PERSPECTIVE

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, 

            but to love things heavenly; 

and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, 

            to hold fast to those that shall endure.  Amen.

 

 

The collect for today addresses 

                                    our immediate anxiety about current circumstances.

And yes, we have an abundance of current circumstances 

                        in the world at large and right here

                                                to raise the anxiety level even higher than it has been.

But this collect reminds us 

            that these are things that are passing away, transitory.

The collect calls attention to 

            the things that are passing away and those that shall endure – 

                        the temporal and the eternal.

When we set our attention on the things that are passing away,

            we are seeing things from a limited perspective

and when attention is draw to that which endures

            that limited perspective is expanded until we are seeing things 

                                                                                    from God’s perspective.

 

In part the reason why we come here may be just that thing –

            to be moved out of our limited perspective

                        and to catch the vision of the eternal,

            to have our awareness expanded 

                        and be brought into the Presence of God.

 

So let’s see how the readings for today can expand our awareness. 

 

I believe there is a good connection between the story from Exodus 

and the parable Jesus told about the owner of the vineyard and the laborers.

 

In Exodus the situation is this:

The Israelites had just escaped crushing slavery in Egypt.

They were on their way 

            off into the unknown 

            with a hope for a promised land flowing with milk and honey.

But where they were now was in the middle of a desert,

            a huge expanse of inhospitable geography that dwarfed their numbers,

            a threatening environment with no respite.  (Sound familiar?)

How did the Children of Israel react?  They complained.

            That word, complained, is used 7 times in this passage.

They weren’t thankful for being saved from bondage as slaves.

They weren’t even faithfully down on their knees 

                        asking the God, who had saved them once, 

                                                            to help them now in this time of need.

They were just complaining.

 

But, you know, it didn’t matter.

They were going to get fed.

That was the plan,

            for they were a chosen people, 

chosen to become a people who would be a light to the nations, 

            an example of God’s redemptive grace.

            an example to show what God could do.

The test was how they would respond to the current situation.

And their reactions showed their current spiritual condition,

            that is, a limited perspective concerned with things passing away.

But God’s grace would intervene.

 

Then we have the Parable of the owner of the vineyard:

As usual Jesus tells a story with a twist on the expected,

and this time he presents the Kingdom of Heaven 

            as a landowner who employs an economic policy 

                        that is entirely contrary to common sense 

                                                            and the economic system we know and live in.

 

Jesus messes with the economic values 

                                                                        and moral sensibility of human culture.

You heard me right.

Jesus messes with the economic values and moral sensibility of human culture.

It appears that Jesus has the owner of the vineyard 

                                    take advantage of the hard working laborers                                    and then reward those who contributed little.

There was no recognition of the great disparity in labor.

When we hear this parable we may say with the workers hired first,

            “It’s not fair!”

 

In the parable, who were those hired at the beginning of the day?

            the best workers:                        they were on time first thing in the morning,

                        they were those known to be able to work the hardest,

                                    to bring in the most bushels of grapes per hour,

                        those who would give an honest day’s work

                                    for an honest day’s wage.

But…

those hired at the end of the day were likely to be those who were known for

                        taking long coffee breaks

                        eating as many grapes as went into the baskets

                        those who were slow, harvested less per hour

                        and were late showing up for work in the morning

 

To pay the workers hired at 5 minutes before quitting time 

            the same as those hired at 8:00 AM

was taken as an insult to the quality and quantity of work of those hired first.

 

Our world is hard wired to the pragmatic way of looking at things that says

            it’s all about working to get paid what you’ve earned.

The least the owner of the vineyard should have done

                        if he was going to pay those hired last the same full day’s wage

the least he should have done

            would have been to give those hired first merit raises!

 

It’s not fair!

But this parable is not about the workers, but about grace.

This parable is very radical, 

            breaking cultural and social expectations and mores

                        not only in Jesus’ time 

                        but ours here just as much.

Jesus does not say that the Kingdom of Heaven is like the workers

            but like the owner of the vineyard.

 

The Kingdom of God has different values:

            it is inclusive.

            The last get the same as the first.

We think those who work more should get more.

But Jesus says everyone needs the daily wage, that is, their daily bread.

He says, give everybody a full day’s wage to meet their needs…

            Everyone has the same basic needs.

The landowner included them for that reason,

            not in return for their labor,

                        but out of compassion and generosity  

                                                and from his own apparently limitless abundance.

To cry, “No fair!” is to speak out of the limited perspective of things temporal.

 

It’s like God providing the manna and the quails 

            to all those complaining Israelites.

The compassion and generosity is not conditioned 

                        by the gratitude of the Children of Israel,

            and it is not conditioned by our limited perspective.

What is eternal is the compassion and generosity.

 

May we each be able to recognize the gift of daily bread,

            that which we think we have earned that provides for us, 

                                    that supplies our literal, physical needs,

AND may we also recognize 

            that which provides us with our very life breath 

                        day by day and hour by hour and minute by minute,

            that which sustains us body and spirit.

 

May we each be able to recognize 

            how we have been called by a compassionate Savior 

                        and baptized into the Kingdom of God, into the very Body of Christ.­

  

So here is where we can draw in the Epistle reading for today.

The Apostle Paul could be speaking directly to us 

            as much as to the faithful in Philippi. 

 

Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, (he writes) … 

            … standing firm in one spirit,

             striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, 

and … in no way intimidated by your opponents. 

 

I like this.

What Paul writes reminds us that we aren’t going it alone.

Stand firm in one spirit – all of you together, not alone, each individually, 

            but instead sharing one faith, one Lord, one baptism

                        as we say at the very beginning of the Baptismal liturgy.

Striving side by side, working together within the faith community

            because despite all of our different opinions, like and dislikes,

                        ideas, desires, concerns,

the Gospel we claim to hold faith in

            is where we can be of one spirit, one mind.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of abundant, unmerited grace and love

            that shreds our enculturated view of earned merit.

 

Think about this:  Do we really want to get what we deserve?

 

All around us the voices of the culture we live in say things like,

            I earned this.  It’s my right.  Their ideas are crazy.

            THEY are going to ruin it for me and my own kind.

            It’s them or us.              “It’s not fair.”            

 

But the economy of the Kingdom of Heaven does not distinguish them and us,

            and instead pours out abundance to the undeserving

                        and grace to the hardest of hearts

            to melt us all into the love that unifies us in the things that are eternal.

There IS a wideness in God’s mercy.

 

“Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, 

            but to hold fast to those that shall endure…”