{"id":1273,"date":"2014-09-21T21:13:23","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T21:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2020-12-02T14:44:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T14:44:41","slug":"shocking-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/shocking-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matthew 20:1-16<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 21, 2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some years ago when our church in Pennsylvania was having a \u201chuman\u201d auction to raise funds, I didn\u2019t have anything to offer. Some people were donating homemade pies or time for babysitting. So I volunteered to weed someone\u2019s garden for 3 hours. At the auction, someone who lived in the neighborhood and not a church member purchased my 3-hour time. After making contact with this family, I went to their house in my work clothes and said where would you like me to weed. After some introductions and for them to find out that I was a minister, they were in shock! Initially, they thought I was a Japanese gardener. But when they learned that I was a minister, they felt really bad asking me to weed their garden. I must have done about 45 minutes of work and for the rest of the time; we sat outside their back yard sipping on iced tea! They were very gracious and I collected the money for 3 hours of weeding although I only worked 45 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Parable<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus tells parables, they usually shock their hearers. This one is no exception. Jesus has a tendency to stir things up especially with an element of surprise and shock. This parable of the landowner and day laborers is perhaps one of his more unsettling teachings, as it calls into question deeply held notions of what is fair and equitable. To make matters worse, God comes across as the source of such unfairness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first surprise comes when it is time for the wages to be paid out. Usually those who were hired first would be paid first, but the manager starts the payments with those last hired. When those who had worked only one hour, about 1\/12th<\/sup> of the day, are given a denarius (an entire day\u2019s wages), you can imagine the rest of the laborers getting excited, quickly calculating what they might receive at such rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as the manager continues handling out the wages, each group of laborers receives the same wages. Finally, when the manager hands out a single denarius to each of those who had worked diligently for twelve hours, frustration and anger boiled over. One of the outraged laborers gets up the nerve to register his complaint to the landowner: \u201cThese last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the whole day and the scorching heat\u201d (v. 12). We might easily agree. It\u2019s simply shockingly unfair! It goes against every principle of justice and fair play that we live by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a wonder those guys didn\u2019t form a vineyard workers\u2019 union right then and there, and demand negotiations, and organize a boycott of the vineyard owner for unfair labor practices. At the very least, I\u2019d bet their spouses and families got an earful when they got home from work, about a lunatic landowner with no sense of fair play and no understanding of what it\u2019s like to labor all day in the hot sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we are talking about the ones who worked all day. Imagine how different the scene might be in the homes of those who only worked for an hour: \u201cHoney, you\u2019re not going to believe what happened! I was really starting to get worried because I didn\u2019t get hired early this morning, and I was afraid we wouldn\u2019t have enough money for dinner. But the weirdest thing happened. At 5:00, this guy came around, and he said come on, I\u2019ve got some work for you in my vineyard. So of course, I only got to work for an hour, but would you believe, he paid me a whole day\u2019s wages, just like everyone else! You should have heard the griping! I guess maybe it\u2019s not exactly fair, but I\u2019m really glad he did it. We need the money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I came home from my weeding work and told Joy that I only worked 45 minutes, drank iced tea in the back yard and received 3 hours of contribution, she said, \u201cThat\u2019s unfair!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God the Landowner<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus is challenging his disciples and us to adjust our thinking about God. In this parable, Jesus is providing us a window into the character of God as One who is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love. He is painting a picture of the way God\u2019s reign works. God\u2019s gifts of love and mercy are not something calculated and bestowed according to what is fair or deserved. Rather God\u2019s unconditional love is poured out abundantly, bestowing dignity and value upon those who enjoy the privilege of steady employment and those who have been marginalized and may never have the benefits of steady work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge for us is that we have a hard time getting our heads and hearts around the divine economy of grace. It\u2019s true that we believe that we are saved by grace through faith and not by any merit or works of our own. But in our day-by-day lives, our instinctive response is shaped and formed by our culture to be the very opposite, believing that we earn what we deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the time we are toddlers onward, we are taught how to live and succeed in the ways of the world, rather than upon God\u2019s grace. The early bird gets the worm. No pain, no gain. There\u2019s no such thing as a free lunch. Demand your rights. Get what you pay for. Weed for 3 hours and you\u2019ll get pay for 3 hours. People should get what they deserve; nothing more, nothing less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question for us today is with whom do we identify in this parable? Where do your sympathies lie?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many of us, I suspect we sympathize with those who worked all day long for the same pay as those who worked only one hour.  \u201cYou have made them equal to us,\u201d they cried. This is a real rub for us. Even Peter and the disciples, themselves considered to be on the margins of society and of low social rank, get caught up in this game of what we have earned, what we deserve, and what more we can get. Immediately before Jesus tells this parable, Peter reminds Jesus, \u201cWe have left everything and followed you. What then do we have?