Readings for September 24, 2017, 16th Sunday after Pentecost

• Jonah 3:10-4:11 and Psalm 145:1-8 
• Philippians 1:21-30  
• Matthew 20:1-16

Kingdom Equalization, by Pastor Kinsey
I don’t know if anybody here remembers when Freda was teaching Line Dancing classes here at Unity, a few years back?  But I even snuck a few classes in with her – and I really loved it!  And even though Freda was very encouraging, I just couldn’t come as often as I wanted.  Eventually Freda moved on to bigger and better things, like teaching LD in the parks downtown and the Cultural Center.
 
Yesterday, I was reminded of this again, when on Curious City, they did a spot on how many line dancing songs out there are Chicago originals, like for example, The Casper Slide, by DJ Casper – which you might know better as the Cha-Cha Slide!  If you’ve been to a wedding in the last 15 years, you’ve probably heard it at the reception.  And if you haven’t danced it yourself, you’ve probably watched your kids or grandkids, or somebody, moving to it!
 
Like most line dances, everybody is dancing together in formation, everybody turning to the right, or the left, all together, and finally, DJ Casper will call –Reverse!  And suddenly the dancers up front are now in the back, and the ones in back are in the lead, up front!  But, they’re all dancing the same steps together.
 
Well in today’s gospel, Jesus tells a parable about a landowner and hired laborers, that calls into question our whole world of what, and who, is first, and last!
 
Jesus says, God’s kingdom is like a man, a housemaster, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. They agreed to the usual daily wage and went to work. The housemaster also went out about 9:00, noon, and 3, and he saw others standing around in the places where day laborers gathered, and said to them, you also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.  And they went.  Then once more at 5:00 – the work day was almost over! – but the man, the housemaster, found that there were still others searching for work, and hired them as well. 
 
Just an hour later, it was quitting time, at 6:00, and he told his manager to call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last first, and going to the first hired, who were to be paid last. 
 
This is when the big surprise comes about who was paid what!  The last workers hired in the front of the line were paid… the usual daily wage.  They only worked one hour!  So when the first hired finally got to the front of the line, they anxiously awaiting their due.  How much more would they be paid for having worked 12 times as much, from 6 to 6!  But they received “the usual daily wage,” and when they did, they grumbled and complained to the housemaster that he had made these 5:00 ‘Jonny-come-lately,’ one-hour-workers, equal to them.  Where was their reward for working through the heat of the day?!
 
But the housemaster reminded them how, when they were hired, they agreed to work for the usual daily wage.  Therefore, you have been treated fairly, he told them.  “Or are you envious,” says the landowner, “because I am generous?” 
 
Darn right they were envious!  And who among us wouldn’t be?! 
 
Generosity to us is when we receive a bonus for working extra hard at our job.  Generosity is giving a gift to a friend we’ve known for a long time because, well, they have been generous in their friendship with us all these years.  Generosity – from an employer’s perspective, is hiring the most qualified person for the job because they’ve prepared hard for it in school, and have worked their way up the ladder. 
 
We all live by these unwritten rules.  We should get what we deserve, right?  Or, as the Good Book says: ‘God helps those who help themselves.’  Except for one problem – that’s not in the Bible!  That’s more the God of our own creation, the religiosity we tend to project onto God from the rules we’ve come to accept as righteous and just – though the way God works, is really the exact opposite. 
 
It reminds me of the phrase, “Mr. Irrelevant” – which is used for the very last and final pick in the National Football League draft.  The last college draft pick is really not even expected to make the team that he gets chosen by!  And usually that turns out to be true in the highly competitive world of the NFL – the last will not be first.  But one notable exception happened in 2009 when kicker Ryan Succop was picked dead last by the Kansas City Chiefs .  He was “Mr. Irrelevant” that year, the 256th pick, but he went on to tie the record for the highest field goal success rate of any rookie kicker!  Mr. Irrelevant, the last, become the first! 
 
But notice too, in our parable, that the workers’ wages are not actually reversed.  The housemaster told those hired first, they would receive the usual daily wage, and he told all the others, those hired at 9, noon, 3 and 5, that they would receive what is fair, whatever is right.  To our minds – those of us who have had many and various work experiences – we are the ones who translate that expectation into what we know best, in our tit-for-tat world – that the later-hires should get something less than the usual daily wage, which is only fair, for working less than a full day’s work, right?! 
 
