josephholubsermons


 

October 2, 2011 -   Pent 16
Jonah 3:10 - 4:1
Matthew 20:1-16

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Grace Empowers

On the surface of things this is a puzzling and outrageous parable.   Using our everyday sensibilities as a measure, it seems perfectly scandalous paying everyone the same wage even though their timesheets of hours logged greatly differed.  This is one of those parables that knocks us off our feet.  What does Jesus mean by telling such a story?  Is he suggesting that God is like this rather eccentric landowner who's apparently lost his sensibilities in the way he doles out his money?

I would suggest that the reason we may struggle with Jesus’ story is that we look at it only from our point of view using our value system.  Jesus tells this story from the point of view of the Divine.  It is apparent that the Divine and human point of view are very different.  To get a grip on this story we first must see that it is framed by the Divine directive that in the Kingdom of God “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”  This parable begins and ends with that declaration.      

I believe one of the biggest temptations we face every minute of every day is to make God too small; to box God in; to make Divine matters as small as our aspirations; to make God fit comfortably into our lives; to conform the Divine to our values; to shape God around our prejudices and fears.  We easily delude ourselves into thinking that's the way God really is and must be!

When we lived in Alaska in the 90's, and I'll never forget something that a friend of mine used to say about life there.  First I must say, Alaska is a great and awesome place, but there are some negatives: frequent inclement weather; short summers and long winters with little daylight; often lots of clouds with gloom and drizzle for days on end; a sense of isolation from the rest of the country.  My friend Don had a conviction that the majority of the people who lived there for any length of time developed a very specific coping mechanism.  Don often would say, "We who live in Alaska delude ourselves into thinking that we really like it here!"  He was convinced that people mistook that delusion for reality.

Delusion was certainly at the core of Jonah's attitude problem in our OT scripture. Jonah was peeved on a number of issues.  If you read the entire book of Jonah we see that Jonah was peeved that God called him in the first place, and he tried to run away from God’s call.  When that didn’t work, he was doubled-peeved when God didn't live up to his expectations and annihilate the Ninevites.  Instead, God had a change of heart and showed the Ninevites excessive grace. So, Jonah went into childish pout because the Divine did not behave as Jonah expected and desired!  Jonah was blinded by his own delusions.

A paramount temptation is to delude ourselves about the Divine; to shape God according to our expectations rather than allowing the Divine to shape us.  We often mistake our God delusions for the authentic thing.  But it was not only Jonah who was blinded by his delusions, the scripture is full of similarly deluded characters.

·         Jacob thought he could manipulate the Divine into anything - he could not!

·         King Saul thought he had god-like impunity - he did not.

·         King David thought he had godlike authority over who lives and who dies - he did not.

·         The Israelites thought they had godlike exclusiveness - they did not.

·         Peter thought he had godlike loyalty - he did not.

·         Saul of Tarsus thought he had a God-blessed mission to wipe out the early Jesus movement - he did not.

·         The powerful elites thought they were divinely sanctioned to rule oppressively – they were not.

·         Imperial Rome thought it had godlike ruling power - it did not.

Whenever we mistake our delusions for the Divine,  we overstep our bounds, and in the process, God is shrunk down to a manageable size to look much more like us: the god of my cause; the god of my understanding; the god of my nation; the god of my experience; the god of my generation; the god of my race; the god of my gender; the god of my social class; the god of my particular religious expression; the god of my economics-politics; the god of my whatever.

This parable provides an ironic glimpse at the difference between Divine designs and human desires and even conventional human values.  The landowner's grace is bestowed on these last hired laborers much to the consternation of those who felt they were worth more.  The landowner leveled the playing field of relative worth, and he did not apologize.  The only response the landowner gives to the disgruntled is, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?"

This parable is declaring that grace is that which flows from the heart of the Divine.  Grace is a God thing.  Grace is a Jesus thing.   And most importantly grace empowers – especially the last and the least.   That is what this parable is ultimately about; this is the message - that grace empowers!  The parable points beyond itself to the very mission, message and ministry of Jesus. If we don’t get that, we totally miss the parable’s point.

Have you even noticed how Jesus’ ministry was largely devoted to empowerment – empowerment of the disempowered – empowerment of the marginalized – empowerment of those oppressed and exploited especially by the powerful elites. 

