It's Not Fair!

I am always indebted to the thoughts and writing of preachers and friends who are smarter than me. I stole the title and the refrain outright from Rev. Dan Hayward, who also gave me at least one wonderful phrase to use in the text of the sermon. The work of Ira Brent Driggers, the Rev. Barbara Beam, the Rev. Dr. Delmer L. Chilton, and the Rev. Sarah Robbins all provided direction, inspiration, and instruction in writing this sermon. No, it isn't fair. Thank God, it isn't fair at all.  

Exodus 16:2-15 
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?” And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him — what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.” Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’” And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

Philippians 1:21-30 
For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again. Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God’s doing. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well — since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. 

Matthew 20:1-16 
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 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.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” 

This is the Word of the Lord.

A lot of times, Jesus’ parables use the same storytelling techniques that make for good joke-telling. Start with a believable premise, then as you build, it gets more and more unlikely, building toward the hilarious punchline. Only when Jesus gets through with this story, no one is laughing.

A little background: this parable takes place immediately after the familiar account of the “Rich Young Ruler.” A man asks Jesus, “what must I do to be saved,” and as the conversation progresses he is told, finally, to sell all he has and give it to the poor.

Peter brings up the fact that he and the other disciples have, in effect, done just that, forsaken all they had to follow this itinerant rabbi. “What, then,” he asks, “will there be for us?”

Peter is, in effect, asking “What’s in it for me?”

I can imagine Jesus doing a face-palm, taking a deep breath, and says, “Pete, didja hear the one about the vineyard owner who went to hire some workers?”

It starts simply enough, with a guy negotiating a wage and hiring workers for his vineyard. Then going and hiring more workers… only this time, he’s kinda vague about the wages. “I’ll pay you whatever is right,” he says, and he says it again when he goes out for yet more workers, and again for more workers, and he even goes out an hour before quitting time and gets another batch!

And then – and then! – he passes out the pay, starting not with the ones who had been picking grapes since the break of dawn, but with the guys who had been there barely long enough to break a sweat! But the others suddenly don’t care, because they see the one-hour guys getting a full days wages. They put their heads together and start doing the math, and they like the numbers they’re coming up with! Now I can get that big-screen TV I’ve been wanting!

And their smiles start to fade as they see the guys hired at three o’clock getting – a day’s wages. The guys hired at noon? A day’s wages. By the time the nine-o’clockers reach the pay window, the back of the line is grumbling. All that work, and they’re gonna end up getting no more than the guys who worked maybe an hour! Ridiculous! Unthinkable! Criminal! Unfair!

Of course it’s unfair.

One of the things that I find interesting here is that the landowner never mentions needing more workers when he goes out at nine, at noon, at three and at five. In fact, one could argue quite the opposite. The workers who lined up at the crack of dawn would have been the most able, the ones who could jump to the front of the line. As the day wore on, the pool of capable laborers would have been getting smaller and smaller. Older, perhaps, with some infirmity that made them not as quick, or unable to lift as much of a burden. It wouldn’t make sense for someone who needed labor to hire the ones left over at three or five in the afternoon.

But in that day and age, and in that area of the world, many people lived far below the level of what most of us would consider “abject poverty” today. Hand-to-mouth wouldn’t even begin to describe the situation for most families, who depended on day-to-day employment for their very survival. If you worked that day, you and your family ate… and if you found no work, everyone went to bed hungry, and hoped that they might be able to eat something tomorrow.

Imagine living in that stark reality. And imagine, as the dawn breaks, the landowners come and hire the most able-bodied, the strongest, the fastest… and leave, and you’re still standing there.

And about nine o’clock, a few others are hired. But not you. Noon? You’re still waiting there, thirsty, hungry, wishing the cloud of doom hanging over your head would at least provide some shade. By three o’clock, the only reason you’re still in the marketplace is the dread of going home empty-handed and facing your hungry children.

Then that landowner comes back, walks up to you, and asks, “why have you been standing around all day doing nothing?” You don’t even bother to look up. Can’t he see? “No one hired me” is all you say.

“Go to the vineyard, and I’ll pay you what’s right.”

You shuffle off. “What’s right” for an hours’ work? Maybe enough to buy some bread for the kids, you hope. It’s something, anyway.

Now imagine standing at the front of the pay line, staring at your hands as the manager hands you a full days’ wages. Suddenly, unfairness is a good thing, isn’t it?

