Thursday of Pentecost 19 – Philippians 3:4b-14

Philippians 3:4b-14

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Did your grandmother ever make button spinner for you? It is one of those old-time toys that grandmothers like to make. String several feet of thread twice through a heavy button, tie it off to make a circle of thread, loop it through your fingers so the button is suspended between your hands. Flip the button so the thread has about ten twists and start pulling your hands apart and then relaxing on the string. The button will start spinning. You can get it moving pretty quickly with a little practice. The trick is to relax the tension and reapply it at the right moment. If you do not know what I am talking about, do an internet search for “button spinner” and you can watch one in action.

Paul sounds a little like that button in this passage. In his previous life, before his encounter with Jesus on a road to Damascus, the tension had been great. It almost broke him. He had become sort of a monster, persecuting people. Christ relaxed that tension and he rebounded the other way, spinning furiously for the Gospel. Here we see him admitting that he has not made it yet, but he says, “I press on to make it my own.” But then, he remembers, and the pressure comes off “because Christ has me his own.”

My picture breaks down a little here. Paul does not now spin back the other way into his old legalism, but the tension and relaxation of God’s Law and Gospel have put a great deal of energy into Paul’s life. In II Corinthians 11:22 he does another similar catalogue of his life, but this time goes past his conversion. He never really did slow down. I get exhausted just reading about it.

God is adding quite a bit of tension into the lives of people these days. I wonder what He is up to with all this. Some days I was weary of this world even before pandemic and tensions which permeate our world now. There have been whole days in which I do not want to check my newsfeeds or listen to the radio. If you need it, you have my permission to sit on the patio or in a favorite chair with the cat or a book for a while today and do nothing. But more importantly Paul reminds us of the great relaxation which God has given us. Paul forgets that which lies behind him. Christ’s forgiveness and love has covered all of it. That frees Paul to look ahead and strive for what God has promised, an upward calling in Christ.

Wednesday of Pentecost 19 – Psalm 80:7-19

Psalm 80:7-19 

⁷ Restore us, O God of hosts;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved!

⁸ You brought a vine out of Egypt;
    you drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹ You cleared the ground for it;
    it took deep root and filled the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shade,
    the mighty cedars with its branches.
¹¹ It sent out its branches to the sea
    and its shoots to the River.
¹² Why then have you broken down its walls,
    so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
¹³ The boar from the forest ravages it,
    and all that move in the field feed on it.

¹⁴ Turn again, O God of hosts!
    Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
¹⁵     the stock that your right hand planted,
    and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
¹⁶ They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
    may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
¹⁷ But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
    the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
¹⁸ Then we shall not turn back from you;
    give us life, and we will call upon your name!

¹⁹ Restore us, O Lord God of hosts!
    Let your face shine, that we may be saved!

The professor looked at the tears streaming down the face of the student who sat in his office. He had never failed a test before. It was not part of his experience. The student understood that he should have studied harder. He should have been more attentive class. He should have read the textbook more carefully. He should have… but he did not. Now, his GPA, scholarships, and eligibility were in jeopardy.

The professor’s impassive face hid a roiling set of emotions. He remembered his own college days, sometimes spent in pursuits which were insufficiently academic in nature. He too had borne the consequences of inadequate study and attention. It would be a simple thing, really, to say that the score did not matter so much. Had he not read somewhere that tests were poor evaluative tools? He wanted to alleviate those tears, to take away their cause. Suffering is hard to watch.

He did not follow that course. He also remembered that his own brush with failure had refocused his entire academic career. Other students had worked hard to perform on this exam and had succeeded. This young man needed to learn this lesson. The score would stand. He could work his way out of the hole he had dug. It would be hard, but he could do it.

We do not know the exact situation of this psalm. Was it written in the days of the Exile or some other affliction which God had visited upon the people of Israel? Using the same image which Isaiah so skillfully enjoined in yesterday’s text, the psalmist here gives us the words of the vineyard whose walls have been broken and which has been ravaged by the wild boar that uproots its vines. “Please” the psalmist cries, “let your face shine upon us that we may be restored.”

