Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

 © 2020, Dr. Tamilio

Last week marked my eighth anniversary of your pastor.  Prior to Canton, I was in Cleveland.  Prior to Cleveland, I was in Kansas City.  I’ll never forget an incident I experienced in my Kansas City church after I delivered a sermon on the Gospel Lesson we have for today.  Let me set the stage a bit.

A man by the name of Jim (I am changing his name here, not that it matters much), Jim and his family were my neighbors.  They lived right down the street.  They had attended the church I pastored a few months before I arrived.  Once they got to know me, they took the plunge and joined.

I stood in the pulpit sometime later (maybe a year later) and read today’s Gospel passage.  I began my sermon saying, “God is unfair.”  That’s all that Jim needed to hear.  In fact, I do not think he listened to the rest of the sermon.  How dare I say that God is unfair!  He left the church not long afterwards.

But it’s true.  God is unfair.  Fairness means that you get what you deserve and not more: that the good (and I guess you could say the bad) are equitably distributed.  If you work hard you get more than someone who doesn’t.  If you commit a horrific crime (murder, for example), then your punishment is harsher than the punish received by someone who did something far more less offensive (someone who stole a car, for example).  That’s how we understand human justice.  That is how we chart fairness.  But God is different.  He isn’t fair.  Let’s look at today’s Gospel Lesson for clarification.  Actually, let me place it in a modern context.

I decide that there is some work that needs to be done around the church.  I place an ad in The Canton Citizen that reads, “The Congregational Church of Canton — the church that has a Pastor who looks like Robert Redford — this church needs a dozen strong people to come and work the grounds next Saturday, September 26.”  Maybe the ad includes specific details as to what needs to be done.

Three people show up at 8:00 am.  I agree to pay them each $200 for a day’s worth of work.  They agree.  A couple hours later, three other people show up.  I send them to work for the others.  Early afternoon rolls around, and a couple others arrive.  I send them to work.  By mid-afternoon two more arrive and an hour before quitting time two stragglers arrive.  When the whistle blows signaling that the workday is done, everyone lines up to receive his or her pay.  It just so happens that they line up in reverse order: meaning that those who arrive first are last in line; those who came just an hour ago are first in line.  When those who are first in line each receives $200, those in the back of the line begin to salivate.  They think that they will be getting more, because they worked all day.  They are outraged when they each receive $200, and so they let me have it.  “How dare you pay us $200 for working all day, when these lazy farts who showed up an hour ago received the same wage!  It isn’t fair!”

Now, first of all, it’s my money and I’m allowed to do what I want with it, no?  And also, I didn’t rip off those who worked all day.  They agreed to work for $200 and they received it.  Because I was generous with the late-comers is irrelevant.

But this isn’t really about money, which calls the whole fairness thing into question.  The salvation that I receive through Christ is the same you receive through Christ.  I do not get more or less.  It isn’t as if one person receives more salvation (or more grace), because she has been a devout Christian all her life — and someone else receives less, because he only came to the faith recently.  Everyone gets the same.  “So,” the cynic will say, “you’re telling me that the death row inmate he accepts Jesus as his Savior is rewarded the same as the selfless missionary?”  The answer is yes: if the inmate truly repents of his sin and has accept Christ into his heart.  To use Jesus’ very words, “are you envious because I am generous?”

If we all get the same salvation no matter when we came to Christ — if God’s grace is the same amount given to everyone regardless of when he or she became a Christian — then it’s true: God is not fair.  Think about it?  Shouldn’t you receive more if you worked more?  You should, when we are talking about work and money.  However, this is about grace.  God gives an equal portion to every single one of his children.  According to human justice, this isn’t fair: those who came to Christ earlier (who were more faithful to the Gospel for longer), should get a larger portion.  That isn’t how God works, therefore, according to how humans determine justice, God is not fair.

But again, this isn’t a competition.  There’s enough competition out there.  We are surrounded by it: who is smarter, richer, stronger, faster.  God does not evaluate us using such measurements — and thank God for that!  None of us would measure up.  According to one source, “Eternal life is not fair; it is a gift of God’s grace.  If eternal life were ‘fair’ (that is, a payment to [people], based upon the quality and quantity of their good works), no one would ever see heaven.  Eternal life cannot be earned, but it can be received as a gift.  That is what this parable was meant to convey” ultimately.[1]

The ending of the parable offers another lesson: just as God (through Jesus) is incredibly gracious and forgiving towards us, shouldn’t we be that way toward others?  Granted, God offer us salvation — something that we cannot give one another.  However, we can still be kind and compassionate.  We can still be loving and forgiving (seventy times seven as we read last week).

Let me leave you with this though.  Think about the Lord’s Prayer, which we recite in unison every Sunday — as do Christians across the globe.  There is the petition in that prayer that states, “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  It almost sounds as if we are saying, “God, please forgive us for the wrongs we have done, just as we have forgiven others who have wronged us.”  But that is not what Jesus means here.  In fact, he is saying the opposite: we should forgive others the way that God has already forgiven us.  That’s a tall order.  But whether or not we can forgive the way God does, we can try.

God is gracious — abounding in steadfast love.  He gives us more than we could possibly hope for, more than we can deserve.  When we come to Christ, we receive the gift of everlasting life.  It doesn’t matter when you showed up: the prize is the same.  Does that make God unfair?  In one sense, yes.  But thank God that is the case.  Amen.

[1] “Life is not fair!  Praise God!” from Bible.org.