Sunday's readings for Pentecost 14 were: Jonah 3:10 - 4:11; Philippians 1:21-30; and the Gospel lesson was taken from Matthew 20:1-16.
Ever struggled with difficult passages from Scripture? I can feel for Jonah, knowing full well that God is gracious never-the-less gets sent to Nineveh to tell them off and pronounce doom - what does God do? Of course He forgives them and Jonah is seen as the fool, sits under a tree, sulks and is angry. Today is probably no different! The church is called to speak out to an unbelievingly world and is seen as a fool because, of course, God doesn't smite evil.
Then there is the parable about the kingdom of heaven where Jesus tells us about all these workers who were hired during the day, and the guy who came in at the last hour gets the same as the one hired first, having slaved all day long in the heat of the sun. Totally unfair! But Jesus concludes: 'what's it to you if God wants to be generous.'
I so often identify with the elder brother in the story of of the prodigal son. Duty, obedience, work, unrecognized labour, ... and the world (meaning, most of the so-called baptized Christians you never ever see in church, because they have walked out from their faith and run after selfish ambitions) indulges in sin and evil; who does the father embrace? Of course, the younger son who wished his father dead and demanded his inheritance only to waste it on prostitutes and booze. There is something so hugely wrong here.
Why bother? I really mean it; why bother to spread the Gospel, go to Church, do the Christian thing? God's generosity seems to favor and reward the way-ward.
The only glimmer of a reason for me in the context of these difficult passages is that of Paul's reflection: 'for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Read that passage from Philippians for yourself, because here you have the reason why I bother to carry on: 'it is for your sake so that I might help you grow and experience the joy of faith.'
If I didn't have that passage (the full counsel of God's Word), I would be stuck on the unfairness of God's grace and generosity. But thanks be to God, here is my reason to carry on ... and to hope ... and to learn to love those that God brings into His Kingdom, along with me. After all, if we didn't have a generous God, then none of us would have a hope in hell to see heaven. Working your butt off for the sake of the Gospel is not what it's all about - that just leads to self-righteousness and judgmentalism as a disguise for bitterness. But if you focus on 'growing and experiencing the joy of faith' - well then, that produces quite a different kind of person.
St.Francis of Assisi is said to have made this observation: 'at all time proclaim the Gospel, and when necessary, use words!' The challenge today is: be good news to someone - show them your joy ... and if you are not there yet, here is the prayer from the psalms: 'restore to me the joy of your salvation.'
Rev.'D
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