The human beings of planet earth in these days might make that their cry as well. We could use a little of God’s face shining upon us. I have no prophecy to share in this regard, except to proclaim that God’s love has never ceased. The professor who let his student’s failure stand did not do so out of some spite. He did it because he cared for the character and life of that student. God hears the prayers of his people today. He responds only in love. It might be unpleasant, but it will be love.

Tuesday of Pentecost 19 – Isaiah 5:1-7

Isaiah 5:1-7

¹ Let me sing for my beloved
    my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
    on a very fertile hill.
² He dug it and cleared it of stones,
    and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
    and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
    but it yielded wild grapes.

³ And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
    and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
⁴ What more was there to do for my vineyard,
    that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
    why did it yield wild grapes?

⁵ And now I will tell you
    what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
    and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
    and it shall be trampled down.
⁶ I will make it a waste;
    it shall not be pruned or hoed,
    and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
    that they rain no rain upon it.

⁷ For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
    is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
    are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
    but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
    but behold, an outcry!

“You said you would be here!” he barked.

“I had to…”

“Don’t want to hear it. Remember, no excuses.”

I watched this exchange with some perplexity. The man who was barking at his son seemed out of character, unlike the reasonable and gentle fellow I otherwise knew. Later we talked about it. His son was addicted to one drug or another. He had stolen from his parents and others, lied again and again, and disappointed them repeatedly.  It was a pattern I had seen play out in the lives of people who love those are addicted. Yet, with tears in his eyes, this man confessed his love for his wayward son. The son needed boundaries and rules. He had proven himself unfaithful time and again, but he was still his son. He only barked at him because he loved him. The opposite of love is not “I hate you;” it is “I don’t care.”

God laments the vineyard for which he has cared, but which has produced only sour grapes. The people of Israel are the vineyard of the Lord. He looks for justice, but he sees bloodshed. I am reminded of Jesus’ words to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt. 5:6). They hunger and thirst because they do not have it.

Isaiah’s prophecy of God’s destruction of the vineyard and the trampling of the vines would find its fulfillment in the Exile, some years after the ministry of Isaiah. In that Exile, God was keeping His promise to His people made at Sinai. He had promised them that if they forgot him, He would call them back, gently at first but with increasing intensity. The people who returned from exile were far more devoted to God than they had been before the exile. In a sense, it worked. It was brutally difficult, but it worked. God still looks upon this world with the profound disappointment of the vineyard owner in this extended metaphor of Isaiah. His providential love sometimes brings difficult things to us. God wants us to repent. The Christian, however, has an insight which the world does not know. One day, about 800 years after Isaiah wrote these words, the blood which was unjustly shed by the children of these Israelites was the blood of Jesus and that has changed everything. God’s love for his rebellious, foolish, violent world is never in doubt. Pandemics, social unrest, hurricanes, forest fires, and whatever else the world can throw at us cannot shake that truth. Jesus has died for this world. No matter how hard God barks at his rebellious children, he always loves them.

Monday of Pentecost 19 – Prayer of the Week

Prayer of the Week

Gracious God, You gave Your Son into the hands of sinful men who killed Him. Forgive us when we reject Your unfailing love, and grant us the fullness of Your salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Do you know one of those old couples who “share a brain?” You know the sort. Maybe you are one of those people. Maybe you are a widow or widower grieving the loss of your other half. If, so, I pray for you. Such couples complete each other’s sentences. You can hardly imagine them without the other. I remember more than one couple in my ministry whose surviving member did not long survive the death of the spouse. As I look at those couples and their beautiful relationships, I wonder if they, in their 50^th year of marriage, have a sense of being more married today than they were on the day of their wedding.

Of course, as far as the IRS or the government is concerned, being married is a yes or a no question. You cannot be more married or less married. But the law cannot really see some very important things, like love and the intertwining of two lives into a single life. It is blind to that.

We pray today that God grants us the fullness of His salvation. Is salvation something you can have more or less of? Not really, not in one sense. On the day of your baptism, you were fully and completely saved by God. His love has been given to you. You have God’s favor. But on the other hand, like any relationship, this relationship with God can and does grow. Am I more saved today than on the day that I was baptized? Am I more of a Christian? Yes! Thanks and praise be to God. His persistent forgiveness and love for me are like the waters that shape the landscape one droplet at a time. God is shaping me into his person, and we are growing closer to one another. There are many stony places in a human heart which require a great deal of God’s loving erosion to make them fit for heaven. Will God have to break out the drill and insert some dynamite to blast it away? I am a work in progress. The fullness of salvation is something I look forward to. Pray for it today.

