How are you using your power?
/Sermon Proper 20 A All Saints 9-20-20
Jonah 3: 10 – 4: 11 Psalm 145: 1 – 8 Philippians 1: 21 – 30
Matthew 20: 1 – 16
How are you using your power?
Every time I read the Book of Jonah, I love it more! Now, I am not
going to debate the “big fish” with you. Allegory or fact, whale or
special creation for that moment, issues of gastric acids and oxygen –
not my purpose. The lessons that the story of Jonah teaches us are
the reason this book has remained in our Bible.
If you place the Jonah story along side Jesus’s parable of the
landowner making payments to his vineyard laborers, there is a common
thread. It is POWER: who has it, who does not and how is power used.
This week in the news, I saw a wonderful story out of San Francisco.
Four years ago, a 14-year-old boy offered a suggestion to the Mayor:
why not hire the homeless in the city to clean up the streets and
parks of downtown? The operative word here is HIRE. He got laughter
and rejection and dismissal from many of us old folks, but he
persisted, catching the attention of some non-profits who served the
homeless. It took a lot of work, but this young man succeeded. Now
on the streets of San Francisco is a thriving corps of men and women –
without homes and many without hope of better – who are EARNING $52 a
day to pick up trash. $52 a day is only $6.50 an hour. That
translates to $260 per week. Not a great wage. But when you have
nothing, something is a step up.
One of the men who was interviewed pointed proudly to his shirt and
shorts and shoes and said: these are not donations. I bought these.
I chose these myself! Another man who started as a street cleaner now
has a home and has married. He has become one of the crew chiefs for
the street cleaners, and he beamed as he said: I have a family. I
have somewhere to go now! He showed enormous pride in earning and
planning and becoming more.
Of course, along with the wages, the homeless are put in touch with
many agencies and non-profits who can help them with other issues
whether around addiction, jail time served, or mental or physical
illnesses. All from the idea of a 14-year-old young man who saw the
power of a new approach to two old problems. He is in college now and
is looking forward to growing this program in other places.
Jonah knew God and loved God and wanted to serve God – but not if he
had to go work with them. Not only did Jonah want nothing to do with
the wretched people of Nineveh, Jonah did not want GOD to waste time
on them. Jonah wanted them punished for not being like himself.
The landowner hired men to do the work in his vineyard starting quite
early in the morning. There must have been an abundance of work
because he added workers throughout the day. Now American Fair Labor
Laws would say that more hours worked would mean more money in wages,
but the landowner chose to pay more to workers with fewer hours. He
paid the early workers not a penny less than they contracted for. The
laborers who came later were tole only that they would get what the
landowner considered right. The workers who got the full day’s wages
as promised felt cheated. They felt that the comparison entitled them
to more.
The young man in San Francisco had the power of an idea, a vision, and
he used it. Jonah had the power of love and mercy, and he shut
himself down. The landowner had the power of generosity, and he chose
to do the unexpected.
St. Paul writes that for us to live is Christ and to die is gain. As
we live, we are living in and for Christ in the power of the Holy
Spirit. In another text Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit does not
give us a spirit of fear but a spirit of wholeness and courage and
strength. Because we know where we are going when we leave this life,
because we know that life does not end here, we can choose God’s
eternal power now. Power to love openly and fully. Power to look
beyond surface dirt and anger to the image of God in each person.
Power to meet needs that others have because we know that God will
meet our needs.
Jonah could not limit God even as he ran away from God and pouted over
the victory that God achieved over evil. Jonah could not keep God
just for himself. The landowner had no need to withhold from the
workers the wages that were expected or that were more than expected.
The workers who were chosen last were likely the oldest and least able
of the available labor, and the most in need of wages.
I have been accused of trying to make us feel guilty that we are not
spending every hour in so-called church work, or guilty for not
selling everything and living on the edge of poverty so that we can
fund more mission work. Not true. My purpose is to push us – you and
me – to see more clearly the assets that we have and to use them more
fully for God. Yes, you and I have more time because we are mostly
retired. But we also have more limitations because we have less
physical strength and endurance than we had in past years. Yes, we
may have a settled income, but it is often fixed and limited. Yes, we
have chosen the quiet island life, but we see and know what
difficulties people have even here in this idyllic setting. The
world’s troubles pile up even on our doorsteps.
The one thing we have that is most important and useful is the
knowledge and spirit of Jesus in our every minute, every hour, every
day. We can see and understand needs around us, and we can seek ways
to create just and merciful solutions for those needs. If we can do
nothing else, we can pray and we can encourage those around us. Masks
hide our smiles, but smiles live in the words “thank you” and “how can
I help you”. We can choose kindness no matter how rude anyone else
decides to be. We can call injustice when we see it, and we can speak
up and speak out.
God gives us light and life. Christ Jesus gives us freedom from fear
and sin. The Holy Spirit gives us comfort and courage. We hold these
eternal things in our hands while we live in this troubled and anxious
world. How can we not share freely what God has so joyfully given to
us? How can we not be light and life and mercy to our brothers and
sisters?
Amen.
