Pentecost 18

Jonah 3:10--4:11                                                          Psalm 145

Philippians 1:21-27                                             Matthew 20:1-16

There are two little girls playing. One is four years old and the other two years old. They are playing happily in the same room, occasionally together and occasionally at different things. The four-year-old had been playing with a doll and stroller while the two-year-old played with the toy kitchen, making spaghetti for everyone's dinner. The four-year-old left the stroller to put on princess clothes and shoes and began to dance around the room.

The two-year-old came to the doll and stroller and began to walk about the room, following her sister and singing her own song to the dance of her sister. The four-year-old suddenly noticed the younger sister playing with the stroller and went to take it from her. "That's mine. I was playing with it!" she cried. The two-year-old cried harder, "NO, mine! NO, mine!"

The peace loving, but naïve, father walked into the chaos and asked what was wrong. The sisters cried as if the world would soon end. The four-year-old knew that she had been mistreated and didn't hesitate to say so. Little did she know that she was repeating a phrase her own father had said as a child as she cried out, "It's not fair!" She went on to prove the unfairness of it all, "I had it first!"

"No, mine", cried the younger sister, sure that she had seen the baby and stroller abandoned, in need of loving care and attention.

Fairness. The older sister sees fairness in her having the stroller first and retaining rights to its use. The younger sister sees fairness as playing with a toy abandoned by someone else. The father - briefly - sees fairness as giving the stroller to the neighbors, and then, in repentance, realizes that even greater chaos would accompany that fateful decision.

Fairness. The father remembers his own childhood and the feelings that life is not always fair. "I'm supposed to be fair to everyone else, why don't they have to be fair to me?" The peace loving, but naïve, father realized suddenly that both of his daughters were sure that they knew what was fair and if HE was going to be fair he would take the right side of one and put the other in her place. But whose side is fair? Quickly he decided that this couldn't stay about fairness at all but had to move on to sharing and goodness.

I'd like to say that the four-year-old and the two-year-old immediately saw the rationale in this and quietly agreed to share, but this isn't a fairy tale. It's a sermon and I have to tell the truth. Sharing is still about fairness, as the naïve father learns, and one must have rules about the sharing in order to make it fair to everyone, in order to make it so that each one gets what that one deserves. At least that is what we think fairness is supposed to be. And since these children have learned at the feet of their mother and father, it must be their mother and father who have given them such an idea of fairness.

Life is not fair. When we say, "life is not fair" we mean that we don't get what we believe that we deserve or we aren't getting what other people get. There are other reasons we believe something is or is not fair, but these two will suffice for most things. "Life is not fair", we say, when we see a co-worker get a promotion that we deserve. "Life is not fair", we say, when we see someone given a warning after we've just received a ticket and fine for a similar offense.

"Life is not fair", says Jonah, when God spares the lives of the people of Ninevah. They are not getting what they deserve, destruction in Jonah's eyes, and so Jonah doesn't get what he deserves, to watch the destruction of people who deserve nothing better.

Jonah had been sent by God to warn the people of their coming destruction. He had not wanted to go and had tried to run away. He paid for passage on a ship to a far away city so God couldn't find him and send him to Ninevah. But a storm came up that was about to sink the ship and Jonah confessed to the sailors that he was running from God. They promptly tossed him in the sea, where he assured them God would want him, and the storm abated.

Here is the part almost everyone remembers about the story of Jonah. A big fish swallowed him up and he spent three days and nights in the belly of the fish. Finally Jonah realizes that he must carry on with the mission God has given him and he prays to God for deliverance. God delivers him onto a beach and Jonah goes on to Ninevah, a mortal enemy of Israel, and tells them that God will destroy the place because of the evil ways of the people.

But they repent. The people, and even the king of Ninevah, repent and ask God to forgive them. They wear sackcloth as evidence of their sorrow and contrition. God forgives them. Jonah is furious. He waits outside the city to see their destruction, already having heard that God would forgive them but hoping that God would still destroy the city. Jonah wants the kind of fairness that will give them what they deserve. God gives the kind of fairness that exists in love. God gives the kind of fairness that exists in mercy.

We cry out for God to be fair, as long as it means giving the other guy what he so justly deserves. Fairness looks different when we are on the receiving end. Fr. Casey told a story this week about a young priest who was trying to comfort someone in the congregation who had found out that she was dying and had little time left in this life. "I'm sure that the good Lord will judge fairly when you arrive and the pearly gates", he said to his parishioner. "You don't understand son. I don't need a fair judge right now, I need mercy!"

