The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost ---- 24 September 2017

Jonah 3:10-4:11

3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

4:1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, "O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. 3 And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 4 And the Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" 5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city. 6 The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live." 9 But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." 10 Then the Lord said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

Matthew 20:1-16

1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4 and he said to them, "You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o'clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o'clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, "Why are you standing here idle all day?' 7 They said to him, "Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, "You also go into the vineyard.' 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, "Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.' 9 When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, "These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' 13 But he replied to one of them, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?' 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?

·       I have to admit that this sermon was difficult to write. Not because of the content; there’s plenty to work with. The reason is simple: I wanted to preach on the Gospel but I love the book of Jonah. It’s one of my favourite stories. It’s like reading a comic book!

·       Actually both the reading from Jonah and the reading from Matthew follow a similar path. This why the people who made up the lectionary –the order of readings used at Sunday Worship- paired the two.

·       Both of these stories are not what we’d expect. Characters in both are upset by a display of generosity and feel badly done by since their expectations were not fulfilled.

·       Jonah ran away to Spain (the modern name for Tarshish used in the passage) to keep from proclaiming repentance to Nineveh just in case they just might repent and then God just might change God’s mind. Nineveh of course is the great city of the Assyrian Empire, the empire that hammered the state of Israel. It symbolized all that is evil and wrong in the mind of the Jewish people of the time. When the people repent and God decides not to destroy them, Jonah is so angry he wants to die. And the Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?" In the end, God upbraids Jonah for being more concerned about a bean plant that gave him some shade than about the many people of Nineveh who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?

·       The workers in the vineyard are in a somewhat similar situation: they feel cheated for receiving their agreed-upon wage… and nothing more, while expecting more. They worked hard in the hot sun all day and received their denarius. And so did those who worked half a day and those who worked only one hour! Where’s the shop steward? This is so unfair! The landowner reminds them of their agreement, and goes further: Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?

·       Neither story ends as the characters in it (or us, for that matter) might expect. The enemies of Israel are supposed to go down in flames, not repent in sackcloth and ashes. Workers are worth their wage and should be paid what they deserve, with consideration to conditions and time.

·       Well, neither of these stories are about the political situation of ancient Israel or about labour relations in Jesus’ time. The parable and the book of Jonah (which might be a long parable anyway) are about God and the kingdom of God. For the hearers, these words are a bitter pill, tough medicine… like Buckley’s Mixture. God’s generosity is the point, not our desire for “fairness” or our understanding of who deserves God’s generosity. For some of us, maybe me, this generosity is nothing less than scandalous.

·       And I (and maybe you) should be scandalized and offended. This story should mix us up and spin us around like a fast carnival ride. It should turn our world up-side-down.

·       That’s what grace is all about. Grace is nothing less than God’s undeserved choice and the sharing of God’s own life with the likes of us. Grace in action is the forgiveness of Nineveh and the same payment for all the workers, first, last, and in-between. It can’t be bought or deserved or even predicted.

·       The hitch here is… we want to decide who gets God’s grace. We want to decide who deserves it and we’ll ration it out to those folks. In other words, we want to be God and sit in judgement on all around us. Truth to tell, we can be envious because God is generous, to use the Gospel’s words. It is also possible that we believe that we are part of the first batch of labourers paid for working all day in the heat.

·       Does this make us think? Probably so. Can we see that everything is grace when it comes to God? I’d hope so. It might even make us repent… and in that repentance, encounter God’s freely given grace, mercy, and love… like the people of Jonah’s Nineveh AND Jonah himself or Jesus’ parable’s last hired AND first hired vineyard workers.

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?