There is a certain establishment I know, where mostly adult males, over the age of 21, and most of them closer to the age of 71, like to go during happy hour in San Diego. And in a world of TGIFriday’s and Chili’s Bar and Grills, this little non-descript watering hole stands as a beacon for all the old mom and pop spots that can barely stay afloat. Just a one-room bar, where the clientele and the staff all know each other. It’s better than any TV show, because it’s reality, and you get the sense that there’s actually a lot of genuine fellowship, I’d venture to say even “ministry”, that takes place there. I never would have known about O’Brien’s had I not been introduced to it by a few of my more gregarious Lutheran pastor friends, some of whom frequent the spot monthly, sometimes from as far as Riverside County. I remember it almost felt like this rite of passage into the San Diego conference of pastors, when 2 of my new colleagues ushered me into the dim room, the air thick with frivolity, and treated me to my first locally-brewed O’Brien’s specialty, proudly introducing me to the owner and announcing to all that this was my first time.
On that visit I also learned of an elite group in that circle of middle-aged, middle-class fellows. A group of just a few dozen, who have their very own mug at O’Brien’s, which hangs in a row over the back counter, reflected and lit in the long saloon-style mirror for all to admire. When a mug owner comes in, the bartender grabs their special glass, and it’s almost like a celebrity has entered the room, as conversations stop and everyone turns to see the sacred goblet come down off the hook and get filled. The last time I was there, an old “Mugger” came and sat at a table next to mine. He might have been just a regular old guy to the rest of the world, but at O’Brien’s, he was a prince.
There’s a long, time-honored waiting list (over 100 names) that one must get on, in order to get a mug in this little community. And when one does achieve the seemingly impossible feat, after years of loyal patronage, the whole place celebrates, as a dusty old abandoned wall hanging transforms once again into a well-earned golden crown. Now I’ve only been there 2 or 3 times so I’ve not witnessed the coronation ceremony, but I imagine it must be glorious.
Can you believe that our very own Mr. Ron Blake, our preschool director, once had a mug at O’Brien’s? He was actually one of the first when the place opened many years ago. And, I must tell you (maybe for the sake of his job as caretaker of our children), that he didn’t exactly earn it like all the others. Mr. Ron received special status because his long-time friend was the owner of the bar. You have to fill your “holy grail” at O’brien’s twice a month in order to maintain it, and even while he was proud and honored to have his mug displayed, Mr. Ron wasn’t keeping up.
And so he made the painstaking decision [slowly…] to give up…the mug!
And he decided—in true Mr. Ron style—to invite his owner friend to pick someone who was brand new on the list.
I have no idea how that transaction occurred, but I would have loved to see the newcomer randomly granted the surprise of grace, an absolute undeserved gift, right there for all to see. There must have been such a cocktail mix of celebration and mostly bitterness as the mug was taken off the hook and given to a newbie—probably didn’t even know what a big deal it was. “But that’s not fair,” I’m sure was the cry that went up, nearly splitting the happy tavern family, as a public display of abundant grace was bestowed…on the late-comer.
If I had to title my sermon today, I’d call it “In Your Face Grace”.
Because what strikes me about both our Old Testament reading of Jonah and Jesus’ parable of the workers that all got paid the same, is that God doesn’t hide the fact that it won’t be fair. And...grace flows abundantly.
Right in Jonah’s face, God changes God’s mind and forgives the people deserving of the greatest punishment. In your face!
Right in the early bird’s faces, those hard workers who got up at dawn and hustled out there for the jobs and the wages, right in their face, the landowner pays the latecomer. Why couldn’t he at least have paid the early birds first, let them go away satisfied, and then give the unfair wage to the slackers?
Maybe the mug deal at O’Brien's wasn’t such a public display, and rather O’brien himself just slipped Ron’s former mug under the bar to the latecomer on the waiting list…
But I hope it wasn’t! I hope it was a huge production of what “the kingdom of heaven looks like”! Where the last shall be first.
God’s grace is in your face, for you, and for everyone, sisters and brothers in Christ! If I was in control of bestowing grace to the least-deserving, I’d probably "slip it to them under the table", so that everyone wouldn’t get mad at me. I wouldn’t make a big deal about, just sneaking you a little grace. But God’s grace comes like a wedding announcement, like a status update in all caps! God’s grace comes pouring in, loud and clear. Free for all, the same for all. Deal with that, Jonahs!
Jonah was so mad: “C’mon God, I thought you were going to punish them!” Ever feel like that? “I thought they were going to get what they deserve, the dirty rotten Ninevite sinner scumbags. C’mon God, I thought we were on the same team. God, how can you be so reckless with your grace? How can you give so freely? How can you love so abundantly?!
"C'mon God...that’s like giving away a mug at O’brien’s to a first-time visitor! C’mon God, that’s not fair.”
But no one said that the kingdom of God would be fair. And just to burst our illusions that it is, God puts grace in our face, and then asks like in our reading from Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry?” God almost taunts us with love and grace. God makes a bush to shade Jonah for a little bit, only to “appoint a worm” (I love that translation!) that eats up the shade and makes Jonah even more miserable – now he's both angry and sunburned at God’s grace.
And there’s a lesson in it all. (I love Jonah!) God points out, “Hey, the shade bush was never a product of your doing in the first place, it’s all gift." Think about your shade bushes, the things that secure you, cover you from harm, keep you from getting burned: maybe it's family member/s, or the social status that you were born into, or being a citizen of this country that you were born into...maybe in your professional life, it's being in the right place at the right time: out of the sun. What are your shade bushes? — things or relationships or situations that you never really even worked for, things you never really pruned or watered, they just were there…to protect you. And yet you think it’s all rightfully yours to get all upset about when it’s gone. God says to Jonah, “You take it all this shade for granted, like it was ever yours in the first place!”
No one said that the kingdom of God would be fair.
Because if it was—here it comes—none of us would ever get in!
Truth is, we’ve all been given a mug that we didn’t earn!
We’ve all been bumped to the front of the list, paid more than we deserve, forgiven for our slacking off and being unfaithful. God’s forgiveness just flows and flows. It is abundant. It is amazing.
Jesus turns the world’s ideas of fairness and justice on their head and instead replaces them with God’s justice. God’s justice and the world’s fairness are radically opposed...
...because God’s justice means that we get a mug, we get a place, we get a welcome…
And so do our sisters and brothers who have wronged us. Doggonit! Amen.
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