2023 09 24 PROPER 20 (25) Pentecost 17 Year A
Exodus 16:2-15 Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 Philippians 1:21-30 • Matthew 20:1-16
God Provides! Today’s readings could be a newspaper heading where the subject is the goodness of God and the response of His people. You and I are called to respond to God’s grace.
In our Old Testament reading, we find that the Israelites who had been rescued miraculously from Egypt are once again grumbling against their leaders, Moses and Aaron. God provides! The people Grumble!
Would we be any different? Are we any different? We grumble at our own leaders. It doesn’t matter if it is the Government, the Mayor, our School Principal, or the President of our organisation, we just seem to be really good at grumbling. Are we fair to grumble against them? What I know about one organisation that I have been a part of is that, one of the biggest grumblers became the secretary and then realized that the job was much bigger than could be handled, and the resignation was handed in before the year was done.
Moses made it clear to the Israelites that it wasn’t actually him that they were grumbling against, but God himself. Then, as the group was spoken to about the issue, God showed up. The people looked towards the wilderness and the glory of God was seen in the cloud. It amazes me that these people constantly had the goodness of God and the presence of God with them and yet they still grumbled. Are we any different? God provides – We…. Still grumble.
Regardless of the attitude of the Israelites, God lavishes them with good things. And God does this with us also. God’s grace is abundant! I know of people who rave about the tastiness of quails. Then there was this other stuff, which they called “Manna” - the bread from heaven. Each day there was enough bread for the day, but on the day before the Sabbath there would be twice as much, so that nothing needed to be gathered on that day and the community could rest. In God’s abundant gift, there is even provision for resting.
Can we trust God that he will provide for us? God clearly states that with this bread from Heaven He would test the Israelites to see if they would trust him and only collect the correct amount. What do you think? Did they pass the test? Spoiler alert – No! The weirdest thing was that if they collected too much so that they had left overs, it was rotten the next day, BUT not on the Sabbath. God cares for our needs and can provide us with exactly what we need for today… and if we need a time to rest, I believe He will provide us with a way to cover that also.
There are some pretty depressing things about the world at the moment and it seems like a downward spiral where even children are growing up without a sense of hope. Into this picture of the future God interrupts us with a message about the delicacy of quail meat and exquisite bread from Heaven.
The Israelites were in a land that was barren. They were in the wilderness of the desert for forty years, but they were fed by God himself who gave them the work of gathering their food without allowing greed, and yet even gave them a provision for rest each week. In this world, we need to be a people of hope… prophets of hope… declaring the word of the Lord, who declares that He will provide for us - abundantly. Yes, we may be in a wilderness and there may be danger on every side. Yes, we may feel dispossessed, not knowing the security of our former ways, but God can and will provide all that we need for today… and on the 6th day He will provide double, so that we can rest.
Saint Paul, knew the contentment of one who trusted completely in God. He wrote to the Philippians from prison. He didn’t know if he was going to live or die. The Philippians knew this, and were worried for him also. What is St. Paul’s response? “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.”
Saint Paul had to face the fact that he might be going to be put to death and he came to terms with it in this way; To live is Christ and to die is gain. Saint Paul had met Jesus in a most dramatic way. He knew the provision of God. What’s more Saint Paul knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt that death was not, as is many think, an end to our life and the entering into nothingness.
I love the way that Shakespeare mirrors this quote from Paul and then expands it for his character’s own musings and understanding. In the play of Hamlet, he says; “To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to:” Shakespeare’s character goes on to realize that death is not the end. The quote from Hamlet goes on to muse how in death, it may be likened to sleep and in sleep we dream, and the question is posed, “To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause—there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life.”
I wish that we could get back to a society that, in the least thinks like Shakespeare. We have incredibly high suicide rates. We don’t hear about them, as they are not publicised. We have an unprecedented number of organisations educating us all on how to speak with and support those who are contemplating suicide, but none of them comes from a position like Shakespeare who certainly also believed in a life after death and asks the question about what may come. Shakespeare makes it known to his audience that there is a life after death and therefore his character is unsure if it is better or worse than living.
God gives us our physical life. He calls us into being and provides for us. The Bible tells us that the blessing of God is a long life and so we know that the life that God intends for us, is a good and long life. The Israelites in the desert, still had to go out and collect their provisions and work to turn it into the bread that they ate. But God ensured that it was there and it was good.
Saint Paul had a calling, a God given work, to spread the Good News of the Gospel. His life did not enjoy such a length, where as Saint John did. For both of them to live was Christ and to die was to be with the Lord. In giving their life to Christ they gained an abundant life such that, unlike Hamlet, who contemplated the lessor of two evils, Saint Paul contemplates the better of two goods. He concludes that God still had some value in his earthly life and so he knew he would continue.
The life that God gives us, is not just about whether we have God’s work here to do, but that God delights to give us this life and He desires for us to rejoice in it. He shows us in the readings today, just how we should think about that life so that we can enjoy it and today’s readings reenforce the message that God is good and in trusting his provision, he will not disappoint, but will surpass our expectations.
Our Gospel reading begins with a worker gaining employment for the day, agreeing to the wage of 1 denarius. This amount was the standard for a day’s wage and was enough to provide for an average family. Think about this; Dad works and earns enough for Dad, Mum and the rest of the family. The average family in those days was four to eight people. That is a generous wage! God provides! In many ways this is the same as the Israelites gathering enough Manna for one day.
Those workers who were hired later still received one denarius; enough to provide for their families for one day. They hadn’t worked the whole day, but they were in the market place prepared to work. No doubt, all of them needed to provide for a family – they all received what they needed, regardless of time worked.
Some were jealous. … the people grumbled!! They thought they deserved more. Who do these people represent? In the church denominations there is often Jealousy. Why is it that the new church is growing while those who’ve been here doing the job of keeping the faith through all kinds of trials seem to be just getting by? This is just one example and I’ll leave you to contemplate other applications. What matters is the message that Jesus is teaching us; God will give us what we need. God provides!
I often think of this scripture in regards to those who may think that Heaven is a matter of gold brick houses and they are working to have a better house in Heaven. Heaven does not work that way. The best prize we could ever have, is the love of God, and you cannot have more of that, than you already have.
The love that God has for us is so amazing, that he came as one of us and died for us, so that nothing need ever separate us from that love… even if at some point we rejected him. Jesus is the bread from Heaven. God provides….
Saint Paul, knowing that he might not see the Philippians again leaves them with this advice; “… live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,..”
We can be thankful when we don’t suffer for Christ, but we need to so feed on Christ, the bread of Heaven that we become totally secure and aware of God’s love. Only then can we be prepared to stand up for the Gospel values regardless of what people think of us. In all that we do we strive to live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ – We live to please God first and foremost. And God is good. We can never have more of his love than we already do. Grasping this reality, we will find the strength to live our lives working for God’s purposes.
We can choose to grumble about the state of the world, but we are actually called to be the prophets of hope. Secure in the love and salvation of God, we cannot loose, but out there in the world are people who don’t know this hope and they desperately need to know that God loves them and has provided for their eternal salvation. They will only come to know this hope through us. We don’t need to get too far ahead of ourselves, worrying about not having the resources for tomorrow, but we do the work God calls us to today, and trust God for his provision in tomorrow. God provides!
Resting in the amazing love of God, let us pray for God’s direction as we labour in his vineyard…. Where is God calling us to be working today?
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