10 Tweets on “Frustrated by Grace” (Matthew 20:1-16)

Here's last weekend’s sermon in 10 tweets.

1/ Julia Sweeney: “All that being good and no real credit for it?”

2/ As amazing as grace is, it makes a lot of people frustrated and angry.

3/ Grace is an irreducible element in relating to God. 

4/ What if the 12-hour workers had rejoiced when the 11th-hour workers were paid the same bec/ they knew they too would get a meal that night?

5/ The 12-hour workers are more concerned about their own status than they are about other people’s needs. 

6/ Why do you most identify with the 12-hour workers in this story? You know you do. 

7/ Jesus wants all of us to identify with the 11th-hour workers every time, no matter who we are.

8/ Jesus is the only person who can truly identify with the 12-hour workers.

9/ When did grace cease being amazing to you?

10/ Matt Woodley: “On that day, George became my mentor in the ways of God's grace.”

The Weekend - “Frustrated by Grace” (Matthew 20:1-16)

We’re looking at the stories of Jesus again this week in the sermon. This week’s story is about grace. And the interesting thing about it is that as amazing as grace is, it makes a lot of people frustrated and angry. 

I’m one of them. I’m not always frustrated by grace or even mostly frustrated by it, but there are times I am. 

I’m frustrated by grace whenever someone apparently receives grace from God that I don’t think deserves it.

And it’s that words “grace” and “deserves,” in the previous sentence, that’s the problem. 

Jesus is a master of getting us to see how messed up our thinking is by provoking us. 

This week’s story is a classic. Hardly anybody reads it without getting angry. And then, when we get angry, we realize we’re arguing with the Lord of the universe. We think, “Maybe my fundamental understanding of how life works is off.’ And then Jesus does his best work on us—he begins to transform the way we think about him and life and religion and spirituality and basically everything.

Our weekend is not just about the sermon. Every element of our worship helps be transformed in the way we think. We sing truth to each other and we sing words of praise to God and we pray and we fellowship and through that, if we truly engage, we are shaped by God. 

Yes, it’s cold this weekend. Big deal. We’re worshipping gathered today and tomorrow. Watching the podcast later this week just doesn’t cut it.