Sermon by The Rev. John Payne (Ret.) from September 24, 2023, in Christ Episcopal, Saint Joseph

 

God’s Grace by The Rev. John Payne (Ret.)

Sermon given in Christ Episcopal September 24, 2023

 

One of the great inventions of modern Western society is the labor union. Far too long those with money, land and privilege shamelessly exploited those who had none. The novels of Charles Dickens bear this out. When, after a long struggle, workers with no power, except their own labor, managed to stand together and force the issue with the wealthy and the strong, it was a great day for freedom and justice. By and large, the unions did a good job checking exploitation or reversing it. The unions were not perfect and other issues change the role of some from what their founders had envisaged. My father worked for the railroad for 40 years and was a union man. As far as my memory serves, the Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen never made unreasonable demands or called for a strike. However, my father’s union, as most others, would have been horrified at the story of the laborers in the vineyard in today’s Gospel (Matthew 20:1-16). If you found the idea of forgiveness without limits rough going, then strap yourself in for more turbulence.

 This is another parable of the kingdom, and the purpose of the story is to say something about God. Jesus also probably intends the parable as a warning to the disciples about their own attitudes regarding a perceived favored status.

 The incident of the rich young man who clung to his possessions rather than follow Jesus (Matthew 19:16-30) completely flabbergasted the disciples; and Peter asked the “64 Thousand Dollar Queston”: “Look, we have left everything and followed you, what then will we have?” The flip-side of today’s parable may well be a warning to the disciples: don’t think that, because you’ve been close to me so far, you are now the favored few for all time.  However, notes N.T. Wright, Jesus is accepting, for the purpose of the story, the social and economic power of the landowner in order to say something about God. What is he saying? We need to look closely at the last group of workers, the ones who were hired with only one hour of the workday remaining. Had they not been in the marketplace earlier? So the landowner questioned them: why haven’t you been working? The answer is revealing: “Because no one has hired us” (v.7). Nobody, in other words, wanted them. Perhaps they were the sort of people employers go to great lengths to avoid. But the landowner did not hesitate to hire them.

 What’s more, they were paid a full day’s wage for one hour’s work! Here is the rub. The story is very irritating if you see yourself as one of the conscientious, hardworking, deserving people who worked all day. But it’s very reassuring if you identify with the latecomers who don’t get what they deserve, but get something better. C. S. Lewis would call this being “surprised by joy”. When grace cuts through our moral calculus, it elicits grumbling, not gratitude. When someone else whom we perceive to be unworthy receives grace, we grumble. When we receive grace, well, that’s different, because we think we’ve earned it. There is a striking parallel in the Old Testament when David, in face of protests, decides to reward equally the soldiers who fought bravely and those who, because of exhaustion, remained behind to guard the camp (1 Sam. 30:21-25).

 Underlying both stories is the idea that God’s grace is not on the basis of merit but of  his compassion. Jesus’ vision of the divine compassion is greater that divine justice. Those who worship this God must imitate his generosity.

 However, most of us still identify with the laborers who worked all day; after all, here we are in the “vineyard”. We’ve been in the church all our lives, from the first, put there by loving parents. It’s only natural for us to think that we’re the most deserving because we’ve been here all along: working, praying, giving for the kingdom of God. This ought to entitle us to something special. If the truth be known, most of us think in terms of merit rather than grace and somehow deep down believe that we’ve earned salvation by our faithful service. However, as N. T. Wright notes, God’s grace is not the sort of thing you can bargain with or try to store up. It isn’t the sort of thing that one person can have a lot and someone else only a little.

 The point of the parable is that what people get from having served God is not, strictly, a reward for the work done. God doesn’t make contracts with us. He makes covenants in which he promises everything and asks of us everything.

 A devout Episcopalian died and appeared before St. Peter who said, “Welcome to heaven. It takes 1000 points to get inside the Pearly Gates. Tell me about yourself.” The man proudly told of his perfect attendance in Sunday school, service as an acolyte, participation in the youth group and his many years as a lay Eucharistic minister.  Peter said, “Very good. That’s worth one point.” The man wrinkled his brow and continued, “I’m 90 years old and was a faithful communicant my whole life. I tithed my income, served on the vestry, volunteered in many organizations to help the poor and needy.” Peter replied, “Excellent! That’s also worth one point. You now have two points. Please continue.” The man’s face turned bright red and in a burst of anger, blurted, “Damn it! At this rate the only way I’ll get into heaven is by the grace of God. That’s right, by the sheer grace of God.” Peter extended his hand and exuberantly proclaimed, “Congratulations, that is worth 998 points. You now have 1000 points, so welcome aboard.” How easy it is to forget that Christianity is essentially a consummate love story.

 How is it that we get lost in the subplots of law, sin and judgment?  Because it’s easier to be legal rather than loving. It’s ever so easy to overlook, in the parable, that, although the first hired hand did indeed bear “the day’s burden and the heat”, that is not what earned their reward. Our labor alongside Christ is its own reward, and working in God’s vineyard for any other reason is bound to disappoint, because God “pays” all who enter the whole of what there is to give, his saving grace. Devout church people can easily assume that they are the special ones. In reality, God is out in the marketplace, looking for the people everybody else tries to ignore, welcoming them on the same terms, surprising them (and everybody else) with his generous grace.

 God promises a world big enough for those whose lives don’t add up to anything to have everything. Actually, we’re all the “eleventh-hour” workers whose debts have been paid and whose forgiveness has been secured by Jesus Christ our Lord.

 In the world’s mathematics, one plus one always equals two. But in the mathematics of the kingdom, one sheep is equal in value to 99, and a landowner pays the first and the last workers the same, because he wants to give to everyone according to their needs and not what they think they deserve. The haunting words in the parable are the landowner’s remark, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (v.7). Today’s first reading (Jonah 3:10-4:11) speaks to the limitless forgiveness  of God that defies all human boundaries. It’s like a mirror held up to our face to reveal how we take ourselves and our tendency to divide up the world as God’s way.

