"Rolling Out the Red Carpet" / Rev. Dr. Richard Coble / 9.20.26

Okay, how many people have heard this character before everybody needs to love just with everybody?

Um, I've heard it too a lot.

In fact, even before I started studying it this week, I knew what it said.

Every time I pick it up, I know where it's going, right?

Which I come to realize the more I studied the parables around the week is actually the opposite of the intention here.

The more I got to know this parable, the more I realized its purpose is actually to shock you, to surprise you, to uh to kind of grab you and shake you out of your complacency.

And um, and it's supposed to be really good news.

It's supposed to be the type of thing that that you read it and suddenly like you're you're shouting for joy.

Um, because you see just like how generous and loving and free this God is that we worship.

But um it doesn't do that for me.

I don't think it does it for you either, because nobody was shouting for joy while Nolan was reading.

So this weekend, as I've been sitting with the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, um, for some reason I kept going back to this poem that actually I read to y'all a couple years ago, but it kept coming back to my mind by Andrea Gibson.

And I almost didn't use the poem.

In fact, I I had a full finished draft of this sermon without the poem in it.

And then this is very unlike me, but I I rewrote the whole sermon yesterday uh really quickly because I just I couldn't get it out of my head.

But this is why I didn't use the poem.

The poem is by Andrea Gibson.

For those of y'all who don't know, Andrea Gibson is uh is an LGBT rights activist, and um, and you don't tend to hear a lot of LGBT rights activist poetry um on Sunday morning in Presbyterian churches.

Um but then I realized like this is why I can't get it out of my head because this is exactly what we need.

Why?

Because I don't know about you, but at least for me, this poem, it like it shocks me a little bit.

And um and it shakes me out of my complicity, and um, and it makes me at the end actually want to shout for joy at just how gracious and loving and free this God is that we that we worship.

Um, for those of y'all who don't remember or who don't know, Andrea Gibson was a spoken word poet, a feminist, a gay rights activist.

Uh they used uh they-them pronouns.

Um Gibson actually uh sadly died about a year ago in July of ovarian cancer.

They were just 49 years old, um, which is sad.

But but Gibson's poetry, on the other hand, is is anything but it is uh whimsical, it is uh deeply spiritual, um, and it is joyous.

If it is anything, it is full of joy.

So in the poem I'm gonna read, and it's just just a little snippet of a much longer poem, and the longer poem is actually much better than just this little snippet.

But in this little snippet, um, Gibson is imagining going to heaven.

And um, and this is how Gibson imagines it.

Uh, these are these are their words.

Gibson writes, I'm gonna show up to heaven and see Jesus at the pearly gates with a sign that says, Gaze not welcome.

And God is gonna be up in the clouds above him, laughing like an ethereal sixth grader, saying, We are just kidding.

Look, we made the pearly gates rainbow for you.

Look, we made chips and hummus.

Oh my god, I'll say, how did you know the gays like chips and hummus?

Because I'm God, God will say.

Oh my God, I'll say, is it true you're letting the nine bar non-binary people in first?

Oh my God, is that why you call it the Holy Trinity, not the holy binary?

Um, anyways, I I love that image of just kind of a whimsical, playful God, a God who has a sense of humor with us.

Um because I think that's another thing that the poem shares with the parable is this kind of funny, dynamic reversal.

But you've really got to um you've got to look at the poem and the and the and the parable closely to catch it.

Because like at the beginning of the poem, right, you think that Jesus is gonna be one way, right?

He's holding up his excluding sign, um, and you think, okay, well, this is predictable, right?

A mean-spirited, oppressive God.

Um, but then God says, just kidding, right?

Um, let's go to the parable.

Let's let's look at what the parable's doing.

Um, the parable starts out with these words The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner.

Now, that may not sound oppressive to us, but to first century Galileans, they would have all gone as soon as they heard the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner.

Why?

Because the folks who heard this were not landowners.

And saying the kingdom of heaven was like a landowner would put in their minds a picture of a mean, oppressive, predictable God.

Because to be a landowner in Galilee meant that you had ties to the Roman Empire.

You were buddies with Herod, right?

To be a landowner.

