Ride for the Brand

The Gospel text for this sermon is Matthew 21:23-32.

Has anyone here ever tried to plan a wedding? For all the excitement that is wrapped up in a wedding, the planning and months leading up to the event can contain a few frustrating moments. I remember during the summer of our wedding, one of the hardest pieces of the puzzle to put in place, was the guest list. We sent out our invitations with plenty of time to spare, and for the most part people responded. But some people just didn’t get back to us. Some people didn’t RSVP, and it seems that this phenomenon is becoming more commonplace.

Perhaps it’s part of our culture. With the birth of Facebook, many events are now planned online. The guest list on Facebook is a virtual RSVP list. I must confess that I am terrible at RSVP’ing on Facebook. For whatever reason, I just don’t do it. Sometimes I like to keep my options open, I don’t want to commit too early. I guess I have “commitment issues.”

Maybe that’s part of the problem, commitment issues. Maybe we are losing our ability to commit to things. Long gone it seems are the days of a person’s word being their bond and business being done with a handshake. Most of the time we don’t even have to look someone in the eye anymore and make a commitment, we just have to send an email or click a mouse. As the world becomes more virtual, will we continue to lose our ability to commit to something? What do you think?

In the Gospel this morning, the story Jesus tells invites us in to see commitment issues in action. A man goes to his two sons and asks them to work in the vineyard. The first son says no to work, then shows up anyway. The second says yes, and yet never shows up on the job. Each boy has an issue with commitment. But the question of Jesus seems simple; which one did the will of his father? What do you think?

The answer is pretty obvious, even the religious leaders know that it’s the first son who does the will of his father, even if it is after his initial no. The moral of the story seems to be about resolving commitment issues.

The leaders wait for the confirmation of their response. Jesus moves to speak. They get ready for the yes from Jesus and the word that they should follow through with their commitments, but Jesus has something else to say. “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” When John the Baptist came, with his cloths of camel’s hair and fiery preaching of repentance, you did not believe him. You stood on the sidelines and watched as the tax collectors and prostitutes lined up for baptism, but you remained stuck in your ways. You did not change your minds. You have commitment issues far greater than being able to say yes or no.

You are the “Yes men” is what Jesus is clearly telling the religious leaders, you are the second son. You say yes to God with your lips, but do not follow through with your lives. You think you are living right, but your commitment is in the wrong place. You commit to the ways of the empire, not to the way of Jesus. Its harsh words for the leaders who think they have all the right answers, who think their commitment is true. Yet instead of listening to these words and taking a good hard look at where their commitment lies, they withdraw to the edges and plot Jesus’ death. They miss the point completely.

Commitment is the heart of the issue here, but it’s not as simple as just following through on what you say. It’s where your commitment lies that seems to get the attention of Jesus. Yes when we don’t follow through on our commitments, when someone drops the ball on us, those actions hurt, relationships are broken, but it’s not the whole issue. There are persons, companies, and even nations very committed to their causes, but their causes are not founded in love. Their commitments are to money, greed and power. They work hard to keep to their commitments and succeed a great portion of the time, but people still get hurt, relationships still get broken, and the kingdom is still absent.

Even when we follow through on our commitments, we can still find ourselves in broken relationships. It turns out that our ability to follow through on our commitments is only part of the equation.

When I was a kid I grew up with the phrase, “Ride for the Brand.” It’s a line from a Red Steagall poem about cowboy values and commitment. Each ranch had its own unique brand, distinguishing it from another. A brand could tell you a great deal about the ranch, the values of the owner, the way they treated their stock, and their workers. The point of the poem is about riding for a particular brand and the cowboy’s commitment to that brand. If you’re going to ride for a brand, you need to put your heart and soul into it, you need to “protect it like it is your own.” You commit to its values, and your life is lived through those values. Or better yet, the world can see those values, through the way you live. That’s what it means to ride for the brand.

Jesus stands in the temple today, just days from his death and begs the question, where does your commitment lie? He looks to the leaders and tells them that their commitment to the empire won’t cut it. He tells them that the very ones whom they cast to the margins as sinners are going into the kingdom first, because their commitments are with the kingdom of God. The tax collectors and prostitutes have heard the call of John, they’ve looked at where their commitments were, and they’ve turned to God and recommitted themselves to new life in the kingdom. The brand of the empire has left them spurned and broken. Their commitment to that way of life leads only to death. They’ve heard the call of the coming kingdom. They’ve chosen to commit to God. They’ve chosen to ride for God’s brand.

Jesus tells us through his life and ministry that God is not looking for “Yes men” and women. God is not looking for lip service. God is looking for commitment to the values of the Kingdom. In a world run wild with lifestyles that seek power and status, God is looking for us to live lives that show the world that God’s kingdom is full of love and mercy. God is looking for us to ride for God’s brand.

God’s brand is not something that we have to earn. Our labor and works contribute nothing to the gift that is the love of God. Grace means that we are a people born into the promise of God’s love precisely because it’s the will of God. We are already set free. We are baptized into this love. Through water and the word we are wrapped in the love of God and we bear this love as we walk through this world. We come out of the waters of baptism marked with “watery crosses,” the brand of the kingdom of God.

Can you see them? Can you see the “watery crosses” on your neighbors, your brothers and sisters in the journey of faith? I can. The witness of these “watery crosses” is strong in this place. As we come together to worship, we are filled up to once again be sent out. We come together to be reminded of the values of the kingdom of God, and inspired to show the world those values through our lives.

This world can be troubling, full of distractions that look like good places to put our commitments. But Jesus comes into our lives to remind us of who is committed to us, of who will be there to cover our bets. Our call in this life is to commit our lives to the kingdom of God. Through his life and ministry, Jesus shows us what it’s like to live for the kingdom. “And the more of it I understand, the more I think we’d all be better off, if more people would ride for God’s brand.”

