Scriptural Sermons

Last week a friend of mine asked me to watch her five year old twins while she underwent a medical procedure. In truth, I was delighted. Now that my children are getting older, I miss being around young children. I miss them, and I miss their world. And these twins are cuties. Even their names are cute – Harry and Mary. While I was waiting for them to arrive, I prepared my children's favorite lunch when they were about five - macaroni and cheese with apple smiles on the side. I had dug out their Little Tykes picnic table and Dora the Explorer place mats, and I beamed with enthusiasm at how perfect everything was as I served up their lunch. “Why did Harry get more mac ‘n cheese than me?” Mary asked. “Harry didn’t get more than you,” I insisted. “I gave you both the exact same amount.” “I can tell Harry has more,” Mary maintained. To put an end to the matter, I gave Mary another spoonful. “Now Mary has more mac ‘n cheese than me,” Harry objected. “She does not!” I again insisted. “I’m counting my apple smiles,” Harry said. “I think Mary has more.” “Now just a minute…” I said, in a tone that conveyed that I had had about enough. But before I could continue, I found them finally in agreement “Why are you so strict?” they both lamented. “Enough complaining!” I declared. At least Mary and Harry have an excuse. They’re five years old. What excuse can be made for adults when they complain along similar lines? No matter what happens or doesn’t happen, they are never satisfied. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen, they always manage to construe it in a negative light. Whatever it is, why ever it is, wherever it is, whoever it is, they always find a word of criticism. You may be familiar with complainers such as these, and if you are, you know your reaction to them. When you see them heading in your direction, you assume an attitude of resignation. You know what’s going to come out of them, and there’s no way to prevent it. There’s no way to treat it either. You don’t want to enable or patronize them, because then they go on and on. You don’t want to take them on, because nothing will come of the confrontation. You don’t want to avoid them, because then you feel guilty. And so, you wait for your first opening, and you beat a hasty retreat. And why is it that these complainers complain as they do? My surmise is that it’s an attitude they’ve come to assume over the years, an attitude of least resistance because they have taken a course of least resistance. For some reason or another they haven’t developed sufficient self-identity to act in life -- because self-identity is indeed the necessary prior for action -- so life acts upon them. And not in the way they think it should. Life doesn’t bestow upon them much regard or favor. It doesn’t grant them much notice or acknowledgment. It doesn’t afford them much buffer or protection. And so they blame life. It’s ironic, as self-absorbed as complainers are, they never blame themselves. They blame life. Life is unfair to them. This is why I think that complainers complain as they do. It is because they’ve assumed the attitude that life is unfair to them. And their attitude is all encompassing. It allows for no exceptions. Not even for God. Why should God be an exception, after all? He started the whole train wreck in motion. Jonah is a case in point. The Lord called Jonah to be his prophet, to proclaim to the Assyrians that the Lord would punish them for their wickedness. But Jonah felt put upon by the Lord’s call. And so he boarded the next ship heading the opposite direction of Assyria. But the Lord refused to let him get away with it. He hurled a mighty storm at the ship and when the mariners cast a lot to see who was responsible for its cause, it fell on Jonah. And so they had no choice but to throw him overboard, lest they all perish. The Lord then appointed a large fish to swallow him and spit him back up on dry ground, and he gave him one last chance to proclaim to the Assyrians that he would punish them for their wickedness. Realizing that he had no choice, Jonah heeded his call. He cried out to the Assyrians, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And an amazing thing happened. The Assyrians repented of their wickedness. Even the king of Assyria himself covered himself in sackcloth and sat himself down in an ash heap. And so the Lord changed his mind about punishing them. For Jonah, this was cause for complaint. If the Lord called him to declare to the Assyrians they would be punished, they should be punished. Why should they escape punishment just because they were sorry all of a sudden? Jonah made all that effort against his will, and it turned out to be for nothing. Life was unfair to him. And so he complained, “I knew that you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” Now let’s take a few steps back here. The Lord’s universal mercy was for Jonah cause for complaint? This just shows how far complainers will go, how very skewed their perspectives become. Jonah could just as well have been thrilled by the whole affair. The Lord called him as a prophet -- fantastic, here was a real destiny to fulfill, a real purpose to enact. The Assyrians repented -- fantastic, his fellow human beings saw the light and escaped destruction. The Lord is a Lord of universal mercy -- fantastic, then maybe the Lord will show mercy upon him. And after all, the whole purpose of the Lord’s call to Jonah to proclaim to the Assyrians that the Lord would punish them for their wickedness was to bring them to repentance so that they would escape punishment. But to Jonah it was cause for complaint. Or take Jesus’ parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. God, Jesus taught, is like a landowner who sought to hire laborers for his vineyard. He went to the marketplace first thing in the morning and took all that were waiting there to be hired. At noon he returned and again took all that were waiting there to be hired. And at five he returned and once again took all that were waiting there to be hired. At the end of the day he paid them all a like amount. Like Jonah, for the laborers who had worked the longest this was cause for complaint. The last hired had last worked only an hour. Why should latecomers receive the same payment? They should receive a fraction of what they did. Life was unfair to them. And so they complained, “You have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” Again let’s take a few steps back here. God’s equal generosity to latecomers was for the laborers cause for complaint? It again shows just how far these complainers will go, how skewed their perspectives become. They could just have well been thrilled by the whole affair. They had labored long in the vineyard -- fantastic, how much more productive would be their harvest. There were ever increasing hires -- fantastic, the overall yield then would be even greater. God is equally generous to latecomers -- fantastic, then it’s never too late for others to experience the generosity that they had been experiencing all along. But to the laborers it was cause for complaint. Yes, everything and everyone, including God, falls victim to the attitude of complainers that life is unfair to them, and this is not good for anyone – not for the victims of complainers, certainly, but not for complainers either. It’s not good for anyone to assume the attitude that life is unfair to them and then to wallow in jealousy, and dissatisfaction, and resentment. We were meant for better things. And God himself is expressly clear on the matter. We’ve no cause for complaint. None of us. No cause whatsoever. But why; why specifically? I began by saying that complainers haven’t sufficient self-identity to act in life, and so life acts upon them. But indeed God had given us sufficient self- identity to act in life. We are Christians. We know of a fact, therefore, that we are created by the love of God, redeemed by the love of his Son, and sustained by the love of his Spirit. We know of a fact, therefore, that every human being in this world is a child of God. We know of a fact, therefore, that God is a God of justice, of equality, of freedom, of mercy, of forgiveness. We know of a fact, therefore, that God is a God of action. And lastly, we know of a fact all the work that needs to be done in this world. We are Christians. We have sufficient self-identity to act in life. And when we do, when we as Christians act in life, we will discover by God’s own design and dispensation that we have no cause for complaint, that life is not unfair to us. We will discover that life is liberating. It is empowering. It is purposeful. It is rewarding. It is because we will have discovered it is filled with God’s grace. Consider the apostle Paul. In this morning’s epistle lesson Paul finds himself imprisoned. And Roman prisons make our prisons look like the Four Seasons. And listen to what he has to say. “I will continue to rejoice…If I am to live that means fruitful labor for me, though I do not know which to prefer. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. …” It’s all good, Paul says -- whether I remain in prison or whether I am executed – it’s all good. And we can begin to count it all joy too. We need only remember the one for whom we are named, and act on his behalf. Amen.