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Saturday 23 September 2017

"Jesus turns Fairness upside down"




Sept. 24, 2017 Readings:  Matt 20: 1-16
 I would like to rename the parable we heard today as “the radical landlord.”

The parables Of Jesus are often very difficult for us to understand.  They seem to play havoc with your human reasoning at times.  Mainly because the messages they proclaim, especially about God’s amazing love, grace, or how we will be received in the Kingdom of Heaven, do not go along with our worldly view of what is fair and what’s unfair.   God’s love, mercy and grace are radical.  So radical in fact, they often teach the opposite of our worldly understanding of how things should work, who should receive and who shouldn’t.    God’s ways of doing things often make no sense to our human logic and our human nature, especially when it comes to love and forgiveness that has no conditions.   When we were young our piers and family began teaching us about what is fair and what is unfair.   If you work very hard to accomplish something then you would expect to be rewarded.   The size of the reward should be in proportion to the work accomplished.  Do an ok job, receive you’re ok pay, but if you do a better job, well, you can hope to and should expect a little more for your extra effort.  Those who work real hard and produce more, why they should not only get a good pay but can expect a bonus right?  The problem here is that this parable turns that teaching upside down and goes against human logic and worldly teaching and therefore should be subject to a good argument about the unfairness of the landowner, I would you say.      
Folks: This parable has similarities to the parable of the Prodigal Son.   You know the story.  The elder son in the story is peeved because the younger brother who squandered his inheritance is welcomed back into the family by his Father with a feast.  Then the Father wraps his wayward son in his best robe and kills the fatted calf in his honor.   The father receives this wayward child with gifts and celebration???    In other words the boy is given a royal homecoming.    It’s just not fair to the elder son, who stayed home worked long and hard for his father as he was expected to do, where is his just reward?  No, it is not right, it is not fair and when I read this parable for the first time, many years ago, that is what I heard.   That’s not fair.   It seemed to me that an injustice was taking place here, to give those who labored all day in the hot sunshine the same pay as those who only worked and hour in the cool of the late afternoon.   That’s Just Not Fair!!!!   
But wait a minute folks, do you see it?  I was assuming something here wasn’t I.  The assumption was;  that God should follow my logic of fairness and equality?   What is wrong here, what are we missing in this teaching?
After many years of seeking and working with Jesus’ parables, after taking a second look I find this parable is not about fairness or unjust wages at all.  No, I discovered that the parable is essentially about our misunderstanding of God’s radical generosity.  Did you hear that God’s generosity is radical and it is not accountable to my human logic of fairness.   It is not about equity or wages earned either, it is about a generous landlord who offers laborers work and an undeserved gift.  We don’t deserved food, shelter, good health or work, if anything we are undeserving because we stray from the ways of God more often than not.   Sing  ” Undeserving As I AM”
In the eyes of God folks, no one deserves anything, do you get it!!  No on earns Grace, The real point here is God grace is sufficient for all and is given equally when God choses to do so.  It is not subject to our standards.    God doesn’t deny us work, God loves us and offers work to all, both early comers and late comers.   Some take him up on the offer and others reject the offer.   If we concentrate on the fact that all, were offered work and that all responded, then the parable gives us insight and our response should be with gratitude, gratitude for the gift and ability to do it.   The amount of time worked then becomes irrelevant to receiving and responding to the gift of grace.   The real teaching here is to be grateful, it’s not about fairness.  When our focus turns to fairness one of the cousins of pain show up, envy.   Envy invades our thinking and steals our gratitude.  The same can happen to me or you if we become preoccupied with our human logic, forgeting what God has done for us.  The thief on the cross next to Jesus did not earn his way to paradise in the moments of his death.   It had nothing to do with how much time he had spent in the Synagogue serving or following the ways of goodness and faithfulness.  Yet he was given the same opportunity that was given to all who followed Jesus for three yeas or months or weeks or even a day folks.  Think about that?    Those who made the sacrifice as did the disciples, gave up everything, denying their worldly life, its teachings, just to follow him.  This last moment request by a thief, “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom” these words for mercy would allows him the assurance, that he would be with Jesus that very day in paradise.    That’s not fair, its radical Grace folks.    Luke 23: 39-43
The call here for the listener is a call of humility.  Not about goodness, devotion, long suffering, or earning the approval for God’s generosity.  On the contrary we learn that those who are first in the eyes of the world are not first in the eyes of God.  Those who God receives as the lowliest of all, are the ones God will exalt on the last day. {Matthew 23: 12.}   

I believe you and I are invited and challenged to reflect upon where we see ourselves in Jesus’ parable, both in our personal lives and in our church life.  Are we filled with gratitude for what God offers us or are we lost grumbling and complaining about others?   The parable is not about comparing how hard we work or how much time we have spent working.  It is not about fairness, and it is not about your neighbor folks.   The fact that God gives to you should produce gratitude in your relationship with God.  The parable cautions us:   God’s generosity towards others should not turn our gratitude into envy, pride or hardness towards a neighbor.   The parable also teaches us that God’s Grace is not determined by goodness or works either, nor does the amount or works give any one of us an advantage over the late comer.  God offers to love and care for us all equally, we have no right to judge others less we judge ourselves.  God sees us all as his children and no one but Jesus wears the crown of righteousness.   Jesus makes his offer.  Come to me all ye who are heavy laden and I will give you eternal rest.   He makes a convenient from the cross of unconditional love and forgiveness not just for those who have been good but those who have also been not so good.   Jesus calls to us  “Give me your coat of many colors with its illusions of good deeds, bad deeds, greatness and smallness, your illusions of weakness and strengths and I will exchange it for my coat of righteousness and this is how I will present you to my Father, not in your illusions but in my righteousness.  Folks, all you have to do is to call out to him in humility for mercy and you to will be with him on your last day.     Isn’t that amazing???   Isn’t that GREAT!!!!  Isn’t that GOD.   
Give a listen: 

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