A long time parishioner and a newcomer were discussing the new priest at coffee hour just after his first sermon. "Oh, thank God the last one is gone!" the older parishioner went on. "He always preached that if we didn't mend our ways and reform our lives we would all go straight to hell."
"But isn't that just what the new reverend said today?" the newcomer observed. "Yes but our old pastor seemed happy about it."
Jonah would have been happy if the Ninevites were going to hell. He hated them.
The Ninevites, a neighbour to the north, were an enemy of Israel. God was looking for a prophet to send to them to have them repent of their evil ways. God called Jonah. Twice! When God first sent him to the Ninevites, Jonah ran the other way as fast as he could go, getting on a ship to sail away.
Eventually a big fish brought Jonah back and God called Jonah a second time and sent him to the Ninevites. He proclaimed what God asked of him and as we heard this morning the people of Nineveh listened. God did not destroy them because they repented of their evil ways. Jonah, though, was angry. He knew God might forgive. And now the hated Ninevites were saved.
God said to Jonah the reluctant prophet, "can’t I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than one hundred twenty thousand people who can’t tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals?" (Jonah 4:11 CEB)
Jonah could only see the hated enemy, but God saw his creation, a people who have erred and strayed like lost sheep. And yet God called Jonah anyway to proclaim to them and reconciliation happened. It is God’s abundant love that sets people free, it is grace.
Likewise, in the parable Jesus tells in the Gospel for today, it is about God feeding his people grace. The parable tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner…
Its time to harvest the grapes, so the landowner hires workers early in the morning, but he doesn’t stop there he goes out again and again and again. Each time hiring those who are standing idle, who haven’t been hired, and he tells them they will get paid whatever is right. When evening comes, all those hired get paid, those hired last were paid first, and given the daily wage. Those who worked all day must have expected more, but when it came there turn, they also received the daily wage. So no matter if they worked all day or if they worked 1 hour, they all got the same pay.
Outrageous! Many of the laborers cried out! We worked harder than anyone else, why should those who didn’t work as long earn the same as us? That’s no way to run a vineyard!
And the landowner replies, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?' So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
This is a parable about the kingdom of heaven; and there God’s generosity and abundance knows no bounds. The parable speaks to the open invitation to God’s kingdom, an invitation to all, first or last, we all receive the same pay, the same salvation, we are free.
Such generosity is not earned because of working all day, it is a gift from God, it is grace. Such generosity saved the Ninevites from destruction when they repented. We can reject it or accept it and live, no matter the first or last hour. So what does that mean for us today? Let me tell you an Arabian folk tale:
A man walking through the forest saw a fox that had lost its legs. He wondered how the poor animal could survive. Then he saw a tiger come into the clearing with game in its mouth. The tiger ate its fill and then left the rest of the meat for the fox. The next day God fed the fox by means of the same tiger. The man began to wonder at God's great goodness and said to himself, "I too shall just rest here in full trust in the Lord that he will provide me with what I need."
The man remained in the forest for several days. But nothing happened. The poor man was almost at death's door with hunger when he heard a voice: "Oh, you poor fool. Open your eyes to the truth. Stop imitating the disabled fox and, instead, follow the example of the tiger."[From The Song of the Bird by Anthony deMello, S.J.]
The voice of God keeps coming back to us, like the voice that spoke to Jonah, a voice that speaks of God's generous and abundant love and grace for us. Much like the generosity of the landowner, and the care of that tiger for the fox, the call to discipleship demands that, like the tiger & landowner, we seek to embody such abundant love in our lives.
It is grace. It is about a God who so abundantly loves us, that he sent his only Son to help us be free. A God who continues to feed us here at this altar and invites us, begs us, pushes us by the Holy Spirit to bring that love and grace that we feel here out into a world that needs it.
It is that same Holy Spirit that today will mark Brody Maxwell Meady as Christ’s own forever & part of the Body of Christ.
There are many crying out in need of love. Some may be Ninevites. Hated enemies. But God calls us to them too. May we open our hearts to the wisdom that God offers us today, so that without concern for the cost of discipleship or the reward of our labors, we may grasp the honor of working in God’s vineyard at whatever time we arrive, and offer that love and hope and grace to all. Amen.
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