God Doesn't Always Play Fair
Preaching
Shaking Wolves Out Of Cherry Trees
And 149 Other Sermon Ideas
Purpose Statement: God's rules and our rules for justice, peace, and human relationships aren't always the same.
We say God's ways are different from our ways and we don't always understand them. In many situations we do understand God's way; we just don't like it. Jesus teaches some ideas that seem unpalatable to us. One such example is the Matthew 20:1-16 story we often label, "The eleventh hour workers." The employer pays all the employees the same wage, those who worked all day and those who only worked one hour. That rankles our sense of fairness. Then Jesus makes that ridiculous statement about the first being last and the last, first. And we ask why we aren't in charge of the universe.
a. We see desires and God sees needs. We worry about others getting as much or more than we do. God wants all persons to have their needs met. We see welfare as foolish freebees for the lazy. God sees welfare as caring for people.
b. We see reward and God sees love. We may not appreciate the thief on the cross getting some eleventh hour salvation. We worked hard or were faithful all our lives for our salvation. It isn't fair. The prodigal son is celebrated after his debauchery. We, the elder brother, are not happy about it. We see getting what we deserve as just. God says we love others so much that we are happy for their good fortune.
c. We see punishment and God sees forgiveness. We know people should be punished for their sins, while God talks about forgiveness. Where is the justice? Matthew 5:38-48 strongly suggests capital punishment is wrong, as do all industrialized and educated countries except the United States. God says we must never practice vengeance. Hate only destroys us.
We say God's unfair ways won't work. Yet they have worked when we tried them.
We say God's ways are different from our ways and we don't always understand them. In many situations we do understand God's way; we just don't like it. Jesus teaches some ideas that seem unpalatable to us. One such example is the Matthew 20:1-16 story we often label, "The eleventh hour workers." The employer pays all the employees the same wage, those who worked all day and those who only worked one hour. That rankles our sense of fairness. Then Jesus makes that ridiculous statement about the first being last and the last, first. And we ask why we aren't in charge of the universe.
a. We see desires and God sees needs. We worry about others getting as much or more than we do. God wants all persons to have their needs met. We see welfare as foolish freebees for the lazy. God sees welfare as caring for people.
b. We see reward and God sees love. We may not appreciate the thief on the cross getting some eleventh hour salvation. We worked hard or were faithful all our lives for our salvation. It isn't fair. The prodigal son is celebrated after his debauchery. We, the elder brother, are not happy about it. We see getting what we deserve as just. God says we love others so much that we are happy for their good fortune.
c. We see punishment and God sees forgiveness. We know people should be punished for their sins, while God talks about forgiveness. Where is the justice? Matthew 5:38-48 strongly suggests capital punishment is wrong, as do all industrialized and educated countries except the United States. God says we must never practice vengeance. Hate only destroys us.
We say God's unfair ways won't work. Yet they have worked when we tried them.