But in the parable – which is like God’s kingdom, says Jesus – they all receive the exact same wage!  So, in reality, their wages aren’t reversed, they are equalized. 
 
And what I love about this parable is how the man, the housemaster, or landowner, doesn’t remind me of most of the bosses I’ve had.  He’s not sitting in his office fussing over who he’s going to lay off!  He’s not sitting in his office planning how to find better workers than the ones he has now.  And he’s nothing like the most feared and richest bosses of our time, the hedge-fund managers, who buy whole companies just to trim the workforce, firing people they have never met, to make the company look more attractive financially, only to turn around and sell it for their own personal profit! 
 
No, this boss is most concerned about, who it is that is looking for work, those he may have missed the first time around that are patiently hoping to be hired, the excluded and outcast; those who may not have graduated from high school, but still need to feed their families; those who have been injured; those who are undocumented.  We know they’re out there – even though they’re not even counted in today’s unemployment statistics. 
 
But this boss cares!  And that’s a hint about what he’s doing with his crazy pay scale at the end of the day!  The man, the housemaster, gives a fair and usual daily wage to everyone, no matter how long, or short, they work.  Everyone deserves a living wage, everyone deserves to feed their families.  Sounds similar to the Fight for a $15 minimum wage!  Sounds like the community benefits agreements being negotiated around the city, that have various demands, including, jobs for local residents at a living wage, community green spaces, sustainability issues, and guaranteed low-income housing.  A basic daily living!
 
Of course, the housemaster knows this kind of wage structure is going to make some “envious” of his “generosity.”  All of us can feel that sting, in this parable! 
 
But what if we saw it as, God’s grace, that is inviting us into the kingdom of heaven Matthew talks about, even now, already?!  Our salvation is at hand, as Jesus says, and we all receive the same gracious gift – our daily bread, our daily sustenance, equally – like sharing, of the One Loaf at the Lord’s Table?! 
 
Entering this way-of-living is a transformation into a sharing economy.  We are called to work, by our Creator, and the work is a blessing and grace itself – when we are all given the opportunity.  This is a Line Dance that is a pure joy and includes all!  The first and last – the left and right!
 
When we meet our gracious and generous God, in Jesus, the bringer of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are not surprised everyone receives “the usual daily wage.”  And then, instead of having envy – which is a breaking of the 10th Commandment – we learn to rejoice, and all dance together, in the re-creation of our world, as God has first created it for us! 
 
Let us join the beat of this Kingdom-Paradise, today! 

Readings for September 17, 2017 - Pentecost 15A

• Genesis 50:15-21 and Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13  
• Romans 14:1-12  
• Matthew 18:21-35

Beyond Separation, Pastor Kinsey 
Act I:  On the American island of St. John, in the Virgin Islands, where Kim and I have vacationed, there were reports, by a few of the wealthy main landers, of looting, stealing from businesses and even homes, after Hurricane Irene laid waste to this Jewel of the Caribbean.  It’s estimated that 80% of all buildings were destroyed.  Some described it as, like a war zone.  There is still no power, save some generators here and there, and electricity across the island might not be fully restored for months.  A handful of hotspots have been created for cell service.  But food and water remains the immediate concern.  Can looting in a dire situation like this be surprising?  Can the thieves be forgiven?  If they presented their case to the king, in Jesus’ parable, would they be forgiven? 
 
Act II:  On Friday Kim and I went out to dinner with three friends and amidst the enjoyment of it all, Adrian and I were taking pictures around the table on our cell phones.  When I took one of Kurt and Nora together, I jerked the camera back just as the shutter sounded, but thought I might have still gotten the picture.  Adrian laughed and said, you moved the camera, they’ll be blurry!  I refused to believe him, and wouldn’t even look at the picture, to prove, who was right, me or him.  Though I did, grudgingly, take another one.  Later at home, when I finally decided I could handle the truth, sure enough, it was super fuzzy and unfocused!  Maybe I owed him an apology? even though it was such a small thing, and we quickly moved on – a minor hurt, I had felt, and then perpetrated on him, even though he was right!  But still – how often do we experience this?! 
 