Friday of Pentecost 18 – Matthew 21:23-32

Matthew 21:23-32

²³ And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” ²⁴ Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. ²⁵ The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” ²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁸ “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. ³⁰ And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. ³¹ Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. ³² For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

What makes for a marriage? My father was once confronted by that question in an adult membership class. One of the women in the class had been faithful to her cohabitating boyfriend for over 25 years.  At least two others in the class had been divorced and remarried. It was a typical cross-section of the folks who show up in these sorts of classes these days. My father was a little stymied by the question, he admitted to me. She had been far more faithful than many of the marriages over which he had presided. He would have been delighted to celebrate a 25^th or 30^th anniversary with this person. Was there something to celebrate? While an official marriage would have been better, my father had to admit that this woman and her boyfriend in fact were far more faithful to whatever promises they had made to one another than many of those who had been officially married. Did that make them married?

Jesus poses a question to his hostile and pious audience today in the form of a parable. A man with two sons. One says no to the father’s request but then goes out and does what the father asks. The other son says he will do it, but he never puts down the videogame controller to do what the father requested. Which of those sons did the father’s will? Of course, deeds speak louder than words. Jesus points out that the reprobates got John the Baptist right. They had not gone to synagogue every week or taken their bar-mitzvah vows seriously, but when God called them to repent, they did it. The churchly types who fought John’s ministry claimed to be faithful but did not repent at God’s command.

It is that same uncomfortable moment you have when you talk to a street person or some tattooed biker only to discover that they have been far more loving to neighbors than you have been for all your proper, church-going piety. We started this week with a prayer to be led to the truth. Jesus is leading all of us to the truth and sometimes it packs a punch. But having dislodged us from our pietistic perch, Jesus leans over us while we lie in the straw and filth on ground with a smile on his face. He reaches out his hand to pick us up anew, every time. The woman who was living with her boyfriend could get married and Jesus would smile on that. The prostitutes and tax collectors who came to John were forgiven and told to sin no more. Even self-righteous elder brothers who say the right thing but hypocritically do not do it, find a place in that long line of sinners for whom Jesus died and rose again. Jesus tells this story to those same people who rejected John and later that week killed Jesus himself because he still wants them to repent so they can be forgiven. He wants that for you too.

Thursday of Pentecost 18 – Philippians 2:1-18

Philippians 2:1-18

¹ So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, ² complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴ Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

¹⁴ Do all things without grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵ that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. ¹⁷ Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. ¹⁸ Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Sometime in 1614, we are not sure the exact date, a French mother and father welcomed an infant boy into their home. They named him Nicolas. His parents were peasants and economic straits pushed him into the military where he would get regular meals and clothes. But the price would be high. He fought in the Thirty Years War, left the army with an injury to his leg and pain in his soul. He took a job as a valet in the household of the French national treasurer but, by his own admission, was bit of a clumsy oaf, but also due to his injured leg. When his time of service was done, he decided to pursue holiness in earnest. He entered a Carmelite monastery as a lay brother and spent the next fifty years cooking and making sandals. (The vows of his branch of the Carmelites mean they do not wear shoes, even in winter, so there was always a need for more sandals.)

Upon taking his vows, as is usually the case, he took a new name. He became Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Even though his duties were humble and his education minimal, people began showing up in the kitchen and the workroom where he made sandals. They came just to talk to him. If they could not be there, they sent letters and he replied. He knew peace and was wise. When he died the Abbot collected his letters and the records some had made of his conversations. You can still read this little book. It is called “The Practice of the Presence of God.” The bishop who approved the book for publication said this about Lawrence:

He forgot himself and was willing to lose himself for God, that he no longer thought of virtue or his salvation … that he had always governed himself by love without interest.

