Pentecost 18

Pentecost 18 The Strange Mathematics of the Gospel 9/15 & 18/05

I have never liked, nor been proficient at, mathematics. As a good speller, I even have to think twice before spelling “mathematics”! Who put, or pronounces, the “E” in this word? I thought that, perhaps, in Ordained ministry there would be little need or application for math. I was really wrong about this! Even the gospels contain a sort of very strange mathematics. It appears that when Jesus entered the world, He turned the world’s mathematics on its head. As examples, remember that shepherd Jesus complimented who risked leaving 99 sheep in the wilderness in order to look for one lost sheep. You leave 99 sheep unattended and vulnerable in the Judean wilderness, you’ll face the process of “subtraction” once you return to your flock! Remember the woman who took nearly a quart of fine perfume, costing over a year’s salary, and poured it out over Jesus’ feet. Have you purchased perfume lately?! Remember Jesus watching the rich making such a big show of dropping their bags of money into the temple treasury, but praising a poor widow who dropped a single penny into the temple offering? Jesus claimed that she had given more than all the others put together! Get out your slide rules and calculators and make sense of that strange mathematics!!

In this week’s Gospel there is a farmer who, throughout the day, hired people to work in the vineyard. At the end of the day this vineyard owner paid everyone the same wage. Talk about “sour grapes”! One hour’s work is worth the same as 12 hours? Today they would have called their shop steward, picketed, and shouted slogans at the camel caravans passing by: “What do we want? Fair wages! When do we want them? Now!” In our mathematics, as best as I learned, 1+1=2…it always equals 2! But here in the strange mathematics of the gospel 1 may be equal in value to 99; 1 little coin is said to be worth more than a big bag of money; and 1 hour of work has the same value as a full day of labor. Most of us are unaccustomed to such mathematics.

But, what if we could hear this parable from the standpoint of those workers who came late, as we have in history? The person—due to disability, lack of training, or education who was passed over all day long and only got hired at the end of the day--and receives the same wage as those who had picked grapes the whole day. There would be rejoicing! What God, through Christ, wants to do for us is not a matter of shrewd calculation nor fairness nor accurate mathematics. It is a matter of grace!

We are more familiar with remuneration and rewards than grace, even within the Church! But, our relationship with God is not a matter of what we do, or the way we figure things, but a matter of what God does and the way God figures it? That’s grace!

We say we want to live in a world where if we do this we will get that. One + one always = two. And yet, it clearly appears that God has created the world in such a way that there is room for God to be gracious. There is room for people who have nothing to be given everything. There is lots of space available for those who lives don’t add up to much of anything to receive the bountiful blessings of God. Small insignificant numbers like one sheep or a single penny or one hour’s work become very large in the strange mathematics of the Gospel. In fact, God is willing to risk everything just for one who is lost…you are the one…I am the one! That’s grace!

If we live by the letter of the law and only by the letter of the law, then neither you nor I stand a chance before the throne of God upon our Lord’s return. If the law is all that matters, if fairness is what we actually prefer and pray for, then we haven’t a proverbial prayer on that impending judgment day. But, by the grace, mercy, love, and compassion of God we have a hope beyond hope!

The jury is in…Life is not fair. Sometimes the bad guys win and the good guys lose. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Shady politics sometimes wins over ethical politics. Drug-dealing school drop-outs drive fancy cars, while hard-working students are just fortunate to have a car. Entitlements for the poor do not seem fair to the person working two jobs to make ends meet. Military personnel risk (and give) their lives to liberate Iraqi people, only to be told by some Iraqi citizens: “Go home!” Life’s not fair! But God puts a different spin on it. God sees people and His concern is not fairness, but compassion. If it were a matter of fairness, the final chapter for the history of humanity would have been written just before Noah and the great flood. Where we may see ruthless executioners surrounding the Calvary Cross, Jesus calls for grace and forgiveness upon a people who “know not what they do”. I find comfort in the quote that “If the world could have been saved by good mathematics, it would have been saved by Moses or King Solomon, not Jesus!” That’s grace! Amen.