O Lord, we pray, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Did you ever hear the story about the company that chartered a ship for its top sales personnel?
On the appointed day the sales people swarmed aboard looking for their cabins. Minutes later one of them was on deck demanding to see the Captain.
One of the officers asked if he could help.
"My friend has a much better cabin!" the salesman said. "I did as good a job as he did and I want a cabin just like his."
"Sir, the officer replied, "the cabins are identical."
"Yeah," said the man, "but his cabin looks out on the ocean and my cabin looks out on this old dock."
I think that we often misunderstand the will and intention of God.
We get so wrapped up in what we think we need, and so bound up in our sense of what we think we deserve, that we fail to recognize what God is even now about and to remember what had God has already done for us.
It is said that when the people of Israel first grumbled and complained against God and against Moses, accusing them of leading them from slavery in Egypt only so that he could kill them in the wilderness, that God responded to their criticism - to their harping - to their lack of trust - by promising to provide them with bread from Heaven every day - and that on the first morning that they were to collect this bread that had formed like dew upon the ground, in thin flakes like frost, hey did not know what it was, and asked one another what it might be.
And so this bread - this stuff that formed on the desert floor each dawn - this daily provision from God - came to be called Manna - a word that literally means "What is it?"
Even though the people of Israel were liberated from their bondage in Egypt with incredible signs of God's power - even though the Red Sea parted to allow them through safely and came together again and destroyed their enemies - even though God made bitter water sweet and led them by a fire in the night and by a pillar of cloud by day towards the Holy Mountain where they would worship Him and towards the land God had promised to give them - even though God had proved his goodness to them, his love for them, they fretted and worried and grumbled and complained - and doubted the love of God, the will of God, to do them good, and then they failed to recognize how God had answered their complaints and their cries of need.
Perhaps it is always that way.
Certainly many people are like the salesman on the cruise ship before it left port, and like the Children of Israel before they reached the promised land:
- they are constantly comparing what they have been given to what others have been given,
- they are constantly comparing the past with the present and doubting what the future will bring,
- they are constantly evaluating what it is they think they should have against what they do have and forgetting what it is that God has promised to give them - they are constantly forgetting that it is nothing but the grace of God that has brought them safe thus far, and that God will bring them "home".
In part that is the message of the parable of the workers in the vineyard that was read this morning.
You know the story - how a Landlord needing workers to bring in the harvest goes to the local marketplace in the morning to hire workers and agrees to give them a denarius - or a day's pay - for the day's work.
Several times during the day the Landlord returns to the marketplace and finds people standing in the unemployment line - people who have no work, no income, and hires them, saying to them only that he will give to them what is right. Even at the 11th hour, near the end of the working day, the Landlord goes to the market and finds others standing around - people no one has hired - and he takes them on.
At the end of the day the Landlord pays off those he has hired - those he has liberated from the hunger and want of being unemployed - starting from those last hired and progressing to the first, and to each he gives a full day's wage - to each he gives enough money to buy them and their families their daily bread.
And those hired first complain and grumble about it - claiming that they deserve more than those last hired because they have worked harder and longer.
To which the Landlord replies - "I am not being unfair to you. I am giving you what you agreed to. Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
Are we like those hired first?
Have we forgotten the anxiety of starting a day wondering if we will find work enough to feed ourselves and our families? And the joy of being hired early enough in the day to ensure that we will indeed obtain our daily bread - that our families will not starve - that there will be enough to go round?
Indeed - as we sit in this church and look around at some of the people - some of the newcomers - some of those who have been warmly welcomed to our midst and who will come to the table of the Lord with us in a few minutes - do any among us resent the fact that they have been given the same rights and privileges by God that we have been given - that they will receive enough bread - enough love - to sustain them - enough to get them through to the next day?
Do we compare our labour to the labour of others and conclude that we should have more than they, more love, more respect, more thanks, more say in how things are run?
Undoubtedly, for those who think in worldly terms, the answer would be yes.
But the story of God liberating the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt (where they would have surely perished), like the story of the cross of Jesus and how it liberates from sin and death, is not a story about worldly wisdom - but story about divine grace.
It is not about what we deserve but rather it is about what we all need, and how God most generously provides it even when we do not "deserve" it.
Bread enough for each day - in a world where normally only those fortunate enough to be hired first are able get enough to eat.
Bread enough for each day - in a world where normally even those fortunate enough to have the strength to work are left standing in the unemployment line because of corporate downsizing, even banks like HSBC who has been making so much money are downsizing.
Bread enough for each day - in a world where even those who work hard and long in the heat of the day are often forced to agree to less than a day's wages because of an employer's desire to maximize his or her profit. Which is we have employers who are complaining of even having to give a minimum wage of HK$27 per hour (less than US$4 per hour).
Bread enough for each day for everyone who is willing to respond to the landlord's call to come and work, even though the landlord promises only what is fair for the labour they perform.
In God's Kingdom it is all grace - from those who are hired first and promised a day's wage for a day's work - to those hired last and promised only what is fair.
We who have been called by God
- we who have been called out of the unemployment line
- we who have been called out of bondage to those things that would destroy us
each one here today has been taught to pray and are urged to pray, as Jesus taught us: "give us this day our daily bread".
And we are given it.
We are given bread from heaven - day by day.
And more - as we follow where God would lead us, as we respond to his invitation to work in his vineyard for whatever may seem fair to Him, we are given freedom, we are given life. And we are led to the promised land.
Today - receive the bread from heaven that God has provided.
Come from your seats without worry about whether you deserve to receive it or not.
Come from your pews without thinking about whether you have earned more than your neighbours.
Come and receive the mercy, the love, the care, the hope, and the promise that God has provided.
Come and receive what you need and what God has given.
Come and share in God's grace and generosity with your brothers and sisters, the generous God who would not see one of us perish...
Praise be to God, day by day, day by day. Amen
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