Union Church

September 21, 2008
Exodus 16:2-16,

The Hebrew slaves are out in the desert. Pharaoh’s army has been turned back. After three days they come across a bitter spring at Marah. Moses purifies the water with a piece of wood and the people are refreshed.

Soon after leaving, their food runs out.
They complain to Moses, “At least in the fleshpots of Egypt, we ate our fill of bread but now you have brought us out into this wilderness to die of hunger.”

So God provides manna, white stuff from heaven that is discovered every morning as the dew recedes. The people are to gather only enough for each day to see if they will follow God’s instructions and trust in God’s daily provision.

Meat is also needed. So God sends a flock of quail into their camp each evening.

The Hebrews must change their mind set from scarcity to abundance in order to participate in God’s dream.
They must trust in God’s generosity and not their own ability to hoard food.

You see, God’s generosity is about God’s dream,
not the Hebrew slaves’ dreams.

When it comes to generosity in the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s New Day, they and we are called to let go of the fear of not enough and just live the experience.

God’s generosity is pure grace. It feeds us.
It nourishes us. It renews us. It transforms us.
We must let it be exercised through us.

With the Hebrews, we must learn that God’s generosity is abundant and enough.

Over 20 years ago, Walter Korner, the founder of Korner Forestry Products, the second largest in B.C., next to MacMillian Blodel liked giving his money away. He gave large sums to the Baptist Church in Vancouver, the University of British Columbia. He gave to libraries, and the arts.

At that time my friend George was a chaplain at U.B.C. He had the opportunity to speak to Walter at a gathering where Walter was giving money to the theological college. George asked him straight out, “Why do you give money away?” Walter Korner answered, “Because God was generous with the trees.”

What is the Application for Today?

Friends, God has been generous with us.
Let us trust in God’s abundance.

Matthew 20:1-16

Let me set the stage for this famous parable.
Peter points to the disciples’ virtuous act of leaving everything and following Jesus. Jesus promises that they will receive in the Kingdom of Heaven a hundredfold what they have left behind.
They will also inherit Eternal Life in the bargain.

Jesus is telling them there is far more than enough to go around. However, the process is not as easy as Peter or any one of us thinks.

And so Jesus tells a story of a landholder who goes out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. He negotiates with them the standard fee of one denarius, for a day’s work in the field.

Unexpectedly, the landowner returns 3 hours later. He finds more day labourers still unemployed and sends them to his field with a promise of paying a fair wage.

Now this landowner is on a roll.
At noon, he again checks for unemployed workers and virtuously sends them out with the same promise of fair wages.

At 3 o’clock he is out there in the market again rounding up the unemployed and sending them out to his vineyard.

The landlord is on such a generous roll that he even goes out at 5 o’clock and hires more labourers.

When evening comes, the owner calls his manager and tells the manager to do an even stranger thing. The manager is to give out the pay from the last to the first.

The landowner sets it up so that those who have worked the longest will see what the others receive as a fair wage.
They will see how generous the landowner intends to be.

So, maybe not so unexpectedly, the workers who arrived at the 11th hour receive one denarius, a full day’s wage in full view of the all the others.

Imagine the heightened expectation of the workers who toiled all day in the hot sun. In virtue of their many hours of toil and sweat, they probably were spending the expected extra money three times over as they approached the manager.
But they just get the agreed upon wage of one denarius.

As soon as they grumble, the landowner, in self-righteous indignation rebukes them.
He vigorously defends his own self-satisfied generosity. He accuses them of envy and sends them on their way.

But who is the envious one?

Who is coveting prestige and praise?

Our story ends in an argument.
The workers who worked all day are thrown out of the vineyard and will definitely not be working there tomorrow.

So what we end up with, in Jesus’ parable is a frustration of expectations.

The people who laboured all day in the hot sun and the vineyard owner, are all frustrated in what they expected from the day.

Here’s the problem in terms of the vineyard owner:
When we try to do something generous, something helpful, something virtuous we are intensely aware of it.
At the same time, we become intensely aware of other folk who aren’t appreciating what we are doing.
So our generosity can dry up in frustration.

Here’s the problem in terms of the daylong workers:
We become aware of other folk who aren’t putting forth the same effort and we self-righteously think that we are better or should receive more.
We start comparing our effort with their sloth.
The result can lead to comparisons, a sense of entitlement and once more, frustration and a lack of generosity.

The virtue of generosity, the gift of grace is more challenging than we initially recognize.

So what is the Application for Today?

God gives regardless.
Sometimes we don’t want to believe it.
Sometimes we want to make more of it.
But the truth is... God gives regardless.
Just, look at the frustration that happens when generosity is not grounded in God’s grace.