9/22/02 - Jealous of Generosity

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Hartland

Pentecost 18 (September 22, 2002)

Theme Biblical passage:  Matthew 20:1-16

Rev. Christa von Zychlin

When this parable came up in confirmation classes in my last church , I had a Mom of a teenager e-mail me saying, look, I just started coming to church for the first time in my life, I’m trying to get my kids through confirmation, I’m trying to live a good life and teach my children some values, so what is THIS STORY going to do to everything  I’m teaching them?

I was really really happy to get that e-mail, because it told me a) she’d been paying attention to what her kids were learning from the Bible in confirmation and b) it bothered the heck out of her.  I’ve been teaching confirmation for over twenty years now and that’s the only time I’ve had someone say it that clearly, “I don’t LIKE what is Jesus up to with this story!”

…which leads me to a basic conclusion:

If you’ve never been bothered by one of Jesus’ stories or teachings, then you haven’t yet tried to listen & follow Him. 

I’m not saying you’re not a Christian, maybe you’ve accepted Jesus as your savior, maybe you’ve been baptized and confirmed; dedicated & rededicated,

Maybe you’re a tither, or the kid of a preacher, or a musician in the best Christian band around, but if you’ve never yet been really really bothered by one of Jesus’ stories or teachings, then you haven’t yet tried to actually listen to Him & follow Him.

++++

Any red-blooded American should be appalled at Jesus’ parable today. 

Think a minute what it would mean at your place of business if the afternoon part timer got the same pay as the full time manager.  Think what it would mean if at your school, Emily  worked on her science project for the whole six weeks she was given to do it, her dad helped her make a real working volcano, dependable as Old Faithful, & her friend Billy got out a piece of poster board, the night before, a white poster with penciled scrawls and the teacher said, “That’s really good Emily, you deserve an A and Billy, I’m going to give you an A too! “

Doesn’t it make you mad just to think about it?  The 4 H program in  Ames, Iowa tried an experiment, a few  years back they said let’s give everybody a striped participation ribbon instead of blue, red & white, 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place ribbons. The important thing is that everyone participates & learns, right?  There were letters to the editor for weeks, and one of the 4H leaders said he got nasty phone calls and emails for months.  They didn’t try it again.

So I think Jesus is expecting a reaction from most of us about this parable, where every worker gets paid the very same thing.

But now let me tell you what I think his point of the parable is.

I think its found way back in the Old Testament, which Jesus, as a Jew, would have known large parts of by heart…

Back in Isaiah 55    we read

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, (says the Lord,)

Nor are your ways my ways

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

++

Let’s re-imagine for a few minutes, this story of the workers in the vineyard.  Early in the morning God goes to the marketplace & there he finds Steven.  Steven was a little child when he met  Jesus in the colorful pictures of his Sunday School Bible & the kind voice of his Sunday School teacher.   There’re hardly any other words for it than to say that Steven fell in love with that gentle Jesus who gathered lambs & children in his arms, so much so that his whole life long Steven has been a regular at the men’s Bible study, an honest & kind boss to his employees, a tither to his church, a Dad who cheers for all the kids on his own kid’s  football team.

But good as Steven is, it’s not enough for the job that God has in mind, so at 9 a.m. on the other side of the world,  God picks up a whole crowd of Tanzanian families for work in the kingdom.    There’s a farmer who teaches animal husbandry &  a nurse who vaccinates children and some newly trained Tanzanian church leaders who say  to their neighbors,  lets talk about what it means to fight against disease, death, and the work of the devil, and instead follow Jesus here in Tanzania.

And even that’s not enough for God either, so at noon in Europe, Lena & her kids finally arrive at God’s recruiting station. They were late, they were always late.  There’d been a big fight between Lena & Ramon, her boyfriend, the night before,  It was about money again, always about money.  But this time, when Ramon hit her & left for his old girlfriend, Lena’s neighbor came by with a car, helped Lena  pack up the kids, & drove her over to the social center, where God started  Lena in her new position as  a truth teller, and tough- lover in God’s  kingdom.

At  3 o’clock, in several countries of the world simultaneously,  there were  clusters of teenagers, kids with too many piercings, pants sagging way too low on their hips, young sophisticates who thought wearing a big metal cross was a very cool symbol of hip hop style,  but then someone asked them if they’d ever thought of playing in a Christian band, and no they had not, but whoops, here they were serving the Lord in the late afternoon & not real sure how they got there.

Then at 5, Back in Wisconsin  you should have seen what God schlepped in at the end.  a  very blonde very divorced very country clubbing woman named Marla in her Mercedes convertible stopped at what she had no idea was one of God’s recruitment centers.   Marla’s looking for a church for a wedding for her daughter, but surprise, God hooks her the minute she steps in the door.  She’s come to the church to see if the center aisle is long enough to show off her daughter’s designer veil & train ,  but then she notices the big wooden cross, the bread & wine on the altar, and a neighbor who calls out from across the room: Marla, hey great to see you, you want to sign up to walk with me on the Crop Walk?!  And Marla’s frozen  heart begins to thaw, and God signs Marla up to become one of his own. 

But wait, one more yet… it’s past 5, & it’s almost dark,  in South America.  an old alcoholic named Ramos, his wife died years ago, and though she’d been very religious, the old man couldn’t bring himself to go into a church  since he almost fainted at her funeral.  But he’s walking home with a couple of tomatoes for supper in one hand, a bottle of the local brew in his other, when he feels a stab in his heart and he leans himself against the peeling wooden door of the catholic church. “ Jesus, help me”, he mumbles, in what turns out to be his dying breath.  

++++++

 Steve definitely,

 the Tanzanians, yes,

 Lena & her kids, sure why not,

 the scruffy teenagers, well if you say so,

wealthy Marla????  Well, that’s a surprise, for sure, but well, ok.

But the old drunk?

Is God that generous? 

What does Jesus’ parable tell you? 

Let’s listen & follow God’s call starting now, as early or as late in the day as it may be.

AMEN….

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