Everybody else didn't own the land they farmed, they were just scraping by.

Most of them, we learned this last week, right?

Most of them had to rent the farmland that they farmed.

And um, and some of them, even after they worked that land, they had to rent out their labor to be day laborers too, just so they could feed their families.

So when they heard the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner, they probably thought about a God that they owed some money to, not a very joyous image.

But then you see, as the parable goes, Jesus he picks apart the image of the landowner.

Um, first off, the landowner, you probably noticed it, keeps going back for more laborers throughout the day.

Why does he do that?

Well, if he was really a competent landowner, he wouldn't do that.

He would know how many laborers he needed from the start of the day.

But he goes out and he picks up more laborers, not because he needs them.

The text says he picked up more laborers because he saw them standing idle.

In other words, the landowner hires them because they need work.

And between you and me, landowners don't usually do that.

Now, let's think, let's focus in on the five o'clock laborers.

Um, think about this for a minute.

It's not like they just rolled out of bed at five o'clock, it's more like um they've been standing around all day hoping and praying that somebody is going to hire them.

Because if somebody doesn't hire them, their families don't get to eat.

Okay?

So the landowner comes by at the end of the day, just when their hopes are lost, and the landowner hires them at five o'clock, just one hour until the end of the day.

Which again, between you and me, landowners would never do, right?

But then the landowner goes up to them and he pays the five o'clock guys uh the same thing as the workers who worked all day.

Now, this is really where the whole landowner image just completely falls apart, right?

I don't care how Christian of a landowner you are, um, you're not gonna do that.

If you pay somebody who worked 12 hours the same thing that you pay somebody who works one hour, pretty soon nobody's gonna work 12 hours for you, right?

Your grapes are just gonna rot on the vine.

So this is the point in the story where we're supposed to realize like, oh, duh, the landowner is not really a landowner.

Um it's kind of like the landowner uh goes up to the five o'clock guys, uh, pays him a full day's wage, then he takes off his landowner mask and says, Ha ha, just kidding.

Um, I'm not a landowner, I'm God.

And in the kingdom of heaven, there's not gonna be a few people with who have everything and everybody else who has nothing.

Do you see the point of the story here now?

It's supposed to be this um this joyous reversal, it's supposed to surprise us.

Um, you're supposed to start out thinking that God is like one of the rich landowners, but then once you get to the end of it, Jesus is saying, like, no, haha, just the opposite.

This is a God who actually wants to make sure everybody knows they belong.

Everybody gets what they need.

Do you see that now?

Do you more than you see it, do you do you feel it?

Because again, this parable, um we've heard it a million times, but really it's supposed to shock us.

Um, it's supposed to shake us out of our complicity.

Um, it's supposed to make us shout for joy at just how generous and loving this God that we have really is.

What Jesus would be saying, What, you think the kingdom of God is like a landowner?

No, no, no, no, no.

I'm sorry, folks.

Uh, it's nothing like that.

Let me tell you this parable.

Okay.

All well and good, you might be saying, but Jesus, we're Presbyterians.

If anything, we are predictable.

Um, just look at the bulletin, Jesus.

Uh, we have perfected the hour-long worship service.

Do we look like people who enjoy surprises to you, Jesus?

Maybe, maybe not.

But friends, the point of this parable is the God that we follow is somebody who enjoys surprises and joyous reversals.

And the amazing thing is, the more you follow this God, the more surprised you'll be.

Let me leave you with one last example.

Um, I ended last week's sermon with a story from Tom Toole.

Um, he's a preacher.

Um, I have been to a a uh uh a retreat that he led and he gave some great sermons, gave some great stories.

I repeated one of those stories last week.

I'm gonna do that again today.

For those wanting me to be more original, don't worry.

I'm out of Tom Toole's stories after this.

Um, for those of y'all who were here last week, uh, you'll remember Tom was the pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, which, if you've ever seen it, is just this huge historic Presbyterian church.

Uh it's one of the biggest and the oldest in our one of the oldest in our country.

Um again, if you've ever seen it, look it up if you haven't.

It is an imposing church.

Um, looks kind of like a gothic castle.

Uh two steeples raising up into the heavens on either side, uh, a big clock tower.

