Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Yr A Proper 20 September 20 2026, Grace Church, Mpls

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Yr A Proper 20 September 20 2026, Grace Church, Mpls

Exodus 16:2-15, Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45, Philippians 1:21-30, Matthew 20:1-16

So your teenager walks into the house after school, or after football practice, or band rehearsal, or just takes a break from homework, or even about an hour after dinner, and looks through the cupboards, opens the refrigerator door, and says, "Mom! There's nothin to eat."

At least that’s been my experience. Which is why this story in Exodus about the Israelites makes so much sense to me. Aren’t we just like them? Whining, whining, whining, "God, we have nothing to eat, and what’s more, we don't like what you’ve given us to eat." I do think that if I were wandering in the wilderness with Moses and Aaron for 40 years, I might be a little whinny too. “God, we’re tired, we’re hungry, we may as well have stayed in Egypt for all this gets us.” And they are reminded that in Egypt they were slaves, at least in the desert they are free.

It’s a great story. In the verses that follow these we just heard, God instructs them to gather up what they need for themselves and their families. Each family gets just what they need, no more, no less. Then Moses instructs them not to save any of it, don’t take more than you need, he tells them. Well, some didn’t listen to Moses, and hoarded the food that God had provided for them, they put it in their pockets and their backpacks, and it got wormy and smelled bad. So not only do they not seem to want or like what God provides for them, they go ahead and eat it anyway, and then save some up for later, only for it to go bad on them. Lord, lord, lord, give us something to eat, give us something better to eat, we don’t like what you’ve given us, but even though we don’t like it we’ll hoard it for ourselves and risk losing what is right here in front of us.

Matthew’s gospel is paired with this story from Exodus and it carries the theme even farther. Matthew’s story is a tough one, it always seems so topsy-turvy, so inside-out. The day laborers that show up at the end of the day get paid the same as those who showed up early to work, and work or no work, everyone gets paid the same. 

What is God’s kingdom like? What is God’s economy like? God’s kingdom is not business as usual. These kingdom parables in Matthew serve to show us that God is doing this absolutely new thing, there is no business as usual. In this kingdom everything is re-ordered. It’s not even as simple as the last will be first, and the first shall be last. God coming into our midst, living, loving, suffering, dying, and being raised from the dead creates life in a way it has never been before.

So this kingdom parable doesn’t sit well with those who heard it centuries ago, and it doesn’t sit well with people who hear it today, when some have come to believe there is always a reward. For example, if we live a particular right way, or do all the right things, there will be a reward. For some that reward is heaven. This parable refutes that kind of thinking. Our wages are paid at the baptismal font, not at the grave. The new life, the defiant, embodied, joyful life in Jesus is available from the beginning. We live our whole lives loved by God, the delight of God’s life.

Following Jesus is not about earning our wage or getting our reward in heaven or even on earth. Following Jesus is about responding to God’s amazing and abundant love, about being bathed in God’s grace, right here, right now. Following Jesus is about the fruits of our baptism; following Jesus is about responding to the joys and challenges of our lives in ways that show forth the grace that God has given us. Following Jesus is not easy nor is it clear, it is not about finding Jesus, it’s about being found by God’s love. Following Jesus is about grace and forgiveness, the grace and forgiveness that God offers us, and the grace and forgiveness that we offer one another as we love our neighbors as ourselves.

God does ask us for our undivided attention, and God gives us all we need. Those wandering in the wilderness have so much trouble accepting God’s gift of enough, and instead made their own god out of the gold they had found. They got greedy. We get greedy, and we are encouraged in our greediness by a culture that constantly encourages us to buy more, and bigger, regardless of our ability to do so, regardless of need. Now, as much as the Hebrew people needed to hear “no other gods, only me,” and as much as the Jews of the first century needed to hear the inbreaking of God’s kingdom re-orders all that they knew to be true, we, in the 21st century need to hear this message that we are sought and we are found, that God loves us abundantly and claims us. Our wages are paid at the baptismal font, we are new creations.

This is good news indeed as we as a country stand at this precarious place, the slippery slope if you will. This place in our collective lives where we know we are called to be followers of Jesus, and sometimes we don’t know what to do about that, or we know the risk and are unsure of stepping out and taking it. One thing we are certain about, is that God calls us into community, and it is in community that we learn to love one another. And in community we know that every one of us is loved, regardless of wealth, social status, color of skin, ability, or so many other categories we place people into. 

There was a group that gathered last Monday night to address these very questions. How do we be followers of Jesus in public? What do we do about injustice? How do we protect our multiracial democracy? And we spent some time identifying the cloud of witnesses on whose shoulders we stand, those who have gone before us as witnesses who risked everything for the things that Jesus calls us to, loving one another, feeding one another, mercy, compassion. This coming Monday night we’re going to go a little deeper into what public discipleship, public ministry looks like. One of the ways we will practise that is by having conversations with one another, getting to know our neighbors in this church better. And we will begin to plan the ways we can step out in faith and make a difference right now.

God gives us enough grace for every single day. We do not need to hoard love or wait for a distant reward. We are already found, and we are already loved. Gathered here in this community, we find the courage to stand together. We can love our neighbors without limits. We can share God's abundant gifts with a world that is hungry for hope. Let us step out our doors this week ready to serve. Amen.