IT's ENOUGH 20th September 2026 Proper 20 Pentecost 17A

2026  09  20  Proper 20a  Pentecost 17a

Exodus 16.2-15    Psalm 105.1-6, 37-45     Philippians 1     Matthew 20.1-16

 

II went to a poetry night this week.  My friend gave a performance and in it she mentioned that she didn’t like the word “deserve”.  It is a popular word in our contemporary society…. We deserve this and we deserve that.  It really isn’t that contemporary.  The parable we read today deals with the same issue; a sense of entitlement, deserving of more.  Even the ancient Israelites, wondering in the desert, figured that they deserved more also.  They wanted bread and meat.  God tested them by giving them an abundance, but they were only to gather what they needed. Do you think they passed the test? 

 

Saint Paul lives differently.  He declares that for him, living is Christ and dying is gain.  It always reminds me of Shakespeare’s famous play, Hamlet.  “To be or not to be”.  Do you recognise this statement?  Hamlet’s speech stands in stark contrast to Paul’s living is Christ and dying is gain.   Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies - it does not end well.  Hamlet’s father, the King, was murdered and the murderer, Hamlet’s uncle then married his mother to take the crown.  Hamlet is upset and he ponders;

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: 'tis a consummation - Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; - 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.

 

Hamlet is talking about taking his own life to end his suffering.  However, Hamlet contemplates that he doesn’t know what is after death… maybe what is after death could be worse.  In contrast, Saint Paul is writing his letter while he is in house arrest and facing an unknown future – very possibly, death!  In this context, Paul writes that to live is good, but to die is to be with Jesus – which is ultimately fantastic…. Paul says this, not at all because he wants to die, but to reassure his people that if dying was to happen, he was totally certain that he would be with Jesus and all would be well.

 

Both Hamlet and St. Paul had one thing in common.  Both knew that death is not the end.  For Hamlet, it was a great unknown and it held no reassurance.  St. Paul had miraculously met the risen Lord when he was persecuting Christians.  He was absolutely sure that there was more than this life here and now, because he had encountered it.  From that moment Paul was changed.  Paul knew that what he deserved was death.  The all-mighty God showed him that Paul was actually hurting Christ by persecuting Christians.  Paul did not deserve the grace and mercy that he had received.  Paul could well have been fearful of what future he might have in the afterlife, knowing that he was responsible for causing pain.  That would be a logical fear, don’t you think? Yet Paul has none of this fear, because he had experienced God’s amazing grace and love.

 

God’s amazing grace and love doesn’t fit with our normal human logic, which is why the parable Jesus tells in our Gospel reading is so baffling.  Surely if there were workers who worked all day, and some that only worked the last part of the day, those who worked the longest would receive more pay.  That is how it usually works, and that is what is fair, so what is Jesus trying to tell us in this parable?  He is NOT advocating for some kind of political system where everyone gets the same regardless of effort.  He is explaining a spiritual reality.  The economy of God’s love and grace.

 

The Kingdom of Heaven is like….  This is how Jesus begins the parable.  The previous reading in Matthew 19 says ; “Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” This is something that St. Paul understood and he, who calls himself the least of the apostles was sure of his place in the Kingdom.

 

In any group, there can develop an arrogance and hierarchy of those who have been there the longest.  We always and forever fall into patterns of hierarchy.  Our world is forever fighting over this, men over woman, one race over another, etc. This is not the way of the kingdom of God.  We might be working hard for the church thinking we are building our heavenly home but all in all its not just another golden brick in the wall, because this parable puts us in our place… Note that the first workers were happy with their reward for their work, until they saw that those hired last also received the same reward. 

 

It makes sense to have hierarchy.  It existed in the religious structure of Jesus’ time where the Pharisees assumed spiritual superiority and could motivate the people to do things in this way.  But those same people who were the keepers of God’s word, were furious that Jesus was spending time with those considered the sinners.  Surely those sinners could not have the same eternal reward as those who had been born into the priestly family and part of the church all their lives, could they?

 

The Kingdom of heaven is different.  But what reward do we really need or want?  Hold onto that question.

 

In the history of humanity, there was a time when God chose a nation.  We’ve been reading about this in God’s interaction with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel and was the father of the Israelite nation.  We’ve been reading lately about Moses and how he led the Israelite nation out of slavery in Egypt so that they could possess the promised land that God had promised them back in the time of Abraham.  

 

This week we read about those people and the things they wanted.  They complained to God they wanted meat and bread.  So, God sent quails for them and also Manna, the bread from heaven.  Quails we understand, but Manna was a miracle that ended when the Israelites no longer needed it.  This bread from heaven was a substance that they collected each morning and ground to make bread.  On the 6^th day they were to collect twice as much because there would be none on the 7^th day, their day of rest.  Everything about this Manna was a miracle.  It was a gift.  It was God’s abundant provision.  This slave nation didn’t understand about having a day of rest, so God had to command it.

 

If we were to read more of the text about the Manna experience, we’d find that those Israelites showed that they didn’t trust God to give them what they needed for each day and some of them collected more and overnight it went rotten.  Yet when they collected twice as much on the 6^th day it was still good for the day of rest.

