Unfair Grace

 

“It’s not fair!!”

Having had five children, this is something that I have heard many times when they were younger. If anything does not go the way a two-year old wants it, then it’s NOT fair! You would think at some point we would outgrow this childish mentality. But, I am not sure that we do.

Have you ever known someone that just never seemed to pull their own weight?

Have you ever been asked to work together with co-workers at your job on some assignment, and there’s that one co-worker who never really contributes? Then you have to do more work so you don’t get chewed out by your boss. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been on a sports team and there’s that one player who never gives it 100%? You know, when every player is walking off the field dripping with sweat with every muscle aching and that one player looks like he hasn’t even broken a sweat. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been part of a project at your church and it seems like hardly anyone else showed up to help? That’s not fair!

Have you ever known that one person who is always late for everything? When everybody else has been working and working…and then waiting and waiting on that one person to show, the one person that’s always late. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been lied to? Mistreated? Been misunderstood? Been stood up? Taken advantage of? None of those things are fair!

Jesus told a parable that talked, in a roundabout way, about fairness (Matthew 20:1-16).

A landowner needed some work done on his property, so he went to town about 6:00AM and picked some workers. Probably the bigger and stronger looking guys that could put in a good 12-hour day in the fields under the hot sun. Then he went back at 9:00AM, then he went back at noon, then he went back at 3:00. Each time he hired more workers. Then, just about an hour before quitting time, he went back and hired some more workers.

At the end of the workday, when it was time to settle up, the landowner paid all the workers the same pay, a “denarius” according to most translations. This simply means a days wage for an average worker. To get it in perspective in our culture, minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, so a 12-hour day for an average worker is about $

So the guys who worked 12 hours made $   , but the guys who only worked an hour also made $

Crazy, huh? That’s not fair. And the punchline of the story is that the workers who had worked all day felt like they should get more. Surely the one who does more should receive more, right? That would be fair. The 12 hour workers were not happy. They were grumbling. They were even a little ticked off at the landowner (yep, they are mad at the one guy who gave them a job and payed them a fair wage for an honest days work).

I guess it’s not fair..unless you’re the guy who was chosen at 5:00. If you’re the 5:00 worker you’re probably not too concerned about what’s “fair”, you just appreciate this gesture and gift of “grace”.

Maybe you’ve been standing all day waiting to be chosen, only to be passed up time and time again. Maybe you were feeling unworthy, unwanted, unloved. Rejected time and time again. Watching all those other people get chosen, while you continued to wait. Maybe you were about to just give up and go home, alone and broke, again.

Don’t miss this point: we are the 5:00 workers! We’ve been chosen, picked, and called to work. And by none other than the Lord, Himself. The creator of heaven and earth has called you. And He has called me! Not because we are the biggest or strongest, or the smartest or most determined, or the best looking or the most educated. It’s because He loves us and He created us. We were His anyway, so He called us.

Not because we deserve it, but because we don’t. And that’s not fair, but that is Grace.

 

Frogs, frogs, everywhere

Exodus chapters 7-11 give an account of what we now refer to as the Ten Plagues. Mighty and wonderous acts of God’s power, displayed against the Pharaoh of Egypt and his people and land so that by realizing the might of the Hebrew God, Pharaoh would let the Israelite people go from captivity. The plagues recorded were: the water turned to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, death of livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and ultimately the death of the firstborn of Egyptian families.

               I can only image the pain and torment that the people of Egypt endured due to the hardness of heart of Pharaoh. In a culture and society where the Pharaoh was believed to be, and even thought himself to be a god, the people and the land itself was ‘plagued’ because of his actions and disbelief.

               As many times as I have read this account of the exodus out of Egypt, which is a key element of the Old Testament and a primary event in the history and religion of the Israelite people, the plague of frogs captures my attention the most.

               Overall I have never had any real issues with frogs. Kermit is my favorite Muppet, and even Jeremiah was a bullfrog, and was a good friend of mine.

