Extravagant Generosity

"Are you jealous because I am generous?"

That is a line from the text which will be preached on this morning by John Romig.  I have already spent time with this scripture (Matthew 20: 1-16) in Bible study and am pondering this question as I prepare to do a communion meditation today.

It is the parable of the workers in the field where the landowner pays the workers who worked all day the same wage as those who came in the last hour.  It is a rich text because it can - of course - speak of salvation and God's love that is there for all no matter how late our "conversion."

It also speaks of the myth of meritocracy that we all live in.  We want life to be fair and for people to get what they earn.  We want it when we imagine ourselves to be the ones who are hard working and there from the beginning.  It is easy to become confident in our acceptance and worthiness.

The only problem with that, of course, is that sometimes all of us are the ones who did not get there on time, so to speak. Whether it is when we are too young, too old, too infirm or just lost and alone, we are not always the hard workers who deserve more than others.  

Still we persist in this idea of fairness and want to be rewarded according to what we perceive to be our effort. Then God comes in and cuts through everything with God's extravagant love and generosity.  There for us whether we know it or not.  And often we do not.

I continue to believe that one of the biggest problems for people of faith is that they really have not experiencing God's gracious love for them.  They may know about it and talk about it, but have not really felt it in the deepest part of their souls.  The interesting and perverse part of all of this, is that we cannot fully experience God's grace until we have fully experienced our need of it.  Maybe that is why our faith really gets strengthened during the second half of life.  We have had enough time to fail, to suffer, to be disappointed and a disappointment.  

It is when we face these pains that are a part of life - learning how little coutrol we have over so many things - (including ourselves, at times) - that we encounter God's extravagant generosity and grace.  God loves us not matter what.  I can say it and say it, but somehow we all have to KNOW it in our souls.

When we do, we begin to stop comparing our journeys with that of others.  When we know that at times we are the ones last to come to the field and still rewarded, we know that we are the beloved.  Not more beloved - not less - but we are LOVED by God who loves each as God loves all.

So, I soon will leave to go to church and drive down and probably ponder the amazing grace, the extravagant generosity of God's love for each and for all.  And wish that my words this morning can break through our complacency so that we might really know God's healing love as we receive communion today.

May it be so.