 

These Israelites were used to hard labour and the concept of being gifted something, relaxing for a day because it would be there tomorrow when it was needed, was something absolutely foreign.  They were a nation who worked mighty hard for any reward.  That is what they understood.  Even in the Egyptian system of spirituality this is what was understood; work, sacrifice reward.  But the God who is who He is, provided food and rest for his people. 

 

Many people in our society have a sense of hopelessness about the future, a sense of guilt or low self-worth – i.e. they suffer from depression.  What all humans need is hope in a future, reassurance of worth… a way to deal with guilt – honestly –  To love and be loved… to be happy, accepted, valued…

 

This statement, “The first will be last and the last will be first” is about acceptance.  In that ancient culture rejection was the norm…. especially if you were not the heir.  But the Bible tells us about to be understood how God chose Jacob…. How God chose King David who was the youngest and considered insignificant.  God speaks of Israel as being rejected and the smallest of nations.  God delights to choose the small, the insignificant, the rejected and the outcast.  In the story of faith, the Gentiles… that is all of us, are “Johnny come latelys”… add ons to the story.  However, we all have ALL God’s love.  And it is kind of like this… there was a man who owned a vineyard….  No matter if we came late to this party or early, we all have all God’s love.

 

In 1998 I wrote a song called “It’s enough”.  The lyrics are; “Some people live in hope of your rewards.  They imagine a goal and strive and press toward.  Crowns of gold they see and of eating from the tree of life that gives them immortality.  Some people they see streets all paved with gold.  They imagine the glory and the power they will hold.  See them on the street, with the fear of hell they beat a rhythm that gives their inner fears release.  But it’s enough – it’s enough to know His faithful love.  And it’s enough, it’s enough to have His unconditional care.  As for me, I know the passion of the man who died for me.  All I care about heaven is that His arms of love will be there.”

 

It doesn’t matter if we’ve been serving God all our life or turned to him at the last minute, we have the love of God as our reward… We can’t possibly have more, and we will never have less!

 

We, like St. Paul, are called in this life to courageously be God’s witness and be the body of Christ – doing what Christ wants done, without fearing death, because we know that we have all of God’s love.  The test is to live as though God’s love is enough…. Is it?  He gives us the true bread from heaven… Jesus – a gift – the gift of grace we can never deserve or earn.  Eternal life through Jesus is more than a most extravagant reward.  

The Big Rescue Pentecost 15 A 6th Sept 2026

2026  09  06 - Pentecost 15    proper 18a

Exodus 12.1-14    Psalm 149    Romans 13.1-10     Matthew 18.10-20

 

Love does no harm to a neighbour.  Where are we with this?  Do you think we have ever caused harm, personally – or as a church?   We know that harm has been caused in the past.  And we are still paying dearly – the ripple effect has been intense and far reaching.  But what about us? Have we caused harm?

 

The Roman Christians were told to love their neighbours as themselves because love is the fulfilment of the law of God.  It is a letter that Paul could well have written to any church today as I believe it is VERY relevant.  The Jewish Christians had been exiled from Rome under the previous governor, but now they had come back, and the rules had changed.  Saint Paul urged them to be subject to the authorities and do good.  It is a reminder to pray for our leaders, but all the aspects of life were closing in on the church and they had various opinions.  They had concerns for how to live a Godly life.  They and we need to constantly be reminded to be an encouraging and loving community, because God’s great love for ourselves and each other, is the most important thing.

 

We can easily diminish the importance of being loving, but do we realize that it is the lack of truly being loving that causes harm?  Of course it isn’t as easy as it sounds.  We can’t just continuously agree with the loudest voice. That voice could be leading us astray – and we follow, simply because we think it is loving to agree.  Paul didn’t keep quiet when he disagreed with Peter, and it turned out that his argument was vital for safe-guarding the message of the Gospel.

 

How interesting that this topic should come up, as our society is constantly battling this very conundrum.  The freedom of speech- the right to disagree.  And the need to stand up for what we believe to be vital- but not to be disrespectful, or hateful.   And there is another whole can of worms as there are some who interpretate disagreeing as being hateful.

 

It stands to reason then, that we need to have positive ways to deal with conflict and differences.  Our street Chaplaincy leaders are encouraged to deal with someone who does the “wrong” thing immediately.  Glitches become issues when they are not dealt with immediately and they become a complaint with which the committee needs to deal.  Then what happens has the potential to be a mountain out of a molehill.  Does this ever happen in the church?  NO ONE is perfect.  

 

Our Gospel scripture tells us to speak directly and privately to the person who is sinning.  Now, “sinning”, means they have missed the mark.  That can be a tiny thing or something major.  Often, our Street Chaplaincy difficulties are the minor kind- In the beginning at least.  This could be that a Chaplain has given their phone number to someone on the street.  It isn’t a big deal necessarily.  It could be that they have engaged in crude talk with the security guards.  These are the real things that we do need to talk to Chaplains about.  When it happens, we don’t embarrass the person by addressing them in front of others, if possible, depending on the seriousness of the circumstance.  We teach our members that it should be dealt with immediately, as soon as it is possible to have a private conversation.  If that person doesn’t take any notice and continues in the error, then the matter is taken further.

