Wisdom for Living in Grace, from a Talking Donkey - Sermon for Septuagesima Sunday

Septuagesima – The Third Sunday before Lent, January 28^th, A+D 2024
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Wisdom for Living in Grace, from a Talking Donkey
Numbers 22:22-35 and Matthew 20:1-16

Audio of this sermon is available HERE.

   I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.  Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. Palm 32:8-9  

   Don’t be like a mule.  Instead, be like a donkey! 

   Today is Septuagesima Sunday, the 3^rd Sunday before Lent, and our readings lead us to
consider the wondrous truth that salvation is by God’s grace alone, simply a consequence of His generous, loving heart.  Which is wonderful.   But ‘Grace Alone’ also comes with an edge, because, astoundingly, we human beings do not always receive God’s grace well.  We see this in Jesus’ parable about the workers hired into the Master’s Vineyard at various hours of the day.  The Good News is the owner’s remarkable grace, how generous he is with his money.  He freely chooses to pay a full day’s wage to anyone who will come to work, no matter how late in the day.  The Bad News is the entitled greed of the workers hired early in the morning, who hate seeing others being blessed, want more for themselves, and feel they have a right to tell the Master what to do with his own money.  They are so convinced their long hours of work have earned them a special status with the Owner.  Their pride leads them to demand special recognition, and even to despise the Master.  Yikes!   

   It’s helpful to remember that Jesus is using the example of a vineyard to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven.  Paying a full day’s wage to workers who only work one hour at the end of the shift would be a strange way to run a literal vineyard, here on earth.  But Jesus is not teaching Mogen David how to run their business.  Rather, He speaks of how His Father’s Kingdom works, and the Kingdom of Heaven runs on grace.  God’s generosity, His desire to bring people into His Kingdom, freely, by grace, this is the point. 

   Just to break it down, the vineyard represents God’s Kingdom.  The Master or Owner is the Lord God.  Hiring workers to come into His vineyard equates to salvation, to sinners being taken out of the kingdom of Satan, and brought under God’s righteous rule and reign.  Which is a gift, freely given.  That’s grace.

   If you’ve ever been out of work, not sure how you were going to feed yourself and your family, and then suddenly someone offers you a good job, then you have an inkling of the relief and joy being hired can give.  Yes, you have work to do.  But you’re IN.  You have a future; you’re not going to lose your car or your home, your kids are not going to go hungry, or be forced to beg. 

   Even more, when God in His grace reaches out and converts a sinner into a believer by the forgiveness of sins, the only reasonable response is to thank and praise, serve and obey our gracious Master.  And yet how perverse and unthinkable is our human foolishness.   Sadly, we are all capable of receiving God’s gifts, and yet grumbling. 

   Like Israel did, during the Exodus.  God’s newly-rescued-from-slavery people were traveling in the wilderness.  God through mighty signs and miracles had just snatched them from under Pharaoh’s dominion in Egypt.  This same Lord was leading them across a wilderness, a barren desert, leading them to a land flowing with milk and honey, which He promised to make theirs.  Just because.  That’s grace. 

   But how did the Israelites respond?  Again and again they grumbled.  They’re in a desert, and they get thirsty.  But instead of a faithful prayer for relief, they complain and grumble.  “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die of thirst?”  First pang of hunger, same complaint about starving.  In response, God gave them water from the rock, and bread from heaven, daily manna, to simply pick up and eat.  But, in time, the Israelites loathed the manna and complained about it, too.  Did the Israelites really think that being liberated from the most powerful nation on earth and transported across a desert to a Promised Land would be totally smooth and hassle free?  Apparently so.  Or, maybe they just never stopped to think about it. 

   Likewise for us: we are on our pilgrimage, our journey, an Exodus of undetermined length, from this world full of trouble and strife, headed to our eternal Promised Land.   But the Master is with us, and has already guaranteed our final victory, as a free gift.  That’s grace.  But should we think this journey will be all rainbows and unicorns?  We dying sinners have been given new life in Christ, and we have been ‘hired’ by Him to serve in the tasks of His kingdom, until we reach our home.  Now, of course, we would never let the work we do in the Kingdom make us begrudge other dying sinners.  We would never look down on other Christians, just because they were rescued and brought into the kingdom later than us.  Or would we? 

   Jesus told His parable for a reason, and the reason is that yes, we do grumble and complain on the Way.  We saved-by-grace sinners do seek status and special privilege, and demand recognition for our work.  We see other sinners, like us, but latecomers to the Vineyard, and we are tempted to demand they know their place and give deference to us, the earlier workers.  We want credit for our work in the kingdom, earthly prestige.  We forget that love of the world and its glory leads to hatred of God.  How foolish to despise the One who made and sustains our world, and who is the only source of true and lasting glory.  Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard to warn us against swelling pride and any sense of Christian entitlement.  We have what we have by God’s grace alone.  If we get full of ourselves, and are not corrected, such sinful selfishness could even extinguish our faith, and lead us to abandon our place in God’s Kingdom.  Lord have mercy! 

