Assumptions are Planned Resentments, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 9/18/2011

Assumptions are Planned Resentments
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 9/18/2011
Based on Matthew 20:1-16

This past week, I read an article in the Christian Century titled, “Why sermons bore us.” It seems that for centuries, sermons have not held to the expectations of those who come to listen to them. The question then becomes, “why do we still insist on having the sermon as the focal point of the Worship experience?” The author of this article presents this observation: We joke about boring sermons, but often it is we who are boring – and bored. We say that sermons have bored us when actually they have disappointed us, failing to be the alternative word we need, failing to be the speech that arises not from our own meager entertainments but from the life of the Spirit. “We are bored, when we don’t know what we are waiting for.” One thing we are waiting for is for preachers who feel the strong wind, who sense the heights above them and the abyss below and take a deep breath and preach a life-changing gospel. Christian Century, Sept 6, 2011 pg31
This quote implies that for those of us who site on the far side of the pulpit assume that the responsibility of making scripture alive and exciting falls directly upon the person who is on this side of the pulpit. I would have to agree that in reality, this statement is true, but I have deep concers as to the health of a congregation where this is true. For a number of decades, the church in this country has structured itself as hiring the leadership and allowing the work of the church to lie upon those hired. If the church is growing, then it seems like a good thing, but if the church isn’t growing, then the poor performance report fall on the shoulders of those hired and does not include any responsibility on the part of the congregation. Another way to look at this, would be observing a congregation that has grown because of the pulpit skills of the pastor, a pastor who has exciting sermons, yet when that pastor leaves, the church suffers a great loss in attendance. This happens because the concept of “lay-ministry” did not take root during the time of the strong pulpit.
While hearing about the scripture might be boring, when it comes to reading scripture, I cannot believe that anyone would find what they read boring! Each week as I read and contemplate the suggested Lectionary readings, I am not only challenged with by what I read and of its meanings, for me, or for this church, or for the larger community of Rock Springs, but I find an excitement that comes through these stories. There is always something challenging to me, as well as ever changing, in finding something new in a well read parable. The point being, it is in the action of personally reading, the action of personally studying the scripture that makes it exciting. When we are not actively engaged, then we can become bored in what we hear.
As assumptions of what a sermon is supposed to do in order not to be disappointing or boring, assumptions can also lead to resentments, very much like what we have read about this morning. This morning’s parable about the “workers in the field” is another parable that assaults our 21st century sensibilities.
Here we see a landlord, hiring workers to work in his field; an agreed wage is set with those first workers and they go out and start working their little hearts out. Periodically during the day, the landlord see’s others who need work and also invites them into the labor force; here we do not see a discussion upon wages being agreed upon, it seems that just the opportunity to work is enough. Then at the last hour of work, those who are still unemployed are also invited into the field to work. Everybody seems to be happy until it comes time to receive their wages for their work. Those who worked only for the last hour were paid first, in front of those who had worked all day long. Seeing those who worked only an hour receiving a wage equal to what they had agreed upon by those who hired on in the morning, lead them to believe that they would receive a greater amount than what had previously been discussed. When they receive the agreed upon amount of wages, which was the same as those who had worked only an hour of the day, they became very resentful and were quite angry with the landlord for treating those last workers as equal to them.
Of course we cannot look at this parable as a literal understanding of employer/employee relationships. First off, this is a parable, which by definition means “a story” not meant to be factual, but rather to reveal a truism. Secondly, if we were to take this story as factual, we would simply have to not deal with it, because it goes against all of our understanding about how economics works both as an employer and as the employed.
The meaning them of course points to the understanding of how God treats each person; it is a story of who gets “in” and an implication that no one is left out. This is where we start to have problems with what Jesus is sharing with us. My former mother-in-law use to say to me, “you know, most of us Christians are going to be very surprised at who we will see in heaven!” That is the cruxes of this story. This parable relates closely with the story about the Prodigal Son, where the older brother who stays home and works, resents the generosity of his father. He resents his father, as well as his younger brother. Is this not a primary issue that we all must face?
As I visit with folks who no longer attend worship, anywhere, the overall theme that I hear come from “being disappointed” by either the pastor, or by the behavior of someone in the congregation, or of the members as a whole. Assumptions are planned resentments! When we assume something and when that assumption isn’t fulfilled in the manner that is expected, then resentment occurs. There seems to be an assumption that every pastor is “Omnipresent”, that is, when a person becomes ordained into ministry that they somehow become all knowing about what is going on in every person’s life. “Well, the pastor never came up to the hospital to visit me when I was sick.” “The pastor never came and visited with me when I really needed her, while going through my divorce.” Most of the time, the poor pastor wasn’t even aware of the hospitalization; same way about the private things going on in the life of each person in the congregation.
In this parable, the workers first hired to work, forget by the end of the day, that they too started out unemployed and become envious of those who were employed later in the day when they receive the same amount of wages. Instead of being thankful for the opportunity to work, envy becomes the focus. Do we find ourselves at times like those workers who were first hired, of being envious of another’s generosity, or gifts, of another’s talents, or abilities, possessions, social status and so on?
Over the past few weeks I have been presenting the Gospel, I hope in a true form that speaks to the forgiveness of God to all peoples, of the hope and gift of life eternal, because of the cross which Jesus died upon, a forgiveness of all people’s sins. Tonight 6 p.m., we start a study of the book Rev Rob Bell published, “Love Wins”, which continues the discussion about assumptions of who gets into heaven and who doesn’t. This book address the basic issue that we within the church can fall prey to, that of feeling we deserve something more than everyone else, because we see ourselves as being entitled over others that we perceive less deserving.
One of the problems with resentments that come because of envy is that it diminishes our own gifts and talents and secretly robs others of theirs. It is God who is the giver of every good gift, whether it is ours or someone else’s. The reality is that all of us benefit from gifts, whether it is a gift that we personally possess or whether it is a gift that someone else has. For when we allow these gifts to be presented, then everybody wins! Are we unable to celebrate another’s gift because we are not able to celebrate the gift that we have received? How often are we ungrateful for God’s graciousness and mercy? How often do we deny God’s love and forgiveness not in the life’s of others, but in our own life?
This is a hard parable to accept, because it goes against our humanness in the way that we have been conditioned in our society of economics and of competition that “capitalism” is based upon. We easily can fall into the trap of thinking that some of us are saved while others are not, solely because we feel entitled and view others as not being up to “our” standards. The other side of this coin is that we may feel that we are not worthy enough to deserve the gift and grace of God, which would keep us outside of the field and not enjoying the freedom to use the gifts that God has already given to us. This story is about the Love of God toward all of us! It is about how we are seen as equals in the eyes of God. Our challenge is to then look at each other and see what God see’s in each of us! Amen