Even so, one woman, at a party said, " It sounds anti-Semitic." I include this only to serve as a disclaimer. The show was not even close to being anti-Semitic but was a celebration of Jewish humour that had seen this particular ethnic group through some pretty tough times. It could have been about any nationality, but I don’t think " Old Danes Telling Jokes" would have sold out a theatre.
So with that nod to political correctness out of the way. Here is the story that perfectly sets up our message today.
A grandmother was watching her little grandson play at the beach, right at the water’s edge. Suddenly a huge wave rolled up the beach and swept the little boy into the sea. The frantic grandmother dropped to her knees in prayer. "Gracious God," she began, " This is my only daughter’s only child, my only grandchild. Please, God, spare his life."
Just then she saw her grandchild, over joyed, riding back to shore, holding on to the dorsal fin of a dolphin. The dolphin brought the young lad close enough to shore so that he could safely walk into the waiting arms of his grandmother. The dolphin then did his " Flipper thing" joyfully swimming backwards on his tail and squawking with glee!
The grandmother looked at the dolphin and said. " You know, he had a hat!"
To complain when you just received everything you wished for is not a trait limited to one ethic group or another. All of us know people who will complain no matter what. So it is with today’s reading from Exodus and Gospel.
The Hebrew people, enslaved in Egypt have just been dramatically delivered. They had escaped the plagues, they had escaped from Pharaoh’s army, and they were free from bondage. But, the way to the Promised Land leads through the Sinai wilderness where their food supplies begin to run short. The people are hungry and crabby. And so they don’t just complain, they accuse Moses and Aaron, of trying to kill them. Suddenly the days of slavery were the " good old days."
" If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt!" they complain. " There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."[1]
Everybody here knows what that is like. We have tried to solve people’s problems and maybe have
succeeded. Perhaps we lead them through troubled financial times when they didn’t know how they would pay their next bill. Maybe we wheeled and dealed, and not only helped them get not only a second chance but a completely new start. We hoped that now they would sit back enjoy what God had given them and relax. But what we discovered is that some people will complain no matter what.
Here is the interesting part of the story for me. God doesn’t write the Children of Israel off. Instead, God gives them exactly what they need for their day to day existence.
They wake up one morning, stagger out of their tents, and are surprised to find a white, dew-like substance scattered all over the ground. It is what we call manna but according to Dr. M. Craig Barnes, now the President of Princeton Theological Seminary, " the literal translation of manna is " What is it?" So Barnes says:
This means that every morning the people would go out and gather the " What is it?" The mothers would prepare it as creatively as they could, which was tough because there was no " What is it?" helper. The family would sit at the table to eat. The kids would ask, " What is it?" The mother would sigh and say, " Yes." They’d bow their heads and pray, " Thank you God for ‘ What is it?’"[2]
It would not soon be long before even " what is it" wouldn’t be enough. It was not very long before they ran out of clever ways to prepare " What is it?" and began to complain that they needed something to go with it. And so God also sent them quails – protein to go with their carbohydrates. Surely, this would have been enough. But, in the very next chapter, the people are complaining again.
This time the " What is it" for breakfast and the quails for dinner were proving to be a bit dry. The people needed something to wash them down so they complained again to Moses, who with God’s help, brought forth fresh water from the dry rocks of the desert. But everybody knows that with some, enough is never enough, and soon there would be complaining again.
For some complaining is a way of life. For them, " enough is never enough". They want more. They want perfection. But, in many cases, the very people who claim to want things to be better, do precious little to help make that possible. There only contribution to the cause is to complain.
To their credit, at first, there was very little complaining among the workers in Jesus’ parable.
This is a scene we can see reenacted in cities and towns all across America. Just go to the parking lot near any home improvement centre and you will see unemployed labourers looking for work. A contractor in the city or farmer in the country will drive up and shout, " I need eight workers today!" and off they will go.
This is what happens in today’s parable from Jesus. The farmer shows up at sunrise and hires as many workers as he thinks he might need. They and he agree on a days wages. They were to receive a denarius – about all a family could live on for one day. It was manna and quails in the form of cold hard cash but the same idea. Just like the Children of Israel had to trust God for their provisions, the labourers had to trust that there would be another job for them tomorrow. They lived " day-check to day-check." They understood the system and did not ask for more. And he gives them a denarius, a full days pay!
You can almost see the wheels of the other worker’s minds shifting into high gear. " Hey!" they are probably saying to each other as they wait in line, " If they got a full days pay for working only a couple of hours, imagine how much more we’re going to get!"
The complaining starts when they open their pay envelopes and to find a single denarius. It was the agreed upon amount, remember, but they think they should have received more and so they complain.
" What is this?" They might have even asked. " We worked all day and those late comers got the same as us?" In one translation the landowner replies: " Do you begrudge my generosity? Take what belongs to you and go."[3]
I have always loved that translations because, it seems to me, every time we complain, we are begrudging God God’s generosity. We are saying we should have more. That we should get everything we want and not have to sacrifice anything for it. We who, every newscast tells us, are among the blest of the earth are always looking for more. We complain no matter what.
Think of this week! Amid the turmoil of the world and the danger or terrorism Apple announces a new wrist watch that can do everything an iphone can do. It is the stuff of the Dick Tracy comics! Talk on your watch, text from your watch, have a watch that tells you directions, and the time of your next appointment. News and sports updates on your watch. Pay bills with your watch. And, how did some people react? They said, and I am not making this up, " The screen is a little small." For the love of God, it’s a watch! Some people will complain no matter what.
Please understand that there are some people who will never be satisfied. No matter how much you do for them, they will still complain. And, if you look at their lives, you will discover that they have chosen to live in a world where complaining is a way of life. But to live in this fashion leaves the life of the chronic complainer as arid, and lifeless, and hungry as the Children of Israel in the Sinai desert.
They will always be as disappointed as the workers in the vineyard or the grandmother on the beach because they will always be wanting more than they already have.
The promise that comes from today’s scriptures is simply this: God only gave the people enough Manna and quail to last for one day. If they wanted another day’s supply tomorrow, they would have to trust God to provide it and they would have to go and collect it. It was never delivered to their door, UPS, though God came pretty close.
The workers got only a days pay. No more no less. This meant that they would have to come back tomorrow trusting the landowner would be there with more work for them to do. And those who didn’t come back would not only have missed out financially they would have missed the point that God was there waiting to give every one of them exactly what they needed for each new day.
So, it seems to me that the choice is clear.
You can stand on the beach like that grandmother and even when you’ve received a miracle complain that the miracle wasn’t enough because your grandson had a hat. Or, you can be grateful for the daily provisions God sends you and those big miracles that crop up every once and awhile.
You can complain no matter what or you can see every " What is it?" in your life as a sign of God’s grace which has the potential to strengthen and sustain you everyday with exactly what you’ll need for that day, and the next, and the next, if you’ll but allow it.
Thanks for listening
_________________________
Endnotes:
1. Exodus 16:3. (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]
2. Dr. M. Craig Barnes, " Nurtured in Mystery." Sermon preached at the Shady side Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. February 28, 2010.
3. St. Matthew 20:15b & 14 (ESV) [ESV=The English Standard Version]
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