September 21, 2014
Is enough ever enough?
- Exodus 16:2-15
- Dr. Teri Thomas
It was some kind of fundraiser for another good cause. I had agreed to speak briefly from my personal experience and offer the invocation. I carefully prepared my remarks and my prayer. I had to arrive 30 minutes early for sound checks and pay for parking downtown.
I was seated at the head table and waited for the doors to open to the regular guests.
At my chair I found a gift bag with my name on it.
Inside there was a nice crystal dish, a gift card, and a few other assorted presents.
How nice, I thought. I didn’t expect to be given anything for my efforts
but this was a very nice touch and I earned it.
Then the doors opened and several hundred guests began filling the tables.
As I watched my heart fell. Each and every one of them had an identical gift bag.
The gift was not in appreciation of my efforts.
It did not acknowledge the time and effort I put into being there. Everyone got one,
even the folks who did nothing but come and eat.
Suddenly the gifts seemed woefully inadequate and chintzy.
What I had been given did not change. How I appreciated it, did.
It happens to me every time I go to Kenya.
I am pretty satisfied with how I live and what I have, but I always want more.
Then I get to Kenya and I feel ashamed. I have too much. My stuff is too nice.
I say I will simplify and never buy another thing. I feel overly blessed.
Then I get home.
Sure I have more dishes than any one person could ever use
but that new serving bowl at William Sonoma is exquisite.
My closets are full and I have clothes I seldom wear
but just one quick trip to Marigold’s can’t hurt anything.
I am fine with what I have until I start comparisons.
What I have doesn’t change. How I appreciate it does.
I think that is what happened to the laborers in the vineyard in Jesus’ parable this morning.
The vineyard owner needs some help. Maybe it is harvest season or maybe time to prune.
Doesn’t matter why, he just needed some extra hands.
So he goes into the village, to the place where the day laborers gather. These are the folks who cannot find regular work. They are desperate. They need money to feed their families. So they line up by the Home Depot or the Lowe’s and wait for someone to hire them for the day.
The vineyard owner takes a bunch of them early in the morning,
he promises a good wage and puts them to work.
The work is hard, but these guys are thrilled. They will get paid at the end of the day.
They can pick up some oil for the lamp and some food on the way home tonight.
Maybe there will even be enough for something sweet for the kids.
They were so thankful for a day’s work.
They were so grateful for the opportunity to do something.
They were so appreciative of the offer of a fair wage.
Later the landowner decides he needs more help and he repeats the hiring process mid-morning. Then again mid-afternoon. And then an hour before sundown he goes and gathers even more workers and sends them to the vineyard.
The workers are grateful for whatever work they can get, even if it is just one hour.
Something is better than nothing.
At the end of the day the pay envelopes are passed out.
Beginning with the last hired- each receives a full day’s wage.
This is much more than the latecomers expected.
It is exactly what the first group had been promised.
But suddenly, what had just moments ago seemed like a great blessing,
now felt distressingly inadequate to the full-day workers.
The amount they are paid doesn’t change.
But how they appreciate it does.
What seemed like plenty when it was promised
seemed like less than enough
when compared to those who had come late
and still received the same amount.
When we look at this parable,
there are a few things we need to remember.
First of all, it is a parable.
It is not intended as an economic development plan or business model.
Parables are intended to be shocking.
They violate logic and cause a sense of disorientation for the hearer.
They are Jesus’ way of trying to get our attention.
So it doesn’t have to make sense financially.
And Jesus begins the parable by saying-
this is what the Kingdom of God is like…
not- this is the way you should run your vineyard.
Because he is not really talking about a vineyard,
he is talking about God’s grace.
And in this parable,
he is trying to help us get our heads around the idea
that God’s grace is sufficient and generous.
All you have to do is show up and you receive this grace.
Let’s admit it.
The concept is difficult for us.
We understand rules. With rules we know where we stand.
With rules we can keep score.
But grace is free to all.
There are no rules.
And the truths are pretty simple-
- God loves me and all creation
- we are all made in God’s image
- God’s generosity is beyond our imagination or understanding
- there is NOTHING I can do to earn or deserve that generosity
The workers didn’t understand the concept-
instead of focusing on the fact they had work
and they would be paid generously,
they focused on what they saw as inequality,
and envy replaced gratitude.
Can we really blame them?
This seems to be a universally human problem.
The Israelites had the same problem.
God liberated the Israelites from bondage in Egypt.
God freed them from slavery.
God gave them an alternative to life in Egypt
no more domination and submission
no more rich vs poor
no more powerful lording over powerless
God answered their cries, gave them what they asked for.
When God led them across the Red Sea
they danced and they sang and they celebrated.
Then they started comparing what they had in the desert
to what they’d had in Egypt.
There is no fresh fish.
We used to have 71 kinds of bread- now we have unleavened crackers.
We lived in houses- now we wander through the sand.
We had gardens and now we are hungry.
We want our figs and our olives.
God had given them everything they had been promised.
And they complained.
They were so caught up in what they did not have,
they were missing the blessings of what they had.
We make this same choice every day.
We forget all the times a colleague has been helpful
and obsess about a perceived slight.
Or we overlook all those who drive their cars quite reasonably
but instead get driven to distraction by the one guy who cuts us off.
We overlook the thousand kindnesses a partner or friend has performed on our behalf
but nurse a grudge about the one thing they did to hurt our feelings.
What we have doesn’t change.
But how we appreciate it does.
At each of these turns, we can choose: will we complain and moan,
or will we live out of generosity and love.
God’s grace is sufficient and generous.
But we get upset if people get what we don’t think they deserve.
We are upset if we don’t get what we think we do deserve.
We don’t understand.
God’s grace is sufficient and generous.
We don’t understand,
we really should be grateful we don’t get what we deserve.
Because we may well be the folks at the back of the line.
And we get way more than we ever deserved.
God’s grace is sufficient and generous.
For us all!
The amount of grace we receive is not going to change.
How we appreciate it might.
Thanks be to God. Amen.