Enviable Generosity

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

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.” Matthew 20. 1 – 16

            Once again Jesus uses a parable to reveal the disruptive and transforming nature of God’s kingdom. Poor day laborers are hired at different times throughout the day, their pay is not specified, and then payment takes place at the end of the day in reverse order of the hiring. Worst of all, the last-hired are paid the same as the first-hired.  And the first-hired are furious! (I would be/have been, too.) The landowner’s response “Are you envious because I am generous?” is one of those catch you up short questions… “Well, uh, yeah, maybe!” we might say. But such is the kingdom of God. We are not loved conditionally, and it’s very hard for us to accept. Unconditional love can make us jealous!

            For years, I have subscribed to an online meditation series by Tom Ehrich, a retired Episcopal priest and writer. In his meditation yesterday, entitled “Illness and Death,” Ehrich addresses the confusion humans struggle with regarding the unconditionality of God and God’s love.

“People pray for miracles, as if only those who asked had any right to expect God's healing touch. People rejoice at cures they consider miracles, as if God had chosen to smile on them while frowning on others. Many wonder what punishment is at hand when disease persists.

Is yielding to disease a sign of faithful submission, or is it "giving up" and doubting God?

If God caused the cure, does that mean God caused the illness? What kind of God strikes down in order to heal, so that others will believe? The pious logic quickly gets demonic…

I think faith points another way. Life's measure doesn't lie in how long we can keep our hearts beating, but in how we pour out our lives for others. Life is a gift, not a possession we earned. Life is a piece of God that we are privileged to share, and then that piece returns to God.

Death isn't the bitter denial of all we held true; death is where life was always headed and not to be feared.” (On a Journey: Meditations on God in Daily Life by Tom Ehrich)

Ehrich points out that in order to accept God’s love fully we must realize that every moment of life is a gift, whether we discover God’s grace early in the day or late in the day! And since “the strife is o’er, the battle won” death is not to be feared because it brings the ultimate gift, the ultimate payment: eternal life… “in the end all will be well!”