First last and last first: God is Turning the world Turtle

You might notice that the lectionary has skipped Matthew chapter 19, as last week we read from Matthew 18, when we read about the unmerciful servant, and today we’re reading from Matthew 20, the unhappy laborers in the vineyard with surprising salaries. However, it seems to me that chapters 19 and 20 have an important connection we don’t want to miss. Matthew 19 has a section about divorce, and a section about little children. But the section in Matthew 19 that I think particularly relates to today’s reading in Matthew 20 is about the rich young man and the kingdom of God. He asks Jesus what he needs to do to get into heaven. Jesus tells him, follow the commandments. He tells Jesus, I already do that. What else do I need to do? And Jesus tells him, “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” And the young man goes away sad, because he has many possessions. And Jesus teaches his disciples, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. After some back and forth, Jesus teaches in chapter 19, as he does again today in 20, that the first will be last and the last will be first.

So there is a consistent theme in both Matthew 19 and Matthew 20 about the reversal of norms and expectations between how the world works and how the Kingdom of God operates, especially with regard to wealth and poverty. We humans sometimes fall into the trap of believing that, if we are wealthy, it is because God has blessed us, and those who are not wealthy have not been blessed by God. This is preached often in conservative Christian churches as the prosperity gospel. Ironically, this is exactly the opposite of what Jesus actually teaches, as we see from both chapters 19 and 20 in Matthew. Jesus has a particular concern for the poor and outcast, who have been left behind and marginalized by society. When society puts them last, Jesus puts them first.

This is an example of God’s grace, and it is scandalous. It seems unfair and indiscriminate to us. We humans have a tendency to believe that we can earn God’s grace. If we just do enough good works, if we just get enough in our bank accounts, if we just go to church long enough, if we just (fill in the blank), then God will have no choice but to save me. But the real truth of the matter is, there is nothing we can do to make God save me. God chooses to save us because God is good. God gives us a full day’s wages, whether we work the whole day, part of the day, or only one hour. In fact, the God I know gives us a full day’s wages even if we haven’t worked at all, even if we’ve never been to church. It seems scandalous and unfair. But God gives us all grace, wantonly and indiscriminately, because that is who God is. God is the God of indiscriminate, unconditional love and grace. And who are we to judge others, or to judge God? Judgment belongs to God alone. God reverses our expectations, and turns the world on its head, putting the last first and the first last.

I remember one time, as a kid, I was visiting Holden Village with my family. Holden Village is a remote Lutheran retreat center in the North CascadeMountains of Washington, accessible only by a ferry across Lake Chelan and a bus ride up the one, windy road up to Holden. Unless you go by foot through a multi-day backpacking trip or take a helicopter in. Every evening, the community is invited to an evening vespers service. And then, the community recreation hall opens, with bowling, pool tables, foosball, popcorn, and ice cream. The ice cream is particularly popular, often drawing a long line in the evenings. One evening, the ice cream staff came outside and announced, “today, we’re taking Jesus literally when he told us, the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” And they sent the first person in the line back to the end of the line, and they sent the last person in line up to the front. I was near the back, but still didn’t unfortunately get to cut and come forward. I remember the people’s shocked responses, and the joy of the person in the back coming up to the front, as well as the frustration of the person in front now having to go through the line again. It was kind of shocking, and it was a lesson that stuck with me.

God’s grace really is scandalous and shocking. The reversal of expectations makes me think of a scene in the 2018 movie Mary Poppins Returns, when Mary Poppins’ second cousin Topsy tells Mary Poppins and the Banks children about a condition she has, in which every dreaded Second Wednesday her life turns upside down, up is down, Day is night, dog is cat, black is white, thin is fat and that is why her world is turning turtle. But Mary Poppins makes a brilliant suggestion. She says, “You see, when the world turns upside down the best thing is to turn right along with it.” And Topsy does see. From that new perspective, things are getting clear for her, and, she says, “When you change the view from where you stood the things you view will change for good.” Jesus, in Matthew 19 and 20, seems to teach us just that. “When you change the view from where you stood, the things you view will change for good.”

The Reign of God is like changing the view from where you stood. God sees the world all topsy-turvey from how the world sees it. The poor are rich in faith, for they know what it is like to have to depend on God’s provenance. And the rich are forced to stop trying to find stability or certainty in wealth or power, and instead, to place it in God. Those of us who have been to church our whole lives discover we have a great deal to learn about faith from those who have never been to church once. And yes, we have some wisdom ourselves to share too. God chooses and lifts up the least expected. God turns the world turtle. And Jesus invites us to “change the view from where you stood,” so that “the things we view will change for good,” so that we learn to see the world how God sees the world, that your kin-dom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.