Manna! What Is It? It's the One Bread of Justice and Grace

15 Pentecost, Cycle A Proper 20, September 21, 2014

Exodus 16:2-15   Psalm 145:1-8

Philippians 1:21-30  Matthew 20:1-16

Lectionary Link

  As a father of two and as one who occasionally has inhabited the kitchen at home, I often tried to present my experimental gourmet cooking results to our children.  Too, often the name which they gave for my productions was the same name.  It was almost like you would have thought I fed them the same thing every evening for dinner.  And what was name which they gave the food every night?  Ooo, What's this? So, this unrequited chef served on his menu many dishes all having a common name, "Ooo, What's this?"  And if you think this is funny, I think one has to note a similar humor regarding the special food of the children of Israel in their wilderness journey.  When Moses led them into the wilderness, they were without food and so they complained,"even though we were enslaved in Egypt, at least we had food.  We had our meat and bread but now we are going to starve."  So Moses interceded and a mystical bread appeared each day covering the ground like snow flakes.  And when the people of Israel saw this strange substance, they said, "What is it?"  Manna.  And if they were like my children, they probably were saying, "Oooo, What's this?"  And so What's This? became the name for the heavenly bread which they ate every morning, and for protein God brought quail to the camp every night.  So everyone partook of the one Manna, every day as they traveled through wilderness.  It was the same menu every day for everyone.  Manna and quail.  Whether one was rich or poor, old or young, one ate of the one bread.  The daily diet could not be an indicator of class difference.  The all had the very same food.

  The apparent inequality of difference is the question which is hidden within the parable of today's appointed Gospel.  When grapes are ready to be picked they must be picked rapidly so they do not over-ripen on the vine.  A frantic vineyard owner oversaw the harvest of grapes and the yield was so great that he had to keep hiring people all day.  And he had to pay a market rate to workers because of the urgency of getting the harvest completed in the day.  And so those who were hired last ended up getting paid the same as those who were hired early in the morning.  And when the wages were paid, those who were hired early protested, "It is not fair that those who were hired late received the same that we were paid."

  And the owner of the vineyard simply stated the contract that each made at the time of their hire.

  This parable in an indirect way teaches the a belief in the finality of God's contract of grace, justice and equality.

  So maybe the early Jewish followers of Jesus thought that they had "favored status" in the experience of God's grace.  And yet these Johnny come lately Gentile believers were being treated as those who had equal status in the reception of God's grace.  The oracle of Jesus in the early Christian community was proclaiming, "This is the nature of God's grace."  Those who receive early or those who receive late, all receive the same amount.  Just as it is stated in John's Gospel, "From Christ's fullness we have all received grace upon grace."  God's Spirit is the same in the Jews and the Gentile, in the rich and poor, in the American, and in the Iragi.  God's Spirit is the same in everyone, no matter how different people appear to be from each other.

  This parable provides us with a very important insight in life.  Though we may proclaim that "all are created equal," it is equally true to say that the circumstances of life manifest each person in different conditions.  How do we apply equality at the same time of respecting differences, compensating for differences, complementing differences and supplementing for differences?  This is the great question of justice, equality, grace and fairness in practice.

  In each circumstance of each person one needs wisdom to discern the criteria for determining application of accountability and justice.  So, one does not demand the same economic or labor out put of all people.  Infants and children do not have to do the same as able-bodied adults.  People with health impairments have equal worth even while there are different criteria for the articulation of their value.

  Grace, Justice and Equality comes from the fullness of the community and not from the individual measurement of relative worth.  The vineyard owner's goal was to complete the harvest and completing this tasks was the one and equal task of everyone even though each worker had a different role in contributing to the entire task.

  In the grace, justice and equality of total community we need have the wisdom to embrace compensating, complementing and supplementing of differences for the grace of the entire community.  So, a sick person cannot work, but a sick person can be the occasion for the creation of the vocation of health care giver.  So a person who is sick is a gift to the community because the complementing vocation of health giver expresses a fuller grace, equality and justice within the community.

  We need to cease harping about individual differences within community and be willing to look for how differences of circumstances calls forth the fullness of the community to its manifold vocations in the life.  The poor in the community are gifts to help the wealthy have an outlet for their generosity; the poor are not inherently inferior people who should be denied dignity because they are different in the wrong way for those of us who have been lucky to avoid abject poverty.

  Grace and Justice are to be the application of God's fullness of love expressed within the human community.  This is the love to which we are called today.

  Today, we come to the altar for the One heavenly bread, a graceful presence of Christ, equally present to all of us.  And though really young ones may not recognize the altar bread and think, "What is it...sure doesn't look like Wonder Bread," the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the black and the white, the male and the female, the gay and the straight, the single and the married all receive the One bread signifying the great equality of Christ given to us and applied to the rainbow of the wonderful diversity in the collection of people.

  We're different but we receive the same bread and the same amount of bread (though I did have a young boy named Gus who always wanted to come for seconds).

  Look in your hand today and receive the bread of the presence of Christ.  And if you are asking, "What is it?"  It is the equal grace of the loving presence of Christ coming to you in respecting your different personal gifts, situation and vocation in this world.

  And let us receive this one bread in our differences and go forth to do the work of applying the One grace and love of Christ to the many different people in our world.  Amen.