Pentecost 17, Proper 20, Year A

Jonah, 3:10-4:11
Philippians, 1:21-27
Matthew, 20:1-16

From our youth many of us have been taught that our country is a great melting pot, a rich mixture of peoples, peoples which become "a new alloy forged in a crucible of democracy, freedom, and civic responsibility." ⁽¹⁾ It is a great ideal, one that I believe in, one that makes me proud of our country. Although we become increasingly diverse - almost certainly within my lifetime whites will shrink to less than half of the population, in at least one way we are a remarkably homogenous nation, much more so than most of the rich nations on earth.

Somewhere around 85 percent of us call ourselves Christian. Israel, by way of comparison, is 77 percent Jewish. It is true that a smaller number of Americans - about 75 percent - claim they actually pray to God on a daily basis, and only 33 percent say they manage to get to church every week. Still, even if that 85 percent overstates actual practice, it clearly represents aspiration. ⁽²⁾

But what is our aspiration? What do we think Christianity is? The essence of Christianity is: love God, and love your neighbor as God loves you: as God sacrificed for us on the cross, so we are to love one another. But often, Christians focus on less essential things. Bill McKibben, a journalist and a Christian, has identified a couple of trends in American Christianity that may be in tension with the heart of our religion.

First, McKibben observes the growing interest among Christians in the End Times - what will happen at the end of time. If the Apocalypse fascinates us, we have to be careful that we don't start trying to determine who's in and who's out of heaven. When we get too interested in God's judgment, and presume too much about God's judgment, we begin to create hierarchies - not economic or political hierarchies, but hierarchies of whom we think enjoys God's favor. God's going to damn people like them, but he loves people like these — usually people like me, and he mostly likes those kinds of people — mostly, but he doesn't much care for them.

This is another way to create class distinctions: the varying degrees of the righteous and the damned. It's profoundly anti-egalitarian, and maybe even anti-American, if we believe in such categories. But far more importantly, it is not in keeping with so much of our Lord's teaching. In today's gospel, and repeatedly, Jesus points out to us the folly of assuming we know how God judges and how God rewards. Worrying and speculating about the End Times are not only inessential to our religion, but dangerous to our spiritual lives.

Second, McKibben warns that so much of today's preaching is "disturbingly conventional. The pastors focus relentlessly on you and your individual needs. Their goal is to service consumers - not communities but individuals. . .." ⁽³⁾ This has two big spiritual dangers.

One, individual Christians, you and me, we stop seeing ourselves as Christ's ministers, but rather consumers of ministry; we don't understand ourselves as do-ers, as called by Christ to help others, but rather expect the church and its pastors to look after us with minimal response on our part. Being a Christian is a great privilege, but one that involves great responsibilities.

Two, when the focus is on our needs, we begin to believe that we have a claim on God, we see God as existing to serve our demands, our selfishness, God as a genie, or self-help partner. Churches today have gotten into the business of dispensing advice and giving classes about financial planning, managing our credit card debt, working out, child rearing, achieving professional goals, even choosing the right lingerie. These classes aren't bad things - not by any means, and God does want to help us. But we have to keep in mind that the American dream, the so-called American way of life, is not the Kingdom of God. It's not what we're made for. It's not our destiny. It's not our purpose.

We have to recognize that most of Jesus' ministry shocked people and defied their values and the way they lived, and we're not much different than the people to whom Jesus was preaching and teaching 2000 years ago. Jesus unsettled them and offended them. And when we hear his Word today, if we hear it in the deepest part of our souls, it does the same thing to us. God challenges us, makes us uncomfortable, because that is the beginning of new growth, the beginning of becoming more faithful to God.

Think of today's gospel. Imagine that you make your living as a day-laborer. At the crack of dawn, you show up at the corner of 15^th and P and begin to wait for someone to come by to hire you. Soon after you show up, you get a fortunate break. Someone needs you to help paint their house, which has to be finished that day. The owner's wife is out of town for the day, and he wants to surprise her with a freshly painted house upon her return. The owner says that he'll give you and a few of your fellow day laborers $100 each for the day's work.

By the morning coffee break, it becomes apparent to the owner that he's probably going to need more help. So the owner hops over and brings a couple more workers back. At lunch it's obvious that things aren't going quite as smoothly as expected, and the owner gets some more painters. Again, at the afternoon coffee break, the owner goes and gets some more guys. Finally, at 5:00, in a mad dash to finish up before dusk, the owner gets lucky and finds a few more stragglers.

Shortly after 6:00, the house painted, you're hurting, tired, hot, filthy, smelly, and sticky, and the owner begins paying people. He starts doling out Ben Franklins to the stragglers who showed up at the end of the day and did not even break a sweat. You think, "This guy's loaded, and generous. I'm going to get more out of this than I thought." But when you get only $100 you're furious. If you could afford a lawyer, if you knew a lawyer, if you could speak English, you'd sue. This is not a fair labor practice. It offends our sense of fair play, our understanding of justice.

For the last week, we've heard a lot about Judge Roberts' views, or some might say his lack of frankness, about abortion, civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, legislative authority, the environment, and end of life issues. Some Christians might feel confident about how Jesus would rule on such issues. But I do not share that confidence. If Jesus showed up in disguise, as God often does, and if President Bush nominated him to sit on the Supreme Court, I'd guarantee that he'd not be filibustered on the Senate floor. That's because he wouldn't get through the committee. He'd be rejected out of hand. Liberals and Conservatives think and judge a lot more like each other than they think and judge like God. God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." (Isaiah 55:8)

Our God is just, but God's compassion and mercy overwhelm judgment. Otherwise, each of us would have no hope. We can't earn God's rewards. We have no claim on him. Our sacrifices are nothing in respect of his gifts to us. So who are we to begrudge God's generosity? We should rejoice in it, that he's generous to all people, people we like and approve of as well as people we hate, and fear, and ignore, and resent, and frown upon.

Jesus' judgments transcend our controversial issues. They take us up to a new plane, a bigger vision. They challenge us and our conventionality. They stretch our hearts and minds. They are not popular. Again, and again, and again, the gospel reverses our expectations. Humility. Humility. Humility. It's the essential quality in trying to know God's ways, God's judgments. Our God takes the cross - the ultimate degradation, humiliation, shame, disaster, defeat, and God makes it the sign of love and love's triumph. He turns things upside down all of the time.

With our God everyone can come out on top, everyone can get a good deal. But if we had to identify any winners in today's gospel, I'd say it's the folks that showed up at the beginning of the day and apparently got stiffed at the end of the day. Of course, they didn't get stiffed. They got what they bargained for, and they got a lot more. Would the day really have been better, hanging around the street corner, waiting in boredom, feeling like a failure, being of no use, having no purpose? The greatest reward is working along with God, being in his presence, living and sacrificing for something greater than yourself. We are privileged to be able to give something to God, to be able to live and work for him, to know that our purpose is in him.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1. William Booth, 'One Nation, Indivisible: Is It History?' first in the series of 'The Myth of the Melting Pot,' The Washington Post, 22 February 1998.

2. Bill McKibben, 'The Christian Paradox,' Harper's Magazine, August 2005, p. 32.

3. McKibben, p. 33.