Sermon – Complaining Carefully
Matthew 20:1-16; Exodus 16:2-15
Farmville Presbyterian Church
September 24, 2023
– How we petition God for what is right
I hope word has not gotten around town, yet, but I may have gotten banned from Brookview Lodge this week. For those who are watching elsewhere, Brookview is part of the skilled care facility here in town. It would be an assisted living residential home, and I have been going out there once a month for a Communion service for years. It is nice because I get to catch up with the folk, including some of our own church members. We seem to have a nice time together in worship, and I get to keep my guitar in tune playing out there. I will never forget how Bebe Thompson used to light up when it was time for Communion. But this last week something happened that may have ended my welcome out there: I encouraged the residents who came out for the worship to do the last thing that the staff wants them to do. I told them that it was OK to complain. Not only is it OK to complain, but it is even good to complain sometimes.
As you might imagine, in a skilled care facility like that, people might complain a great deal. Very few people are happy to be living somewhere that is not home, and a few of the folk out there are not seeing the world with a completely clear mind. There is a lot to carry when you have to live in another place with another person’s cooking and abiding by another set of rules – might as well be another world or another reality. And you do not always like the people you are around. None of this is a shock to us. It is hard, but it is also sometimes necessary to use those services for ourselves or our loved ones. The last thing the staff probably want to hear, though, is more complaining. And this preacher told them Wednesday that they could and even should.
Truthfully, no, I have not been banned, yet, and I was careful to explain what I was really talking about. There is complaining about what we don’t think is fair, and there is calling out what we do not think is right. And those two things are not the same.
You may not have ever thought about it. Honestly, I’m not sure I had, but God is not all that interested in being fair. It is hard, if not impossible, to think of anywhere in the Bible where God promises to be fair. A quick word search gave me nothing. When the word “fair” does show up, it is usually describing something pretty – that fair damsel. But this makes sense. Does anyone here really expect God to actually treat all people exactly the same? Surely, absolutely, and most definitely, God loves us all equally, but that love gets expressed in our lives all differently. My needs are different than your needs. My hurts and different than your hurts. My weaknesses are different than your differences. My path is different from your path. Basic fairness says whatever God does for one must be done for all. I do not need a call to head out as a missionary to Asia. I do not need to receive food ministry. I am not looking for healing at the moment, but many others are. I hope you see what I am trying to express. Fairness does not apply so much for the family of faith.
Little Johnny was so upset because Suzy brought the best looking peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch one day. He went to the teacher to vent his feelings, “Teacher, it’s not FAIR that Suzy gets that PB&J sandwich and I don’t.”
The teacher replied, “Johnny, you don’t even like peanut butter and jelly.”
“It makes no difference,” he said. “It’s still not fair.”
“But you are allergic to peanuts, Johnny,” the teacher continued.
“Fair means I should get a PB&J sandwich, too!”
Fair is not always the best. You know what is central to our life together with God, however? What is central is what is RIGHT. While God is not overly concerned with what we see as fair, God is very, very, very concerned with what is right. God wants what is right for you and for me. Case in point: the parable of the vineyard.
This parable of the vineyard has been a thorn in anyone’s side who cannot deal with grace. It cuts against the grain of the protestant work ethic or anyone who thinks everyone should get what they earn through work. Maybe you have experienced something like this yourself when after working in a job for years and years and years and then a brand new person walks into the job with nothing of the experience and receives just as much salary. It is infuriating. We can completely understand why those early workers were upset. If the world were simply about fairness, they would have a point. But because God needs us to know what is right, they have no leg to stand on. The owner agreed on perfectly acceptable wages up front. They were paid exactly what they expected to be paid all day. No one was cheated or played. In God’s heart, however, there is room to give far more than we expect for those who do not deserve it. That’s grace, and if we cannot love grace, celebrate grace, and cherish grace, we will have a hard time in heaven.
Just imagine how many people we will meet in heaven who should not be there. There will be so many people who embrace God’s love at the very last second. There will be so many people there who did not live up to our standards. There will be so many people there that do not deserve heaven like we do. And that’s the problem, isn’t it? NO ONE deserves it. In fact, God likes to shower extra grace on the lives that did not have the advantages in this life. God likes to turn our hearts and heads with kindness that we did not expect. To call all of our sisters and brothers home is what is right. Rather than being resentful for such mercy, we should also rejoice to be in the company of so many people and be grateful to be there, ourselves.
Now for the complaining. We need to find what is right here in this world, too. Complaining is a way of calling for what is right to God. This is not being upset about having mayo on your deli sandwich instead of mustard. This is voicing injustice, voicing oppression, voicing hate, fear, and prejudice. This is voicing the risk of life and the deprivation of basic needs. This is voicing when the children of God do not have even the basic needs for the day. We are not going to grumble amongst ourselves because something did not go our way, but we are supposed to raise our voices in unified complaint to God. “O God, such and such cannot be right! Such and such cannot be your will! Such and such is crushing your people! Such and such needs to change! We need your help!”
Those Israelites in Exodus were desperate for what was right. They had feld Egypt in a hurry, been hunted down to a dead end, but God provided a way. Now, the very next day, they were back to the hot and dry and empty. They had nothing to eat or drink. They had empty bellies and empty spirits. It’s heard for me to hear their complaining as NOT offensive to God. God and Moses both get very sick of the complaining at times, so worn out from their complaints that the whole plan almost fails in frustration, but that is not the case here. Here, it seems to be a legitimate cry for what is right. Here what seems fair and right meet. If God is going to lead the people out into the wilderness to become a new people, they all need to be sustained. And that is what God does. It does not look like what they expect, and they absolutely get tired of God’s provision, but God answers their plea for what is right. “If you love us, God, you will take care of us, too.” God heard. God was not angry. God answered in love.
We should also be outraged when what is right is being withheld from our neighbor or ourselves. One group from Virginia Tech took action in Guatemala, where I visited earlier this year and our presbytery has strong mission partners. This was outside our work, however. A particular history professor back in 2018 learned of pollution in water supplies feeding small villages in rural Guatemala. Mining wastes can easily corrupt water sources, and they were finding arsenic in water, among other pollutants, that the water treatment was not addressing. The people had no way of knowing whether their water was safe to drink. Seems like a basic human right, doesn’t it? Sounds like a justice issue that God might want us to work on, and thankfully, these individuals did. They conducted workshops to help teach the community members how to monitor their water conditions. Sugar care and palm oil plantations can corrupt water sources, too, so all of this makes for a desperate situation for people who just want to be able to drink safely. I doubt many of us worry when we take a sip that we might be hurting ourselves. The team from VT even received a grant to build their program and help the more populations in rural Guatemala not only test the water but to collect data to show to the government that something must be done. See the need. Feel the need. Voice the need. Speak out for what is right, what is just, what God needs to do.
This makes some nervous because they don’t want to be too demanding on God who has a lot on the plate, but there is no end to God’s ability to connect to our situations. The more we are aware of the world around us, we will also be aware of God’s work in the world around us. As we dare to raise what needs to be done, we will also find God’s hand working for what is right. Calling out what is wrong can bring our hearts and God’s heart, our hands and God’s hands, to the task of what this world needs. And may God’s justice reign.
To God be the glory. Amen.