Sermon for September 18th (God is Not Fair!)

Many of you have little children at home and many more of you used to have them at home so I expect that the vast majority of you will understand what I mean when I say that little children, especially around age 4 or 5 are very perceptive about what is fair and what isn’t.  When cookies are being handed out after dinner, EVERY child must get one or else it’s not fair.  If you discipline one child for hitting his or her sibling, you had better discipline the second when they hit back or else that’s not fair either.  If one child goes to the movies while another child goes to get some ice cream, both will believe their lives are unfair because each one is missing something the other got.  To a young child, life, in general, doesn’t seem fair.

                Christians often feel the same way.  We think that “God isn’t fair.”  What’s funny is, for once we are right on!  God is NOT FAIR.  God is NOT fair.  Have you ever noticed?  When we expect people to be punished, they are forgiven.  No matter how good we act, we don’t get any special treatment.  And that’s not fair.  It isn’t. 

Think about Jonah.  The story of Jonah goes something like this: God tells Jonah to say to the Ninevites that they must turn from their evil ways or else they are going to be destroyed.  The city of Ninevah is the capital of Assyria, one of israel’s most hated adversaries.  To a Jew at this time, Ninevah would have stood for all that was wrong with Gentile people—that is, non-Jews.  While the book of Jonah really doesn’t list any of Ninevah’s particular sins, the book of Nahum states that within Ninevah there was much evil done against God, cruelty and plundering in war, prostitution, witchcraft and exploitation.  God saw Ninevah’s wickedness and Jonah was told to tell them to stop. 

But, instead of following God’s command, Jonah runs away and gets on board a boat sailing off into the ocean.  When God sent a storm upon Jonah’s little ship, Jonah jumped out of the boat and God sent a fish to swallow him up.  Inside the fish, Jonah repents, finally obeys God, and goes to Ninevah to announce, “Forty more days and Ninevah will be overturned.”  He says this for one day, just one day, and BEHOLD!—The Ninevites heard and believed.  They declared a fast and everyone—everyone it says—repented.  And what happens next?  God forgives them.    

                That’s pretty unfair when you think about it.  I mean, do you remember the list of sins happening in Ninevah?  Cruelty and plundering in war—probably the raping and pillaging of innocent people is what we are talking about there.  Prostitution, withcraft and exploitation.  Ninevah was a bad place—a wicked place.  And then, they say they are sorry, and all is forgiven.  What!  What’s fair about that?  Nothing.

                This is the same problem that comes up in the gospel of Matthew in this parable of the vineyard, except now, it’s backwards.  In the story of Jonah, the bad people don’t get punished the way they should.  But in Jesus’ parable, the good people don’t get the special treatment they deserve either.  They just get the same pay as everyone else does even though they did like eight times the work!  Not fair!  Not fair!  God is NOT fair. 

                Have you ever looked around your church and seen someone who really didn’t  deserve to be here?   Because of their past actions.  Because of their background.  Do you know anyone like that?  Is it fair that we allow that person into this church?

                Since we’ve started GROW on Wednesday nights for kids, some of you have had the pleasure of filling out one of these forms: a background check.  And some of you may have had a difficult time deciding whether to fill it out or not.  What’s going to come up?  What’s Pastor Broers going to find out about me?  Some of you, may have just decided not to be a volunteer because you don’t want to risk being exposed.  Maybe I should just sit in my pew like a good little boy or girl and pretend that I am a good little boy and girl and like I always have been a good little boy or girl.  What have YOU done that would show up on a background check or are you in the clear. . . did you just not get caught?

                This church is full of people with backgrounds.  People with histories.  When you come before Jesus Christ you each must fill out a background check and I don’t mean the ones we’ve been handing out.  No, this one goes much deeper.  When I was an intern in Harvey, North Dakota, a pastor up there told me how many women from upstanding Christian homes were being beaten by their husbands—or had been abused in the past—but since these women would never press charges, their husbands never had to admit what they had done.  In other words, if that were you, you’d pass my background check—congratulations—but you wouldn’t pass God’s, would you?  No, you wouldn’t.  And yet how many men smugly believe they are pulling over the wool on everyone’s eyes.  When the eyes of God see exactly what is happening.   

And all you nice ladies out there . . . on your background check, how many of you would have been indicted for slander and libel in God’s court of law when you talk or gossip about your enemies or friends?  And if your husband, or for that matter fellas, if your wives knew the thoughts going through your head—or the pictures flashing across your internet screen, or the magazines hidden away somewhere—would you be labeled a prostitute according to God’s background check?  You and I cannot pass a background check with God.  We are killers, adulterers, thieves, liars, prostitutes, and abusers.  It is not fair that we are allowed into this sanctuary!

                But that’s why I kinda like these background checks.  Because there is no hiding it anymore.  You see, the Devil loves to make us hide in the dark.  To shame us into being secretive about our sins.  To make us feel unworthy and like if anyone found out, we’d be destroyed.  The Devil makes you think that even your pastor, as nice of a guy as he is, might look at you differently if he knew the truth about you.  The Devil makes you believe that if you step into the light, even God might not forgive you completely.

                But don’t believe the Devil’s lies!  God is not fair!  As long as you hide in the dark and lie about who you are and lie about what you’ve done and keep it all a secret from everyone around you God will not have mercy on you.  He will not forgive someone who has no sin.  He will not forgive someone who does not repent.  There are some of you here, today, who still haven’t completed a full background check before God.  You have justified your sins for so long that you don’t even really believe you did anything wrong anymore.  You are so ashamed of what you have done, you won’t tell a soul believing that the only thing that is keeping you safe is your secret when that—THAT secret is actually what is KILLING you!  Walk into the light.  Tell someone.  Be exposed for what you are and who you are and what you have done.  Only then will you find freedom in Christ. 

                Because God is not fair!  Jonah knew it.  When the Ninevites repented and God relented Jonah got mad!  He said, “Isn’t that what I said when happen!  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.”  I knew you’d forgive them and that’s not fair!  Jesus’ disciples knew it too.  He told the Pharisees that the sinners and prostitutes were first in line to go to heaven.  Don’t be so self-righteous that you miss out on God’s grace!  Jesus makes it clear: it’s better to be a sinner and a prostitute than a self-righteous Pharisee.  Because until you fill out that background check.  Until you admit that you are who you are before God, you will not find a gracious God.  Until you admit the truth before others, you will not find an accepting community.  But when you come into the light, and expose what you have done, God is never fair. Thank God!  He forgives you.  He washes you clean.  He shreds that background check once and for all.  He gives you the strength to turn away from the evil you’ve done and he opens the door wide and says, “I have seen what you have done.  And I’ve heard you admit it with your own mouth.  I was looking for someone just like you.  Someone with a background.  Someone who needed a Savior.  Someone who didn’t deserve it.  I forgive you.  I love you.”  God is not fair.  Thank God, God is not fair.  Amen.