 The book of Jonah is also a vision of God at its best: compassion, inclusive, emphasis on sovereign grace and freedom, and mercies wider than the universe. Little wonder that we often find God working on the “wrong side” of the street.

The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman's homily from September 4, 2023

 

Touched by the Hand of God

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph

Year A, Pentecost XIV, Season of Creation 1

Jeremiah 15:15-21, Romans 12:9-21, Matthew 16:21-28

 

Friday was World Day of Prayer for Creation. It is a special day of prayer that seeks to remind us of our responsibility as caretakers of God’s creation and to renew our right relationship with God through creation. It was established in 1989 by Dimitrios I, Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church.

The World Council of Churches liked the idea very much and turned it into a movement and season, the Season of Creation, which begins September 1 and ends October 4, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi.

Today, millions of Christians of many denominations recognize and celebrate the Season of Creation as a time of renewal of our relationship with our Creator through creation and of our commitment together to be the worthy caretakers God calls us to be.

The movement has a website called “Season of Creation,” and every year a large steering committee of bishops and lay leaders devises a theme and a logo and develops a myriad of worship resources for individuals and churches to use. We will use one this morning—a special set of suffrages in place of the usual ones.

You might recall that I first learned about this movement one year ago and spoke about it the first Sunday of September from this very pulpit. And I must in fairness warn you that for as long as you are stuck with me the first Sunday of every month, you most likely will hear about it again when the season rolls around again!

So.. let us look at today’s Gospel lesson through a Season of Creation lens. Notice that it begins with Jesus summarizing his mission on Earth for his disciples. In just one sentence—a handful of words—he goes from life to death and back to life again. That was the path for him and it is the path for his followers. Jesus was about life, first and finally. The passage through death, the way of the cross, is neither beginning nor end. As he himself says in John’s Gospel, I came to bring life and to bring it abundantly.

From a Season of Creation perspective, what is striking about Earth is that it is teeming with life. Cosmologically speaking, it is a speck of rock spinning through the emptiness and darkness of space but through the miracles of atmosphere and water, it is crawling with and blooming with life in myriad and complex forms—biodiversity so rich and complex as to be declared “good” over and over again by its Creator (first chapter of Genesis) and to be loved by its Creator.

So here are a few statistics, just because I happen to know them! In 2019, I went on a wildlife photography trip to the Osa Peninsula: one little finger of land sticking out into the Pacific Ocean: 10,000 insect species, 700 trees, 463 birds, 140 mammals, and 25 dolphins and whales. One little finger of land, perhaps the most biologically rich place on Earth.

But unless you live under a rock, you also know that we are losing the richness and fullness of life on Earth at an alarming rate. I could stand here and cite dismal statistics all day. Instead, I’ll refer you to a wonderful book called Rescuing Biodiversity, Johnny Armstrong, retired MD, Wafer Creek Ranch near Ruston.

And why is Earth losing biological richness at an alarming rate? Us. That’s why. Habitat loss, Invasive species (because we do dumb things), Pollution,   Population growth (human), Overharvesting. (E.O. Wilson: HIPPO) Note that even though “human” is named in only one of them, we humans are responsible for all of them.

In sum, friends we are interfering with God’s plan for abundant life to flourish on Earth. We are not valuing, conserving, caring for what God declared to be “good.”

And that leads me to Jesus’ dialogue with Peter. It’s about values. It’s about priorities. It’s about where our heads are at! Which is fixed on human things, not divine things.

Our human minds are set on things like… making money. Not a bad thing in itself; we all need money. But when we look at creation through a lens of economics, rather than through God’s lens of “good” in and of itself, we destroy, we overharvest, we fill wetlands with dirt to build shopping malls.

Perhaps THE paradigm for long-term destruction in exchange for short-term cash is the clear-cutting of millions of acres of longleaf and shortleaf pine across the state of Louisiana back in the late 1800s.

We’re still paying for that folly. Today when I get home, one of the things I must do is write a letter from Louisiana Master Naturalist Association in support of a project Louisiana Dept. Wildlife and Fisheries is doing to restore longleaf pine savannah in an area that was clear cut all those years ago.

Another human mindset that leads to desecration of God’s sacred creation is.. convenience. We’re too busy to wash dishes! We’re in too much of a hurry to get to the next thing to be bothered with cleaning and refilling a water bottle.

Last week cleaning up after Canterbury, I needed to take home left over food, and heard myself ask for “something I don’t have to wash and bring back…”

In other words, we stumble, like Peter. We get caught up in the destructive cycle of instant gratification, addicted to our busy busy life style, caught in the snare of an economic system that allows a small minority to over-indulge while the majority struggle to make ends meet, and nearly 800 million of our sisters and brothers – one out of ten! – go to bed hungry every day!

Jesus calls us to sacrifice, to generosity, to a simple life-style that values creation as “good” in and of itself. Jesus calls us to share, and of those of us who have more, to share more.

Care of creation is about responsible living. It is, of course, about big decisions—like working with other nations to reduce carbon emissions worldwide. But it is first and always about the daily choices we each make.. about what we buy, what we drive, where we set the thermostat, how we love our neighbor—and all of our fellow creatures on planet earth.

End with Brothers of St. John the Evangelist:

Creation–Jesus was intimately involved with the natural world. When he spoke of God and God’s Kingdom, he almost always pointed to the natural world:  seeds, the harvest, the clouds, vines, weeds, sheep, fire, water, lilies, bread, wine. Walk out into God’s wonderful creation – and be touched by the very hand of God. –Bro. Tristam

In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.