Pentecost 19A
Jonah
3:10-4:11
Matthew
20:1-16
A WIDENESS IN GOD’S
MERCY
Beloved people of God, grace and
peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus the
Christ.
The people of
Upon hearing Jonah, the people of
Indeed, we are told that “when God saw what they did, how they turned
from their evil ways, God changed
his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he
did not do it.”
One might have expected that Jonah
would have been thrilled. His
preaching had been amazingly successful.
How many preachers can claim to have led a whole city to repentance? And his message was only eight words: “Forty days more, and
Instead, Jonah was displeased and
angry. He prayed to the Lord, “O Lord! Is this not what I said while I was still
in my own country? That is why I
fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and
merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent
from punishing.” In fact, Jonah
was so angry the Lord let these wicked Ninevites off the hook that he expressed
a desire to die, “And now, O Lord, please
take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah was offended, scandalized, by
the wideness of God’s mercy. He had
no desire to live in a world where in his estimation God’s mercy made a mockery
of God’s justice. If God could show
mercy to the wicked Ninevites, then no one was beyond the pale of God’s
mercy.
During my first call my wife Donna
spent several months in bed while pregnant with our daughter Matia. We already had two preschool
children—Isaac and Rachel. So it
was a challenging time for our family.
One older woman in the congregation
was particularly helpful to us. She
brought at least one meal each week, spent time visiting with Donna, and did a
number of errands for us.
She also loved to study the Bible
and to talk theology. She was
passionate in her beliefs, and she would not back down from anyone, including
the pastors. I enjoyed my
discussions with her; and although we did not agree on everything, she did not
seem to get too upset with me.
Maybe it was because I was a young pastor. Or maybe it was because she loved Donna
and we had two small children and another one on the way.
She and the senior pastor, however,
had some very intense discussions. They went around and around especially on
one issue: universal salvation.
Before I knew of their disagreement, she had asked me what I thought of
universal salvation. Something told
me that I might be being set up. So
I gave one of my I-might-be-being-set-up answers: “There are verses in the Bible that indicate
God intends to save all people, and there are verses that indicate there will be
a judgment and some will be saved and some will be damned.” I could tell she was not totally
satisfied with my answer, but she was at least willing to ponder it. Then, however, she expressed her extreme
displeasure with the lead pastor.
“He fully supports universal
salvation,” she said. “He is so sure God is going to save
everyone.” I was not surprised
that she disagreed with the lead pastor, but the intense anger in her voice did
surprise me. I think she could tell
I was not comfortable talking about my colleague and supervisor, so we dropped
the conversation. But I remember
wondering why her anger was so intense about this issue.
Several weeks later the issue of
universal salvation came up once more in our conversation. She did not refer to the lead pastor,
but she wanted to talk further with me.
In the course of our conversation it came clear what was bothering her
about the idea of universal salvation.
At one point she said, “If
everyone is going to be saved, what is the point of being a Christian?” In other words, if God is going to
save everyone, why should we live the Christian life and do all the things
Christians are supposed to do? To
her it seemed like an exercise in futility. It was almost as if her faith and
commitment to the Christian life depended on knowing that some people would be
damned.
I wonder if that helps explain why
Jonah was so angry and displeased with God. If God was going to let the wicked
Ninevites off the hook, what was the point of being a faithful member of the
people of God and of fulfilling all of God’s commands? Who wants to live in a world where God
changes his mind and cannot be trusted to be just in his dealings with
people? Who wants to live in a
world where evil people do not receive what they deserve?
A young man new to the faith came to
his pastor with a question, “How can God
forgive a sinner? Isn’t God repulsed with all the hatred
and jealousy that fills people?”
The pastor responded, “You are the third generation in a family of
master furniture makers. Tell me,
if a fine table that your father made was scratched would you throw it
away?”
“Certainly not,” the young man exclaimed, “a scratch cannot alter the character of a
fine piece of furniture.”
“And if you nicked a well-crafted
oak rocker,” continued the pastor, “would you toss it
away?”
“Of course not,” the young man asserted, “even with a few scratches quality furniture
is sturdy and valuable.”
“You have spoken like a true
craftsman,” the
pastor replied. “Our creator God is a divine craftsman who
continues to find his human creation precious and valuable in spite of our
obvious flaws.”[1]
This story highlights that God took
great care in creating us and continues to take great care in sustaining
us. God is saddened when we go
astray. God grieves the
destructiveness of our sin. But God
does not give up on us. God does
not simply cast sinners away. God’s
mercy is so wide that God continues to embrace even the most sinful of
people.
Our Gospel reading gives us at least
one more insight into the wideness of God’s mercy. Notice that the laborers who worked all
day are not offended that the landowner pays those hired last a denarius. However, they anticipated the landowner
would decide to pay them more. Even
though they had agreed to work all day for a denarius—the usual daily wage—they
thought it was only fair to pay them more than those who worked only part of the
day. When they grumbled to the
landowner, he responded with two questions: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with
what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am
generous?”
Who are we as human beings to
dictate to God what to give or how to give it? Justice and fairness are important
principles, but God seems more concerned about showing mercy and
generosity. When it comes to gifts
such as salvation or mercy, what sense does it make to talk about giving partial
salvation or partial mercy? We do
not merit differing levels of salvation or mercy. Salvation and mercy are God’s to give,
not ours to earn. Is not God free
to distribute mercy as widely as God chooses?
Each one of us may be aware of
people who seem so destructive, so possessed by evil, that it is hard to imagine
God’s mercy is wide enough to embrace them. Truth be told, we may wish they would
get what they deserve. Who are we
to say that God cannot lead them to repentance? Who are we to say that they are beyond
the pale of God’s mercy?
We believe that all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God.
That, of course, includes ourselves. When God looks at the people of St.
Andrew, God sees people in need of repentance and mercy. It makes no sense to talk about who is
more deserving of God’s mercy or generosity.
In God’s eyes no one occupies a
privileged position, or perhaps we should say everyone occupies a privileged
position, because God’s mercy is wide enough to embrace each of us. It does not matter if we have been here
a long time or this is our first time here. It does not matter if we are ordained or
not ordained. It does not matter if
we are a leader or a follower. It
does not matter if we are a subtle sinner or a blatant sinner. Is God not free to bestow mercy on
anyone God chooses? Blessed are
those who are not offended by the wideness of God’s mercy.
In Jesus’ name,