Act III:  On the radio podcast, This American Life, yesterday, there was a really moving story about two estranged brothers, now getting on in years.  And while the son and nephew of the two, kept in contact with both of them, they, hadn’t actually spoken to each other as long as he’d known them.  The son & nephew, Johnathan, wanted to get to the bottom of it and find out why.  Al and Joe each had their own stories, small infractions which weren’t even about the same thing!  Now Johnathan’s dad, Al, was getting older and in ill health, and the son was worried they wouldn’t have time to reconcile, before either Al or Joe passed on, and it would be too late. 
 
So his plan was to get them together and create an opportunity for forgiveness – or at least find out what happened between them.  At first they had no interest in getting together.  Why should they do that?  They had settled into their own lives in different east coast cities, and were comfortable in their own separate static situations! 
 
But they didn’t say no, absolutely, so he set up the arrangements.  His dad would go to visit his older brother, but would get a motel to stay in with, Jonathan, which was a start, at least.  His dad had always found his uncle to be, very funny, as a person, but hard to get along with it.  And that first day, the older brother did indeed keep them entertained.  He recalled childhood friends they had in common, or not, and the conversation stayed pretty surface level.  Johnathan was worried that they needed to go deeper, to actually face the elephant in the room, and that they’d never get there at this rate. 
 
But on the second day, almost by accident, his dad brought up the time their mother, Johnathan’s grandmother, had left their home – for good.  Johnathan’s dad, Al, was only 5, and his brother Joe, was 9.  Al, always remembered that there was an argument between their parents.  His mom left, and later came back, only to take Joe along with her – which Al always took to mean that she loved him more!  This was the unforgiveable crime that he had harbored all these years.  But, as Joe began to fill in some of the details, it became clear something else was going on.  The father had been abusive to his wife their whole marriage, and also to him, the eldest son.  Their mother left, after what was the “last straw” for her.  But she came back for Joe, not because she loved him more, but only trying to protect him, as she was trying to protect herself, a choice she had to make, on the spur of the moment. 
 
It was not a perfect solution, but that’s what happened.  And for the first time, Johnathan’s dad was able to see this pivotal moment in their family history, from his older brother’s perspective.  And Johnathan could now see how his dad, throughout his life, had reacting angrily and inappropriately, whenever he had been slighted, or made to feel less-than, because he had felt unlovable.  Now, Al’s whole adult life flashed before his very eyes, and he could no longer be angry, couldn’t hold on to his animosity he had had for Joe, all this time. 
 
Being the people they were, there were no hugs, or even tears, at this point.  Though I certainly had some, just listening in!  But Joe closed his eyes, Johnathan said, and was unusually quiet.  And finally, looked at his brother Al while petting his cat in his lap, said, if I was to pass-on, you wouldn’t be able to – and then he looked at his cat and said – take her on at your place, would you?  And right away, with a little chuckle, the younger brother said sure, of course I could do that.  Later he told his son Johnathan, he planned to call his older brother on his birthday. 
 
Their relationship, had become un-stuck!  Johnathan had gotten them to a new, and much better, place, beyond their separation.  It was a mutual forgiveness and reconciliation – though no words to that effect were mentioned. 
 
It seems to me, that forgiveness can be a much trickier thing than we give it credit for!  If sin is the broken relationships we have between one another, and our separation from God – which is, the biblical definition – then forgiveness is as complicated, as our histories of alienation and estrangement, that we live with every day! 
 
Small hurts may be forgiven unconsciously, like the hurt felt and inflicted over a blurry cell phone picture.  Larger infractions, like stealing, may be impossible to forget, and almost as difficult to forgive, especially when the perpetrators are not caught – as was the case with the looting on St. John’s after the hurricane.
 