For example: In the feeding of the 5000 story[i] Jesus challenged his disciples to feed the hungry throng.  After assessing the available resources, the disciples concluded they could not –they felt powerless in the face of need.  Jesus then took and blessed the available resources, and put them right back into the hands of the disciples, and the disciples distributed the resources to the whole crowed with 12 baskets left over.  12 - a significant and symbolic number that represented the whole nation (12 tribes of Israel).  It reflected the Divine desire that everyone have enough.   If we can allow ourselves to consider this story metaphorically even for a moment, it explodes with power and meaning.  

When we place our stuff in the hands of Jesus, see it through his eyes and receive it back with his blessing, our stuff becomes transformed.  That’s the message here.  We see it in a different way.  Rather than see our stuff possessively as merely our stuff, we may begin to see it as that which has been entrusted to us.  We may even recognize we have more than we realize and far more than we need.  We may even be so moved as to share even more of this entrustment with others.  We actually may find ourselves so empowered, which in turn empowers others.  There is not a drastic food shortage in the world, there is a distribution dysfunction that gets interrupted and clogged up by human greed, exploitation, self-indulgence and a human lack of conviction to achieve food justice.  Jesus empowered the disciples to minister to the needs of the hungry throng.   We can be so empowered too, but it requires a transformed world view, beginning with the way we look at our stuff.  We can be empowered to empower others if we give Jesus a chance; place our stuff in his hands and receive it back transformed as an entrustment to be used to advance the cause of distributive justice in the world.  Grace empowers – especially the last and the least!

Another example:  There was the woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years[ii].  It was a condition that rendered her ritually-religiously unclean; which made her a social outcast.  Anyone  who merely touched her or came into contact with her, would also be rendered unclean – serious business.  Any place she visited and anything she touched would be unclean.  This oppressive, dehumanizing religious practice had cut her off from her community.  It was a religious mindset that most likely had taught her to hate herself;  to despise her very body and her womanhood!   She was desperate, alone, marginalized and powerless – a victim of religious oppression.

There was a great crowd pressing in around Jesus.  Sensing Jesus was perhaps her last resort, with quiet determination she squeezed her way through the jostling crowd to get at Jesus muttering to herself,  "If I but just touch his clothes, just touch... just touch… just touch...  I will be made well."   When she got within reach, she did the unthinkable.  She extended her hand and brushed his cloak.   Jesus stopped in his tracks and said, “Who touched me.”  The disciples were humored.  “Who touched you?  How can you say that in this jostling crowd?”  But it wasn’t just any touch.  It was a touch of desperation.  At that moment, the woman fell at his feet, expecting severe admonishment.  Instead, she received the grace that empowers.  Healed, her religiously imposed oppression was gone, and she was reconciled to her community and her own being.  Grace empowers!

Story after story, instance after instance Jesus encountered people who were powerless, overpowered, oppressed or overwhelmed – and his grace empowered them – reconciled them to their communities and their own selves– got them on their own two feet.

I challenge you to sit down some day or week and read carefully and reflectively through any one of the gospels and pay close attention to the way Jesus dealt with people, especially those who were “the last and the least.”  Read and reflect from the perspective that “grace empowers!”  I trust that it will be an eye opening experience, and you may be startled to see how Divine grace empowers those that the powerful had deemed “the last and the least.”

We are living at a time when the gap between the haves and have-nots, the powerful and powerless on this planet is growing wider and more distinct; a time when the haves are wielding power in a way that provides them with even greater leverage and advantage.  It’s a time when god delusions abound and religious justification is often employed to advance strategies that can oppress the last and the least. 

But then Jesus shows up on the scene, and he shatters our delusions by telling his outrageous little story about that which is authentically Divine; that the last shall be first and that grace empowers. 

Those who had logged  the most hours wanted a graceless vineyard.  They wanted everyone to get what they deserved.  Of course they did since they were in the group who felt they deserved the most.  They confronted the landowner, but the landowner would have no part of them. In so many words he said, "If you cannot get with the program of my vineyard and if you cannot base more of your life on the grace that empowers, then it would be better if you just leave the vineyard."

So what's it going to be for you and me?  Are you willing to risk continued employment in God's vineyard.  If so, one of two things will happen to you. I guarantee it.

The more you hang around this eccentric landowner, little by little, layer by layer, your delusions about God will gradually peel away.  There is the distinct possibility you might become so uncomfortable, and perhaps even so angry, that you will simply leave the vineyard and go back to your God-delusions - OR - you might actually begin to resemble, in little ways at first, and then bigger ways later on, this wild and crazy landowner, who refuses to live by conventional approaches, and open up your life to be transformed by God’s glorious, astounding, inconceivable, outlandish, lavish, excessive, unrestrained grace – the grace that empowers!