Fairness, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder. What looked fair to the older sister hardly looked fair to the younger sister. What looked fair to Jonah didn't seem fair from God's perspective. It is God's perspective of fairness that we are concerned with this week. Our fairness is that there is no risk to anyone, or at least no risk to me of not getting what I believe that I deserve. God's fairness is to give more than we deserve, to give love to all.

God's fairness, like God's love and God's mercy is wasteful to the point of being given away even when it is undeserved. That is the point of the Gospel. God chooses to give a full day's wages to those who have not worked for a full day. God chooses to forgive even when we do not deserve to be forgiven. God chooses mercy even when we do not deserve mercy. God chooses love not because we deserve love, but because God is love and will love even the unlovable.

As much as we say that this doesn't make sense, we know that even we will give away more than is deserved when we love someone and want to show him or her the same grace that we receive. Here is a story about Joseph and Mary to illustrate. Not the Joseph and Mary from the Nativity in the Bible, the Joseph and Mary from down the street.

Joseph and Mary were playing outside when Mary remembered that it was Mother's Day the next day and she had been asked by her father to make a present for her mother. Mary suggested to Joseph that they go inside and work on their presents to their mother, but Joseph wanted to stay outside a little longer and play. Mary went in and worked hard on the gift she was making, carefully gluing and coloring pieces of paper to make a beautiful picture. She spent a long time making sure that everything was just where she wanted it to be and that the picture wold be perfect for her mother.

Joseph forgot how late it was getting until his father drove up and asked where Mary was. Joseph explained that Mary was making her Mother's Day gift. His father suggested that he had better get to work on his gift, but he wasn't sure what to do and went inside and read some books instead.

The next morning when Mary was getting her gift ready to show her mom, Joseph remembered that he had put off making his gift and quickly used some of the scraps of paper laying on the floor to glue together a semblance of a gift.

The two children brought their gifts to their mother. Mary carefully handed over a lovely mountain scene that looked like a favorite camping spot. The picture had obviously taken some time to make and Mary was proud of her accomplishment. She smiled brightly as she gave the picture to her mother. Joseph warily handed over a jumble of pieces of paper, the glue still wet and pieces slipping around.

The mother picked up both of the children in her lap, hugged and kissed them, told them that she loved them and thanked them for their wonderful gifts. She stood up and took the gifts and put them both where all great pieces of art go; she put them on the refrigerator. Mary smiled that her mom was happy. Joseph stood looking in amazement that his mom had treated him and his gift with the same love that she had treated Mary's gift. He knew how much time Mary had spent and was sorry that he had not spent more time.

This story could have a very different ending. Mary could be upset that her brother's picture was hanging with hers, that her brother got the same hug and kiss from their mother as she did. Mary could have pouted and made fun of her brother's gift. But she is blessed to be in a family where she knows that she is loved completely and totally, and so is everyone else in the family.

Or the mother could have looked at Joseph's gift and commented on the wet glue and the obvious scraps that made up the unrecognizable picture. She could have praised one child and belittled the other. But if that is how the story would have ended we would have felt differently about the family. Some might have said, "He got exactly what he deserved", while others might have wanted to praise the mother for "teaching him a lesson." Still others might want to chastise the mother for the same lesson.

But what would God do? Would God fold us up and put us in his arms and give us a hug and kiss and hang our messy little picture on the fridge in heaven, or send us to our room to think about the kind of work we had done. Would God make us feel like we were loved or that we would have to try harder to be loved by him? Would we get paid "fairly" for our picture; would those of us with messy pictures get sent off with no reward and those of us with pretty pictures get into heaven? Or would God give the same love to all of us, no matter how badly we had messed up?

The problem with this story, some of you may have guessed, is that we confuse fairness - our kind of fairness based on deserving something - with love. God gives love and forgiveness to all, and none deserve it. God gives mercy to all, and none deserve it. God gives whether or not we deserve it because God knows that love is not deserved or earned, but only given. Mercy cannot be earned because it, too, is a gift.

God is fair, to be sure, but God's fairness is from God's perspective of everyone getting the same love and the same forgiveness. Some days we're not sure that this is really fair, we wonder if we shouldn't be getting just a little more heaven than some of those other people who didn't work as hard or pray as often. But remember, when you get into heaven and the Baptists are grumbling that you got to come in anyway, even though the sermons you listened to weren't anywhere near an hour long; remember that God is merciful to everyone. +

Fr. Michael Richardson

and JoEllen Richardson