PROPER 20A - Exodus 16:2-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45; Philippians 1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16 - 21 September 2008 - A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

From Complaining to Gratitude and “Boasting in Christ”

INTRODUCTION - A favorite gospel

We have as our Gospel lesson today one of my favorite kingdom parables. Some people hate this parable and think it is unfair. I’m going to tell you what’s so good about it, and why so many people hate it.

You probably are familiar with it. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven (think “kingdom of God”, because Matthew avoided writing “God” - for fear of misusing God’s name) is “like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” (Matthew 20:1) He agreed with these laborers for the usual daily wage, and they started their shift at 6 am and went to work. At various times throughout the day, the landowner keeps finding workers who haven’t been hired, and he keeps hiring them, without specifying an exact wage, other than to say “I will pay you whatever is right.” (verse 4) So he hires additional workers at 9 am, noon, 3 pm, and finally, 5 pm. They all work until 6 pm. The 5pm-workers got paid first, and received a full days’ wage. Evidently the same was true for those hired between 9 am and 3 pm.

When it was time to pay those hired at 6 am, Jesus tells the parable this way: “Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day, and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:10-15)

So many of us hear this parable and react just like the early workers who were hired at 6 pm. “But that’s not fair! They worked different amounts of time. They should be paid accordingly!” But I think the way we react to this parable has everything to do with who you most identify with in the parable. Do you see yourself more as a 6 am person, or more as a 5 pm person? Close your eyes for a moment, think about the parable, and ask yourself - as honestly as you can - who do I most identify with in this story? If your answer is the 6am laborers, my guess is it will always be a hurdle for you to like this parable. If, on the other hand, you identify most with the 5 pm laborers, well then - that’s a whole different perspective, isn’t it?

I guess the reason I like the parable so much is that I see myself more as a 5 pm person. Oh, I suppose I could choose to say, I’ve gone to church my whole life, and I’ve intentionally followed Christ since I was 21 years old, and I’m now 51, so that makes me closer to an morning laborer, if not the earliest ones hired.

I could say, “Look at all the years I’ve given to following Christ! Now if someone comes along later in their life - at 40 or 50 or 60, or even in their 70s (!) and decides to follow Christ, they shouldn’t get the same reward I do!” But that just isn’t how I see myself. And the reason is this: I see myself as being blessed by God in ways that are way out of proportion to what I’ve ever done for God. I definitely feel like a 5 pm worker, a late-comer to the party.

Perhaps I can explain myself with a few other stories.

You and I live in the United States of America. This place that we call our home country wasn’t even called that until 232 years ago. People lived here for what - at least 10,000 years - before we got here? Look at how we’ve been blessed by the blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice of all those who’ve come before us. And what about the resources that our country has been blessed with? What did we do to deserve those?

We live in Colorado, one of the most beautiful places in the country, if not on the planet. The vast majority of us were not born and raised here. The vast majority of us chose to come here from somewhere else, and were fortunate enough to find jobs, fortunate enough to be welcomed by others who were born and raised here, although they aren’t true natives, either. And we get up every morning, and six days out of seven, the sun is shining and we just look up, and we see the beautiful mountains. We came at the eleventh hour, and God chooses to bless us in the same way that He blesses those who were born here.

How many of you were here when St. Ambrose was started in 1967? There is only one person who remains from those founding families, and that is Charlie Jacobson. Some of you have been here a long time. You’re like the 9 am people in Jesus’s story. Some of you came around 1987 or so. You are the “noon people”. I came in 2001. That makes me about a 4 pm guy. Some of you came two weeks ago. That is the equivalent of being a 5:59 pm laborer. Should the rest of us be envious because God might bless the first-time visitor to St. Ambrose in the same way that God blesses those of us who have been here 10 or 20 or 30 or even 40 years? Are we going to say, “I’ve worked my butt off at this church, and these new people don’t know about the rough days, and they just get to come in and sing and smile and meet new people and enjoy all the good things that are happening now!”