 

I’m hoping that you can see how this fits with our scripture directions.  Sadly, what is more common everywhere, is that the one-on-one correction never happens.  In fact, the two or three witness level rarely happens either, and instead, the first the person knows that they’ve erred, is when a higher authority or larger group become involved.  In these cases, people are left bewildered and hurt.  They leave the ministry they were involved in and they leave the church.  They may even feel rejected by God.   THIS is a serious problem!!!

 

The scripture just prior to our reading says that it “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”  THIS is serious!  Today’s reading begins with, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

 

So many stories I could tell you, of Christians who don’t attend church because they have been hurt by church authorities.  If these people are no longer attending church because of how we have badly handled a situation, we are those who have caused people to stumble.  They are stumbling in their commitment to belong to the body of Christ and that was our doing.  So much hurt… so much sin… can be avoided if we follow God’s way of dealing with issues. 

 

In the middle of the Gospel reading, we have a story about leaving the 99 sheep to go and rescue one.  To some extent it makes no sense.  Surely, you’d do better to care for the 99????  Until we put it into a context we can relate to;  Imagine you are teaching a class of prep children.  One of them runs off.  I guarantee, all your attention is focused on that one!  There is NO peace until you know that that little one is safe and the idea of leaving the 99 to go and find the one, is not that you would leave the others vulnerable.  The shepherds of that time were not likely to be on their own and so the 99 were kept safe, but the value of that one is such that there is much rejoicing when it is found.  As a teacher looking after preps, we might better understand the value of that rejoicing over the one, but do we comprehend that this is God’s care over that one person who left the church because of hurt?

 

Many years ago, in the land of Egypt, the Israelites were slaves.  They were hard pressed by the Egyptians and forced into labour.  The Egyptians had gods that they worshiped and all this impacted the people… it hurt them.

More than that, Pharaoh decided to diminish the numbers of the Israelites by killing every male baby born.  Moses should have been destroyed, except by the divine providence of God and circumstances that led to him floating on a basket to the Egyptian princess.  As a grown man, he tried to rescue his people, but his efforts being misunderstood meant that he was exiled for many years in the desert.   He was supposed to be killed at birth, and then as an adult he lived in exile.  But God cares for the exiled.  God cares for the outcast.  God cares for those whose lives are headed for destruction unless there is some kind of rescue.

 

Last week we read about Moses and how God called him to set the people free.  This week we jump ahead to the final plague and we glimpse what God is doing.  Scripture quotes God as saying, “I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.”  Pharaoh had taken the lives of a whole generation of men, killing them at birth, but God gave Pharaoh every opportunity to repent.  

 

A few things are happening here that we may not have realized.  The people of Israel had been hurt.  Physically they were oppressed.  Emotionally and psychologically, they saw themselves as slaves and second-class citizens.  Spiritually they had been led into the false and harmful religion of the Egyptians.  Each of the plagues that God sent showed God’s sovereignty over those so-called Gods.  Finally, after God proving himself over and over, Pharaoh still defied God.  Why would he do that after all the proof?  Perhaps because of an inflated sense of his own importance.  Pharaoh was considered a living deity.   He was believed to be the son of the sun god, Ra, the source of life, and the goddess Issis, protector of children. 

 

In that final plague God showed Israelite and Egyptians alike, that there is no God other than himself who is the source of life.  He, the LORD – Yahweh –  The God who is who He is- It is He who is the be all, the end all, the source of all.  And the way to life and protection from this plague was through the blood of the lamb  - the lamb of God- God himself is the lamb of God.   LIFE is in HIM.  In this he also prefigured the sacrifice of Christ.

 

Moses had gone to Pharoah with his request.  Then he went again, and again, and again…. Etc. 10 times.  In a previous plague of hail, scripture tells us that those who reverenced the Lord took their cattle in.  The hail didn’t fall in the area where the Israelites lived, so this refers to the Egyptians who had come to believe in Yahweh.  Pharaoh considered himself to be greater than God, therefore no one could possibly harm him.  Pharaoh was warned but he chose deliberate defiance. 

 

Pharaoh was the ruler of the land.  While the letter to the Romans tells us to be subject to the governing authorities, and we certainly should – as well as pray for those leaders, there may be times that we need to petition.  We know that one of our marks of mission is to seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind, and to pursue peace and reconciliation. 

 

Transformation begins when we realize that the person who has gone astray & needs correction is actually all of us!  We are all the “black sheep” in this family of God – but the lamb of God – the one perfect one, died in our place.  When we can see ourselves in each other and truly understand the love God has for us, we can respond to each other with that love. 

 

Today’s readings are all about rescue.  Rescue of the oppressed Israelite nation, rescue of the one sheep gone astray and the rescue we are called to take part in.  The rescue of each little one who has been or is being hurt.  I challenge each one of us to come up with just one way we can step into that rescue today.