wpc

Grudgingly Generous?

Matthew 20:1-16

The Reverend Chris Adams

September18, 2011

 Our Lord Jesus certainly knows how to cut to the chase! 

As a preacher and a teacher myself, I have often felt convicted that in comparison to Jesus Christ... as the saying goes, I can’t even tie his sandals.  Jesus came to preach and to teach and to heal, ushering in the Kingdom of God.  When Jesus teaches, he has this way of framing issues in such a way that even two thousand years later, we still find ourselves convicted.

Today is such a day, as we reflect on our scripture lesson.  Jesus is teaching about generosity.  This is part of a fairly extended section in Matthew’s Gospel in which Jesus is teaching about a whole host of things.  Here He is teaching about what the Kingdom of God looks like when it comes to the issue of generosity.  He is teaching us how God looks at the world and with what measure of grace and abundance.

To do this, as Jesus often does, He uses storytelling.  He invites those that are listening into a story that they could all identify with. It’s a story about day laborers. Even if those listening were not day laborers, perhaps they hired such workers.  At the very least they would know about such a system.  It’s a familiar image in the first century.

In fact, everybody listening would know the cultural and social norms that went along with day laboring. In agriculture, just as it is today, there are times of the season when much more work needs to be done in the fields. It comes at planting time or at harvest time.  Most of the year, the sunshine and the rain from God do the work with the help of just a few, but then comes the day when the crops need to be gathered, and lots and lots of day laborers are needed.

So the landowner goes into town and finds men that need work.  In virtually every town men would gather at the city gate to demonstrate that they were willing and able to work.  Then the landowner would offer them a fair days pay for a fair days work.  They negotiate the deal, and off to work they go. At the end of the day, the men line up to get what they have earned.  Until the crops are harvested, this is the way it works.

This is the story Jesus tells.  Apparently at some point the landowner realizes he needs more workers.  Maybe there is more work than he thought originally, or maybe the workers he hired aren’t quite as hard working as he thought, we don’t know.  But at some point, the story tells us he returns to town for more.  This time he tells them he will pay them what’s right. He does this three times more that same day.

Then, at the end of the day, he instructs the manager to line up the laborers for payment as was the custom.  This is where the surprises in the story happen.  Up to this point, those listening to Jesus would probably understand this as pretty much the way they would expect.  It’s the way it works.  However, then they get surprised.

The first surprise is when those hired last get paid, they get paid the whole day’s wage.  Now if you are standing there listening to Jesus teach and you are a day laborer yourself, you probably get a big smile on your face at this point.  You might even shout out, “Way to go landowner!”  You might even get pretty puffed up and think, that’s the way things should be for us hard working laborers.  We need all the help we canget, you might say.

But if you are thinking that way you are being set up by Jesus.  Because then as the story continues, there is another surprise, a bigger surprise.  Everybody that worked that day gets the same day’s pay.  Those that worked all day in the hot sun, the first were hired at 6 am, and those that just showed up at the eleventh hour meaning at around 5 pm. These last workers might have worked an hour before the sun set.

If you were that formerly puffed up day laborer that admired the first surprise, now you are cursing that landowner.  It’s not fair!  How can someone that worked twelve hours get paid the same as a laborer that worked only one?  It’s unjust! It’s not equitable!

In fact, Jesus includes this in the story as the grumbling of the laborers.  But the landowner is not intimidated but instead reminds the grumblers that it is his land and his prerogative to do with, as he wants.

Then Jesus ends this part of the teaching, and in fact this whole section of teaching in Matthew with one phrase.  “Do you begrudge my generosity?” as the Revised Standard Version translates it. Or I love the way The Message translates this verse, “Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?”

Remember, says Jesus, that in the Kingdom of God there is the great reversal.  The Kingdom of God doesn’t work like you want it to work, it works as God intends for it to work.  That’s a good thing too, becauseif it were not so how many of us would get what we deserve rather than what the good graces of God offer us.  It’s a reversal of judgment for us all.

Jesus reminds those listening that when in the story they got more than they deserved, they were cheering and smiling, but when others got the same as they did, then they got jealous and stingy feeling as if they deserved more.

As I said, Jesus has this way of cutting to the chase.  His teaching convicts us just as much today as it did when He first told the story.

Jesus is offering an ethic about how those that live in theKingdom of God are to behave regarding generosity and abundance.  God is clearly the landowner in the story,and because we see how generous God is with all that have needs, there isestablished an ethic for generosity in the Kingdom and for those of us thatreside in the Kingdom.

