We all enjoy it – the giver and the receiver.

One more time – the nature God has given us actually adheres to the same principle as these bubbles – the nature of God is present in the world; the world we see around us. It too is recklessly generous.

Think about trees. The thing about trees, they don’t just sit there and eat their own fruit, so much of the fruit falls to the ground; a complete abundance, given away.

And we learn from that.

It’s been said that when we plant a tree knowing that we won’t live to sit in its shade, then we’ve learned something both about the generosity and goodness of nature and also, the purpose of our lives. To go way beyond ourselves.

Water begins in the mountains, meanders downwards as streams and rivers, into the ocean and back through the water cycle. Becoming more and more itself as it travels away from its source, and yet, by doing so, finding its way back to its source.

We humans create so much for our own benefit from the largess of nature. Think of salt – flavours and preserves our food, not its own. It is nature as I believe God intended it to be. As God is. Recklessly generous.

We can learn so much from nature.

Forget the arguments of the selfish gene; that reckless generosity is there everywhere, empirically, scientifically, in nature, in people, you can see it. People make such sacrifices for love. Reckless sacrifices.

And now, with nature on its knees, almost, we have to give back to nature. We have to be as giving, as self-denying as nature has been, to protect nature. And we can do it. We are made to do it.

God’s gift in nature is to be recklessly generous, and if you still don’t believe me – if you think God is more careful than that – think of the Parable of the Sower – that farmer, representing God, casually, almost carelessly, scattering seed even where he must know it can’t, won’t take root. On stony ground for goodness sake. Recklessly generous. And yet, even there, among the crevices in the stones, flowers grow.

And you’re going to say, ah, this is actually about money. And it’s not.

I look round at you, and I see what kind and generous hearts people have in this congregation.

And sometimes people do give money; so generously and so quietly; and they say they can afford it, and I take that at face value. And I’m grateful. And I bet sometimes people give more than they can afford. Recklessly generous.

Sometimes it is money people need, and those of us who can, we step up, and we help. Thank God.

But some of us barely have enough for ourselves. And we don’t have material things to give.

Reckless generosity isn’t about money. It is about an awful  lot of things.

But for Christians it always, always, takes its inspiration from its source – the God who is recklessly generosity to us.

I always feel uncomfortable when I hear the cry, oh those illegal migrants, we’ve got to be careful, we don’t know who they are – they could be terrorists or rapists or this or that. Yes, maybe, they could be; (but to be fair, your next door neighbour could be a serial killer!) but that is the careful cautious response.

The mad, recklessly generous response says yes there could be a bad person in that boat but there could also be an engineer, a doctor, a  nurse, a poet.

And there but for the grace of God go I.

‘The great reversal’ as it says in The Message. That’s the kind of reckless generosity I mean.

Thinking the best of other people. All the time. And letting them think the best of us. Because someday we could, watch the way the world is turning, someday we could be the refugees. We could be the ones maybe getting more than human logic or human hard-heartedness says we deserve.

Look at the story of the workers in the vineyard. Those who come early really don’t think well of those who come late, do they. Oh no they don’t.

Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, ‘These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.’

Accurate, fair, just even – but not generous. They do a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, and then these ‘scroungers’ (insert whatever word we use to describe those we think take advantage) and, say what… the same wage? They deserve the same as us? No way.

Now for, as it says in The Message version: the great reversal!

Let’s suppose that you and I are not among the first hired. But the last.

We really need the money. Bills are piling up, food is running low. It’s now noon. We are willing to work, keen to work but there is none. The hours tick by. 

We are hot, hungry, thirsty, and getting more and more anxious. Yes we have our mobile in our pocket, but that was bought during better times,  but there’s nothing left in the big American fridge/freezer. That too was bought during better times.

It’s three o’clock. Now five o’clock. We are about ready to go home and tell our family that there is no food tonight. But the same landowner who came all those previous times has come once again, and we have been hired! Not for a whole day, but it’s better than nothing! We go to the field and get to work. When evening comes, we are called by the manager and receive our pay – a whole day’s wage! What an incredible surprise! We can feed our family another day! God is good, we say to our family when we get home. All the time, God is good. 

We don’t usually look at the parable this way, and maybe that is Jesus’ point. We get so focused on what is fair and on what we deserve that we neglect to look at things from the perspective of the less fortunate. There are many in our world who simply can’t catch a break. If they finally do catch one, who are we to complain? Isn’t that the point of this story? That we shouldn’t complain about God’s unfair and reckless generosity, his gracious mercy?

Because one day in this world or the next, we will be the the benefactor, the recipient of that generosity.

We want the world to be fair. But this parable forces us to ask whether the world really is fair. The truth is that just because you want to work doesn’t mean that you will. And just because we work and eat doesn’t mean those who  can’t work, shouldn’t eat.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. 

St Paul, ‘Let us not become weary in doing good,  for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers‘

I disagree a bit with Paul. He was writing for his time when the church had to huddle together to protect each other. We can afford to be more reckless. All of us are God’s children, all of us hope for God’s reckless generosity to shine on us; let us shine it on others too.

Take risks,

Live dangerously.

Live generously.

None of us can deserve what God is eager to give us. No need to beat ourselves up about that – we are perfectly human, not perfect. But at the end of the day, we will be astonished to receive a full day’s wage.

And this parable is simply a way of reminding us of this gift. And of reminding us to receive the gift humbly, and gratefully, and not to be envious because of God’s recklessly generosity but to copy it. 

God’s gift in nature, God’s gift in his Son,  is recklessly generous, not thinking of self-preservation but of bringing peace and hope – a full day’s pay – to all who come looking. When ever they rock up. Whoever they are.

“Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.”

Matthew 20: 16

Matthew 20:1-16 MSG – A Story About Workers – “God’s – Bible Gateway