“It’s All Good” – sermon on September 21, 2014
Exodus 16:2-15 The whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. “If only God had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” Then God said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.”
So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “By evening you will realize it was God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. In the morning you will see the glory of God, because he has heard your complaints, which are against him, not against us. What have we done that you should complain about us?” Then Moses added, “God will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread to satisfy you in the morning, for he has heard all your complaints against him. What have we done? Yes, your complaints are against God, not against us.”
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Announce this to the entire community of Israel: ‘Present yourselves before God, for he has heard your complaining.’” And as Aaron spoke to the whole community of Israel, they looked out toward the wilderness. There they could see the awesome glory of God in the cloud.
God said to Moses, “I have heard the Israelites’ complaints. Now tell them, ‘In the evening you will have meat to eat, and in the morning you will have all the bread you want. Then you will know that I am God your God.’” That evening vast numbers of quail flew in and covered the camp. And the next morning the area around the camp was wet with dew. When the dew evaporated, a flaky substance as fine as frost blanketed the ground. The Israelites were puzzled when they saw it. “What is it?” they asked each other. They had no idea what it was. And Moses told them, “It is the food the Lord has given you to eat.
Matthew 19: 27 – 20:16 Peter said to Jesus, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?” Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.
For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’
That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’ “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’ “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”
“It’s All Good” – sermon on September 21, 2014 by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Does anyone here know what it means to be a “Pollyanna”? Always cheerful, always finding the bright side. And the term comes from a book by Eleanor Porter that was adapted for film several times. I saw the one featuring Hayley Mills as the girl who plays the glad game, finding something to be glad about in every situation, and by doing so, transforms the lives of the people around her. Now to be called pollyanaish is generally an insult, right? Have you ever been in a bad mood and had someone try to talk you out of it, pointing out instead all that you have to be grateful for? In a way, they are saying you are wrong for being in a bad mood. Do you feel like thanking them and giving them a big hug? I know I don’t . Sometimes my mood gets even worse, as I get more and more angry at not being heard, at feeling patronized, at being made out to be wrong. But I have to confess that there are times when I hear people complaining – grumbling about their lot in life when I just want to say, “Are you kidding me!” I want to point out how incredibly good they have it, and do and say all the things that anger me when I’m complaining. Don’t we have a love/hate relationship with complaining? We love to do it and hate to hear it. Though maybe I should just speak for myself.
So being told that I shouldn’t complain does not inspire me to let go of my resentments or fears. But you know what does inspire me, is witnessing people who have managed to do so. Not when they are telling me to do it, but when I hear that they did it. Now when someone has a great life, and they are cheerful all the time, grateful about every blessing they’ve had, that’s nice, but not terribly inspiring. It’s certainly better than being ungrateful or to express entitlement for what they have. But when someone has been through great difficulty – lost a loved one way too soon, been hit with a life-threatening and painful illness, been emotionally traumatized, financially devastated, etc, etc, and still manages to be thankful, still manages to see the world as a good place, well, that is incredibly inspiring. I want to be that kind of person. And I’m guessing that the ones who give off that vibe were not consistently thankful and uncomplaining. I’m guessing that they mourned and raged and feared. Just like in the movie, when Pollyanna falls from a tree and loses the use of her legs, she cannot bring herself to play the glad game anymore. She can’t find anything to be glad about, and looks back at the way she used to be with some contempt.
When someone is called a Pollyanna in a derogatory way, the pre-fall Pollyanna is the one they are referring to. Someone who is so determinedly cheerful that they seem to live in a fantasy. The urban dictionary defines a pollyanna as: “an insulting term for being absurdly optimistic and good-hearted, believing in a good world where everything works out for the best all the time. Often in combination with being God-fearing and perceiving oneself standing on a higher moral ground than others. See also goody-two-shoes.” Now even though the pre-fall Pollyanna and her cheerfulness had a big impact on those around her, I think the big lesson is what happens when she loses her gladness. The people she affected come to her. They don’t tell her she has to start playing the glad game, they just tell her what she meant to them, what she did for them. Not to keep her from feeling sad and scared and angry, but to let her know that those feelings don’t have to have the final word. Those feelings didn’t have the final word in their own lives, and they can show Pollyanna the way out, just the way she showed them the way out, when she was ready. And I think everyone was better for having gone through the whole cycle.