And in that case, who’s to say it was not pay back, for the thousands of cuts of injustice, by a mostly white and wealthy homesteading population that controls the wealth, the jobs, and the land, where the indigenous, mostly black population have lived since Dutch slavery days.  Certainly, there was the sin of separation between these two populations, even before the hurricane – where the indigenous islanders lived an uneasy existence, of dependence, on the ‘economy of tourism,’ from people like myself.  It’s better than overt slavery, but like Jim Crow, is a kind of institutionalized inequality all the same.  The hurricane, simply revealed the sin – that is, the separation, more obviously – just as the palm trees on St. John that were defoliated by Irene’s 180mph winds, are now left standing, completely bare.  So where is sin amidst the complicated web of separation, here?  And what would forgiveness look like?
 
Most of our lives, are actually lived somewhere between these two extremes of minor, and more obvious, sins.  Most of us, I would guess, are much closer to Al and Joe’s lives, who grew apart over time, who lived in a sin of separation that is harder to define exactly, and equally hard to resolve.  Their separation was built on an incomplete knowledge, of the life they had lived together, as boys, yet felt and experienced in very different ways.  But is actually quite common.
 
Still, Jesus insists that forgiveness is important.  When “Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’”  And Peter is trying to be clever here.  Seven is the number meaning perfection or completeness.  So, Peter is thinking he’s going way above and beyond.  But, “Jesus said to him, ‘Not [just] seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.’” 
 
77?!  For one person – that’s like, infinity!  Forgiveness is unending, Jesus seems to say!  Maybe this is the loving forgiveness God gives to us?  But is it really how much we are to forgive others? 
 
I don’t actually know anyone, that perfect!  But I do believe that Jesus is asking us to try.  Not just, give it the ol’ college try.  But take the first step, because, in the trying, the doing of actual forgiveness and breaking down of separation, we learn what reconciliation means; we learn what relief, from carrying heavy burdens, is!  And most of all, we begin to learn that we either, grow in the love of Christ, which is behind forgiveness, or, we continue in the practice of what’s behind the separation of sin – fear and distrust, which can lead to lies, or even to violence. 
 
So, what Jesus is saying, I think, is that the kingdom and realm of God, is paved through forgiveness, based on love. 
 
The followers of Jesus are those who forgive, because they are those who have come to know, God’s forgiveness and love – - - or at least, are like the Jonathan’s of this world, who step up and practice it, before it’s too late, and the much needed forgiveness, we all want and need, is left on the table!  

Readings for Sept 10, 2017, Pentecost 14 (Lectionary 23A) 

• Ezekiel 33:7-11 and Psalm 119:33-40  
• Romans 13:8-14  
• Matthew 18:15-20

"Early Riser," by Pastor Kinsey

​This is my confession: I have a lot of self-righteousness about being an ‘early riser!’  I like getting up before the sun, and enjoying the early morning, before most people are out of bed.  This is my quiet time, my time to get the news on NPR, do the dishes, watch the sun rise. 
 
Conversely, I have a hard time staying up late.  My energy dwindles after dinner.  I have to push myself to get work done or attend an evening meeting.  If I can make it to the 10:00 News, before I start brushing my teeth, that’s a good day! 
 
So, I’m not very good at late night “reveling and drunkenness,” as St. Paul puts it!  Though, I have been known to enjoy a beer or two at Theology on Tap.  I even tried all-night-partying in college with a few class mates.  But it didn’t really interest me.  I couldn’t see the point of it, really.  And too much alcohol just makes me sleepy anyway.  I’m a bit of a party pooper most of the time.
 
So, that’s my confession!  I feel self-righteous about being an early riser, because, at least on the face of it, I pretty much naturally am not tempted by the very stuff Paul warns about, in today’s Reading from his Letter to the Romans… 
 
“…you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For …the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness… Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”
 
The church Paul was building across the northern Mediterranean, was expecting the immanent return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day of salvation, that was coming near.  But in the meantime, followers of Jesus were to, put on his armor, to actually put on, him, the Lord Jesus Christ, as they waited.  The time was early in the morning.  The night time, when all the reveling took place, was over.  But dawn, the moment of resurrection for the world, had not quite yet arrived either. 
 
These would have been well known metaphors, for the believers Paul addressed.  Salvation in Christ had arrived as, a full promise, in Christ’s resurrection, the first born of the dead.  But the redemption of the whole world – i.e. God’s beloved people, all other creatures here below, the fruits and flowers, the lakes and rivers – still await the new dawn of the most beautiful and beloved day of the new age to come! 
 