The Kingdom of God, as taught by Jesus, requires generosityas a reflection of the character of God. People see us as the image of the Kingdom.  If we get stingy, then we do not reflect thegrace and generosity given us by God. Said like it is in The Message with perhaps a different inflection in my voice, “Are you going to get stingy, because I am generous?

So here’s the question for us today.  Are we generous?  Are we truly reflecting the abundance and generosity of God, which we enjoy, but are we reflecting that to others?

Now we all have to grade our own papers on this one, but in the spirit of Jesus our Lord, allow me to cut to the chase.

Now I know there are lots of ways to measure generosity...

And there are certain congregations that I might like to lecture on generosity, and on reflecting the character of God, but not this one.

You see as a whole, the church isn’t doing all that well at generosity, as a church that is?

According to the Barna organization, evangelicals give an average of 4% of their income to the church and it’s ministries.  That’s arguable the most committed group of Christians in America and they are giving just 4%, far less than the prescribed 10%.  Before we get too critical, mainliners are giving just 2.8% of their income to church. Unfortunately, that trend is beginning to affect not just the church,but other groups that intend to help others as well.  In 2010 according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy the 400 biggest charities in America experienced an 11% drop in contributions, the largest in twenty years.

Many are worried that it’s going to get worse.  The economy is still far less than what we hoped it would be, and the latest proposal in Washington, the jobs bill will “pay for” money to stimulate the economy by reducing the amount people can write off their taxes as charitable contributions.  Maybe that’s the way it has to be to get things going again, but many are worried as to the affect that will have on churches and non-profits.

So, there are lots of churches I could get “preachy” with in terms of financial generosity.  But not this one, I have to pay you a compliment this morning.  You have maintained our budget and our giving in spite of the economy, our leadership situation, your fixed incomes, no incomes, and all the rest.  You continue to faithfully support our church no matter what.  You should be proud of that.  I know I am.

But there is even more to be proud of at Westminster Presbyterian Church.  Generosity can also be how we treat others we interact with. We can be patient with people and forgiving, understanding that since God has been patient and forgiving with us, we ought to do the same.

That might mean we don’t too quickly beep the horn at another driver, or get fussy with the clerk in the store because we have to wait longer than we think we should. Again, grade your own paper, but I see how you interact with the world.  Most of us seem pretty patient and giving with our time and our resources. Family Promise is perhaps the most recent example here this morning.  It’s amazing as the minister here that I didn’t even meet the family this week, and that’s my fault.  But you did. You took good care of them and demonstrated the hospitality of God right here.

In the first century, people got to know the Christians by their love for one another and their love for others in the communities in which they lived.  I am proud to say that in this community, people still know the love of God through us and our witness to how faithful our “landowner” is and generous with all that belongs to Him.

Later today, you are all invited back here for more WPC hospitality as we break bread together and share in a good old-fashioned potluck dinner.  I have been looking forward to it for weeks.  In part becauseof all the great food, but also because I am excited to share the results of a survey you took over the summer.

Right off the top I want to tell you that in comparison with the other pastors in our missional cohort, pastors from all over the world, you already have demonstrated your generosity. The percentage of participation by our members was higher than any other church.  Others might have more members, but as a percentage you proved again that you are generous with everything, including your time.

There is much more to share with you this afternoon, and I hope you plan to attend.  However for now, let me share one small goal that the survey places right in front of us.  It’s a challenge for our leadership, for our pastors, and for our Session. The challenge is:

How can we continue to provide the means and the processes necessary to allow you to continue to be generous, something you are already?  How can we maximize who you are as God’s people and allow your gift to our community to be experienced by more and more?

That is what we have to talk about, not just today, but in the days and weeks ahead.  Again, one more time, let me cut to the chase.

You hear me talk about change sometimes, and perhaps there are things for us to change about our church. But the one thing I truly hope never changes here at WPC is how generous we are.  We are generous with money, time, patience, and especially love.  We take good care of each other. 

We reflect the very nature and character of the God we claim to believe in by the way we reflect His generosity.  God is generous with us, and so of course we are generous with others.  Are we jealous?  Are we grudging generosity?  Not here.

At Westminster Presbyterian Church, the last are first and the first are last.  This is a community of generosity.  Thanks be to God. 

Amen.