19th Sunday After Pentecost (Another Sunday in a Time of Ordinary)

In All Fairness
Finding Grace in a Unfair World

Fair or unfair?

You pull into the gas station and expect to pay $3.43 a gallon. What a steal! As you are getting the gas cap off and preparing the pump to turn on the price jumps to $3.80 a gallon. UNFAIR

You are in driving into Waukon for a doctors appointment in Waukon. Having a few extra minutes before your appointment you decide to stop at Hardee’s for breakfast, however it is now 10:31 AM as you pull into the drive thru. “I am sorry we stopped serving breakfast at 10:30.” UNFAIR

A bill collector demands full payment immediately. To do so would mean the debt would be satisfied, however this would put your other bills in jeopardy of not being paid. FAIR to the collect UNFAIR to the person with the debt and their other creditors.

“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.” Jonah 3:10

What!? How can God changed his mind? FOUL! How could God do something like change his mind and grant grace instead of grinding them to a pulp? As much as this displeased Jonah we too have felt this before. We too have been angry for what seems unfair.



How can it be fair:

To have someone new just step in and take over even though I have been here since 1949 and served this church so well.

That forgiveness comes so easily for someone - I mean I still am holding a grudge that will take at least ten years to get over.

That some of us have been laboring all day in the vineyard and now these people show up expecting the same kind of grace?

One church in the area is bursting at the seems with Sunday school children and worship attendance and we are wondering “what happened?”

At the county fair a distinctively dressed Quaker offered a horse for sale. A non-Quaker farmer asked its price, and since Quakers had a reputation for fair dealing, he bought the horse without hesitation. The farmer got the horse home, only to discover it was lazy and ill-tempered, so he took it back to the fair the next day. There he confronted the Quaker. 'Thou hast no complaint against me," said the Quaker. 'Had thou asked me about the horse, I would have told thee truthfully the problems, but thou didst not ask." 'That's okay," replied the farmer. 'I don't want you to take the horse back. I want to try to sell him to someone else. Can I borrow your coat and hat awhile?"

We want to yell “FOUL” when we see things that are unfair, when we are a victim of something so unfair as what we hear about in the Gospel lesson today. How can those who labored all day be paid the same as those who just started? We want to point out what is fair, especially when it comes to the kingdom of God and living out being the church in this age.

The challenge comes when we stand up against the “fairness” debate and declare the equality expressed by the generous and abundant love of God. “Standing firm in one spirit” we can hold fast to the ideal of God’s steadfast claim on us - that we once sinners are given the promise of new life - just as God changed his mind about Ninaveh so has he done the same through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ his own Son.

Applying the Text

(1) Resist the temptation to be drawn into what is “fair” or “unfair”.

“O Lord, Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are are gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing, and now O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

We have cried FOUL before. It is not fair that I have been working my tail off and now this person just shows up and receives the same wage.

“Why are you standing idle here all day?” and they responded, “Because no one has hired us.”

And in the words of Paul Harvey, “And now for the rest of the story.” But do we know the rest of the story?

(2) Realize and embrace the abundant grace and love of God that comes for the last as well as the first.

“I choose to give to the last the same as I gave to you. Am I not allowed to what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

(3) Live a life which mirrors the grace which you have received from God.

“...live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will now that you are standing firm in one spirit, and striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and you are in no way intimidated by your opponents.”

As with Jonah we may not grasp what is truly fair and just. “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor. and which you did not grow...And should I not be concerned about Nineveh?”
An atheist said, 'If there is a God, may he prove himself by striking me dead right now." Nothing happened. 'You see, there is not God." Another responded, 'You've only proved that He is a gracious God."

We have encountered the kingdom of God today - in the grace which shows equality to the one who has labored his whole life for the sake of the Gospel and for the one who is yet waiting to be called into the family. We as a church need to be set on the task of searching out for those who are waiting to work in the kingdom - those desperate for grace and love and not condemnation. For we have found grace and favor need to be the last and grant to the last a chance at being first. This is the good news.