The Rev. Canon Gregg Riley will lead the congregation of Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph, in Holy Eucharist Sunday at 10am September 20, 2020.
Online Morning Prayer services Sundays at 10am are available from Bishop Jake Owensby on the diocesan Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/epiwla/
11am Sunday Morning Prayer services and daily 6pm Evening Prayer services (Mon-Sat) are available from The Rev. Garrett Boyte, Church of the Holy Cross, Shreveport on their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/holycrossdowntown/
Father Riley's homily for September 20, 2020:
PROPER XX - A - 20 - JONAH 3: 10-4.11, PHIL. 1: 21-30, MATT. 20. 1-16
Over the course of my forty years of ordained ministry, I have had the privilege to baptize and present for confirmation well over two hundred persons, who ranged in age from infants, to young people, to adults and even the elderly.
For example, I recall one lady in her eighties who was presented to the Bishop for confirmation. I personally baptized a lady in her nineties on her deathbed. I have baptized father and sons and converts to Christianity from other faiths.
As a priest, those were special occasions that will forever be a part of me and I am reminded of them each time I read and or hear today’s passage from St. Matthew about the last being first, and the first last. In the early church, today’s message applied specifically to the Jews (the first called) and the Gentiles (those called later).
In our day, it can be applied to those raised in the church and to those who find the church in later life. God’s generosity is given equally to both early and late comers. Jesus teaches in today’s parable that the former should not be proud of their long service nor resent those called at the 11th hour.
For it is possible even in a short time or at the end of one’s life to recover and inherit everything. Remember the thief on the cross. The gospel parable of the vineyard, then, focuses on the generosity of God, whereas today’s first lesson centers on God’s mercy.
We see in both cases that
there is resentment and anger over the ways of God. Those laborers who came
first grumbled at the landowner’s generosity in paying those who came last the
same wage. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, became angry towards God because God
relented and chose not to destroy
It is the nature of God to be generous and full of compassion, as the Psalmist reminds us, and as Jonah learned. God is free to do whatever He chooses when it comes to reward and punishment, as He is free to dispense His grace and forgiveness. Both of these lessons teach us about the true nature of God.
Moreover, we see in both lessons the true nature of fallen man in his reaction to the ways of God that run counter to our way of thinking and doing. Surely, we can see something of ourselves in both the laborers who grumbled and the prophet Jonah who was not a little disappointed in God.
Just when we think, we have God all figured out, He does something that makes no sense to our way of thinking. Paying those who worked only one hour the same as those who worked all day, for example, does not make sense. Who does that? Who on earth is that generous?
God made a promise to Jonah that he would destroy the Ninevites, Israel’s most feared enemy, unless they repented. Jonah was hoping for their destruction, but God relented when they turned from their evil ways and repented. Jonah got angry.
He did not want to go to Ninevah in the first place. He went, reluctantly, evermore vigilant as he entered the capitol of Israel’s greatest enemy. Jonah was bent on their destruction. The odds in his own mind were against their listening to God’s warning. But they did.
They listened to his message of God’s warning and took it to heart. They called for a fast, put on sackcloth and ashes and repented of their evil ways. And God relented of His promise to destroy them. Jonah thought he knew God, and the ways of God. He never thought God might change His mind.
God’s ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts. It doesn’t make sense, in terms of our earthly thinking, to do what the landowner did in today’s parable. Where is the sense of fairness, of justice, in paying the last workers the same as the first? Perhaps Jesus intends the parable as a warning to the disciples themselves about their own attitudes.
It confuses us and sometimes even angers us when God does not do what we wish or expect Him to do in certain situations as was the case with Jonah. We only have to look at the cross to see this to be true. None of the disciples expected that.
How could God allow His only Son to be crucified between two common criminals? But He did and in doing so God’s love and compassion for the world, which He had made, was manifested on the cross for all the world to see.
None of Jesus’ disciples believed Him when He said He would rise from the dead on the third day. But he did, and in doing so brought the Hope of new and unending life to all who believe in Him from the first to the last.
Were it not for God’s grace, love, mercy and forgiveness none of us would survive “the sultry east wind” or “the sun’s scorching heat” that we all face in this life. Our anger, frustration and resentment towards our neighbor and even ourselves would utterly consume us.
Moreover, if we focus on the things of this world, that are passing away as I speak: our pride, self-interests and reliance on worldly wisdom and power, then we lose sight of the heavenly. However, if we hold fast to those that shall abide, we gain everything. That is a promise of God.
God does not make contracts, but covenants in which He promises everything and asks of us everything in return. When He keeps His promise, He is not rewarding us for our efforts, but doing what comes naturally to His overflowing generous nature.
God is out there yet in the market place of life, looking for those everyone else tries to ignore, welcoming them on the same terms as He has welcomed us, surprising them (and everyone else) with His generosity.
The early church needed to hear that lesson. Perhaps Jesus’ warning to his disciples themselves about their own attitude towards those whom God calls, and when He calls, is one that we as the church today needs to be reminded of as well. AMEN+
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