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"Grace of Generosity"

9/24/2020

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Exodus 16:2-15, Matthew 20:1-16

 
         On a cold and rainy night, Lt. Commander Robert Risdon was driving home after a long day. He realized he was hungry and stopped at a Taco Bell, ordered a meal and sat down to ate. Then he noticed something. Two boys, about 9 and 12 years old, looking cold and wet, were going around to customers and being waved away. They came to Risdon and asked if he wanted to buy some candy to benefit their school.  Risdon didn’t have any cash on hand but looking at the boys he stopped them and asked if they were hungry. They nodded yes. Do you think you can knock of a taco ten-pack? He asked?  The boys eagerly said yes. Risdon took them to the counter and let them order whatever they wanted and he charged their meals.  Unknown to Risdon, this exchange was being recorded and later placed on Facebook as an example of great kindness.  Risdon oblivious to what was happening, sat with the boys.  The boys tried to salute him and Risdon engaged them in the correct way to salute. The younger boy said, “I want to be just like you some day.” A simple yet profound act of generosity that went viral because someone recognized a need that needed tending. In these times of pain and conflict, it is good to be reminded that kindness and the grace of generosity can create ripple effects among us.

Last week we explored two significant pillars of a healthy faith. We talked about forgiveness, and we talked about  not being judgmental or critical with each other as habits to build healthy spiritual lives, and build a strong church community. Today’s lessons provide  another necessary pillar to strengthen our walk with Christ and become a vibrant church.  We’re going to talk about the grace of generosity. These are principals that will get us through this trying time of COVID and lead us to heal the divisions in our country and world.

To understand our lesson from Matthew 20 about the generous landowner, we need to back up to the conclusion of Matthew 19. There, a rich man who has kept the law flawlessly asks Jesus, “what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” Jesus who looks at him with compassion, says “you lack one thing.  Go sell what you have and give to the poor and follow me.”  The rich man walks away grieving, because he is too attached to his possessions. Jesus remarks that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus concludes, “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”   So, we see that what we do with our resources makes a difference. And we see this principle at play in the next parable Jesus tells.

Today.  Jesus tells a parable that the kingdom of heaven is like a wealthy landowner goes to the town square at 6am, the start of the workday in the ancient world,  to hire workers for his vineyard.  He agrees with them the standard daily wage, a denarii. A denarii was enough to pay for the day’s expenses, enough to feed your family for the day and no more. Then the landowner does something unusual.  He goes out again at 9am, at noon, at 3pm and the at 5pm and hires whoever is without work and standing idly around. 

So, at the end of the day, he calls the last first.  In sight of everyone the landowner pays those who worked an hour the entire day’s wage of a denarii.  We can imagine the reaction of those who started at 6am, and 9am, and the rest. They’re rubbing their hands in anticipation of a hefty wage in contrast to the workers who were only there an hour. Maybe 3 denarii or perhaps even 5 or 8 or even 12 denarii.  The excess is already being spent in their minds -- perhaps clear up the tab at the pub, buy a new suit pay the school fees or bring home treats for the kids.

So, imagine their outrage when the landowner gives them one denarii as well.  Yes, that is what they agreed to. But they worked 12 hours, 9 hours, 6 hours- how is that fair next to someone who only worked 1 hour? And so, they protest.  But the Landowner isn’t hearing it.  Take your money and go, he says.  Or are you envious that I am generous?
That is the key to the parable.   Jesus has no quarrel with the wealthy landowner or wealth in general.  It’s what the landowner does with his abundant resources that make a difference.  The landowner knows the workers need at least a denarii as a day’s wage to care for his family. He puts in the time, he goes to the village square five times throughout the course of the day to pursue those in need of employment. He gives them all a fair, living wage irrespective of when they started. All will get enough to care for their family whether they worked an hour, or 12 hours. Unlike the rich man stuck with rules but couldn’t share wealth to the poor, this wealthy landowner sees as his duty to find as many workers as possible and treat them fairly.  This text invites us to engage in a conversation about generosity as a foundational spiritual practice God calls us to.

       This is how God acts with us.  We are all given saving grace, irregardless of when we answer the call: whether in our childhood or on our death beds.

Compare this to our Hebrew passage from Exodus.  The people of Israel are now a displaced people. God has led them out into the wilderness, a barren land that is unable to sustain them. Their lives are turned upside down.  Everything around them is unfamiliar and looks dangerous. So, they begin to have second doubts. Their minds are hardened.  Even slavery in Egypt looks better than this endless wandering with no guarantee of food. They cry out “would God have killed them in Egypt, where they had bread” instead of leading them out in nowhere land to die of hunger. The text mentions that they complain at least eight times.

