this parable – grace and grit; patient and forgiving but also remembering and reminding us that there’s work to do, important work to do – and if we don’t show up, we’re all diminished.
Choir folks are among the most deeply devoted people in any church. Season in and season out; year in and year out – in blizzards and storms; even on those breath-taking days when we all want to be outside – the women, men and children of our choirs are here because they know Shirley will be here and she counts on them as we all count on her.
We celebrate today as we recognize our mutual good fortune – that Shirley has stuck around through thick and thin. That says something very important about her and about us.
• And more than that, we celebrate each and every one who shows up, who hangs in, who doesn’t quit;
• We lift prayers of thanks for those who roll up their sleeves and do their share, whether it’s with time, talent or treasures;
• We offer thanks for all those who work through the heat of the day and who don’t complain… oh, OK, maybe a little;
• We express our gratitude for everyone who pours the coffee, bakes the cookies, fixes the meals, and serves the luncheons;
• For each one who’s come from a long day of work and still shows up at the church for a meeting or rehearsal or class or project;
• For each one who’s taught Sunday school, or tended the gardens; who’s passed out bulletins or counted offerings.
I’m absolutely sure this parable tells us that God pours amazing grace into every life, and it’s not ours to judge whether someone else gets more than we think they deserve.
But I’m equally sure there’s sacred, urgent work to do for the sake of the world, for the sake of God’s loving purposes. And that work won’t be done unless each of us looks beyond our self and sees the greater good; and shows up, and pitches in and makes it happen.
That’s the bottom line, Christian Economics 101.
And in celebrating Shirley Curry today, as a mentor, teacher, artist and example, I say “thanks” to each one of you who makes this, our beloved church, the church we are.