Paul then takes this metaphor and builds on it.  As we await the day, he says, we “put on the armor of light.”  An analogy to military dress and equipment, mixed with a protection of light from the expected, wholly new day, of creation.  This is how we are to dress, right now.  There is nothing that can harm us, when we put on these new ‘school clothes!’   And further, this wardrobe has no need to gratify the desires of late night reveling.  Putting on Christ is respecting the gift of our bodies, for we know that the resurrection-life to come is an embodied one, a redeemed life, in God’s redeemed creation, and somehow, wonderfully, also beyond sin and death. 
 
But, I also know, these are all just metaphors.  We do not know what the realm and kingdom of God look like, exactly.  So, rising and waiting early in the morning in the last bit of darkness before the light of dawn, as I love to do, is not morally superior to those who stay up late and sleep-in.  If it was literal, and not metaphorical, I would have been rewarded with the new day, a long time ago!  But I have not seen it yet.  It doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm, or joy, for rising early.  But I know, any joy I do derive from naturally being an early riser, is only self-righteousness if I equate it literally with my faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ! 
 
Once, not too long ago, I stayed out past midnight listening to the Blues at a local club in New Orleans, an experience of elation like pure heaven!  And to top it off, as we walked back to our hotel, we happened to cross paths with a street band, a really boisterous brass band, the kind of which you only find in New Orleans, and it grabbed hold of us, building louder and faster, and it took me to heavenly places, the kind of improvisation and free spirited sound that you couldn’t help but dance to.  I felt as if I had reached the dawn of the new day itself!
 
Later I read how it was just these kinds of bands that caused those, early-to-bed-types, to push through a new law against late-night, loud music, on the streets of New Orleans!  And that made me feel so confused and conflicted!  Normally I would have signed on to that petition right away!  But now I wasn’t so sure, because it was an elation I’ll not soon forget.  Was it reveling and debauchery?  I don’t know – to me it was spiritual!  But, I do feel bad if we woke someone up – some early riser, like me! 
 
Of course, this is just a metaphor too.  However much it felt like heaven, it was just a fleeting moment, at best.  Midnight and dawn have broken many times since then, without the new day of Christ having yet arrived. 
 
When Paul told the Romans, “you know what time it is,” he used the other word for time.  Not Cronos time, of the clock, sequential time.  But Kairos time, historically full moments, moments full of pregnant anticipation, red letter days.  Even today, 2,000 years later, we still live in that pre-dawn moment, awaiting the full revealing of Christ on the new day.  And we are still trying to learn how to await it with the armor of light, having put on the Lord Jesus Christ.  We still live in this same kairotic moment.
 
And, what does this mean, if not, as Paul says in this same passage, that we are to “love your neighbor as yourself.  Love does no wrong to a neighbor;” says Paul, “therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” 
 
And, loving neighbor, on the face of it, feels a lot more doable to us than trying to follow all 600, or so, laws of the Torah, from the first five books of the Hebrew scripture, or Old Testament.  Now, we just have one law to live by. 
 
And Jesus demonstrated what he meant by those words, by giving his life, for the sake of the world.  So, cross and resurrection are the shape of, loving neighbor. 
 
‘Loving neighbor’ then, can stretch us in ways we had not anticipated.  Each situation we encounter, is different to some degree.  New people, new places, complicate our decisions.  Right and wrong, black and white answers, that we may have previously taken for granted, might not always fit the new situation we encounter, facing a world vastly more complex than we thought, as we grow older.  There is no script to follow, exactly – when all there is, is a general imperative to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  This kind of, life of faith, requires prayer and trust, that God will guide us.  This kind of life, must take risks for the sake of the gospel.
 
And so, being grounded in what time it is, that Kairos time, time with a meaning, the time before the breaking of the dawn – can help us, and guide us, and sustain us, as we take seriously the calling to love your neighbor as yourself.  Putting on the armor of light is a metaphor meant to center us in our real life of faith.
 
For we know, Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.  That’s what time it is.  It shapes who we are, and how we live in the world, as followers of Jesus – no matter if we’re early risers, or sleepers-in!