God could have found some way to shut them up. Or sent them back.  After leading them out of a 400-year history of slavery God, instead of giving in on this difficult people, God addresses their needs.  God sends bread from heaven, manna, to the Israelites in the morning.  In the evening God sends quail for the Israelites to eat. God does this every day for the forty years that the Israelites sojourn.  He sends just enough for one day, in order that the people can learn to trust, not the slave-master, but God.  In this enormous time of transition, God’s grace is sufficient., God gives generously.
 
Giving generously is the action of a God-filled heart, led by the Spirit, inspired by Jesus. We give despite the grumblings of the vineyard workers; we give generously despite the constant complaints of the people of Israel in transition.  We live in a wilderness time where our church, our nation, our world, our ecosystems, are in the center of profound change.  We live in an anxious, frightening time.  Will we get hit by a hurricane or earthquake?  Will COVID surge again?   Will those businesses that have shut down, losing jobs, ever reopen?  Will we have the resources to retire?  To get our children through college? To pay the mortgage or rent?  Will another peaceful protest turn violent? Will we encounter a terrorist on the train yielding a gun?  We are surrounded by so many whatifs.  We have turned our vision of a “Promised Land” into a wilderness for the majority of the people.  No wonder there are so many complaints. Generosity has been flipped to greed. Yet we must cling to Paul’s encouragement when he writes in Galatians 6:9 “We must not grow weary in doing good.”  
 
The root of generous from the Latin means “to come from noble birth.” As children of God we indeed come from a noble birth of our sovereign God. The Grace of Generosity is in our DNA.
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The Grace of Generosity is an attitude that takes the copious view, the abundant approach. It doesn’t seek the minimal level in giving. It strives for the maximum and then some.  Since we have a generous God, we are beckoned to be a generous people of God.  We are called to model and promote generosity as a value in our world.  Imagine if the grace of generosity drove the world instead of greed.  We would come to church not just when it fits in our schedule easily, and not only for our own spiritual edification, but to lift the spirits of others.  We make a habit to bring food, to respond to the needs of the vulnerable of our community. We stretch and train the muscles of giving to make it a daily habit.  We give generously, because God, life gives the grace of generously to us. So let us be a noble people, live to give generously, while you forgive, while you withhold judgment, give that taco ten-pack, give that stuffed animal give the love that will make the difference and be a channel a grace and rekindle hope. amen.
http://day1.org/6106-a_wilderness_people_in_the_promised_land

 
 
https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/video-soldier-buying-meals-hungry-kids-viral/story?id=36579816
 


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"From the Heart"

9/24/2020

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Matthew 18:21-35, Romans 14:1-12 
 
Today is Welcome Back Sunday, Isn’t it a wonderful day?! We rejoice with the Psalmist who declares” How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity! “Psalm 133.  It’s a day that the church family gathers together after typically being away for the summer to start a new season. Today is especially poignant because of the impact of the coronavirus upon our church life.  We haven’t gathered normally since March.  Even today, looking around we have masks on, we’re socially distancing, we have our hand sanitizer in our pockets and around the church --it reminds us that we’re not out of the woods yet.

I don’t know about you but living with the specter of conronavirus all these months has been painful, scary and lonely.  It’s impacted families, our jobs, it’s been especially hard not to see church family up front and real, to exchange hugs, to shake hands in friendship, to pass the peace, to support each other face to face.  The loss of the routine of being present in the sanctuary, worshipping God together has taught us the importance of being together.  It has been said that because of COVID isolation, 40 percent of people have experienced some sort of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. There has been a 30% increase in substance abuse or relapses.  Some of us have experienced increased health issues, gained or loss significant amounts of weight, are sleeping poorly. I would dare to say each one of us could speak of some ill affect this coronavirus, this social unrest, has had on our lives these past seven months.  If we didn’t know it then, we know it now:  We are meant to be together. We thrive and survive through sustained interactions with others.  Our spiritual lives depend on being together, worshipping together, serving together in order to be spiritually whole.

Look at the Bible.  Abraham and Sarah are sent forth, not for themselves, but for all humanity. God says: “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. Gen. 12:2”  There are not sent forth for themselves but for all of us. Exodus tells us the story of the liberation and journey of the people of Israel, not just for Moses, or Aaron or Miriam or Joshua. God sends the commandments, the instructions for building a tabernacle, the development of the priesthood, not for one person, but for the entire community.  Even Jesus went to the Temple and attended synagogue.  The Story of the Acts of the Apostles is the story of the spread of the church of Jesus Christ.  The epistles of the New Testament are written to Churches and were circulated throughout the new, growing church throughout the Roman Empire.  Even the book of Revelation Jesus does not initially address individuals, but seven distinct churches. The power of the Bible is not just for each of us individually but for us collectively as a spiritual body.  Down through the centuries the focus of the bible was to be proclaimed corporately. So, we have the best of both worlds, we can individually and corporately read the word of God.  Today we celebrate that sacred privilege. There is grace in sharing the Bible as a community from the heart.