               As far as plagues go, frogs don’t seem so bad. Not so bad at least until I read the Scripture again: “The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs” (Exodus 8:2-3)

               Now that’s a lot of frogs. Not Kermit or Jeremiah frogs, but slimy-nasty-uncatchable-wart-infested amphibians. That’s not a pretty picture. Frogs in your bed, in your underwear drawer, in your cereal box. Frogs, frogs, everywhere. And no end in sight.

               And then Pharaoh wanted the frogs gone. Duh, of course he did! So he sent for Moses and asked him to pray to his God to get rid of all these frogs and then he would the Israelite people go. So Moses said “when do you want me to do this so that all these frogs are gone?”

               “Tomorrow”, Pharaoh said. (Exodus 8:10)

               Huh? What? Tomorrow? There are frogs everywhere Pharaoh! You can’t even walk without stepping on a frog…squish…squish…squish. PETA would be outraged. The Egyptian people are a little confused. But Pharaoh is apparently OK with another night of frogs in his bed instead of doing what God wants done. I would have never said “tomorrow”, I would have said “right NOW!”

               But then I think…how many times has God asked me to do something, and I have said “tomorrow”? Oh, it’s never been as drastic as having millions of frogs jumping around me, that would make the situation seem easier. But I don’t think that God has ever asked me to do anything that I considered easy.

               Forgive.

               Pay rent for that family who can’t pay theirs this month.

               Go on your church mission trip.

               Start every day in prayer and Bible reading.

               Love that person who you don’t even like.

               Tomorrow sounds like such an easier answer. But as we read the story of those plagues, God’s will prevailed, regardless of what Pharaoh said or did. And God’s will prevails today also. Regardless of what we say or do. It’s just a matter of are we going to be in line with God’s will, or against it?

               Do you feel that God is calling you to do something? Don’t be a Pharaoh. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Pray for the frogs to be taken away today, and say yes to God’s calling right now. Not tomorrow, not later today, but now.

                

Glory in a sunset

 

 

               “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”- Psalm 19:1

 

               A couple of months ago my family moved from a Jonesborough neighborhood to a parsonage in Telford. While the move was only a few miles, there were a couple of things that I have had to get used to.

First of all, my neighbors. Not my neighbors who live in the houses around me, but my neighbors who graze in the pasture beside me. I have never thought of myself as much of a “city-slicker”, but to be honest, I have never lived beside cows. Not too bad to have as neighbors though, they don’t complain about anything and they haven’t asked to borrow anything yet. Plus, as a pastor, they have been great to listen to my sermon preparations as I stand on my back porch beside the fence. Sometimes they wander away before I get to the main point, but overall they have been a gracious and captive congregation.

The second thing I have been getting used to is the trains. I never knew so many trains ran in North America as pass through Telford. The first couple of weeks the train whistle would blow and I would jump. Several times I pulled a pillow over my head thinking there should be a law against horn blowing after 11:00PM. Sometimes they even stop and block my access to the Telford Diner. But as time has passed I am getting more accustomed to the trains.

Last night I walked out onto my back deck. There were no neighboring cows in the pasture beside me. There were no trains rumbling down the track behind me. But there was an amazing sunset. That may be one of my favorite things about my new home in Telford, the sunsets.

Psalm 19 sings of the greatness of God revealed in His creation and in His Word.

As I was mesmerized by the vivid colors and streaks of clouds in the sky I felt nothing but God’s presence, His power, and His love. How awesome is our God that He would provide something so simple as a sunset, but in that simplicity of shape and color reveal so much of His power and glory? If there had been a train horn blowing at that moment I probably wouldn’t have noticed it. If there had been a dairy chorus of mooing neighbors at the fence I probably wouldn’t have heard. I was just enjoying a simple gift of a sunset.

I have missed more sunsets than I have enjoyed over the years. Sometimes because I was too busy, sometimes because clouds may have been obscuring the view, sometimes because I wasn’t even thinking about them. But the sunset was still there. God was still showing His colorful and artistic greatness in the setting sun whether I noticed or not.

One evening this week take your Bible outside. Catch a sunset. Start counting stars. Listen to the sounds of nature around you. Read Psalm 19. And rest in the promise that a loving and caring God who has the power to create the universe and to create life from chaos, is the same God who cares enough to paint you a brilliant picture in the sky every evening. God is good..all the time!