In this reading today, Paul notes his absence from the Philippians, but he also notes the presence of God “who works in you, both to will and to work for his pleasure.” In the middle of the 17^th century the presence of God meant this young French veteran joined a rigorous monastic community where he shone as a light in the world. In this day, your life of humble service will be different, but the same God calls you to shine with Christ-like humility. We work out our faith with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in us. You might add Lawrence’s little book to your readinglist. Certainly, read these words of Paul and know that they are also directed to you.

Wednesday of Pentecost 18 – Psalm 25:1-10

Psalm 25:1-10

¹ To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
² O my God, in you I trust;
    let me not be put to shame;
    let not my enemies exult over me.
³ Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
    they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

⁴ Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
⁵ Lead me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all the day long.

⁶ Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
    for they have been from of old.
⁷ Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
    according to your steadfast love remember me,
    for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

⁸ Good and upright is the Lord;
    therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
⁹ He leads the humble in what is right,
    and teaches the humble his way.
¹⁰ All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
    for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

It was one of those hot, humid, summer days which afflict the residents of Missouri. We were taking a much-needed break from baling hay, sitting in the shade of a spreading oak tree. Neil, whose hay we were baling, also ran a service station in town. The farm was more of a hobby for him. He asked me with some disbelief in his voice, “you mean you don’t understand how air conditioning works?” The topic had come up rather naturally considering the temperature in the barn. I had to admit that I did not have this knowledge. Air conditioning was a mystery. One pushed the button, turned it on, and cold air came out. I can still remember him patiently and thoroughly explaining how a liquid converting to gas absorbs heat and makes air-conditioners work. As a man who fixed cars for a living, he thoroughly understood the subject.

I thought about Neil the other day. We were making ice-cream and I was pouring rock salt onto the ice. Neil had used ice-cream making as an example of the principle of air-conditioning. Against all my intuition but along the lines of what Neil taught me, ice-cream firms up faster on hot days than on cold days. The reason is that the ice melts faster. That means it absorbs the heat from the churn faster. And the cream freezes faster. You would think it would take longer to freeze ice-cream on a hot day. But it is the other way around. You must melt the ice to freeze the cream.

The psalmist asks God to teach him his paths and to make know the ways of the Lord to him. If you remember the Isaiah 55 reading from not long ago, God reminds us that his ways are not our ways; they are higher and better. I would never imagine that more salt and a hot day will get me ice-cream faster. But it does. God, who is holy and just, approaches sins and sinners with love, compassion, and forgiveness. Who would have imagined it? Yes, God, teach me your strange and upside-down ways that do not remember the sins of my youth or my middle age. Instruct this sinner in your ways and I will rejoice with your psalmist that God’s ways are steadfast love and faithfulness.

Tuesday of Pentecost 18 – Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 

¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? ³ As I live, declares the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. ⁴ Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die…

²⁵ “Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? ²⁶ When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. ²⁷ Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. ²⁸ Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. ²⁹ Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, are my ways not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?

³⁰ “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, declares the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. ³¹ Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

“You should not have put it on the table when I was coming home from school!” Indeed, his parents should have known that he was coming home from school in a bad mood and would fling his pack onto the table and thereby bump the vase off the table and onto the floor. It was surely his parents’ fault that the vase now lay broken on the floor. At least in that teen’s logic it was their fault.

In Ezekiel’s day the people were in a terrible Exile and felt that they had been punished for their parents’ sins. That is the meaning of the proverb Ezekiel quotes, the fathers eat sour grapes, but the children’s teeth are set on edge. God rejects this line of reasoning. You cannot blame someone else. That is a truth which we would do well to remember. It is not just children who like to blame their parents. Many of those who march and even riot in the streets claim that the injustice of the past makes violence and destruction permissible in the present. On the other side of that equation, some imagine that because they did not directly participate in oppression, they have no responsibility to help the neighbor in need. Both are wrong.

