SECOND THOUGHTS

September 21, 2014

Pentecost 15

Exodus 16:2-15

Matthew 20:1-16

(prayer)

After they crossed the Sea of Reeds (somewhere along the Red Sea or its tributaries between the Nile Basin and the Sinai Peninsula), Moses and the Israelites were beyond the Egyptian Pharaoh’s reach.  They were liberated from many, many years of slavery. 

They were a nation of descendants of one family - the family of Jacob, who had lived in the land of Canaan centuries earlier, but at one point had resettled his and his children’s and his grandchildren’s households to Egypt - centuries earlier, during a time of drought and famine.  Obviously, the prospered and grew an identifiable culture and spirituality based on Jacob’s God.

Beyond the sea, Moses was leading the people back to Canaan (modern Israel-Palestine).  It was a harsh journey through the Sinai wilderness and they were a large, large group of people (all ages), property and livestock - so the travel was slow.

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Some of you are parents - and you were all children at some point - do you ever remember saying to your parent or having a child say to you “Are we there, yet?”

For so many things in life, we believe that it is the destination is what truly matters - the journey is a necessary, but often unwelcomed means to that end.

If someone is really excited about ‘getting there’ - not being there yet, can be very discouraging.

In our most difficult moment, we might even question whether, given the amount of time spent getting there, it was really worth leaving in the first place.  We might long for the comfortable old couch at home.

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“The Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron, ‘In the land of Egypt, we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; but you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’”

Not happy campers.

They were having second thoughts about whether they should have ever began the journey at all.

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In Jesus’ time, if you were not a farmer or a craftsperson, you likely had to scrape together a living through day labouring - ideally you find a full day’s work - from 6am to 6pm. 

There would be a gathering place are in the town where willing workers would congregate before sunrise.  Employers would come and hire who they needed.  The level of currency of a denarius (the usual daily wage) was enough for a person to feed and sustain her/his family for that day - enough to by some oil, flour, maybe a bit of meat.  Unless you had some money saved up, you needed to earn a new denarius every day.

Jesus told a story about day labourers.  It would have been a familiar topic for people in the crowd.  It is quite likely that some of the listeners to the parable lived exactly that kind of life.

A landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his
vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” He went out again about noon and about three o’clock and at five o’clock.  When evening came, the landowner’s manager gave them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first. They all received the usual daily wage.”

You heard what happened - the people who had worked a 12 hour day, had gladly agreed to do so for one denarius - when they saw the people who worked less hours were getting that wage, they marvelled at the generosity of the vineyard owner - they assumed they would make even more for the full day they had put in. 

But that was not the owner’s plan - everyone would get what was right.

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What do you think about that?

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Imagine you are the 12 hour worker, what do you think.

Now, you are the 1 hour one, what do you think?

Overall, what do you believe is right?

Is it right to give people the same total wages for working different lengths of time?

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Let's be honest: are you me and is there a piece of you that feels a bit like those full day
workers, who must have had second thoughts about how generous they assumed this
landowner was and whether it was worth their time to work all day for him?

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The landowner proclaimed that it was his money and he could do what he wants with it.  He didn’t cheat anyone - no one got less than they were promised.

Is it up to the owner to decide what is right.

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What do you think?  Is that a right way to do business?  Should we work that into our labour codes?

That would really shake people up.

ÿ  What would the Chambers of Commerce think about this?

ÿ  What  would the unions think about this?

ÿ  Would  politicians champion this plan?  I'm tempted to ask you "which party would or wouldn't", but I don't want to risk getting investigated by the Canada Revenue Agency about our charitable status.

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What was the landowner’s big controversial act - he only wanted to ensure that everyone (even those that other employers had systematically overlooked as the day progressed) would be able to feed their families that evening.

It was important to this landowner that everyone had enough - and not the greed of some workers (to get more than enough) or pressure to follow his own greed for a better 'bottom line' was going to stop that goal.  Maximized profits were not the goal; ensuring everyone had enough was. 

This was a widely compassionate, very forward-thinking person, who looked at the needs and health of the whole community, not just the most able-bodied, or highly desired or eager... but the ‘whole’. 

We could say of this landowner: “He’s got the whole village in his hands...”

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Remember how Jesus started this story - it was not literally about day labourers.  He knew that it would shock people’s expectations and not mesh with their experience of real world labour practices.  Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard.”

God shows no partiality. 

God does not hold back on those most in need.

God appreciates the hard work of all, whatever level is possible for them. 

To God, that is enough to warrant a full measure of God’s love and care.

It’s not by any system of determining our worthiness based on what we have done - it is only God’s graciousness that matters.

To be honest, we don’t have the ability to force God to be less loving and compassionate. 

This parable is not about us.

It is about God!

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Now, it is a little harder to make the exact same claim about the story in Exodus, because one could read it to understand that it was the people’s complaining that got God moving on providing the daily bread.  We all know the unfortunate truth that (often) it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.

Even so, look how God responded.  Let me read the next part of the account in Exodus 16:

This is what the Lord has commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of  you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.”  [an omer was a standard sized container that held three to four litres] The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. And Moses said to them, ‘Let no one leave any of it over until morning.’ But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul.

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Daily bread, doled out equally (we might say rightly or justly).  If you tried to gather more than you needed, it would spoil before you could eat it all.

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The Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus spoke about was a re-imagining of the feeding of the Israelites in the exodus wilderness.  All are allowed to be full and ready for what is next to come.

God determines the level of our subsistence, not any system we deem to be fair - based on achievements, or privilege, or opportunity, or just plain luck.

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Can we think of this when we pray: 

Our Father,

who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come...

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God in heaven, we long for your kingdom to come - not just in heaven (someday), but now - “on earth... as it is in heaven”.

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The hymn we are going to sing at the end of our service today (#481VU) will remind us that when our gathering is over, we are 'sent forth by God's blessing... to work for the kingdom and answer its call.'

Don't get hung up on the archaic language of that Jesus used: Kingdom of God (Matthew's gospel changed it to Kingdom of Heaven out of a particular sensitivity of his intended audience - same concept).  While most people of the 21st century do not have the experience of being governed by a monarch with 'real' power, we can appreciate that when Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, his audience understood that it means that Yahweh is our ultimate authority - not the local magistrate, the regional governor, not even Caesar in Rome.

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As the Lord's Prayer makes clear, God's Kingdom is not just a future hope, but a present possibility - it is not just a vision, it is also a mission. 

When we hear Jesus' various 'kingdom parables', we can see that this mission is multi-faceted.  There are dozens of sermons I could preach about the many ways Jesus describes the Kingdom of God, but... for today, part of this is that we are sent forth to work for the kingdom.  Matthew and Exodus give us some guidance:

We can see this in the practical distributions of certain staples of life: food, shelter, health care (and right there we have a lot of work to do) but the message is much broader:

We are invited to trust that God has provided enough --- our work is in the distribution to
make sure that less-than-enough is no one's experience.

o  Do people have enough companionship, care, safety, care, esteem?

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Jesus' message and the Israelites' wilderness experience was that God's generosity is limitless.  When we act without jealousy or selfishness; when we act by mirroring God's generosity, justice emerges and our interconnectedness is shown.

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Let us pray:

Compassionate God, we have known unfamiliar territory.  But, in the wilderness you meet us and feed us, body and soul.  We are grateful for your grace, O God.  Amen.

#651VU "Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah"