What More Do We Want
For four weeks we are in a section of parables in Matthew’s Gospel, one parable each week. We began last week with the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant and reflected how the servant, having been completely forgiven his debt by the Master, chose to hold back forgiveness from a fellow servant who owed him a much smaller amount. Instead of continuing in the heaven of God’s mercy and forgiveness, he decided to live in a place of judgment and strict repayment of debt: hell. Heaven and hell are not places we “go to,” but where we live emotionally and spiritually right now.
Our first reading today tells the story of Jonah. (This same text is read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur by the Jews each year.)
Remember Jonah was sent by God to preach to the people of Nineveh. Jonah didn’t want the task and when he rebelled, the ship he was on sank and he was swallowed by a whale and vomited up on the shore of Nineveh! God’s way of saying: Get to it!
Well Jonah preached and the people didn’t change. The people of Nineveh continued in their evil ways. Jonah basically said “OK, Lord, go ahead and destroy all those sinners like you planned.” But, to Jonah’s great disappointment, when God decided not to destroy Nineveh. Jonah went off to have a great pout. Sitting out in the hot desert God makes a nice shade tree grow over Jonah. “Now that’s more like it,” Jonah thinks. But the next day God makes the tree wither and die and Jonah complains about his situation. God points out to Jonah that Jonah is more concerned about his own comfort than about all the people of Nineveh who would have lost their lives had God chosen to destroy them. Clearly, Jonah, who God sent to bring a message to Nineveh, decided to live in judgment over others, in other words: Hell.
During his “pity party” for himself Jonah had declared “It is better to die than to live.” These words were spoken by Paul in Philippians today also, but there’s a big difference. Jonah was suicidal in his self-pity, Paul on the other hand, was describing how, if necessary, he was willing to die for his faith. In Jonah’s case, the condemnation of the people of Nineveh for idolatry led to Jonah’s bowing to the idolatry of his own self-righteousness and leads to his own self-condemnation. In the bible, when judgment is talked about, it is always self-judgment, leading to living in one’s own hell.
Today we have the second Parable in our series: The Parable of the Vineyard. Again, Jesus gives us the usual set of characters: a Master or King, the protagonist, and those who receive the action. Often we think that the Master or King must represent God, but this is not the case. Before this figure in the Greek text, Matthew puts the word anthropos or man, in other words “man Master” or “man King,” to show it is not God who is the actor. In the story it is not God acting on man, but rather man acting on man.
We’ve heard this story many times, a guy works all day and gets paid the same as a guy hired at the end of the day who only worked one hour. This story grates on our sensibilities- it seems completely unfair! The Master’s generosity is hard to take. We’d almost like to start a protest rally against the Master: Just pay for time worked! We stand with the workers who bore the heat of the whole day and only received a fixed amount when they should have received more! They are rightly envious, we think, of the last workers getting paid the same for less work. But let’s think about it. These guys, the early workers, started the day off happy: We got a job, we can feed our families, so thankful, etc. But at the end of the day they are angry and upset: the Master could have paid them more. Their envy leads to stinginess- with the Master’s money! They chose to live in the hell of self-righteous judgment of the Master and their fellow workers.
The desire in us to have “more” is what the parable is all about. Do we want to have “man’s more” or “God’s more?” With God we have everything we need to live in peace and harmony, a debt-free life of “heaven” on earth. (Don’t we often say to each other when we see people who are very poor, sometimes living in shacks, “How happy they are!”) They are the “last” who are “first.” When we seek “man’s more” we are always watching what others are doing, seriously concerned about getting our due, our fair share, or, If possible, maybe even a bigger share of the pie. Never really content or happy, this is a life of “hell” on earth.
We gather to give thanks in Holy Eucharist for “God’s more.” We have God’s love, everything we really need, a community who loves us and will share with us if there is something we lack. We are living in heaven right here, right now, happy, forgiven, and free- forever.
Amen!
John+
 |
| St. Alban |
Saint Alban Episcopal Mission (English, Anglican Communion) meets for mass every Sunday at 10:00 A.M. (see welcome letter at sidebar) at Casa Convento Concepcion, 4a Calle Oriente No. 41, Antigua, Guatemala.
 |
| The Reverend John Smith, Vicar 5235-6674 cell telephone (502 country code) |
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH WELCOMES EVERYONE
Anglican Communion