Sunday September 20th, 2026 Worship

Oh boy, do we sometimes want to just rant and rave when things don’t go the way we want. We want to throw our fists up in the air and yell about how all of these things aren’t fair! This isn’t what was supposed to happen; this wasn’t what we thought we had been promised or what we felt we had deserved! Sometimes, life lines up a little too well with the sermon texts for me…this week happened to be another one of those weeks, made even more annoying by my surgery restrictions…
Some of you may know that Emily and I have been making preparations at home to welcome a rescue dog into our family! And, we’ve been feeling all of the emotions that go with preparing to bring a fur baby home. But, our process got thrown for a loop this week when the seemingly “perfect” for us dog that we absolutely fell in love with, and were prepared to begin a trial-adoption for this coming week, suddenly was no longer a good fit for us. Now, we obviously want what is best for her, no matter how much it hurts that we were not going to be. But, I would be lying if I said we didn’t have a period of being like all the people in the Scripture stories today who just wanted to cry and seethe in anger that this is not what was supposed to happen! Like the workers in the field (Matthew 20: 1-16), we had an expectation about what was to come, what we were to receive, but then we were left feeling a bit disoriented and heart-broken. Even knowing that there was a possibility something like this could happen, intentionally choosing an organization that focuses on finding the right fit for the dogs and families, instead of just passing out dogs left and right, it still felt like it shouldn’t have happened to us. That we were somehow going to be lucky enough to have the only dog we seriously looked at be the perfect one for us with no complications.
Admittedly, when all of this happened on Thursday night, it put me in a weird headspace to begin writing this sermon on texts that are so deeply rooted in God’s graciousness and mercy. It felt hard to write about this incomprehensible expanse of God’s love and forgiveness when I just wanted to lay on the couch and be sad and grumpy. I was feeling very much like Jonah, sitting off to the side, pouting and throwing his tantrum when things didn’t go the way he wanted, even when he knew what to expect (Jonah 4: 2-5). Jonah’s story is often an interesting one to look at because he begins his crying out by saying “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” (Jonah 4: 2b). He is mad that God is doing what is best for the people of Nineveh, that God is acting in a way that proves cohesive with who Jonah knows God to be: full of mercy and compassion. It makes me, at least, stop for a minute to think about how ridiculous his whole story seems.
Yet, this piece of Jonah’s story is something that I think many of us can connect with, as we see echoed in the Gospel parable today too. When we are angry that someone else is given something that we don’t think they deserve or that we don’t want them to have. It doesn’t even have to be something that we ourselves want, but just think about how easy it is to immediately jump to the conclusion that people are getting more than they deserve. It doesn’t matter what it relates to; be it money, food, fame, or other resources. We want the world to operate in a certain way, which sometimes aligns with who God is and what God is doing in the world, and at other times brings those two things into direct opposition, like we see in the stories today. And then we get mad when God continues to act as how God has proven God’s self to be!
But, the interesting thing about this is that it doesn’t always seem to matter if we know that the right decision is being made, we just want to be angry and wallow in our sadness and the unfairness of it all. I know that is how I felt the other night, even though I knew in my heart that the right decision was being made. Many of us know, because of who we understand God to be, that all people are valued and loved in the eyes of God. We believe that people should have access to the food, shelter, and other care that they need in order to, not just survive, but thrive. That as a community, we love and care about one another, and that God intends to break down those barriers that divide us. Yet, even though Jonah knows God is merciful, Jonah bemoans the fact that God showed mercy to “those people” over there in Ninevah (Jonah 3:10 – 4:11). Even though we believe that people should be able to afford to feed themselves and their families, sometimes we want to act like the workers and say that it’s not fair for us to be paid the same amount when we did more of the work (Matthew 20: 1-16). These stories stir up some often messy and complicated emotions in us because we have all experienced times when life felt unfair and we wanted some answers as to why that was. And, it is so easy to just point fingers and blame “those people” over there, for whatever problem it is that we may be experiencing.
But, I also want to note that these stories don’t just get to be a 1-1 translation into our society today. This Gospel parable isn’t some economic justification for why some people should make more per hour than others, but rather is an example of God’s mercy and continued care for those who are left on the margins. So, I want us to look at what the story neglects to tell us. Because when I think about how this story looks in our world today, I think about all the ways that life tries to knock people down and society makes it harder for them to get back up. When this landowner goes out to hire laborers, we don’t know anything about the people he is choosing. For all we know, it is the “usual” laborers who are hired first, the ones who, based on looks and experience, are the right fit for the job; those who get hired day after day for all the “good” jobs. But what about the laborers who are out there still needing to feed their families? Those who may be younger or older, who may have some physical limitations or who appear weaker in stature and are passed over in the first few rounds of selection. Do they not still need to feed their families? It honestly reminds me a lot of what it was like to be on the sidelines as captains chose teams in elementary gym class. For the laborers who were chosen first, they did not receive any less than they had agreed to, even if their expectation of more was not met. Yet, for those laborers who were chosen last who made the same amount, that might have been all the difference in the world when it came to being able to feed their families that week. Because, this probably wasn’t the only time they were chosen last. God’s grace to others doesn’t mean that we get less, even if it may feel like it sometimes…it’s not pie!
The stories we are hearing today are such a common part of human existence and living amongst one another. We are often asked to wrestle with what it means when people get the things we want or the things we don’t think they should; those times that remind us quite clearly that we are, in fact, not God. And thank goodness for that! Because, as Jonah reminds us in the midst of his own tantrum, “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” (Jonah 4: 2b). Even when I try, I can’t live up to all of those qualifications…because we are not God! But, that doesn’t mean that we are excused from all of this work which God is doing in the world.
When Paul is writing, also quite a bit dramatically I might add, to the people of Philippi and instructs them to “live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1: 27a), I think we often hear this as command to “do good and be good.” That’s a gross oversimplification, but we take it as another command that comes with all the baggage about what it means to be a good Christian and be “worthy of the gospel of Christ.” And, trust me, there is often a lot of baggage there. But, in light of everything that we have heard from our other readings today, I want to again remind us that our worthiness isn’t at all dependent on what we do or how much we produce. Our worthiness is not assessed by God the same way it is in our society.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know exactly what it means to live in such a way that feels we are worthy of the Gospel, because I think the times when we feel unworthy are a lot more pronounced in our memories. But, right now, I’m starting to lean into the idea that being worthy of the Gospel means jumping in and trusting God even through the anxieties and unknowns, believing in this amazing grace that we are given freely, and living as people who both receive this grace and also extend it into the world around us. Because life isn’t always going to feel fair, and there are times when our innate sense of protectiveness is going to flare up bouts of jealousy and anger about what is happening in the lives of other people. If anything, our stories today show us how this has been a human problem for a lot longer than just our lifetimes. Leaning into this understanding is a complex mental shift that will run into many roadblocks and challenges that will require our patience, as we undo some of the teachings from our society in order to rebuild our worldview to be more fully grounded in the Gospel. But, ultimately, it comes back to what I often say: “do we live as if we believe these promises of God to be true?” We don’t have to “do” anything to be worthy of the Gospel, but part of faith is learning how we want to live knowing that we have received this free gift of amazing grace. So help us God.