Proper 20 A - September 24, 2017

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Bob Pierson, OHC
Proper 20 - Sunday, September 24,2017

Br. Bob Pierson 

In July of the year 2000, I had an opportunity to attend the Church of St. Mary Madgalene in Toronto with a friend one Sunday morning. My friend wanted to go because he had heard that “St. Mary Mag,“ as I think it was called, had the highest Anglican liturgy in Toronto.  My friend was not disappointed, but I was a bit put off by the whole thing, until it came time for communion.

When we picked up the hymnal to join in the communion hymn, I saw that it was one of my favorite hymn texts, “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.” I had sung that hymn text to several different tunes over the years, and almost knew the text from memory.  So you can imagine my surprise when, all of a sudden, I found a verse that I had never seen before.  It went:

But we make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own,

And we magnify God’s strictness with a zeal God will not own.

Wow! In that moment, it was as though I heard the voice of God saying to me, “Pay attention!  I’ve been trying to get this message across to you for years.”  As I reflected on these words, I found myself wondering why I’d never seen that verse before, and when I got home I checked every hymnal I could find, including Hymnal 1982. Each hymnal I looked at had a setting of “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,” but none of them contained that particular verse. 

Perplexed by the verse’s absence in Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist hymnals, I decided to check another source, and I googled, “original text of ‘There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.’”  Up came the original hymn text—all 12 verses, and sure enough there was my mystery verse, verse #11.  Over the years I’ve continued to look for that verse wherever that hymn is included in a hymnal, and so far I’ve only found it twice—in the Church of England hymnal I found at St. Mary Mag and in a Unitarian hymnal.

I can understand why hymnal editors would not publish 12 verses of anything, but why was that verse almost always left out?  I suspect it’s because most of us don’t really want to believe that God is so loving and merciful.  We favor the idea of a just God, a God who strives for fairness and justice just like we do. Today’s Gospel parable really flies in the face of our desire for fairness from God.

The vineyard owner in the parable is not fair.  His generosity goes way beyond fairness and that upsets those who worked all day. It’s only fair that they should get more than those who worked only 1 hour. To run a business any other way is foolish.  How many workers would show up tomorrow at the beginning of the day, if they knew they could get a full days’ wage for working only one hour?

Of course, Jesus’ purpose in telling this story is not to teach us how to run a business but rather to show us what “the Kingdom of heaven” is like.  God’s love and mercy go way beyond what we think is fair and just.  God’s love is “crazy”. It doesn’t fit our expectations; it’s so much more!  We don’t earn God love.It’s unconditional.

And that’s what Jonah was so upset about. He wanted those Ninevites to pay for their sins, and when God forgave them, he was really upset. He threw a huge tantrum, telling God he wanted to die rather than witness God’s tremendous mercy. What an over-reaction!

And we see that same over-reaction today in different ways. One recent example is the conservative backlash over Fr. James Martin’s new book, “Building A Bridge,” in which he talks about the need for the church to treat LGBT people with “respect,compassion, and sensitivity.” The nastiness of the attacks against him have caused others to “disinvite” him to speak on completely unrelated topics. And all the nastiness is supposedly done in God’s name. Indeed, some do “make God’s love too narrow by false limits of [their] own.”

So where does that leave us?  I sometimes think God should smite all those people who are so judgmental and nasty. But then it occurs to me that I’m doing the same thing to them that they are doing to others. God wants to forgive and heal everyone, and God’s love and mercy are extended to even those who would deny that generous love and mercy to others. 

Perhaps Paul has some words of wisdom for us to take away today when he says “Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” In other words, be God’s love and mercy in the world, and if that means having to suffer a bit, embrace “the privilege not only of believing in Christ but of suffering for him as well….” Jesus struggled to convince His world of God’s great love and mercy, and He calls us to do the same today.  God’s love is not fair; it’s all grace!