Some of Tim's Sermons

It’s all a matter of focus. I’m sure you’ve all seen those pictures which show different things, depending on how you look at them. Is it a candle stick, or two faces? How old is the woman in the picture? Is it a rabbit or a duck? What you see depends on many things – what you’re expecting to see, what your experience is, what you’ve seen before, but most of all, I’d suggest, it’s about where we focus. Sometimes, once we’ve seen one thing, it’s really difficult to see anything else – our brain has already decided what is there.

It seems to me that something similar is going on with the two passages that we’ve read this morning, and in particular what we might see in them of God’s justice and generosity.

In the first reading, we heard about God’s marvellous provision of manna for the people of God. Let’s remind ourselves of how the people have ended up in this situation. They have been enslaved in Egypt, and God has sent Moses to lead them our of slavery and towards freedom in the land God had promised to Abraham. After a series of plagues, Pharaoh had eventually agreed to let the people go, and they’d all left. But then Pharaoh had changed his mind, and sent the army after them. God had parted the waters of the Red Sea, and the people had escaped.

Cue much rejoicing and celebration as they headed into the desert.

How much can change in such a short time. It’s about 6 weeks later, and they have run out of food. The situation has got so bad that the people are looking back wearing the ultimate rose-tinted glasses and saying that they wished they’d never left Egypt. Sure, they were enslaved, worked for no wages, and their children were slaughtered as they were born, but at least there was some food. The people’s view of their captivity was shaped by the context. When they were there they wanted out, but the reality of freedom was scary, and they didn’t trust God to provide for them, so they wanted back in their cage.

But God is trustworthy, and does provide, and this is seen in the provision of manna – food that they’d never seen before, and would never see again, but would which give them sustenance and strength for the journey ahead. At first this generosity was received with wonder and joy. In time, though, as we read on, the people got tired of manna and started to complain about the lack of variety in the diet. What they were focussed on had changed. They had got used to God’s generosity, and no longer wondered at it, but took it for granted.

Throughout the Old Testament we see this pattern repeated. God’s people in trouble, God providing for them, rescuing them, pouring out generosity on them. Initially this is received with gratitude, but as the “new normal” beds in, they forget the old perspective, and from their new position complain and turn away from God with ingratitude.

So, bearing that in mind, let’s turn to our New Testament reading, to Matthew’s eye witness account of Jesus’ life. We are coming towards the end of Jesus’ life and ministry on earth. Jesus in on his way to Jerusalem for the last few weeks before his death and resurrection. On the way he’s talking with his friends and followers, his disciples, about ways in which the values of God’s kingdom are different to the values of the world that they’re used to. Just before this, he’s blessed the little children, telling them that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as this. He’s had a conversation with a rich young man who wants to follow Jesus, but can’t give up his wealth and possessions.

He’s explained to his disciples that, contrary to popular belief, wealth isn’t necessarily a sign of God’s favour, but for many is a barrier to them being part of God’s kingdom. In a little while, he will talk with them about how leaders among them should act – as servants. All the way through these couple of chapters, in his final teaching directly to his disciples, Jesus is turning their world upside down, teaching them to see things differently, to focus on the things that are important in the kingdom of heaven. It is as part of this that Jesus tells this slightly odd parable.

The set up would have been really familiar to the people listening to it – day labourers in a village square, waiting for local farmers to come and hire who they needed for the day. Not so common now, but I suspect you wouldn’t have to go too far back into the history of the farms round here to find something similar happening, though probably not for a vineyard. He agrees a wage with the first group that he hires – the normal daily wage, sends them off, and then gets on with his day. At various intervals he returns to the square, sees people still waiting for work and gradually hires them, promising to pay “what is right.”

The end of the day comes round, and the labourers line up to be paid. The ones who had arrived are paid first – a full day’s wage. I can just imagine those at the back of line, seeing this happening, and starting to think, “Wow, we must be on for quite a bonus, at the same hourly rate, we’re going to get about a week’s pay.” Perhaps it was this kind of expectation that contributed to their anger at the landowner when it turns out that they, too, are going to be paid for a day’s work.
How you see this turn of events depends a lot on where you’re standing. If you’re one of those who were employed later in the day, what are you thinking? I suspect you’d be grateful, relieved, overjoyed even that you’re going to have enough to eat, enough to feed your family for another day. What about those who have been working all day. If the others hadn’t come later and been paid the same, they would have been quite content with a day’s pay for a day’s work. It was what had been agreed. The generosity of the farmer to others has soured it for them though, it no longer seems fair. They are angry because the farmer has been generous to others. It’s not even generosity at their expense. If the landowner had withheld some of their wages into order to pay the others, then they might have had more of a case, but that’s not what has happened.

What about the farmer? I wonder how things looked from his perspective? He tries to do something nice for someone, and other people take offence. How does he feel about that?

Immediately after this parable, Matthew describes how, on the journey to Jerusalem, Jesus takes his 12 closest disciples aside and tells them more about what is going to happen when they get there:

“the Son of Man will be handed over the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.”

I wonder if he put this here as an immediate reminder of the cost of God’s generosity. Grace is God’s riches at Christ’s expense. We have received such good things from God, forgiveness, freedom, love, hope, peace. Such riches. But they cost Jesus so much. Not just death, but death on a cross, betrayed and brutalised, cursed and crushed. In a little while we will share communion to remember this cost, and to receive afresh God’s grace, riches, and generosity.

So, a little recap. We’ve seen how new, difficult, circumstances can lead us to forget God’s generosity in the past, leading to a lack of trust in God’s goodness for the present and the future. We’ve seen how familiarity can breed contempt, leading us to take God’s generosity for granted, becoming ungrateful for the good that we have received. We’ve seen how witnessing God’s generosity to others can lead to bitterness and envy, particularly if we’ve fallen into the trap of somehow believing that that God owes us. These are all pretty negative, but there is another way of looking at them.

Choosing the remember God’s generosity in the past, despite current difficult circumstances, can build our trust in God’s goodness for the present and the future. Staying grateful for the everyday grace of God, remaining sensitive and alive to God’s day by day generosity, will lead us into deeper worship and trust of the God who loves us generously. When we see others receiving God’s generosity we can choose to celebrate with them, knowing that all of God’s favour is undeserved, can’t be earned, and is freely given. And so, when we see others blessed by God it fills us with joy, as we are reminded of the blessings we have received.

And, then, as we remember God’s generosity to us in the past, focus on God’s generosity to us now, and celebrate Gods’ generosity to others, so we are released in generosity to others, knowing that all we have is a gift to us, and gift that we can share.

It’s all a matter of focus, of what we choose to see.