You may be wondering about why I am going on and on about Pollyanna. That’s because she was the example I came up with as a contrast to complaining, which is what the bible study group identified as the uniting theme in this morning’s reading – people grumbling or complaining. We have Jonah complaining about a number of things, mainly that God did not smite the Ninevites but forgave them instead. He also complains about the loss of the shade tree God gave him for just one night. Then we have the Israelites being rescued from slavery in Egypt, and complaining about the lack of food – I have a little more sympathy for them than for Jonah; and finally we have the people who worked all day and earned the agreed-upon wages, but learned that those who had worked much less were paid the same.
It’s interesting to consider the responses to these complainers. Jesus is telling the story about the day-workers, and he has the landowner responding by telling them they are wrong to feel disgruntled. “Should you be jealous,” he says, “that I am generous?” In the story of the hungry and grumbling Israelites, Moses doesn’t say they are wrong to grumble, just that they are wrong to grumble about him and Aaron. It is God who led them out of Egypt – take it up with God (if you dare), not with me! And God doesn’t say they are wrong to grumble, but says their complaints have been heard, and God responds by providing what they ask for – meat and bread. And in the story of Jonah, well that’s really interesting. When Jonah complains about God’s mercy and love, God asks if this is something he should be angry about. Jonah says yes, and God doesn’t try to talk him out of it, but instead creates a situation in which Jonah might better understand where God is coming from, to appreciate the depths of love and care God has for those God created and sustained. Of course God would want to redeem them as well.
What all these readings have in common, in addition to complaining people is a generous God, or in the case of the parable, a generous “landowner.” This is a God whose plan is for good – for thriving, for freedom, for wholeness, for all. And nothing is going to get in the way of that – not our running away, not our resistance, not our resentment, not our concerns about fairness, not our concerns about what we will eat tomorrow. God has created, God has sustained, and God has and will continue to redeem us, because that is the nature of God, and we can’t change it. The “passing of the peace” blessing at the Confirmation retreat was, “God loves you, and there is nothing you can do about it.” And the thing is, God loves the 4-hour and 2-hour and 1- hour workers, even the non-workers, and there is nothing you can do about it. And you don’t have to worry about doing something about it.
The parable about the laborers in the vineyard was told in response to Peter’s worry that the disciples would not be rewarded adequately for their sacrifice in following Jesus. Jesus first tells Peter not to worry, the 12 will sit on thrones right beside him, but, he seems to be saying, you might not be the only ones rewarded. Those who are last here may be first in the kingdom, and those who are first may be last. It is different in the kindom than it is here. One is not seen as more valuable than another, more deserving, more lovable. Love and blessing are abundant, lavish, available to anyone who wants them. Now that is hard for us to wrap our minds around. In our understanding, things are more valuable when they are scarce. If God’s love and care and blessing are precious, then there must be a limited supply, and so there must be rules about who can get them. We must have to earn them. Otherwise, how special can they be? Our perspective shifts, from being satisfied for the day’s pay to being resentful of it, based on what others are getting. So though Peter will receive rewards beyond imagining, if he is comparing them with the bountiful blessings others receive as well, he may be disappointed no matter what they are.
I think this is part of our human condition, part of our limited human perspective. We have trouble imagining blessing unquantified, a good life not measured by comparison to others. I came across a quote that “God’s love is not like a pie that leaves less for me every time God gives someone else a slice. It is more like a joke that gets funnier every time another person joins the laughing.” But our tendency is to think it is like the pie. Or that if we are all laughing at Len’s joke, then his jokes might be better than mine and he is better than me. Instead of appreciating even the laughter, I could resent that. And somehow, I think God understands this and has compassion for us in our limited vision. We won’t, I believe, be denied entry into the kingdom until we understand, but may have a harder time finding it. So God sent Jesus to teach us a different way. Not the pre-fall Pollyanna way, but the post-fall girl who experiences the whole palette of human emotions, becomes familiar with them all, finds the connections with others who have experienced so many of them, and so is able to choose knowingly what she will focus on. We don’t have to beat ourselves or others up for complaining and grumbling, for being jealous or resentful or frustrated. God doesn’t. God loves us through it. God speak to us through those who show us that these feelings won’t have the last word, that it is possible to grow through them. The apostle Paul emphasizes that it is in our weakness that God’s glory is best shown, not to make us feel small, but to give us something big and glorious to connect ourselves with, to know that we are not expected to be everything, but instead can be part of everything. And everything includes the shadow sides of ourselves. All of it, still valuable and valued, still lovable and loved. May it be so.
