I had the privilege to be with the good people of St. Michael Lutheran Church in Omaha on Saturday September 23 and Sunday September 24, 2023. Thank you Pastor Tim Koester and Joyce Palmer and the Mission Endowment Committee, and to the congregation’s vitality team, for the invitation, and to the whole congregation for the warm welcome. I was invited to preach as part of the congregation’s fall stewardship emphasis on “Go And…,” as well as to be present and lead the Adult Forum between services on Sunday morning. It was a joy to be with them in worship for three services over the weekend, and then to join the congregation in the first part of their “Go And…” emphasis on, “Go and Have a Conversation.” What follows is the majority of the manuscript I preached from, based on the appointed gospel lesson from Matthew 20:1-16. If you would like to watch or listen to the service (and/or sermon), the video recording from their live-streamed service can be found below.
Grace and peace from God in Christ, who is with you, for you, and who loves you. Amen.
Of the many vocations and identities that I might claim to describe myself, perhaps one of the most important is being a dad. I offer that admission because perhaps you too have heard or said this phrase yourself, “But it’s not fair!” I occasionally might even hear in my own household, “But it’s not fair daddy!” I often hear it when one of our kids gets an experience that the other doesn’t, or when one gets to ride in my car, and the other rides in mommy’s. Perhaps you can relate? I think Jesus probably can based on the parable he tells today.
A Story about God’s Abundant Love and Grace
It’s a story on its surface that challenges our human conception of fairness. But if we dig a little deeper, it’s a story about grace and how abundant it is in God, and, it’s a stewardship story about abundance and God’s abundant love we know most clearly through Jesus. The parable Jesus tells centers around a landowner, laborers, and the landowner’s benevolence to put everyone to work and to pay “whatever is right.”[1] But what constitutes what is “right” might be up for interpretation. The landowner went out to look for workers frequently during the day, to the point that all might have work. This landowner is determined to provide opportunity for those who might need it, reminding us of how we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The landowner provides so that all might have what they need for daily living, a beautiful example of abundance in God’s love.
It’s also a story about God’s unlimited grace. But that’s where we start to have problems as people. Our human nature lies to us and tries to make us believe that some should have more than others. That some deserve more than others. That there is a limited amount of what can go around. And we buy into these perpetuated lies of scarcity, where some will get more and others less. But Jesus rejects this, and at the heart of this parable today is a total rebuke of that belief. For in God’s economy, there is enough for everyone, and no one is greater than another. For all have the shared identity of being a beloved Child of God. Imagine the laborers in the story. Imagine if you or I were one of them. Would we be grumbling and saying, “But, it’s not fair?” To the grumbling, Jesus concludes with the landowner’s response. “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”[2]
I love this story. But it’s challenging. Because it tells me that no matter how much I work, no matter how much I love, no matter how much I serve, I am not going to improve my station in God’s eyes. I am not going to earn my place. I am not going to earn God’s grace. I say thanks be to God for that because we all know we can never earn or deserve God’s pure gift of life and grace.
But the thing about grace that comes through in this story so clearly, is like how a good friend of mine and many of yours famously said, “It’s not grace until it makes you mad because someone else is receiving it.”[3] This story challenges a lot of conceptions about who God is and what God is up to. God will not be contained and made to be vengeful or to lovingly care about only a few. God will not be manipulated into acting a certain way that we as human beings might want God to act. And God’s true abundance and love cannot be limited. God’s generosity far exceeds any imagination we could ever have of what generosity, abundance, and fairness might look like. As Jesus concludes this week’s story, he describes that there is a great reversal in God’s kingdom. One where all might have enough, and no one would have too much, so as to prevent others from enjoying their own daily bread.
The lies of scarcity, and the sin of hoarding of what God has entrusted, might lead us to respond, “But it’s not fair!” But if we do that, are we missing the point about life together? Are we missing the point about what this gift of life is that we each have? Are we thinking first and foremost about ourselves, and not paying attention to our neighbors and God’s invitation and call to show love?I wonder if Jesus is inviting the disciples of all times and places to hear this parable with fresh ears this week. What would the world be like, if we did, and then took it to heart? Perhaps the kingdom of heaven might just break into our world here and now a bit more?
Some Wisdom about Stewardship
St. Michael’s, you embody this, and dare I say it the kingdom of heaven does break in bit by bit, through, with, in, and for you. You embody this through the way you live out your discipleship and stewardship. Through the way you grow and follow as disciples, and the way you go and, by seeing and remembering what God has done, and responding as generous and joyful stewards of God’s love through all that you do and all that you are. Through your daily living. Through your time, talent, gifts, strengths and passions. Through your dreams, ideas, hopes, questions, and wonderings. Through meeting your neighbors where they are at, with whatever God entrusts into your care. Through the way you show up. Through the way you partner with your neighboring congregations, and the ways I have seen you show up time and time again for and with your Sudanese siblings in Christ, and your siblings of Iglesia San Andres Luterana and their food pantry too.
