Tag: fairness

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Jesus and the H.R. department

Reading Time: 3 minutes


This story always rattles the nerves of an economy based on money, fairness and work ethics. Jesus has no problems telling an offensive story to make a point when it comes to comparing God’s economy to ours. The Kingdom of Heaven is like… God’s Kingdom, God’s rules.

The landowner hires workers for his vineyard for the day. He hires in the morning, noon, afternoon and just an hour short of quitting time. And if we look at fair labor laws and practices, we might think about reporting Jesus to our human resources department, or get the government to fine Jesus for unjust treatment. It is ironic that I can only read and understand this story in my own cultural framework. And, I can immediately Americanize it and see God and His Kingdom as unfair. But this story wasn’t told in my cultural context. And, the listeners weren’t American. And, my own framework of unfairness is actually very fair and filled with grace for folks like myself – a non Jew. Oh, but when I find myself in the story, I see it in a completely different light? Yeah, that’s what happens when making every Bible story about me! A little reminder that this whole life experience is all about God and His story, not mine.

The Jewish audience listening to this would completely understand this as a historical lesson as well as a spiritual one. The first hour workers were readily recognized as the very earliest of humans that followed God – Adam, Eve, Noah and such. The next would be the post flood followers, then the patriarchs like Abraham and Moses. The next would be the prophets. And last would be the Gentiles, which would be most of us! The Jewish listeners would completely see themselves as the “late to the field” workers, because the more famous, obviously more holy ancients would be seen as the longest, hard working hired hands in the story. It was the “last shift” workers that became the problem. God had always intended that ALL come to faith and forgiveness including the Gentiles! God wanted the Jewish people to be the ones who reached across the religious isle to embrace them. This angered the religious leaders who felt that their heritage and their “righteous” acts should get them MORE.

Certainly if the last hour workers received a full days pay, then those who “worked” longer should get some kind of bonus or reward. This isn’t at all how grace works and that’s why Jesus told the story to begin with. We like to think about grace when applied to us who might have served Jesus longer, maybe even better. In our economy, those who came first should get MORE grace, extra favor! We might bristle at the idea that the thief in the cross received the same amount of grace and forgiveness as Mary, the mother of Jesus did – but it’s absolutely true.

Some might think that God’s grace to Mother Teresa or Billy Graham might be exponentially MORE than the small amount of grace you or I would receive. God’s grace is given, not as a reward, payment or bonus, it’s given completely and wholly out of His abundant mercy, His inexhaustible, unfathomable LOVE. And we did NOTHING to deserve it. It is not owed to us, it is a gift! Let’s just say, I will not be reporting Jesus to H.R. I will rejoice when one sinner comes home, when one person, even with their last breath repents and receives mercy and God’s full measure of grace!

Prayer

Dad,
Whoa. I am such the slow learner when it comes to understanding your grace. And, I am constantly fighting the urge to judge others by my own economic standards of spiritual fairness. I am so thankful for the grace extended to me. Thank you for Jesus’ reminder to not be one of the disgruntled workers in your field!

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Everything is good when God is at home.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established fairness. You have acted with justice and righteousness throughout Israel. Exalt the Lord our God! Bow low before his feet, for he is holy!” Psalms‬ ‭99‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This Psalm is one of the expressions of the Ark of the Covenant being moved back into the tabernacle – God’s mobile home. In other words, coming home. God set this system up where he had Israel’s top craftsmen make a beautiful, gold covered box, filled with a few powerful reminders of God keeping his promises. Hebrews 9:4 says the ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. The manna was added later, after the contract and budding staff. Why the ark? It was a representation, filled with memory-reminders, that God makes and keeps his promises. He also shows up to come through for his people. A few Psalms, 97-100, are the celebrated passages of God not just “coming home,” but also gives a sense that everything is right and in its proper place. These two verses capture the essence or feelings of Israel’s leadership and the people of this now great nation. I must remember this Psalm is just a snapshot, a moment in place and time, but it’s these moments that are highlights of how things should be, could be when God’s people simply follow his ways.

The Psalmist boldly repeats this theme – God loves justice! God established both “shaphat” – good judgement or government and “yashar” – fairness, to be straight or equitable. God created humans and the rules of how all life should be lived. When those rules were broken by US, there were consequences. God would not be just or fair if he just flippantly let go of even one infraction. If, even once, God were to wink at it or just pretend he didn’t see it, he would not be just at all. God is either right, just, fair and true or he is not! The first humans broke the one rule God gave “Don’t eat,” and there were eternal consequences. He made several contracts with Israel, his own beloved people group (then and now). They broke the rules (chasing other loves) and there were consequences. God delivered discipline, correction and forgiveness over and over again with Israelites.

These verses acknowledge what every human soul introspectively understands, if they will just quit making excuses and get super quiet to listen to their God-given conscience! God always acts with justice and righteousness. Our lack of perspective and complete knowledge and wisdom of how everything works is no excuse to judge God’s character or intentions. It would be more honest for me to say, “I know God is always right, just and true, I just don’t LIKE it!”

This is what the Psalmist helps us with… fixing our perspective and our posture. He declares to us, still today – EXALT God, for He is always good! And bow low before his feet, for He is always holy (pure, sacred and beyond our complete understanding). When we don’t know or understand something (or truly know and understand so little), get this… God is trustworthy and right every time, all the time! Welcome your own amazing box of memory-promises into your home, your heart to remind you as well.

Prayer

Dad,
We may not have a beautifully crafted box of memories like the ark of the covenant, but we do have plenty symbols and memories of our own to regularly remember your goodness and mercy in our lives. I not only want to bring those memories into my heart, my home, but I also want to keep my heart open and clean for your Holy Spirit to reside there.

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Liberty and justice for all.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth. Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭42‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Isaiah describes the future Messiah who comes to liberate and bring justice to the nations, to ALL who have been wronged. And this revolutionary will do so not by war cries or violently crushing those who are weak and unable to rise up to fight or follow. The conqueror and promised savior will come to restore bruised reeds, to fan the flickering flames of oil light that are struggling to remain lit. The coming messiah sounds more like a red cross volunteer than he does a tank commander.

It is with this drive to both bring true justice for all and this extremely delicate care of mercy that allows him to continue to move through the war torn battlefields of humanity never leaving the wounded, disenfranchised or hopeless behind.

The Messiah will accomplish the mission of saving all who wish to be saved. The NIV translation gives us the tiny little Hebrew word for coastlands or island (אִי ) and tell us in that in his teachings, instructions or law that “even the Coastlands will put their hope.” Isaiah saw the prophetic picture not only of the future results of the Messiah’s justice, but somehow he saw how that tender message of hope would reach the furthest points on our globe. Places like Cuba, Fiji, Ireland, Jamaica, Philippines, Japan or Hawaii. There are some who believe that includes all cities on the coast of their countries. This would mean states like New York, California, Florida and Washington!

Isaiah foresaw the Messiah finishing his work of justice until it is set up or established throughout the earth! Christ’s death was payment for the price of freedom, and it was His resurrection that guaranteed that He and He alone had the power to bring about justice for all. Here’s the hard part, there is no true justice without sound and thorough judgment. No qualified judge let’s wrongdoers escape accountability. There is no justice for those who will not submit to God’s judgment. And since the judgment of God, His wrath towards eradicating sin, is accomplished through Jesus, His only and perfect son. The only way to justice is through Jesus himself. It just so happens that the only real liberty and justice for all is not in a pledge of allegiance to a country’s flag, it’s in Christ and Christ alone.

Prayer

Dad,
I feel the ache of those who seek justice through so many causes, campaigns, slogans and celebrities. They will never find true justice in any of them. Not only do I believe Jesus to be the one and only promised Messiah, I believe Him to be the only one capable of bringing real judgement and justice, real liberty and freedom for all. I have experienced that freedom in my own life. And, I have grown to only trust you more, not less. I have decided to pursue your way and not my own. I just want all those who ache for justice to see the day it is fulfilled in you, through Jesus. Pour out your Spirit once again. Breath on us once again. Let the people of the coastlands put their hope in you!

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What does God want?

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “Consider all this, and call for the mourners. Send for the women who mourn at funerals. Quick! Begin your weeping! Let the tears flow from your eyes. Hear the people of Jerusalem crying in despair, ‘We are ruined! We are completely humiliated! We must leave our land, because our homes have been torn down.’” Jeremiah‬ ‭9:17-19‬ ‭NLT‬‬

​Learning from discipline.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a child being properly disciplined, but it is quite a difficult scene to endure. I’m not talking about abuse or harsh corporal punishment from parent to child. I’m just talking about the extraordinary patience as a toddler melts down in public! Of course the child is crying, but often I’ve seen the child’s mother break down in exhaustive tears in complete frustration. There is wailing for sure.

As I read through the God-spokesperson’s words, His prophets, warning, imploring God’s own people to stop their temper-tantrum, destructive behavior. I understand why God would…. discipline them – severely! God does so as the most loving, merciful acts ever. Israel (and ALL of humanity) just won’t listen and stubbornly, even defiantly CHOOSE to go their own way, choose their own path. Even if it’s right off the cliff to their own death and destruction. They don’t, we don’t care – we want what we want when we want it and we won’t let anyone tell us any different!

What’s God to do with that total toddler behavior showing up constantly in grownup adults? Back then, God said, enough is enough! He has plans and God will have His way and nothing, NOTHING is going to stop Him from getting what He wants.

What does God want? YOU. He wants you back. He wants what is best for you, for me. He wants everything and everyone to be made right, whole, at peace, and back in the family. What if humans don’t want that? Well there’s the rub, right? There’s the struggle, the WAR, the problem. What if humans WANT to go their own way? Sure, God will eventually let them, but not without a fight.

What does it take to get it through our thick skulls – there is NOTHING else out there but chaos, death and destruction! And that world, that existence has its own ruler with his own ways of doing a life without God – that’s Satan’s realm and his plan to take as many as possible away from God and drag them to the eternal pits of despair!

For those humans who “live” it up here and just hope for annihilation, a eternal state of nothingness, it’s a lie.

For those promised some kind of union with “all” things and experience karma (with is nothingness) being “one” with all matter, it’s a lie.

For those who think they get to do life here, then come back, reincarnated to try again, hopefully as a higher life-being, it’s also a lie.

ALL those paths are shams leading to the same place, death and destruction away from God for all eternity. When God comes across harsh in His discipline methods, like stripping Israel of everything they knew and everything they owned – He does so out love! Because the alternative is eternally worse. So when you see people angry at God, or bitter because they believe God isn’t fair (which He is definitely not fair, but He is just), or they struggle and fight to run into the street like a wild, willful toddler – yeah, you’ll see some serious tears and tantrums going on.

Prayer

Dad,
Even though I completely acknowledge my sins, I have no intention of trying to get away from you to do “my own thing.” My life was a wreck before you got ahold of me. I remember your discipline in my youth. I remember how stubborn and feisty I was towards the things of God and how hard it was for me to just be obedient. Honestly, from my chaotic past, a lot of what you were teaching me did not make sense. If felt extremely counterintuitive from everything I had learned on my own. If it were not for your grace and persistent patience, I would not have made it this far. So, thank you for your steadfast hand of love.

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Rules or principles of fairness and equity

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say, “Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you.” Proverbs‬ ‭3:27-28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This wisdom nugget isn’t just applicable to neighbors. This principle should be applied in all areas of leadership, business and especially when it comes to pastoring and leading a church. I purposely use the word “principle” which is a guideline for making decisions when leading people.

Oftentimes folks want a RULE. I get it, rules are certainly more solid, you know, “black or white,” clear and undeniable – right? Well, not so fast. Here’s my beef with rules. They appear to be simple and clear, but I promise they are not. For every rule created there are dozens of “loopholes” to get around it, actually nullifying the point of the rule in the first place. Let me just write one word here: LAWYERS. What do you they do? Find and take advantage of loopholes. Ok, but that’s just one problem with hard and factual rules. Here’s second one: rule management. The person, group or contract has to manage a mess of infractions for the rule-breakers. If you break a rule, there is a consequence for not obeying it. Someone has to dole out the punishment, er, consequence. And it has to be done quickly and fairly. There’s nothing worse than two people breaking the same rule, but one gets a pass, the other gets caught and has to pay up. And, because God MADE us creative, we’ve got thousands of ways around some rule that some sets up. Each one of those loops has to be caught, addressed and updated. It’s a endless cycle of systems to manage WRONGDOING. I hear you. Yes, there are rules or laws that must be stated and adhered to, I’m not advocating for anarchy. However, many times people run to rule-making, but they don’t want to live a life of rule-managing. I am so happy that God originally only gave humanity 10 rules/laws. Can I tell you that some very smart people called the Jews have even come up with ingenious ways to get around God’s big ten. They cranked up 613 laws to “explain” how to keep the original 10. That’s a 6030% increase!

Wow, that was a serious off-topic trail! Back to not withholding good from those who deserve it. The reason I sidetracked on rules and laws is that it tries to treat everyone “fair,” or equitable (so trendy right now). Fair? Equitable? Do we even understand how complicatedly difficult it is to do that to scale?

Proverbs frees us from this insanity of fairness and gives us the gift of spontaneous generosity. If and when it’s in your power to do good… guess what? Do it! And if it is not in your power or it over complicates the organization or the person receiving the good… guess again. DON’T do it. One of your kids may get a cookie, the other may not! Mind blown.

Andy Stanley has a quote I’ve been trying to live out in my leadership, “do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.” I know that wild statement will get a lot of blowback, but which is better or worse? Creating a rule-based system that goes in a policy and procedure book and has to be added to, changed constantly and managed OR some principles that guide me to making good decisions?

How will you lead? How will you take the advise of Solomon’s wisdom writers, which really is God inspired humans giving out God’s wisdom as well as his character and behaviors. The principle here is simple: when you can, do good to those who deserve it and do it immediately.

PRAYER:

Dad,
All I know is that I want to think and behave like you in as many situations as I can. You’re generous to help, I want to be generous to help. It’s that simple.