Peter is interested in what’s in it for him. After all, success is judged on who finishes first, who gets the promotion, who gets the trophy, who gets the corner office. Winners keep score, and all that. And he’s not alone among the apostles. We read in the Gospels that James and John wanted to sit on either side of Jesus in his kingdom. They deserved it, after all, they had worked hard and sacrificed much, and they should be rewarded for their efforts!

But our Gospel reading begins, “…the Kingdom of Heaven is like…”

What if the Kingdom of Heaven is a place where there is no contest? What if “fair” isn't even a word that can be used, because each and every one of us is Abba's beloved child, equally loved, equally valued, equally undeserving of the grace we have received?

The idea of “first” and “last” make very little sense in a place where all truly are equal. The weakest and the lowliest and the most forgotten has the best seat in God’s kingdom, and so does the strongest and the best-known, because we have that place which Jesus has prepared for us.

Peter and James and John and the rest have the same viewpoint that we all too often do: If you work hard, if you show real effort and determination, if your dedication to the cause is solid and without shadow of turning, then you should be able to earn a better place than the folks who come later, right? And the very idea that someone who is late to the game, or who doesn’t meet our expectations, would be given the same grace and forgiveness and salvation and inclusion in the Kingdom that we enjoy, why, that’s not fair!

The mistake we make is thinking that our labor for the Kingdom, which is a gift from God, is rather a benefit to God.

But we know better, don’t we? It may not be fun to admit, but we know that God’s grace, that salvation, that citizenship in the Kingdom of God cannot be earned. God’s generosity is not tied to any of our human notions of fairness or equity. Far from it – the last shall be first, everything we thought we knew has been turned on its head! God figures our merits with a calculus of grace that is far beyond anything we can comprehend. God’s love is so overwhelming and generous that all we can do is receive it and share it with others.

The love and grace of God isn’t contingent on our abilities, our popularity, our possessions, our bank account or our good looks. Like those last poor souls who the landowner found an hour before quitting time, we only have to be present to be included, because that citizenship, and the grace and salvation which are part and parcel thereof are a product of God’s infinite, indiscriminate, abundant and, yes, even unfair generosity!

It isn’t fair, no. But that’s Good News, isn’t it?

Lazarus, come out!

It's kind of frustrating, being given such a wonderful smorgasbord of readings all on one Sunday. I could feast for weeks on the Gospel reading alone.

Truth be told, my friend the Rev. Daniel Hayward, a minister in the United Church of Canada, let me read his sermon, and gifted me with the lynchpin for the sermon. Like Rev. Gene Anderson says, "Borrowing for a sermon is like playing the blues, it ain't stealing if can play the lick well." It also helps to have permission...

Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.”
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,” says the LORD.

Romans 8:6-11
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law — indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

John 11:1-45
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep.
Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out.
They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.


This is the Word of the Lord.

Misunderstanding. It was part of the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus, who mistook being “born from above” with being “born again” from his mother’s womb. Misunderstanding was part of the conversation with the woman at the well, who mistook “living water” for naturally flowing water. And misunderstanding is a feature of today’s reading as well – not just that the disciples misunderstood Jesus when he spoke of Lazarus being asleep; not just that Martha misunderstood Jesus when he spoke of Lazarus rising again, but our own misunderstanding of what these verses really mean to Christians, and to the world in general, today. Because, make no mistake: what Jesus says here, and what Jesus does here, changes everything.

First, some background: in the verses preceding today’s reading, Jesus has been in Jerusalem during Hanukah, and the Jewish leaders who opposed him demanded that he tell them, once and for all, whether or not he was the Messiah.
When he said to them, “I and the Father are one,” they tried to stone him! Kill him! Right there in the Temple courts!

Jesus had been causing trouble, you see. Causing trouble simply by talking. Simply by healing. Simply by being alive. So he retreated, with his disciples, across the Jordan, out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind of those who would see him dead.

And now, with mortal danger like storm clouds hanging over Jerusalem, he went to Bethany, just two miles away. Why? Couldn’t Jesus have healed Lazarus days ago, from right where he was, with a word? He’d done it before! Why wait until he’s dead, and four days dead at that? Why put himself, and his disciples, in peril now, when Lazarus is in the tomb, when the mourners are gathered, when nothing more can be done?

I don’t presume to know all the answers about this passage. It is even more complex than the passage about the woman at the well, and I’ve already said that I could make a sermon series out of that one.