All of this and more is your stewardship. Using all that God has entrusted into your care and responding for all that God has done, will do, and promises to do for you with joy and gratitude. Living life that is full, and deeply meaningful as we follow Jesus wherever he might be leading. Meeting all of God’s beloved where they are at, and offering signs of grace, care, and love out of God’s deep mercy, grace, generosity, and abundance.
You do this as you Go and… To go and have a conversation, and share stories of life and faith together. You do this as you go and be joyful, celebrating all that God has done and is doing. You do this as you go and plant a harvest, leaving a legacy of faith beyond just yourself. And you do this as you go and be intentional while acting with purpose, living out God’s love and grace in real-time, and responding generously and deliberately in faith. You do this as you don’t settle and give into the temptations and sins of the world, saying, “but it’s not fair.” Instead, you follow where Jesus leads and you “Go and” with God, wherever God might be inviting you to journey next.
Go And… Listen and Follow the Holy Whispers (Vitality Stories and connecting the dots)
I know this about you St. Michael. Because of the way you show up with and for your neighbors. Through your advocacy work for your neighbors to the blood drives you organize. To the years of expertise and labor you have given to help families get back on their feet and their homes back in good shape since the 2019 floods. To the good news and joy you share each year through the gift of caroling every Advent and Christmas season. And I know this because I have seen it in the way you leaned into the vitality initiative and are living it out, as you go and while listening and following the holy whispers. Those whispers of the Spirit guiding you, leading you, and helping you discern. Helping you wonder about what God might be up to? And what God might be inviting you to be a part of next?
What might those Holy Whispers be saying? What might they have to say about how you were a mission start congregation about 40 years ago, but like many congregations have been doing some wrestling, seeking for understanding and regrouping after the last few years of disruption and major change? What might they being saying, in inviting and empowering the whole congregation to listen deeply to the Spirit in your lives and to grow in the Spirit’s presence? What might they be saying to you as part of the whole Body of Christ in the world, in your community, and in relationship with and for one another? You have been invited through your participation in the vitality journey to reflect, to wonder, and to listen. To Go and… with the Spirit, with your feet, and with your whole selves.
Go And… (feet, what’s next… lean in)
In a few moments you’re going to have the opportunity to reflect some about this. To think about your own story, and to hear a bit from another about their own. Having a conversation as a sign of God’s love and presence, and as part of your walk with Jesus.
Step in, jump in, leap in, whatever feels right for you. But be fully present. Because as we “Go and…” as God’s people, we never do so alone. For God walks with us, and we walk with each other as the Body of Christ together. We do this because it’s who God calls us to be, and because God doesn’t call us to be fair, but to bare love and grace, just as God does every day for you, me, and all of God’s beloved. People of God, keep going. Keep listening and leaning in. And walk with hope and faith knowing that God in Christ is indeed with you, for you, and loves you. Abundantly. Always. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Message of Gratitude and Greeting Shared at Beginning of Worship
Good morning St. Michaels! It’s so good to be with you. Thank you so much Pastor Tim for the invitation and to Vicar Katie and all of you for the warm welcome. In being with you I bring greetings from Bishop Scott Johnson and all of my colleagues and your partners in ministry on synod staff, as well as from your 90,000+ siblings in Christ who with you are the Nebraska Synod. I’m grateful to be with you as part of your stewardship emphasis and to celebrate with you your on-going work and discernment as part of the Nebraska Synod’s Vitality Initiative for Congregations.
In being with you I want to share my deep gratitude for all that you do as part of the whole church, and especially for your congregation’s participation in mission share. Mission share is the undesignated offering that your congregation shares with the Nebraska Synod and the larger ELCA through which you do ministry that spans the globe and changes lives. Through it you help raise up new ministry leaders who walk alongside God’s people. You spread the Good News near and far and share that God’s love is real through word and deed through sending missionaries around the globe, by supporting new and renewing ministries right here closer to home like Emmaus lifelong learning and the Vitality Initiative, and through the work of Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministry and Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministry. And through your Mission Share you meet your neighbors where they are at, through the many serving arm partners of the church like Lutheran Family Services, Immanuel, Mosaic, and Lutheran Disaster Response. There is so much that you do. On behalf of your siblings in Christ near and far, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Citations and References:
[1] Matthew 20:4, NRSV.
[2] Matthew 20:13-15, NRSV.
[3] A good slightly modified from a quote, “It’s not grace until it pisses somebody off,” often said by former Nebraska Synod Bishop Brian Maas.
Timothy Siburg 