When you go inside, ornate stained glass, just everywhere you can see, gotta be worth who knows how much money.

Uh the sanctuary is gigantic.

This sanctuary holds what?

About 300, 315 people.

Um their sanctuary holds 2,000.

And um, and just up and down, there's rows of this like lush, like church red carpet.

You know what I'm saying?

Why I'm saying church red carpet?

Yeah.

Um, it's a type of church that you look at from the street and you think um that is the type of church for rich people.

Um, that is the type of church for those on the inside, not on the outside.

The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner.

It's not exactly welcoming, that's my point.

Uh, Tom realized when he was a pastor there that the church could be somewhat um imposing, intimidating.

One Sunday, for some reason, they had a bunch of extra red carpet.

Like they had had a construction project, and uh, and they had a bunch of rolls of red carpet left over.

So they figured uh, let's use it, let's send a message, let's roll the red carpet down the stairs of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, let's put it out on the sidewalks, half a block going north, half a block going south.

Let people know they are welcome to just come right on in.

Surprising thing happened.

A dynamic reversal.

It worked.

Um, a woman who had never been to that church saw the red carpet, she came in.

Well, she came into the narthex.

For those of y'all who don't know, the narthex is that room right there.

It's the room that you go into before you go into the sanctuary.

So she didn't go into the sanctuary, she stayed in the narthex.

Um, and Usher approached her, said, Would you like to come in during the worship service?

She said, No, thank you.

I'm not religious.

Usher got her a chair, she sat in the northex.

Um, it got to be time for the sermon, and Tom was preaching.

Um, he was telling a story about a woman named Mary.

Um, he had gotten her permission to use the story.

Mary was a member of Fifth Avenue Press, their church.

Um, Mary had grown up a certain type of non-denominational Christian.

And for some reason or other, this uh Mary's non-denominational preacher had told her at some point growing up that she had committed an unforgivable sin.

And uh and Mary left the church for decades and decades after that.

But eventually, Mary found her way to Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Um, she found a place of welcome, a place that didn't judge.

Mary became a deacon at that church.

Now, remember the woman in the narthex, she's sitting in her chair, she's in the narthex, she's hearing that story about Mary, but she doesn't leave her chair.

The service ends.

Uh, the woman finally gets up and goes into the sanctuary after the service.

Uh Tom goes up to the woman, greets her, asks her her name.

Um, her name is Donna.

Uh Donna tells Tom, uh, Pastor, I got two questions for you.

Um, first off, um, was that story about Mary true?

And Tom says, Well, yes, actually, why?

And Donna says, Well, well, that's my story.

When I was 20, I was Catholic and I had an abortion, and my priest told me I couldn't come back to church.

And I haven't been in a church since then.

And Tom says, I'm really sorry to hear that, Donna.

And then Donna asks her second question.

She says, Um, what's the red carpet for?

And Tom looks at her and says, Well, why?

And Donna says, Well, in New York City, most of the time, a red carpet's usually reserved for somebody famous.

I thought somebody famous was playing here.

I thought yo-yo ma was playing here.

Tom says, Um, Donna, I'm really sorry that your priest told you that a long time ago.

Um, I don't think that's how God treats us at all.

Um and as for the red carpet, Donna, um, we didn't know this, but I have to think, Donna, that um the red carpet was for you.

Because I've gotta think God knew that you were gonna be coming here today.

God knew that you were gonna see the red carpet and come on in.

Uh, God knew that that story was gonna speak to you.

Donna, I gotta think God rolled out the red carpet for you today.

Donna eventually became a member of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Okay.

Friends, here's the thing.

Um, we have made we may have heard this parable, we may have heard all the parables a million times over.

We may have this whole one-hour worship service thing just down to a T, just down pat.

You may have come here today not expecting to be surprised, but that's just it.

We worship a God who insists on keeping surprising us.

A God who raises the dead to new life, a God who speaks.

If you keep being willing to be surprised, friends, you will be.

We will be.

Over and over again, the scriptures promise this.

It says, God is not done with you.

God is not done with you, or me, or us, or this world.

God is not done yet.

And I, for one, I cannot wait to see what's next.

Amen.