Abundant Persistent Never-Ending Grace

Sunday, September 18, 2011

In elementary school, I was voted class president three times – which allowed me many privileges. I took the attendance book to the office, and whenever the teacher left the room, I got to write the misbehaved kids’ names on the board. Believing I was forever entitled to be the president of my class…and afforded those special privileges….when on the 4th year my name was never mentioned…I was mad.
I worked very hard for months to be a high school cheerleader, and when I did not make the second cut, I told myself I wasn’t treated fairly.
When as a young working woman I couldn’t afford the clothes and the shoes and the purses I wanted, I was convinced that I was worth more than what was in my paycheck.
When my friends found husbands, bought houses, got new cars every couple years, and took great vacations…and I was still single, I believed I deserved what they had and more.
In whatever ways we can…there is a part of every human being that is driven to assign some kind of value to our lives…something in us that often views life as a contest…and wanting what we want….we compete against one another. Most people can point to a time or event in their lives when they set their sights on having some kind of power or importance… when we enjoyed standing in the lime light.…or basked in attention and approval. And though we may not want to admit it… there are times when …whether loudly or silently…we have complained. It happens when we don’t get what we think we deserve… when we think we are better than someone else….when someone else gets what we think we should have. The thing about parables is that they speak a truth about being human.
And so – of course - we understand the feelings of the laborers who worked all day in the vineyard under the hot sun. Of course, we understand how mad they must have been when they watched the land owner hand over the same amount of money to those undeserving Johnny-come-lately’s. And everyone agrees that it is never good business sense --- not fair in anyone’s book – to give the guy who worked one hour the same pay as the guy who worked 12. Yes, they grumbled,…and if we are honest with ourselves, if we put ourselves in their hot sweaty sandals, we would have felt justified to grumble, too.
Take a look at Jonah. That poor man did everything he could to get out of telling wicked Nineveh that they had 40 days to straighten up or God would destroy them. And when he finally and begrudgingly delivered that message…and when the King of Nineveh ordered sack clothes and a fast for everyone and told them to cry mightily to God and turn from their evil ways…and when they did…and when God was pleased and changed his mind…..ol Jonah was displeased and set his mind on being angry. Because Jonah wanted Nineveh punished, he wanted them overthrown, he wanted them to suffer God’s wrath because Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire – these were the people who were responsible for brutal annihilation of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. A God who relents from punishing Israel’s enemy…an enemy who – according to a very human Jonah – didn’t deserve deliverance.
The thing about parables – and this story of Jonah is that they shine a light on the dark places in our lives. A Jonah who didn’t think the other guy deserved a break. A rather self-righteous Jonah who didn’t think it was fair…who didn’t want God to share his love or extend any kind of grace to people who Jonah believed were unworthy. And grumbling hired men who lived a long time after Jonah – and still felt that it was unfair…and that the other guy didn’t deserve a break…that a spirit of generosity should only be extended to them.
The thing about parables and this story about Jonah is that they are not about what they seem to be about. Jonah is not about Jonah and a whale, and a city named Nineveh. This parable isn’t about hours worked, indignant laborers, or equal pay for equal work. Both stories are about God. Both stories are about God’s abundant, persistent, never-ending grace.
One New Testament scholar writes: Scripture introduces us to God’s world where ‘comfortable expectations are withdrawn – and the unexpected prevails.’ It is God on earth who puts into motion the reversal of the accepted order of things– the toppling of the things of the world. It is God incarnate who reminds us through both words and actions: -- that always in the kingdom of God – there will be a generous grace – a grace that upsets the status quo…a grace that allows for the last to be first and the first to be last.