Proper 20A; Jonah 3:10-4:11; Matthew 20:1-16; St. Paul’s, Smithfield

9/24/2017 Jim Melnyk: “Not Fair – But Good”

One of my former seminary professors once said, “Upon entering the world of parables you find yourself in ‘Alice and Wonderland’ country, where, as Alice puts it, things get ‘curiouser and curiouser,’” (Don Armentrout, Synthesis, 9/24/2017).  And today’s parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard most certainly fits Alice’s description.

It’s helpful to set some context for today’s parable.  We should ask, “What has happened in Matthew’s gospel leading up to this mind-boggling story of both generosity and frustration?”  “Jesus [tells] this parable (which is found only in Matthew) to the disciples following his conversation with a rich young man who [is] unable to give up his possessions in order to follow Jesus (Mt. 19:16-26)” (ibid).  The exchange between Jesus and the rich young man sets up today’s parable – perhaps challenging us to be less like the rich young man and more like the owner of the vineyard.  And that is quite a challenge!

It doesn’t take long for most of us to decide the pay scale in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard isn’t fair.  Those who started work in the wee hours and toiled throughout the heat of the day must have felt like they had fallen down Alice’s rabbit hole by the time the paymaster was through.

“Look, we’re card-carrying members of Harvesters R Us, and we are shocked at the way you’re treating us!  We’ve been out in the sun all day long and you’re giving these “Last Minute Louies” the same pay as us?  It’s not fair, we’re telling you.  It’s just plain not fair.  And we demand you make it right by us.”  The truth is, the outcome in the story isn’t meant to be fair.  It’s just meant to be good. 

According to my homiletics professor, Bill Brosend, “The oddest phrase in the whole story may provide a clue [as to what’s going on.]  It’s the last [line by the owner,] poorly translated in [our reading today] as a rhyme, ‘Or are you envious because I am generous?’  The Greek…means, literally, ‘or is your eye evil because I am good?’” (Bill Brosend, Conversations with Scripture: The Parables).  Are you angry at me because I am willing to pay all my laborers a living wage?  Brosend goes on to point out that “An evil eye cannot see anything good,” and so the early workers, so intent upon feeling justified in their grumbling, cannot seem to grasp the goodness of the owner.

Last week, you may recall, we said that forgiveness is the currency of the kingdom of heaven.  Perhaps we can amend that to say forgiveness is a part of the currency of the kingdom – one of the denominations – like a twenty or a fifty dollar bill.  Once we say that, we can then say that some of the other denominations in the currency of the kingdom are virtues like goodness, and generosity, and graciousness.

As author and community organizer Shelley Douglass tells us, “God's economy is not like ours. We… stockpile; we measure out the day's pay according to hours worked. God, however, simply sees that there is enough for everyone.  In God's economy,” she writes, “there is enough. In our world, which is God's, there is enough” (Sojourner Online, Preaching the Word, 9/24/2017).  What we learn in this parable is that “In God's economy we're worth more than we could ever earn” (Julie Polter, ibid).  And that’s Good News.  We learn that today’s parable isn’t about “judgement or justice.  It’s about goodness.  Payment is made not on what is deserved, nor even on what is needed, but on what the One who is good gives” (Brosend).  “In the…Kingdom [of Heaven] all are equally loved.  Human standards are not to be used to measure God’s generosity” and that’s the hard part of today’s parable.

  

You see, we as a whole – as a society – struggle with that kind of generosity and goodness, don’t we?  We live in a world based on accomplishment – based on standing – based on one another’s worth – or one’s perceived worthiness.  Or as actor John Houseman used to say on the Smith-Barney commercials, “We make money the old fashioned way… we earn it.”  We want the workers who showed up at 6 AM to get a nice bonus if the owner of the vineyard is crazy enough to pay the latecomers the same amount as a full-day’s wage – even though he pays the first group the amount they had agreed upon.  And even if we don’t begrudge the owner his right to pay people whatever he wants, we still might be tempted to think he’s a bit crazy.  Jesus, on the other hand, thinks he’s good.

