Sermon thoughts and other musings

We want to believe that the first workers should get paid more. One of the people I went to college with became Microsoft employee number 6. He did very well. :-) We think it's right and just that employee #6 should make more than employee number 6,000.

Jesus turns so much of what we believe on its head. The last workers in the vineyard received as much as the first! And worse, Jesus paid them in full view of the workers who came early! Jesus would have been accused of violating the vineyard's H.R. policies -- don't we all know better than to openly display everyone's salaries?

So the last workers get the same money ... which maybe we can tolerate if they have a good reason for being last. Years ago, I would have made excuses for the last workers - nobody hired them, etc. But what if they were just plain lazy? What if they didn't try to get hired? I've come to realize ... so what?

Over the years, as I've come to grips with my own brokenness and my own failings, I've come to understand that God loves me even when I'm in the midst of a mess of my own making. Even when it's completely my fault, even when it's the result of my own sin - God still loves me, and God will not abandon me.

Remember Jonah? He was so determined that the people of Nineveh should be punished, he arranged to have himself tossed overboard. A "rational" God would have let him drown and sent another prophet. But not our God. Our God provided Jonah with a big fish. Our God rescued Jonah from a mess of his own making. Jonah's rebellion was stark. Jonah's motivation was terrible (he wanted to keep the Ninevites from repenting!) ... and God's love was beyond all of that.

So remember two things:

1. When you're called to show compassion, don't ask whether the other person is in need because it's his/her fault. That doesn't matter. All that matter is that the person is in need.

2. When you're in a mess of your own making, don't think God will abandon you. Even if you've jumped off a boat in the middle of the ocean, know that God will still send you a whale.