Jonah 3:10-4:11; Matthew 20:1-16
Jonah was the most efficient prophet. Well once he actually started warning people and stopped trying to run from God. Many of the other prophets never saw the people turn toward God, but Jonah did, and he was not happy about it. Jonah wanted the people of Nineveh to suffer for their bad ways. Jonah tells God, that he was aware “…that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” It seems that Jonah wanted to determine who actually would receive such a wonderful God of mercy.
The Gospel parable is one of my favorites and when I say favorite, I mean difficult. (And there are many I call favorite.) This is one though that I was trying to teach to a group of fourth graders over a decade ago when I was their Sunday School Teacher. That spring we were learning about parables and I had it organized so we would end the spring semester with this parable. I told the class that I award those that brought their Bible to class. I had a chart with their names and each week I checked not only their attendance but if they had their Bible. Well the girls did the task remarkably well each week. The boys, including the pastor’s twins, were not doing so well. They all remembered the first week, but it was clear after a few weeks they had given up.
So it came time to give out the reward, and I did it before the lesson on the parable. I said I had prizes also for those that brought their Bible once, as each child did remember at least once. I gave the boys a small nice gift each, and they said “thank you.” Then it was the girls turn (why the response was clearly marked by gender, I do not know and honestly don’t care), they received the same gift as each boy, and they said “thank you.” I was expected grumbling from the girls and teasing from the boys over this “injustice.” However, there was none. I went through the lesson about the parable, and eventually one of the girls did say, “Like we all got the same gift even though some didn’t bring their Bibles.” I learned children seem to understand the message better.
It was not unlike the children’s moment prior to this sermon, while some kids were asked to do something for their candy, they all got candy and did not grumble. For when the children saw the candy bowl they knew they would all get candy. Adults need to realize when we see God we all receive grace, equally.
Yet I know it is difficult sometimes to keep that realization of God’s grace before us. We as adults will take it too legalistically, and therefore reject it fully in areas where life is unfair or feel guilty for feeling that way. We may simply apply the grace to the transhistorical salvation we know as heaven, and forget that people who are hungry today need salvation from hungry. Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that our salvation has to do with helping those that are not able to help themselves. Yet we see people abusing the system, I know I do, and I feel awful for even having that thought. I try to help them but I have a lot to learn from the children. Life isn’t fair but grace abounds.
I remember reading an article by Eugene Peterson, where he talks about brining his daughter to visit in a nursing home. In one room there was a patient with Alzheimer's who repeated a story to the girl over and over again. When they were in the car he apologized to his daughter, and she said something to the effect, “that is who she is.” Eugene shares that he learned about pastoral visitation from his daughter.
This scripture is easy when we simply analyze it. Yes God’s grace is for everyone, even if they confess on the death bed. And God’s grace of life today is for everyone, so we support and help charities, but it gets difficult when we see people with nicer cars at the food bank than our own. This is where we become more like Jonah. Perhaps not as bad, but we desire to hide from God’s compassion or we take no joy in seeing it. I believe it happens to us all because we are not as keen as children to hear who God is through these scriptures. We approach it as if it is a law, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” We squash our own feelings about working so hard for our food, for our church, because we feel guilty about being like Jonah.
As James Alison challenges us, we must be ready to relax into orthodoxy. He suggests it is like listening to a conversation where you have a hard time hearing, lets take the bedside of someone with dementia. If you try to listen carefully only to the words and what she is saying you tense up more and miss most of the meaning. If you begin to relax you may not even hear every word but you get the meaning.
We need to learn from the children and relax into this wonderful grace. Then we will know we too deserve it when we feel the world is unfair. Thus we will know God and all receive grace, equally.
