Pentecost 17: God Loves Everyone the Same

no video of sermon today

In the Episcopal Church, and many other mainline denominations,
our Sunday readings come from a compilation called the Lectionary.

The lectionary runs on a three year cycle:
Which means that every three years, we hear the same stories,
And TWELVE years ago, when we heard this parable of the laborers in the
vineyard--
Was a day that I remember well.

I was in seminary,
And I was working at a small church in Connecticut—Emmanuel Episcopal
Church--
It was also known as “The Little Church in the Wilderness”

I was hired there to start a Sunday School program
And I was the sole Sunday school teacher.
In a one room school house style,

children from age 3 to age 12 sat with me on Sunday morning to hear the Gospel
stories.

After I told the children the Gospel story we read today—I asked them to draw or
write about the story--
This activity was something that we did every single week.

On that day—the kids said to me, “We need a very big piece of paper.”
When I asked why, they said,
“We’re going to draw one big picture all together--
Because we’re a community.”

They said it as if it were the most common thing in the world--
And looked at me as if I were a moron.

I was stunned.
And obviously couldn’t argue with that.

They spent the rest of the time,
Working together on a big picture of these laborers in the vineyard.

At the very top, they wrote:
“No Matter what, God loves everyone the same!”

That was a very proud day for this Sunday School teacher.
I couldn’t have put it better myself.

And here I am, twelve years later: telling you about it in a sermon.
Because it’s the DEEP TRUTH.

We are indeed a community--
A community who needs to do things together--
who needs to support one another.

This has been a consistent theme in the last few weeks.
We heard about resolving conflicts in our communities,
And we heard about the importance of forgiveness.

And today we hear that we’re also a community of equality--
Where God loves each of us the same.

And never abandons anyone--
Never gives up on anyone--
No matter what time they arrive--
No matter how long they’ve been working.

Jesus’ story tells us about a landowner,
who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

At 9’oclock he went out and found some more laborers,
He did the same at noon,
3’oclock, and 5’oclock.

And all of those laborers,
Get paid the same amount.
Is it an Injustice?
Or could it be justice?

It strikes me that the kids at the little church in the wilderness had no problem
with the seeming unfairness of this passage.

It made perfect sense to them.
But to our grown up modern ears--
This story seems unfair.

The workers—who have been working ALL day--
Get paid the exact same amount as the workers who worked for only one hour.

It seems unfair.
It seems unjust.
Especially because it’s about MONEY.

But we must remember that this is a parable--
Which means its a story that Jesus tells to illustrate what the Kingdom of heaven
is like.

And in this story, God is like the landowner,
And we are like the laborers.

Jesus isn’t talking about our understandings of THIS WORLD--

Where we are rewarded or paid by the hour.
Or where if you’re first in line, you are guaranteed the newest i-phone, or tickets
to the polar express train.
And if you’re too far back—you might not get one.

Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of Heaven--
Where our understandings get turned upside down.
Where there’s real equality.
Real Justice.
Real love,
Where God promises to love every person No. Matter. What.

Looking at it again,
This passage should not strike us as unfair.
After all: The laborers who worked all day AGREED to the wage ahead of time.
And they were given the wage that they agreed to.

The landowner did not trick them.
The landowner did not take anything away from them.

He just gave everyone else the same amount too.

This passage should instead strike us as a relief.
Not as unfairness:
But as the most GENERIOUS FAIRNESS possible.

It should give us great hope that God is a God of equality.
A great and generous God.
A God who never abandons.
A God who forever loves everyone.

But that’s also sometimes the hard part.
(Are you on to me yet? That I’m almost always going to bring us to the hardest
part?)

It’s hard,
Because if God is a God of equality--
A God of generosity--
Then although God loves you DEEPLY, VIGOUROSLY, COMPLETELY,

No matter where you are in line, or when you showed up to work--
That also means that:
God also loves EVERY ONE else that way too.
Everyone else.
EVERYONE else.

That’s hard for us to grasp--
In a culture of winners and losers.
A culture where people “get what they deserve.”
A culture paranoid with being the best.
Having the most.
Climbing the ladder,
Grasping for the top.

It’s amazing to me that the children at the Church in the Wilderness deeply
understood:
That “God loves everyone the same.”
And I didn’t tell them that when I read them this story.
I literally just read them the story.

They figured it out all by themselves.

And they proceeded to live into it:
To participate in a common project--
All together--
All the same--

There was no way they could evaluate who drew the best picture--
Or who wrote the smartest thing.
Because they did it all together--
As a community--
Knowing that God loves them ALL the same.
And generously gives to everyone ALL the same--
Regardless of what anyone deserves:

God has set out to create a huge community of equality.
A community of unimaginable “Fairness”
But where Fairness becomes something quite different than our culture currently
defines it.

In God’s kingdom,
Fairness and Justice is God loving all of us the same:
And:
Loving EVERYONE ELSE The same too.

No matter how many people enter our doors,
No matter how long we’ve been working,
No matter how long we’ve been members of the church.
No matter where we live,
No matter where we are in line,
No matter what.
God loves all of us the same.

Amen.