Wild Generosity

This sermon is based on the Gospel Text, Matthew 20:1-16.

Are any of you familiar with the phrase, “That’s just not fair!?” Can you think of a time when this feeling began to bubble up inside of you? We all have these moments. Moments of jealousy, moments of envy, moments of being hurt for receiving less than we think we deserve.

I can recall quite vividly one of the first times I had this feeling creep up inside of me. It was Christmas morning, sometime around when I was 8 or 10. My brother Josh and I had just finished opening presents and my parents were clearing away the discarded wrapping paper. I must have had a look on my face incongruent with the event that had just taken place. My mom asked me what was wrong. I looked over at my brother and in the bluntness of a boy I blurted out, “He got more than me.” The value of the gifts, the meaning behind them, and the joy of the morning were no match for the age-old feeling, “it’s just not fair.” I felt wronged for not having an equal number of presents. I had been a good boy. Did I not deserve the same?

As I grew older I learned that the value of gifts was not in their number, but in their meaning. I learned that my parents worked very hard to make things fair for me and my brother. It’s a struggle, and as much as we try, the feeling of “it’s not fair” never disappears completely.

This feeling of “it’s not fair” has been around a long time. We only need to step into the vineyard of today’s parable to see it action. As the sun sets and the payment for the day’s work is handed out by the manager, the grumblings of “it’s not fair” begin to crescendo over the reception of equal payment for working far longer hours. The men who had been busting their chops since daybreak are upset at their payment of a denarius, the usually daily wage, a wage they had agreed upon, because their brothers who had been working for just over an hour had received the same small silver coin. It’s just not fair.

The eyes of those had been working all day must have lit up at the sight of that silver coin being pressed into the hands of the ones who had only been there an hour. The expectation of receiving more for their hard work began to grow inside, long forgotten was the payment they had agreed upon hours earlier. They worked longer hours, they wanted more pay, the expectations had changed. What’s wrong with that desire?

The human answer is nothing. Wouldn’t we all feel the same way? Wouldn’t we feel disparity at being paid at an equal rate to someone who worked less hours. When I worked at Starbucks, we had a tip jar by the cash register and everyone’s tips went into the same bucket. Each of us got an equal share of the tips based on the hours we worked (normally a $1.50 a person). That means that I got the same tip rate for working my tail off that Joe did for doing half the work. I was upset the first time I got my share of the tips, I felt it was pennies on the dollar to the effort I had put into serving the customer and keeping them happy. It just wasn’t fair.

But is it ever really fair? Not really. We live in the tension that life is really never fair. We try to make it equal, we struggle to keep things even, but we cannot. The feelings of envy, jealousy and greed continue to haunt our footsteps. We have become creatures of entitlement, always wanting something bigger and better.

Or maybe we just want enough. Maybe we just want to keep food on the table, give our kids a fighting chance, go to bed at night without wondering what upsets tomorrow will bring. But the money always seems to run out, the bills stack up higher, the job search never goes anywhere, and we are left wondering why. The deep hurt of “it’s not fair” is very real to us every day.

It’s these feelings of “it’s just not fair” that Jesus speaks to in our Gospel today. The landowner chooses to give everyone a fair daily wage, regardless of the hours they worked. He chooses to give all of the laborers enough. It’s a radical, wild generosity that the landowner displays. Everyone gets to go home and put food on the table, everyone gets to have a fighting chance to make ends meet for one more day. The landowner knows that a denarius isn’t all that much, any one could let you in on that fact. But the landowner also knows that the denarius is enough, enough to give life. That small silver coin is enough for in the life of the kingdom. That dear friends, is grace.

Grace is God’s wild generosity. Grace is meeting the needs of all people, especially the least of these, making sure everyone has enough, making sure everyone has a place at the table. Grace is meeting people where they are and leaning into their need in a way that shows them the love of God.

Surprisingly, money is not the issue here. It’s the expectations of those who worked the longest that are called into question by the man handing out the checks. Friend, I have given out of my generosity, isn’t that enough? I chose to give to this last the same as I give to you. I chose to be generous, but not in the way you think I should be. Grace is not about how much you have, it’s about everyone having enough. I chose to give everyone enough so that they may have life. God chooses to give everyone enough so that all peoples may have life. That’s the heart of grace. That’s what God’ wild generosity is all about. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not parish, but may have eternal life.” Jesus went to the cross for all people, not just for those who worked the hardest.

Today’s parable speaks to the truth that grace just isn’t fair. It isn’t fair by our world’s standards that those who worked longer got the same pay as those who had only been there an hour. But God says to us through Jesus Christ that even the least will have enough in my kingdom. God says through the resurrection that Jesus Christ is enough, that faith is enough, that the wild generosity of God is enough for all people. Even you and me.

So if we have enough in Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ is enough for all of us, then we are done with our calculating. Sure we can chose to grumble like the disgruntled worker, but we can also chose to be inspired by the love of God that gives freely to all. We can choose to live in response to God’s wild generosity by living with wild generosity ourselves. We can take seriously the practice of tithing for the benefit of the community. We can take some time to get to know our neighbors, to lean into their need and lend a hand with the yard or household chores. It’s how we respond to God’s grace that makes all the difference in the world.

Over the years I have learned that the value of gifts comes not in the quantity, but in their meaning and how they are used. I have come to realize that it’s not about how much the tips are, but how they get spent. So it is with the kingdom of heaven and the grace of God. It’s not about how much, but that everyone has enough. Jesus Christ, God’s wild generosity, is enough.