Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | September 24, 2023

Exodus 16:2-15 & Matthew 20:1-16

One of the basic lessons of life that we learn along the journey is that Life Is Not Fair. The problem we have with this lesson is that we think life should be fair. Not only is life not always fair it is often unjust. We could spend all day on illustrations of injustice, but that’s not why we are here.

The ancient Greeks figured this out a long time ago and they explained it as the gods playing games with mortals. Life can seem like a game sometimes because with one unlucky roll of the cosmic dice you lose. You play by the rules but still you lose. And you see people who lie, cheat and steal and they win. It’s not fair.

An age-old question is: What are you going to do? Then again what can you do? Are there any actions you can take that will make life as fair as you think it should be? We try in various ways with various degrees of success.

Perhaps another way to address the problem is to ask different questions: In light of this, who will you be? What are the values that help to create your identity? What are the core values that guide your actions?

When we look at Scripture, we see that it is mostly about forming an identity. There are underlying questions upon which the stories and teachings of the bible are based – what kind of person will you be? What kind of society will you be? What kind of nation will you be? These are questions constantly calling for us to answer.

We see how the answers are played out in different ways. When the descendants of Abraham and Sara were freed from generations of slavery in Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. In terms of geography it was not a long journey. In terms of the heart and soul it took them forty years because they had to form a new identity. They had to lose their slave mentality and replace it with some more empowering. Along the way they grew restless. As tough as life was in Egypt, it was tougher in the wilderness. They began to remember the good old days. They remembered their former comforts and forgot their former tears.

People began to grumble. They moaned. They said to Moses, “We’re going to starve. Is this what you brought us here for? We should go back to Egypt. At least there we had food to eat.”

How would God respond? By saying something like, “You know what? I’ve had my fill of you people. I set you free and all you do is complain?” No, God said, “I’m going to rain bread from heaven.”

And did it ever rain. One morning when the people arose they discovered a fine flaky substance covering everything in sight. Moses told them to gather it up and eat it. Make bread out of it; they could bake it into sweet chewy sort of cake. The people were in awe of it. As they gathered it up, they asked, “What is it?”

There is some speculation about the nature of manna – whether it was tree sap or some kind of insect excretion. It was probably a natural phenomenon but in abundance.

From the simple question “What is it?” came the name for God’s generous supply, for in Hebrew the question, “what is it?” is pronounced, “manna.”

As God told Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” neither could the blessings of God be contained with a name. It just was what it was, a gift. Manna from heaven is a sign of life in the wilderness – God’s life, God’s generosity. Unexpected yet abundant – It is a sign that no matter where we are, God is there too. Even in situations that seem devoid of life, God is there, and there is hope.

When God fed the people bread from heaven, they could eat their fill, but they couldn’t store it up. Some people tried to store it. They said, “Why bother to gather it every day? We’ll get what we need for a week, and then we’ll be set.” When they tried that, the manna went rancid on them. So no matter what, they had to gather it every day.

Sometimes we want all that God gives in one big dose. “Give me the big blessing,” we pray, “help me through this situation, solve this puzzle, give it all to me and I’ll work it off in bits and pieces.” But God says, “I’ll give you everything for one day at a time. Today is the only day there is, and whatever you need for today, you will receive.”

When Jesus of Nazareth journeyed through the countryside, he performed miracles and he spoke of God in a way that brought God down to earth. Crowds of restless wandering people began to follow him. There were times when they cried out like their ancestors before them.

“Free us. Free us from these Roman oppressors. Free us from these political lackeys. Restore to us the glory of King David. Take us to the Promised Land.” Jesus turned to the crowds and said,

“Many who are first, will be last, and the last will be first.”

The context of Matthew is “Jesus, once removed.” The stories and teachings of Jesus in Matthew are as if the risen Christ is speaking to the early church. When this gospel was written there was a widening schism that was resulting in the Christians becoming more distinct in belief and practice from their Jewish brethren. The church was beginning to move beyond Judaism to embrace a wider world. This required a new understanding of what it meant to be God’s people.

He told a story, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers in his vineyard.”  He gathered enough workers for the task at hand, told them he would pay them the standard day’s wage and set them to work. As the day wore on he needed more workers, so he went out and hired more. Each time he hired a new crew he told them he would pay them what was right.

At the end of the day the workers lined up to get their wages. The ones who started later were paid first. Much to everyone’s surprise, the guys who had worked just one hour were paid a full day’s wages. The guys at the end of the line who had worked all day said to each other, “This looks good. We’re going to get a real bonus here.” But when they got their money, it was for one day of work.

“Hey, that isn’t fair,” they complained. “We worked all day in the hot sun and those bums only worked an hour. You cheated us, man.”

“I didn’t cheat you,” the owner of the vineyard said. “I paid you exactly what we agreed upon. Just because I chose to pay everyone the same wage doesn’t mean you received less. Why should it bother you that I am generous?”

“And so,” Jesus said, “the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

If we look at the context of the story, we see that Jesus was speaking to a mixed crowd. Devout Jews, Pharisees, those who had kept the tradition and hope of the people alive through the generations. The hard workers who put in long hours of labor.

And then there were the “sinners,” the poor, the lame, the prostitutes and tax collectors; the people whom others viewed as on the outskirts of God’s blessing. The kind of people who like those in the story would be standing around idle all day. The kind of Johnnies come lately whom the first group wouldn’t appreciate getting the same measure of God’s grace.

It’s like God is saying, “Everyone line up at the door to my kingdom.” And those who think they deserve a place at the head of the line naturally push their way to the front. Then God says, “Okay, now that you’re all in the line, everyone face the opposite direction. The door is over there.” So the last are first.

And maybe it’s because, if it were left up to us, the people who can’t always fend for themselves, the people who seem less deserving would naturally be at the back of the line. And we might even want the door to close before they have a chance to get in.

But who are “they?” That’s easy. Anyone whom we think doesn’t belong. We might say it isn’t fair, but what is fair? Fairness is simply treating everyone the same way. Thankfully for all of us, there is enough of God’s grace to go around. We all get the same measure, which is plenty.

What is this wage God gives? Think of it as grace. Grace is the understanding that God is everywhere; there is no time when God is not there; there is no place where God is not there. That understand gives us the strength and courage to live life in an unfair world. It gives us the conviction to bring a sense of justice and fairness into the world where we can. When you’re in the wilderness on one of life’s painful journeys, take a look around. Somewhere there is a pathway to grace. You may even find manna from heaven there too. Amen.