As we begin a new church season our readings from Matthew and Romans are reminders of how we are to live together, what we are to strive for, even if we are at home listening remotely. Let us enter this new church season making a commitment not to judge each other and a willingness to forgive each other.
 
      In our passage from Matthew, Peter comes to Jesus with this question ‘If someone sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as 7 times?'
Peter thinks he is being very generous here. The Rabbis said forgive three times. If somebody does something to you three times,  it’s hard enough to forgive them for what they've done, but when they've done it so many times it just wears us down and ignites a low-grade resentment.

       Forgiveness is serious business. Nobody is saying we should just be a doormat and let somebody walk all over us. Jesus is talking about real life here. Forgiveness is a transaction that recognizes the offense, and where possible makes amends, and then finds a way to heal the wound that's been created. Forgiveness calls everyone, victim and perpetrator, to the transformational place. So Jesus tells this story of the King settling accounts. A servant owes 10000 talents, an obscene amount, nearly 3.5 billion in modern currency. Clearly the debt is so large it is impossible for this servant to every repay. The King, merciful, hears his servant’s pleas, and  forgives the entire debt. This same servant next refuses to forgive a fellow servant a minor debt, about $45 dollars. But he refuses to forgive his fellow servant. The king revokes his own forgiveness and sends the servant to be tortured. This is what our world is like when we refuse to forgive.

Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho was in a box of conflict and hatred. Yonggi Cho is pastor of the largest church in the world which is in Korea. Several years ago, as his ministry was becoming international, he told God, “I will go anywhere to preach the gospel— except Japan.” He hated the Japanese with gut-deep loathing because of what Japanese troops had done to the Korean people and to members of Yonggi Cho’s own family during WWII. Through a combination of a prolonged inner struggle, several direct challenges from others, and finally an urgent and starkly worded invitation, Cho felt called by God to preach in Japan. He went, but he went with bitterness. The first speaking engagement was to a pastor’s conference—1,000 Japanese pastors. Cho stood up to speak, and what came out of his mouth was this: “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.”
And then he broke and wept. He was both brimming and desolate with hatred.At first one, then two, then all 1,000 pastors stood up. One by one they walked up to Yonggi Cho, knelt at his feet and asked forgiveness for what they and their people had done to him and his people. As this went on, God changed Yonggi Cho. The Lord put a single message in his heart and mouth: “I love you. I love you. I love you.  Forgiveness triumphed.

So, to remain sane in our present difficult times, we should practice forgiveness.  But along with forgiveness let us practice not judging.

  Paul addresses the Corinthians as they are judging each other and to the point of tearing each other apart. The so-called “strong"  apparently eat everything, observe all days as the same, and perhaps drink wine. The so-called "weak in faith," mentioned in the first verse of this reading apparently abstain from meat, probably because there was no kosher meat, or it was meat sacrificed to idols. They observed some days more special than others like the numerous Jewish or Gentile feast days--and abstain from wine. More significant than these differences in lifestyle, however, were the attitudes that were dividing the church. Paul's commands toward both groups make it clear that the "strong" were despising the "weak," while the "weak" were judging or condemning the "strong."  Lost in this contention was keeping our focus on Jesus as Lord, who can make all his servants stand.  Paul is encouraging the church to be sensitive with one another, not getting caught up in differences, instead focusing what keeps us together.  So, to survive this time, to thrive, we practice forgiveness and not judging, from the heart. We must love each other more than love our theological biases. That’s how we honor and love God and each other. That’s how we will keep our church strong and thriving during this time of trial.
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Hebrews 10:24-25 sums it up for us:  “Let us consider how to provoke one another in love and good deeds; not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
 
As we start this new season, with hopes and visions for our church, still coping with the coronavirus, confronting the divisions of the world, I would recommend that we commit this verse to memory and deed. We will make not judging and forgiving a habit, deep from our hearts. To do this, let us not neglect to meet, to encourage each other to love and good deeds.  We have a blessed future together. So we will commit to forgive. To not judge. To promote love and good deeds. To gather together, whenever we can, as often as we can. Let that be our vow to each other, from the heart.
 

https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=130

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    Moirajo is a minister, social worker, wife, mother, writer and animal lover. That's just for starters. Join the story, there's so much we can share together! 

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