The soul who sins shall die… Because the mortality rate for being human remains stubbornly at 100%, Ezekiel’s words should make anyone who would pass the blame to another hesitate. I knew a man who had been born with a degenerative disorder which trapped his sharp mind in a body which progressively robbed him of mobility, speech, and control of basic bodily functions. It was not fair. Had he inherited some genetic defect? Should he blame his parents? Was there some environmental cause – should he blame the nearest factory? If anyone had a reason to be angry and bitter, it was this man. He was not. He was in fact a ray of sunshine wherever he went. He had heard the last line of this text. God takes no pleasure in the death, suffering, or misery of anyone. He had heard God’s gracious invitation in Christ to turn and live. His problems were his own problems. God saw them and offered his help. He took that help and lived the life God had given him in joy, knowing that in God’s time, at the resurrection of the dead. God would make everything right again. We cannot undo the past, but we can love our neighbor in the present. Ezekiel called his generation to see that their own lives were distorted by sin. Yes, they suffered in the current situation. But the real question was then and remains today, what shall we make of this situation. Blaming another solves no problems. Repenting, changing, turning to God, and living – that has a future.

Monday of Pentecost 18 – Prayer of the Week

Prayer of the Week

Almighty God, You exalted Your Son to the place of all honor and authority. Enlighten our minds by Your Holy Spirit that, confessing Jesus as Lord, we may be led into all truth; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

The “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams is one of the few contributions to the Science Fiction genre which is also comedic. In one scene the main characters of the story land on a planet and find the capital city in a military lockdown. The downtown area has been evacuated; soldiers ring the central plaza with weapons at the ready, all trained on the courthouse. Within that building is a harmless man. He had been summoned as a witness and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And he did! He told the whole truth, all of it.

No one could bear that whole truth which he told. At first it was alright, but soon no one could tolerate it. They evacuated the building and called in the military. It was just too much for people to hear the truth. Adams, the author of the story, was noting how convenient lies are for us and how much they seem to make our lives easier. We can tell ourselves that we are basically OK when we are not. The truth is hard to bear. Adams does not think we can stand it. He wrote that in 1979, over 40 years ago. What would he say about this time in which we have “alternate facts” and wild conspiracy theories abound?

Are you truly ready to pray this prayer? We ask God to enlighten our minds so that by the Spirit’s guidance we be led into the whole truth. That truth will have some difficult things to say about you and me. We are not OK. Our problems go very deep and are inescapable. The solutions are unpleasant and, frankly, unbearable. This is where we need the other parts of this prayer. The enlightenment is an act of the Holy Spirit, and we are led to the truth confessing Jesus as Lord. We can bear the truth of ourselves and confront reality only at the direction of that Spirit and in the light of Christ’s work. Otherwise, like the people on that planet in Adams story, we must flee the truth.

Friday of Pentecost 17 – Matthew 20:1-16

Matthew 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ ⁵ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ⁸ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ ⁹ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰ Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹² saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ ¹³ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

I have friends who own and operate a vineyard and winery in Sonoma County, California, near Healdsburg. They had to flee from the fires which ravaged California a few years ago. Their vineyards survived but there was a moment when they wondered if their business had burned to the ground. Would their venerable label pass out of existence? There is much to pray for in this world. I am sure you have your own list. That day they surely had their prayers answered when they came back and found their business and vineyards saturated with smoke but still standing.

There is one thing I know, however. The love of God is completely separated from the economy of our lives. We cannot earn God’s love and we cannot put that love into a scale which corresponds to our situation. Like the workers in the vineyard I find it difficult to get my head around this truth. I would rather like to think that God has in fact seen my consistent worship, my tithing, my service on committees and in activities of the local parish and that this life should make a difference in my status in God’s eyes. He should notice that I am in church and all those folks who drive by on Sunday morning are not in church. That should make me a little bit more lovable to him. It does not work that way. God has seen those good things I do, and he has delighted in them. His love for me, however, is in no way dependent upon them. He loves the self-destructive heroin user who has not ever been in church as much as he loves me.

When we are getting steamrolled by the world, there is another side to this which can bring us comfort. The afflictions which we endure in this time are no sign that God loves us less. They may be warnings for this world to repent or simply his providential work, but they are not a measure of his love for us. There is only one measure of God’s love for his people – a cross and an empty tomb.

If life has hit you hard, as it has afflicted many, know that I and others are praying for you and God’s people are called upon to come together to help one another. Our prayers will be answered with very human instruments. Do not fear. God has never stopped loving you. I cannot promise how that love will play out in your life. I am no prophet that way. I can, however, assert with all confidence this truth. God loves you. He will never stop loving you. That is a forever promise.