CELC The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 18, 2005

Matthew 20:1-16

Have you heard the one about the two fellows who are flying on a plane that crashes on a remote island in the middle of the ocean? Everyone is killed but these two fellows.

The first fellow runs all over the island and comes back to report to the other fellow, “We are doomed. There is no water, no food, no shelter. We shall certainly die.” The second fellow responds, “There is no problem, I make a $100,000 per year.”

The first fellow is mystified. “Don’t you get it there is no water, no food, no shelter. We are going to die!” The second fellow responds again, “No problem, I make a $100,000 per year.”

By this time the first fellow can’t believe how the second fellow isn’t getting the severity of their situation. He says, “Think about it, there is no water, no food, no shelter. We are going to die here.” The second fellow says to the first, “Look, I make $100,000 and I am a Christian. I go to church and I tithe ten percent. Believe me; my pastor will look for me until he finds me.”

It is a rather lame joke. However, given the gospel lesson this morning perhaps this would be a good Sunday to preach a stewardship sermon. But, that is next Sunday and I do not want to interfere with what the Stewardship Committee has planned for you.

Beside, it is risking much to talk to affluent Americans about material things. Discipleship that sees giving a proportional gift of their abundance is not the kind of discipleship people want you to preach. It is a bit too demanding. When a pastor preaches proportional giving they are usually considered to be meddling.

So, today I would like to preach about the generosity of God. That is what the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard is all about. The landowner chooses to hire many laborers, all day long. At the end of the day he pays everyone the same. There is a lot of grumbling. It seems unfair. It turns out, contrary to the grumbling, the landowner keeps the contract he has made with everyone.

Then the landowner asks, “…I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” Here is a generous person that gives. God gives generously to us as well. That is the point.

The first place you can see the generosity of God is in the providential care God gives to us. All that we have and are comes by the grace of God. Our generous God has blessed us with so much. We are people with abundant blessings.

God does not stop with the things we need, though. God goes much farther. We see the gracious and loving generosity of God in the cross. It is in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that God generously forgives of all our sin as well as giving us new life. Now that is generous.

It is a generosity that transforms us. It is grace that calls us from grumbling about what is fair or unfair to a stance of letting God be God. That is a transition that can only be accomplished as God enables us to do it. To go from selfish and sinful grumbling to allowing God the freedom to forgive everyone and anyone as God chooses; well that simply is a transformation that is only possible in the cross.

And once a disciple has been transformed by the cross they find it possible to delight in the generosity of God. A transformed disciple wants to be generous as well.

Perhaps the place to begin with our generosity when responding to God’s generosity in the cross is to forgive others. Everyone knows someone has sinned against them. Some of you may even have a long list of folks you have been keeping track of that have offended you. Forgive them.

The generosity of God calls us to generous lives. May we forgive as we have been forgiven. Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley