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Foreign.

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Thank you for engaging with
the homily by Pastor Chill Will from

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Chapel Hill.

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I hope this message encourages
you, challenges you and moves you

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to go deeper in your faith and
enrich how you love God and love

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your neighbor in your day to
day life.

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Just a reminder.

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Like the Scriptures and
Gospels themselves, this homily was

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written for a particular
community in a particular context,

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time in history.

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And yet, like our sacred
texts, I hope that these words hold

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timeless truths about God's
unconditional love and grace.

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We hope these words speak to
you in a meaningful way.

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The Holy Gospel According to
Matthew Glory Jesus shared for the

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kingdom of Heaven is like a
landowner who went out early in the

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morning to hire laborers for
his vineyard.

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After agreeing that with the
laborers for a denarius for the day,

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he sent them into the vineyard.

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Into his vineyard after
agreeing with the laborers for denarius

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for the day, sent them to the vineyard.

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When he went out about 9 o',
clock, he saw others standing idle

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in the marketplace and he said
to them, you also go into the vineyard

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and I will pay you whatever is right.

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So they went.

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When he went out again about
noon and about three o' clock he

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did the same.

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About five o' clock he went
out and found others standing around.

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He said to them, when they why
are you standing here idle all day?

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He said to him, because no one
has hired us.

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He said to them, you also go
into the vineyard.

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When evening came, the owner
of the vineyard said to his manager,

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call the laborers and give
them their pay, beginning with the

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last and going to the first.

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When those hired about five o'
clock came, each of them received

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a denarius, and when the first
came they thought that they would

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receive more.

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But each of them also received
a denarius, and when they received

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it, they grumbled against the
landowner, saying, these last worked

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only an hour, and you have
made them equal to us who have borne

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the burden of the day and the
scorching heat.

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But he replied to one of them,
friend, I am doing you no wrong.

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You not agree with me for denarius?

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Take what belongs to you and go.

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I choose to give to this last
the same as I give to you.

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Am I not allowed to do what I
choose with what belongs to me?

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Or are you envious because I
am generous?

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For the last will be first and
the first will be last.

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The Gospel of the Lord may be seated.

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The name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit so some of

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you have heard me share this before.

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I was a kid who couldn't sit
still in school and got notes sent

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home that I talked and laughed
too much in class.

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I know.

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Shocker.

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My mom has dementia and while
her short term memory is gone, there

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are still some core long term
memories that have stuck.

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When I go to hang out with her
and help take care of her, she will

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remind me often.

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That one I used to have hair.

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Thanks Mom.

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And boy, you sure did get a
lot of notes sent home from school

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and I probably didn't see the
half of them.

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You're right mom, you're right.

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Little William's behavior also
bled over to church and Sunday school

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as well.

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Let's just say that I, along
with my little band of friends and

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rebels, made our Sunday school
teachers questioned why they signed

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up to teach in the first place.

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I remember one of my Sunday
school teachers actually showing

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up at my ordination just to
see if it was really happening.

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Yeah, I was a handful and
admittedly I confess that when I

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got a little older, late high
school, early college, I started

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to mature a little and became
more self aware.

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I specifically remember coming
home from my first summer as a camp

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counselor at Camp Luther Ridge
in the North Carolina mountains after

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a full and magical and
transformative summer being a camp

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counselor for youth of all ages.

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When I got home I sat my
parents down at the dinner table

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to have a serious conversation
with them.

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Could only imagine what they
thought I was going to share.

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Mom, Dad, I am so sorry you
had to tell me more than once to

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do something.

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They were relieved and they
smiled and they were proud.

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Yes, telling someone more than
wants to do something is super frustrating.

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And I'm sure a lot of us have
jobs and professions and leadership

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roles and in parenting that we
have had to repeat ourselves a lot.

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It seems us humans need to be
reminded about many things from time

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to time in order to learn.

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We need deep experiences and
constant reminders and hopefully

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we grow into some healthy self awareness.

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When we examine Jesus and his
story found in the Gospels, it seems

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Jesus repeats himself quite a lot.

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Jesus says the kingdom of
heaven is like over 10 times in Matthew

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alone.

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And throughout the four
Gospels Jesus says more than one

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time the first will be last,
the last will be first.

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It seems that God's holy
reversal and sacred inversion is

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pretty important to how Jesus
understands God and God's action

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in the world we live in for
today's reading.

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In Matthew, Jesus shares
another parable.

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Jesus is wandering the
countryside with his disciples and

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Jesus shares again the kingdom
of heaven is like.

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I'm really hoping that his
disciples wandering the countryside

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with Jesus are saying to
themselves and to one another, wow.

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Jesus says that a lot.

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Perhaps we should pay
attention, we should take note.

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Not long before this parable,
a rich man walks up to Jesus and

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asks him what he must do to be saved.

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Jesus responds, go sell all
your possessions and give to the

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poor and then come follow me.

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The Gospel of Matthew shares
that the rich man walks away sad

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because he didn't want to give
up his possessions.

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Jesus turns to his disciples
and says that famous attention getting

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quote, it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a

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needle than for someone who is
rich to enter the kingdom of God.

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The disciples were right in
saying, well then, who can be saved?

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I'm not sure if Jesus is
coming down hard on those who are

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doing well financially as much
as he is resisting against this idea

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that if you are rich, you must
be blessed and God likes you more

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than others, or if you're
poor, you must not be in God's favor.

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Jesus was not on board with
any version of the prosperity gospel.

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Case in point, Jesus's
repetitive theme and teaching of

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the holy reversal in the
sacred inversion of blessed are the

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poor faith being compared to a
small unnoticed seed.

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The first will be last and the
last will be first.

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Jesus literally flipping over
marketplace tables, exploiting the

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poor and marginalized to make
the point.

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Again, Jesus shares the
parable about a vineyard and a vineyard

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owner who hires workers
throughout the day, some working

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long hours and others just one hour.

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And everyone gets paid the
same whether you worked all day or

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if you just worked an hour at
the end of the day.

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The parable's plot twist and
scandal that grabs our attention

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is that for us it is natural
to say, you know what, that's not

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fair.

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I don't know where you learned account.

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That's not fair.

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What is Jesus trying to say
about God here?

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About the kingdom of God,
about God's mass?

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Sure, Jesus isn't an
economist, he's a rabbi.

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He's concerned about the
spiritual welfare of his people.

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And yet you can't separate the
spiritual from the physical.

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He really doesn't want anyone
standing around idle.

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And so Jesus has something to
say about a surprising God who doesn't

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operate the same way we do,
who is concerned about the totality

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of who we are.

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The way we keep score and do
accounting, perhaps isn't how God

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score.

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Or does God's accounting.

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We have a surprising God who
often inverts and flips over our

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understanding of power and
wealth, status, influence.

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The first will be last, the
last will be first.

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And Rabbi Jesus is in
continuity with the Hebrew prophets

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of old.

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And specifically one of my
favorites, Jonah.

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I do challenge you today or
sometime this week to read the entire

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Book of Jonah in one sitting.

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It's only four chapters, and
it's like a mashup of a Shakespearean

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tragedy and comedy and even a
Saturday Night Live sketch, sacred

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humor about a surprising God
who does surprising things with many

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curveballs and plot twists.

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And the story still holds up
because of the tragedy and comedy

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nature of it all.

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And there's even a movie
coming out this October called Whale

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Fall about a scuba diver who
gets swallowed by a whale.

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Wonder where they got that idea?

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Go watch the trailers, a
couple of them out.

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As a lifelong surfer, I'm not
nervous about being swallowed by

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a whale.

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Now, if they made a movie
about a giant jellyfish, I'm not

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seeing that.

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You can read the book of Jonah
for yourself.

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But since our first reading
drops us right to the end of the

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story.

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Like with the children's
message, Just a short recap.

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The prophet Jonah is called by
God to go to Nineveh to stand on

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the corner and tell the people
of Nineveh to repent.

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And side note, Nineveh was one
of Israel's most brutal enemies.

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The Ninevites had the
reputation of skinning their captives

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alive and then impaling them
on giant stakes.

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Ema throne stuff.

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And so, yeah, you could see
why Jonah ran in the opposite direction

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to Tarshish.

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To get away, Jonah's like, ew,
those people.

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No thanks.

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And yet, through storms and
wind and tempests, God appointed

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a great fish.

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Notice the text never says
anything about a whale.

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And this fish actually put
Jonah back on track.

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What he was called to do, this
fish, is a means of grace to point

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him in the right direction.

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Once Jonah reaches his call
destination, Jonah gives a very short

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one sentence sermon.

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If you guys were only so
lucky, 40 days more and Nineveh will

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be overthrown.

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All he says.

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And that's all it took.

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It's a weird plot twist
because there is repentance, there

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is turning around, there is a
change of heart, a change of ways.

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And weirdly, the story even
shares that even the animals repented.

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That's when we get to the part
of the story we heard read this morning.

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Jonah sulks and grumbles and
is super irritated that God changes

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God's mind and doesn't smite
them with wrath.

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The Jonah sits in time out.

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And as God appointed a great
fish to assist in Jonah's turning

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around, God appoints a plant
and A worm to make a point.

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And I love how the whole four
chapter book ends with an open ended

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question.

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How our first reading ends
today is how the book actually ends.

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You are concerned about the
plant for which you did not labor

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and which you did not grow.

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It came into being at night
and perished in the night.

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And should I not be concerned
about Nineveh, that great city in

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which there are more than
120,000 persons who do not know their

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right hand from the left and
also animals?

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End of scene, end of sketch,
end of story.

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Leaves us to ponder that question.

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Reflect on it.

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Prize God loves everybody,
even your enemy.

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God even loves the person who
votes differently than you.

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No matter your status or what
you accumulate in life.

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God loves you the same as the
one who doesn't have what you have.

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Even those who say out loud or
to themselves, ew, those people.

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God loves them too.

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You see, we have been
entrusted with a vineyard.

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You see the work in the
vineyard here and beyond our walls,

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and how we work together in
the vineyard and how we see and value

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other people leads to a table
and to a cup and to a Messiah, a

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Christ who lifts up a cup
which contains wine from that vineyard.

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A cup that identifies in
solidarity with the last and those

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waiting and longing for more.

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How does our work in the
vineyard impact people's lives?

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Where we stand in solidarity
with the last and those waiting and

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longing for more.

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In a world of uncertainty, in
a world of rising tension, in a world

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where Christians and anyone
who's religious are seen as that

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type of group that says all
the time, ew, those people.

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You're called not to stand idle.

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We're called to continue to
repeat ourselves.

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And we will that we are loved,
with a love stronger than death.

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And it's for all.

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May we continue to be
surprised by God, but not surprised

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by God's generosity.

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Solidarity with those in the
back of the line.

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May we not stand around idle
because there's work to be done in

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the vineyard.

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Amen.

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Thank you for listening.

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If there is anything that
stood out for you, or if you have

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a question or you just want to
have a conversation, you are always

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free to reach out and contact us.

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And remember you are not alone
and that you are loved with a love

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stronger than death.

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Sam.