Jonah also struggles with the goodness of God.  He didn’t want to have anything to do with being a prophetic voice.  As he says to God, “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (4:2).  “I can’t stand what Nineveh has been like all these years – and I just knew I’d go and pronounce a good, swift kick from you, and they’d repent and then you’d go all good on them.  It’s not fair!  They deserved to get smacked down by you, but you…you…oh, forget it, I wish I were dead.”  The God of Jonah is gracious and good – even reaching beyond the boundaries of Israel – reaching out even toward those outside the promise.  God is good, and Jonah struggles with that goodness when it goes against his own prejudices and his own understanding of common sense.

It’s a challenge to believe that there is truly no one outside the ability of God’s grace – outside God’s willingness – to reach and embrace.  Talk about a challenge!  It flies in the face of our senses of logic and fair play.  So then the challenge is for us to find ways to be good as the owner of the vineyard is good – as Jesus, himself, is good. 

If we stop to think about it, I’m willing to bet that every one of us knows a person or a time when this happens – when the currency of goodness, and generosity, and graciousness outweighs the logic of this world.  And at that moment we find the kingdom of heaven breaking through and surrounding us. 

It may be a person offering financial support in the wake of hurricanes like Harvey, Irma, and Maria – knowing that their money will go to assist people from all walks of life – not just those who fit neatly into our acceptable categories.  It may be someone working tirelessly to insure accessible and affordable healthcare for everyone, or a living wage for everyone, regardless of their perceived station in life.  We see it when so many of us reach out to one another in the midst of a pastoral crisis – where we don’t stop to count the cost or weigh our differences.

In one of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia tales, one of the children asks if the Great Lion Aslan, who for many of us is the Christ figure in Lewis’ stories, is a tame animal.  “Of course he’s not tame,” comes the response.  “He’s a lion!  But, he is good.” 

When we hear the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard we come to realize that Jesus is not a tame Messiah – he isn’t constrained by the judgmental logic of our world – he’s not constrained by our meager attempts at justice.  But Jesus is good.  And that can make all the difference in our lives – and realizing that, and embracing that, it can make all the difference in the world. 

 

Proper 19A; Matt 18:21-35 St. Paul’s, Smithfield 9/17/2017

Jim Melnyk: “The Currency of the Kingdom of Heaven”

One of my all-time favorite stories is Charles Dickens’ work, A Christmas Carol.  No – I’m not going to preach a Christmas sermon before the local stores can put up their Christmas decorations.  Dickens’ story goes far beyond its Christmastide setting – and is a fitting tale for this Sunday’s gospel lesson.

In the story we’re quickly introduced to Ebenezer Scrooge – an angry, grasping, greedy man with a sharp as flint tongue.  Dickens doesn’t tell us this, but I suspect Scrooge is an extremely unhappy person – a sad person – who hides his grief with his anger and his isolation from all other humans.  In the story we find several sources for his grief.  The harshest, perhaps, is never having known his mother, who died in childbirth – his birth, and a father who never forgave Scrooge – blaming him for that death.

           

Scrooge’s journey throughout the story is as much a story about learning to forgive, and longing to be forgiven, as it is about learning the meaning of Christmas – perhaps because one of the meanings behind what happens in the Incarnation – one of them, mind you not the only reason, is forgiveness.  Scrooge has to find a way to forgive those in his past who have hurt him, accept the forgiveness of those he has wronged, and even more important, learn how to forgive himself.

I am willing to bet that all of us have struggled with the idea of forgiveness from time-to-time.  Forgiving others…seeking forgiveness from others…and perhaps hardest of all, forgiving ourselves.  Forgiveness is not always easy.  Perhaps it’s easier when there’s a heart-felt apology offered – but not always.  And when no apology is forthcoming, well, then it’s even more of a challenge.

But before we get to today’s lesson from Matthew’s gospel, we need to mention the teachings immediately preceding what we hear this morning.  Earlier in the conversation Jesus tells his disciples the parable of the lost sheep.  The owner of the sheep will do everything possible to find the one lost sheep.  There is a sense of unyielding desire on God’s part to include even those who wander away. 

However, in the portion we heard read last Sunday, if you recall, Jesus seems to outline a three-step plan of action that sounds more like a three-strike program.  Let’s seek out that lost sheep – but within reason, huh?  The offender gets three hearings: one-on-one, one-on-three, and then one-on-the whole community gathered.  If the offending person doesn’t respond appropriately – that is, with repentance – then let them “be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

So perhaps Peter is a bit confused when he comes to Jesus and asks, “Lord, if another member of the faith community sins against me, how often should I forgive?  As many as seven times?”  Now, we might ask ourselves, how did Peter come up with the number seven? 

