"Help Me"

St. Paul’s Church in Bergen, Jersey City NJ

September 24, 2017

Year A, Proper 20: The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Jonah 3:10-4:11

Psalm 145:1-8

Philippians 1:21-30

Matthew 20:1-16

“Help Me”

            Today’s collect, or opening prayer, really captures the spirit of these days, doesn’t it?

            “Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure…”

            With hurricanes and earthquakes and wildfires, with the threat of nuclear war as the leaders of two hostile nuclear powers trade insults like schoolyard bullies, with so many of us struggling to hold on to what we’ve got or trying to get our lives back on track, with all of that and more, it’s hard not to be anxious about earthly things.

            So, in today’s opening prayer we give God a pretty tall order: God, ease our anxiety in a most anxious time.

            Yes, we give God a tall order: God, help us to remember and hold onto what’s most important – God’s love, which can never be destroyed no matter how strong the storm, now matter how violent the earthquake, no matter how many wars and rumors of war we must endure.

            We give God a tall order.

            Fortunately, God is up to the job.

            Amen? Amen.

            But, in return, God gives us a tall order, too.

            I suppose God could have set up everything so that we didn’t have to do much, that God, like an over-functioning helicopter parent would simply take care of our every need and want.

            But, that’s not the way God has set up the world.

            No, instead - and, considering our track record, maybe unwisely - God invites us to be coworkers with God, to work with God, to allow God to work through us.

            What an honor, to work together to build God’s kingdom!

            One time I had the privilege and blessing to hear Desmond Tutu preach. Tutu, of course, is the great South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner, one of God’s best coworkers.

            He had come to visit my seminary and I remember all of us just absolutely silent and still in the chapel as the great man, a living saint, shared his wisdom with us.

            His message was simple and challenging: God asks for our help. 

            All these years later, I don’t remember much of what he said, exactly, but I remember how he ended the sermon.

            He allowed the voice of God to speak through him, repeating the same words over and over, gradually fading into a whisper…

            “Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Help me…”

            It gave me chills – and I’m sure I wasn’t alone.

            God asks me – asks us – for help.

            Wow, right?

            Of course, there’s nothing new about this. The Bible is filled with stories of God calling people, usually the most unlikely and seemingly least prepared or even completely inappropriate people, to do God’s work.

            And, often enough, maybe like us, they just don’t want to do it.

            Maybe they’ve got other plans, other things going on. Or, maybe they don’t feel qualified enough. Or, maybe, they don’t think the people they’re asked to serve or save really deserve to be served or saved.

            For example, in today’s first lesson, we heard most of the second half of the story of Jonah.

            If people remember Jonah, usually they remember the time that he spent in the belly of the whale, or, actually, what the Bible calls a “big fish.”

            Either way, pretty gross, right?

            But, often people forget why Jonah ended up in that fishy stomach.

            It turns out that God asked Jonah for some help, to go to the great city of Nineveh and warn them that if they don’t change their ways, God will destroy their city.

            Jonah really doesn’t want to do this. It was a long way to go. Nineveh was a foreign city, capital of an empire often hostile to the people of Israel.

            It would be a little like God asking us today to go to Pyongyang and call for repentance. Who’s going to say yes to that?

            So, Jonah’s attitude was basically, “Let them die.”

            And, instead of accepting God’s request for help, Jonah literally travels in the opposite direction of Nineveh, getting on a boat, which God then batters with a big storm, leading Jonah’s shipmates to reluctantly throw him off the boat, into the waters, where he ends up in the fishy stomach.

            After Jonah was released, God gives him a second chance to help out, which he does, but still reluctantly.

            Maybe surprisingly, the people of Nineveh, from the king on down, really do accept Jonah’s warning and really do repent and change their ways.

            And, as we heard today, Jonah the reluctant prophet was none too happy about any of this, none too happy that God would show such love and mercy to people that Jonah didn’t like, not one bit.

            So, yes, Jonah was a very imperfect prophet, a very imperfect helper of God, but God was still able to take his help and do something wonderful with it.

            And, now, today, God says to us, “Help me.”

            And, we don’t have to look far to find ways that we can help God build God’s kingdom right here and right now.

            Maybe it’s taking on the discipline of simply praying for all of the many names on our prayer list, the people we know and don’t know, the people we love, like, or maybe even don’t like, not one bit. Maybe we pray for the people of North Korea and their leader and the people of our country and our leader.

            God says to us, “Help me.”

            Maybe it’s really giving generously to the work of the church, giving to Episcopal Relief and Development, giving to St. Paul’s even more than we wrote down on our pledge card, giving of our time to attend the Jersey City Together action, giving of ourselves to help with Family Promise or Triangle Park or some other ministry we’re up to here in Jersey City. Maybe it’s bringing even just one item for the food pantry, one little can, each time we come to church.

            God says to us, “Help me.”

            Now, some of us here have been answering God’s call for a long time, but maybe others of us have been like Jonah trying to run away from God, and maybe some of us have been like the workers in today’s parable from Jesus, the workers who were just hanging out until noon or even three o’clock.

            This is one of my favorite parables because it challenges our sense of fairness. Of course, the workers who’ve been toiling away all day should receive more pay than those who were just hanging out and didn’t start working until noon, three o’clock, or even five o’clock! Right?

            But, that’s not God’s way. God is generous to all, no matter how long we’ve been answering the call for help.

            So, if we’ve been helping God for a while, keep going!

            If we’ve been helping God for just a little while, keep going!

            And, if we’ve just been hanging out in the marketplace, waiting for an invitation, well, consider yourself invited. There’s still time!

            Finally, there’s nothing magic about this, but it’s been my experience that when we answer God’s call for help, when we give of ourselves to others, our anxiety about earthly things is eased a bit and we really are able to focus on things heavenly and eternal.

            It’s strange but true:

            We give God a tall order.

And, somehow, God fulfills that order by giving us a tall order in return:

            “Help me.”

            Amen.