As we follow the daily Eucharist lectionary through Judges and Matthew both sections read today converge in speaking of how being a Christian believer flies at times in the face of the world.
Take the Gospel reading we just heard from Matthew 20:1-16. The early birds get paid the same as the slackers in Our Lord’s parable against the presumption of the religious leaders of his day. To be a Christian believer is to trust a God who is gracious and not to be tied down to any worldly reckonings.
Or, look back to that passage from Judges about the trees. The prophecy of Jotham in Judges 9:6-15 warns against power structures. The trees, wanting a king, offer a crown to the olive, the fig tree and the vine but all are too busy being fruitful to want to wave their branches over their fellows. This task is eventually welcomed by the thorn bush and everyone suffers. People who seek power are prickly and we are to be wise of them.
The Gospel works back to front and turns worldly thinking upside down.
In his book ‘What’s so Amazing about Grace’ Philip Yancey refers to ‘the atrocious mathematics of the gospel’ which reverses the question ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ with the question ‘Why do good things happen to bad people?’ like the slackers in today’s passage.
When it comes to living our Christianity comparisons are invidious. Why? Because God has the right to do as he likes with those he owns – which is all of us – so that he can disturb our worldly reckonings. Thus the last will be first and the first, last.
In the same way the all-powerful One we worship is not interested in power. He is, to coin a phrase, downwardly mobile. He blesses those who will be servants like Jesus. His blessing is held back from the self-important – we can see that from the consequences that flow from self-important leadership.
How can we live the Gospel? Can we attempt to go back to front and upside down in the way Christ teaches?
Not deliberately - but as the Spirit leads. He can be very surprising - a God at work in lowly places and people, One who is at work to turn worldly thinking about people’s value on its head.
I suppose being the best sort of Christian is to be one who is less and less surprised by the workings of the Holy Spirit.
Like the telling question ‘are you more surprised when God answers your prayers than when he doesn’t?’
We have a God of overflowing goodness more eager to provide for us than we are to seek such a provision.
In this Eucharist we come once again to meet with him in the bread of life and the cup of salvation which are the mystery of Christ’s logic-defying love.
We come like the workers in the vineyard to this feast. Some of us are more early birds but most of us are towards the other end of the spectrum. All of us are welcomed with the same grace.
We do not presume to come to this your table trusting in our own righteousness, Lord, but in your manifold and great mercies for none of us is worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under this table.
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