It’s certainly giving someone more than a second chance.  The number seven is a mystical number in the Jewish tradition.  It’s the number of creation – a number for perfection.  Peter’s offer is symbolically an act of perfect generosity.  Jesus responds, “Not seven times, Peter, but rather seventy-seven times!”  I’m also willing to bet Peter’s jaw hits the ground with that response from Jesus. 

And we, for whom even giving second chances can be a challenge, probably drop our jaws or simply scratch our heads over that answer – better yet, we dismiss it as hyperbole and totally unrealistic.  After all, didn’t Jesus just a few minutes before tell us if an offender refuses to listen, let them be treated as a Gentile and a tax collector?  And certainly we know how conventional wisdom in Jesus’ cultural setting treated Gentiles and tax collectors.

As with all too many Christians today, those around Jesus “would have thought ‘outcast’ when they heard the phrase ‘Gentiles and tax collectors,’ [and would assume] Jesus himself would have been thinking [the same thing].”  Author and Episcopal Priest Robert Farrar Capon calls this sort of thinking “a short stack of half-baked waffles” (The Parables of Grace).

“The first waffle,” according to Capon, “is precisely the failure of this sort of [interpretation] to pay attention to the context: Jesus has just finished talking about actively seeking outcasts, not about giving them the boot” (ibid).  “The other waffle,” according to Capon, “is [the] failure to pay attention to who is talking: Jesus is not [your average guy on the street – and he is not, by now, “an average Messiah either” (ibid).  The outcast and the lost – the recalcitrant sinners – are precisely among those whom Jesus tells us to seek out – they are among those to whom we are called to proclaim Good News.

Capon believes Jesus is stringing his disciples along in last week’s reading.  In the end, he seems to be saying, if you bind others to this three-strike rule, be aware that you’re binding yourself to the same consequences.  Don’t be too quick trying to throw others out of the kingdom, lest you find yourselves getting tossed as well!

The parable we hear at the end of today’s gospel lesson follows, and in it Jesus teaches us that forgiveness is the currency of the kingdom of heaven.  But the thing we all too often get caught up on is the massive debt forgiven by the king.  True, we’re talking Bill Gates type money here – more money than that servant could probably make in somewhere around 150 years of work – an absolutely unpayable debt (Bill Brosend, Conversations with Scripture: The Parables).  Certainly there is no obligation on the king’s part to forgive the debt.  Rather, the king responds out of a deep sense of compassion – “the servant has to do nothing more than ask for grace to get grace” – it is not something he receives because of his manipulative and meaningless promise to repay his debt (Capon).

However, our focus should be on the first servant’s exchange with his colleague, who owes the first servant 100 denarii – or a little less than a third of a year’s wages.  The first servant – who had just experienced forgiveness of an absolutely unpayable debt – has the opportunity to pay it forward, as the saying goes, and let his colleague off the hook.  He just can’t do it.  He totally forgets how close he came to life in a dungeon, and goes as far as seizing his debtor by the throat before sending him off to jail.  If forgiveness is the currency of the kingdom of heaven, this unforgiving servant seemingly chooses to live a bankrupt life outside the kingdom’s boundary.

The parable is meant to show us how hard it can be to forgive – even when we know in our hearts that we, ourselves, have experienced forgiveness from both God and others in our lives.  Yet even then, we struggle.  So, then, how do we do it?  How do we find the currency to forgive, especially when forgiveness seems impossible?

Trappist monk William Meninger writes, “The most authentic sign we can give ourselves that we have actually begun the process of forgiveness is our prayer.

This is true even if the only prayer we can say is to ask to want to forgive. In the beginning it may be too much for us even to pray for the person who hurt us. Perhaps all we can do is to pray for ourselves—to pray that for our own sake we may begin the process of forgiveness” (Synthesis Today, 9/12/2017).

However much we may struggle with forgiveness in our lives, we can stand firm in the knowledge of God’s love for us.  Forgiveness is indeed part of the currency of the kingdom of heaven.  The Good News is that God freely, graciously, and lovingly dispenses that currency wherever and whenever it is needed.  Since we are recipients of this currency, we are free to share with others the deep sense of compassion that represents forgiveness in the kingdom of heaven.  And that, my friends, is Good News, indeed.