\u201d (Mt. 19:27<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is so easy to get caught up in systems of status and merit. Like the disgruntled laborers and disciples, we all have our versions of what a \u201cfair\u201d pay scale should be, but God\u2019s ways aren\u2019t our ways. That God\u2019s gift of grace is freely given for all and that each person is equally valued and equally graced by God\u2019s mercy may just be the single hardest lesson for us to understand and accept. We are all day laborers who show up in need of work and a daily wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Reality<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most scholars are quick to point out that Jesus told this parable not suggesting any economic principles for managing a business. That may be true, but before we overly spiritualize this parable, we may want to consider how this parable could address unjust economic systems of oppression in our world today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We live in a time when economists, social scientists and public leaders are increasingly speaking out about the detrimental effects of income inequality that we see today. We raise the question of what is fair and just in our own economic practices. Is it fair that the average salary of a CEO is 204<\/a> times the pay of an average worker, or when women in this country continue to receive 23% less salary than men on average, or when workers don\u2019t receive a living wage? What do you think is behind the grass root protest of Google and other tech company busses that fill our commuting hours every weekday? And when I spoke recently about the 11 million undocumented people in America, why do you think they are here in the first place? People want and need a living wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of you must have read about Larry Ellison of Oracle in the papers this week on how he lavishly spends his money being the third richest man on the planet or that Yahoo could make many billions over than the initial investment it made in the Chinese company Alibaba. Somehow all of this doesn\u2019t sound fair to people who work 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week and still can\u2019t seem to get ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While clearly this parable is about the gracious character of God, we must in our Christian conscience and compassion for others also explore how inequities and injustices in work pay and employment opportunities are making people living in the margins and trying desperately to survive every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s Grace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vineyard represents the world; the owner is God; the workers are everyone whom God has called. The wages, the reward, the \u201cpay\u201d, is the kingdom of God\u2026fellowship with God\u2026eternal life\u2026 even dying and going to heaven. So on the one hand, the full day\u2019s wage is really the minimum. On the other hand, it\u2019s also the maximum. Because nothing more is possible. In a sense, it\u2019s sort of like the mathematical concept of infinity. Infinity plus one is still infinity. Infinity times three is still infinity. Infinity squared is still infinity. You can\u2019t have more than infinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, even if you worked in the vineyard all day long, and I only worked one hour or 45 minutes, it\u2019s not possible for you to get twelve times more eternal life than I got! Or, if I worked as being good and doing the right thing all my life, and you didn\u2019t become a Christian until you were on death row awaiting execution; nevertheless, my fellowship with God doesn\u2019t go any deeper than yours, and I don\u2019t get to go to a nicer neighborhood of heaven just because I made my plans earlier! The grace of God is both sufficient and generous for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you get right down to it, the stumbling block for most of us is grace. We are used to a world governed by rules and laws, and grace is an unknown quantity! I think most of us have an easier time picturing God as a lawgiver than as a grace-giver. Think about some of our favorite stories in the Old Testament: God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses to deliver to the rest of us\u2026laws we are expected to obey. For many of us, that\u2019s one of our primary images of God: one who sits on high and hands down rules about how to live. Or how about the Israelites, making the golden calf while Moses is away, and God gets really angry with them and threatens to destroy them. We have this image of God who punishes us when we act up or disobey those rules that came down from on high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image of God as gracious is less familiar to us. It isn\u2019t logical. Obeying rules, while it isn\u2019t much fun, at least makes sense, and you can keep track of how you\u2019re doing. Whereas grace is free, and it\u2019s there for everyone, and we all get the same measure. Whether we are one of those who has kept the Ten Commandments, and never broken one, our whole life; or whether we\u2019re one of those who has broken every one of them many times over and yet has repented, and have been forgiven, God\u2019s grace is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, if you are a person who has only recently come to know God, and is just learning to be a worker in the vineyard, this is tremendously good news. It means that you are not really starting from so far behind as you feared. It means that whatever there is in your past no longer needs to burden you. It means that God\u2019s blessings are given to you just as shockingly generously as to those who have known and served God all their lives. So for newcomers to the vineyard, this parable is incredibly good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For others of us, it may take some getting used to because God\u2019s ways of doing things don\u2019t quite mesh with ours. We do feel shortchanged when we have labored for God for a long time, and in difficult circumstances; and then find that those late-in-life converts receive the same benefits we do. We have to learn to be gracious as well. Not only fair, not only just, although those are both important; but gracious, or grace-full too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus said, the last shall be first and the first, last\u2026it is not that there is extra reward for being one of the last to come around. It\u2019s just that those who are last are frequently much more aware of their need for God\u2019s saving grace; whereas those who are first frequently get caught up in their first-ness that they forget it is God who saves and not they themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second grade teacher called her students to line up at the door for recess. There was a mad rush with children pushing and shoving to be first. After the fray settled down, she walked to the end of the line and told everyone to turn around and face her. \u201cThe last shall be first,\u201d she declared and led the line around and out the door. From then on when she called for recess, the children patiently and politely made their way to line up at the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do we begrudge God\u2019s generosity? Or are we open to God\u2019s amazing\u2014even if completely illogical\u2014grace? Grace comes equally to each one of us, no matter when the vineyard-owner put us to work. Grace gives us so much more than we deserve, even if we have been working long and hard. Grace sets us free to be who we are created to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is plenty of work to do in God\u2019s vineyard\u2026and, do it, we must. There are still lots of weeds in my garden as well as in yours to weed. But in whatever God is calling you to do, we already know what the results will be. Thanks be to God. Let\u2019s all enjoy a glass of iced tea together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almighty God, we give you thanks that in your wisdom you sent your only Son, Jesus Christ, to reveal yourself to us. You were not content to be simply God Almighty. You revealed yourself to be God of Grace. The extent of your graciousness toward us is always a shock to us. You are not God as we imagined God to be. For your grace to us, your unending love for us, we give you thanks. Help us to be grateful receivers of your grace, grateful to have you as the God you are rather than the God we feared you to be. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 20:1-16 September 21, 2014 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. Some years ago when our church in Pennsylvania was havingContinue readingShocking Grace<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,12],"class_list":["post-1273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermons","tag-fcbc","tag-matthew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2385,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions\/2385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}