But I want to suggest that part of the answer, maybe a glimpse at the “why” of Jesus coming to such a dangerous place, at a time when it seemed like all hope was lost, is found in what he says to Martha when she misunderstands him.

The two of them are standing there, outside the village gates. The disciples are standing a respectful distance away, yet watchful - eyes darting nervously around, remembering the terror of the angry mob, stones in hand, struggling to lay their hands on Jesus in the temple.

Jesus says Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha, traditionally the more practical, rational of the two sisters, nods, raising her head, daring to look directly at Jesus through tearstained eyes. “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

While that’s true, there’s something more Jesus wants her to understand. They lock eyes, and for a long moment the only sound is the blowing breeze. Then Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live! And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die!”

Silence, again. The rustling breeze, the nervous shuffle of disciples' feet.

Martha absorbs these words, and Jesus begins to see the glimmer of comprehension in Martha’s eyes, the look of grief giving way to confusion, then wonder, then understanding… Finally, he asks: “Do you believe this?”

Notice how Martha responds. She doesn’t say “Yes, I believe you can raise my brother from the dead.” No, her response is more a statement of faith, an acknowledgement of a truth she can’t even begin to comprehend. “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Jesus spoke, and Martha heard.

For time's sake this morning we must fast-forward, to that hillside cave, that tomb sealed with a boulder.

Martha had said, "...you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

It’s not just some itinerant Rabbi who stands there in the graveyard, surrounded by perplexed mourners. It’s not some two-bit magician who calls for the stone to be rolled away. That’s no mere prophet who raises his voice in prayer as the crowd covers their noses and steps back in revulsion as the tomb is laid open.

It is the Christ, the Messiah of God, who calls out to Lazarus. God’s only Son speaks those words! God made flesh, God-With-Us, Jesus cries in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

Jesus spoke, and Lazarus heard!

From this point forward, there was no denying who Jesus really was. Healing the sick? Impressive, but prophets had done that kind of thing on occasion. Hadn’t Elijah raised a boy from the dead? But Elijah’s guy was pretty recently deceased, and everyone believed in those days that the soul stayed near the body for three days after dying, so maybe it wasn’t resurrection as much as resuscitation.

But this? These mourners had seen the cold, lifeless body of Lazarus, wrapped tightly in burial linens, placed in the tomb. They had seen the door sealed. They had sat with Mary and Martha, mourning in the proper way, and each and every one of them knew that this was no sleight-of-hand, no mistake, no embarrassing miscalculation on the part of some doctor.

Jesus spoke, and Lazarus heard. Lazarus, who was dead, was alive.

Some believed. Others ran the two miles to the Temple and reported what they’d seen, and the push to wipe Jesus off the face of the earth once and for all went in to high gear.

Because as much as Jesus had spoken to the Temple rulers and the Pharisees, as many proofs as he had offered… as many times as he had called them to come out of their tombs of privilege and power and wealth and fame, as often as he had implored them to be loosed from their graveclothes of religious superiority and doctrinal self-righteousness… they had not heard.

When I spoke at the outset about how we tend to misunderstand what Jesus is really saying in this passage, what I mean is that we tend to stop short of the whole message. This is a passage we hear a lot of times at funerals, for good reason. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Christ, though he died, arose triumphant from the grave and lives forevermore, and in the words of the Apostle Paul, “will come down from heaven, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise…”

This is true, make no mistake. But there’s so much more. You see, when Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life,” he isn’t just talking about the Final Resurrection and eternal life, the glorious dawn that awaits us when this twilight ends, as wonderful as that is.

I submit to you that when Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life,” he was, in effect, echoing God's words through the prophet Ezekiel: "I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people!"

Jesus meant resurrection and life in the here and now! Not just a glorious, assured resurrection from physical death, but a resurrection from living as if we are dead. Living in sin, lost to all that is worth calling “life.”

When we live selfishly, as if we are dead to the needs of others, Jesus calls to us, “come out.”

Will we hear?

When we live with insensitivity, as if we are dead to the feelings of others, Jesus calls to us, “come out.”

Will we hear?

When we live with hopelessness, spiritually dead, Jesus calls to us, “come out.”

Will we hear?

Jesus calls us to come out and be loosed from our own graveclothes of selfishness and insensitivity and greed and despair, to be set free to live true lives here and now.

Will we hear?

Jesus, who is the resurrection, and who is the life, calls on us today: “come out!”

Will we hear?

Will we live?