Are we going to be envious because God is generous? Or, or — are going to realize that God has been generous to every single one of us? Are we going to recognize and admit the truth - God goes out and invites every single person into the vineyard, no matter hold old that person is, no matter what that person has done or not done in his or her life up to this moment, no matter how “good” or “bad” that person has been, God offers the same invitation. “Will you come and help me tend to the things that I have created? Will you work in my vineyard? Will you help me love the people that I have made? Will help me take care of the earth, which I also made? Will you learn how to love and take care of yourself, which I also made? Will you come into my vineyard, and work for me? I will pay you. You will make more than you ever thought you could, more than you really deserve. The reward will be way beyond anything you could ever get working in anyone else’s vineyard.”

“ The reward will include things like experiencing my love and forgiveness, finding strength to do the important things, guidance, my presence with you through good times and terrible times, and finding meaning and purpose in your life.”

How do you see yourself?

God led His oppressed people out of Egypt through all kinds of amazing signs and wonders - a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, the parting of the Red Sea, the return of the Red Sea as it drowned Pharaoh’s army that was pursuing them, and then, when they got out into the wilderness and the first hunger pangs came, they complained against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died at the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread.” (Exodus 16:3)

And somehow, someway, quails and manna started raining down on them. It was way more than they deserved.

I probably don’t need to tell you that the economy hasn’t been doing too well lately, or about the instability and poor performance in the stock market.

How do you see yourself?

Are you ready to complain and grumble and act like there are no blessings in your life, living in Colorado in the United States of America? Is it time to panic? Is it time to hold on to your money tighter than ever, acting as if it is all your money, that it can’t be shared during tough times, acting as if God has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you have a job, some money in the bank or some money invested elsewhere, acting as if God has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you have family and friends who deeply love you?

When you open up a newspaper and read about how women are treated in the Congo... when you read about Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and just for good measure, they get hit by another hurricane... when you read about people who have been running for their lives in Darfur and Rwanda and Sierra Leone, some of them for years and years now, really folks, let’s be honest here - do we have anything at all to grumble about?

Hasn’t God given us way more than we deserve? As we will hear soon in the Collect for Proper 22, “Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve....”

And let’s say we suffer a little bit now and then. So what? So what, if that suffering comes in the name of following Christ. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews put it this way, “Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” (Hebrews 12:3-4)

In today’s reading from Philippians, Paul weighs the pros and cons of dying and being with Christ, or going on with his challenging but fruitful labors. He concludes, “...I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.” (Philippians 1:25-26)

How do we see ourselves? Begrudging God’s generosity to others, or understanding that Christ came to reconcile us to God, and that is not only more than we deserve, but something that changes everything.

God is calling us to move from complaining and grumbling to being people who boast in Christ.

God is calling us to see in new ways - to stop seeing ourselves as 6 am people and seeing ourselves as we truly are: as 5 pm people who have been given way more than we deserve.

God is calling us to move from a place of anxiety and panic about the events of the world to the place where, as we say in our baptisms, we put our whole trust in Christ’s grace and love?

God is calling us to move from a place where we see ourselves as not getting our fare share - in comparison to someone else - and understanding how much we have really been blessed, and that in God’s abundance, there is always enough to go around, as long as we share.

God is calling us from a place of tightfistedness and trying to hang on to everything - including our illusions of control - to a place of generosity and letting go.

God is calling us out of the lies that dominate our world into the truth that comes to us when we follow in God’s ways.

God is calling us to work in His vineyard, and to rejoice in the fact that there is a vineyard, and that God cares enough about us to say, “Hey! I want you to work in this vineyard with me.”

CONCLUSION

Have you ever noticed that those who grumble are almost always comparing themselves to someone else, and that we can always find someone to compare ourselves to where it looks like we come out on the short end of the stick?

God says, “Enough already! I have blessed you right out of your socks. Acknowledge my generosity. Acknowledge the truth - that you are 5 o’clock people. I am sending you out to be generous, just as I am generous. You have nothing to worry about, no matter what you might think to the contrary, for I am with you. In fact, you have lots to celebrate. And if you want to boast, boast in Christ Jesus, who came to see you free.”

Who are you in the parable? How you see yourself - who you identify with - makes all the difference.