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 6th day they were to
collect twice as much because there would be none on the 7th 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
6th 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.
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