A Generous God

The Gospel reading for yesterday told the parable of the landowner who paid the workers he hired the same wage.  The twist is that some workers gave their labor for a full day, some for half a day, and some for only an hour. The landowner, who would have flunked management 101, called these laborers to work during different times of the day.  Not only are those who worked the longest angry, they call the landowner unfair.  The landowner responds, are you envious because I am generous?

To illustrate how we as a congregation arrive at different times into the life of the community, I asked those who had been there since their birth to stand up.  A range of people from toddlers to teen to seniors stood up.  Then I asked those who had come into the congregation through our school, another entry point at a different stage of life, to stand up. This time the age range reflected parents with children under the age of 12.  Finally, I asked those who had been 10 years or more to stand.  Most of the congregation. They could see we all arrived at the congregation at different times, a different times in our lives, and had been worshiping in this community for different lengths of time.

At whatever time you arrived in the congregation, I asked, did you expect to find God? Did you expect to find that there was enough worship, education, spirituality, fellowship, and ways to service? Or, did you expect to find that God had been all used up? Did you think that God would be handed out in limited amounts because someone before you had used God all up? I expect that the answer is No.  You didn't expect that God was all used up and that there would be enough for you, your children, the new member and the long standing member. That is a Generous God, who is never used up. A God who is  always there for all of us, always present, and always filling us.

That is a Generous God.  And, we are made in the image of God so it is part of our nature to be generous too.