   And so we run to Christ, confessing our sinful pride and foolish self-centeredness, every day, or more often, as necessary.  And, in His super-abundant grace, the Savior washes us clean again, and restores our faith.  Alleluia. 

   And yet it’s not pleasant, to be brought to repentance, to realize, (by God’s grace), that we have been headed off on our own path, again, turning our back on God and putting our eternal life in jeopardy.  We all do it.  And so our gracious God has given us Absolution, the Word of Forgiveness.  And He’s given us the Holy Supper, as rock-solid fountains of grace which we can always return to, until He brings us all the way home.  But it would be nice to once in a while avoid the whip-saw of falling into terrible sin, and needing rescue.  We will not entirely escape sin in this life, but a steadier walk with Jesus would be good.  We need an example to follow.  Where might we find a helpful guide? 

   Well, to be sure, Jesus is an example for us.  “What would Jesus do?” is a a legitimate question for Christians.  The problem is, He is so much better and greater, and many things He would do are one time things He has already done, and we cannot duplicate them.  What would Jesus do to solve this or that problem with human sin?  Well, He would live a sinless life and then submit to crucifixion, die, and on the third day rise again, for the salvation of the world.  Good News, the very best news.  But this is not something that we can do. 

   Might we find some other, less lofty example for Christian living? 

    Well, what about the donkey?  Balaam’s donkey, that is.  We could do a lot worse than to emulate the example of that little beast.    

   Our Old Testament reading is set during Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.  Balaam was a sorcerer, a holy-man of a sort, a freelance prophet for hire.  An enemy of Israel wanted to hire Balaam to curse God’s people.  But the LORD God intervened, instructing Balaam in this transaction, so as to show His almighty power.  But Balaam’s heart was not in the right place.  His eyes were not fully open to the LORD’s plan.  So, as Balaam saddled his donkey and went on his way to consult with Israel’s enemy, the Angel of the Lord came to confront him. 

   As part of this confrontation, God gave the donkey some marvelous gifts.  Wisdom and human speech might be the first ones that come to mind.  Who ever heard of a talking donkey?  Outside of the Shrek movies, of course.  The donkey spoke truth and wisdom to his master, Balaam, who was stubbornly following a path against the Lord’s will.  The donkey is God’s mouthpiece to prepare Balaam for repentance and conversion, and so Balaam would do the work which the LORD prepared for him.  Against the enemy’s will, Balaam was to bless Israel, and not curse them.  Which of course would not please Balaam’s employer. 

   God might use you and me in similar ways in our lives.  Often, when Christians refuse to do things the world demands because they are evil, suffering comes into our lives.  Today, many medical professionals, nurses and doctors, suffer economically, or are even leaving their field, rather than take part in giving hormone therapy or body-mutilating surgery to children who think they need to “change” their sex.  And similar examples are multiplying across our culture.  And yet, it is right there, in the midst of suffering for refusing evil things, that Christians are given opportunity to speak God’s truth, as part of His saving plan. 

   A wisdom-speaking donkey is great.  But there was also a prior, and more fundamental gift that God gave the donkey, the gift which we should seek, first, last, and always.  The donkey was brave to refuse Balaam’s foolish commands, and was wise to speak the saving truth, because first his eyes had been opened to see the Angel of the Lord standing in the path, drawn sword in His hand, blocking the way to evil.  This should be our first prayer, that the Lord would open our eyes, open the eyes of our hearts, to see and trust that Christ and His angels are with us every day, on the Way, warning us away from evil destinations, and pointing us to the straight and narrow way that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

   The donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, and knew to obey Him, rather than his earthly master. And, through the donkey’s actions and words, Balaam was rescued.  Balaam was saved from disobedience, and also given eyes to see the Angel, and hear His instruction. 

   What our grace-filled God did for Balaam that day long ago in the wilderness, He does every day for you and me.  We might prefer more spectacular revelations of God’s truth and presence.  Who doesn’t want to see a talking donkey?  But, as St. Peter taught us last week, we have something even more sure.  Even more sure than seeing the glory of heaven shining from Jesus’ body at the Transfiguration, we have His prophetic Word, written down and preserved for us in the Bible.  Page after page points us to see and trust in the super-abundant grace of God, fully revealed and delivered in Christ Jesus, crucified and resurrected. 

   We do not have bread from heaven every morning around our houses to simply pick up and eat, nor water springing from some rock in the desert.  We have better.  We have the solid meat of God’s inspired Word, the full story of God’s salvation miracle, given to strengthen our faith and shape our lives.  We have the flesh of Christ, and His very blood, in, with and under the bread and wine, the Gospel we eat and drink for forgiveness, and to gain strength for the journey, and for doing our tasks.  We have the one time bath of Baptism, the heavenly washing which endures forever, the hiring contract of the Spirit, which makes us members and workers in God’s Kingdom.  These are God’s means of Grace, by which He blesses us, today and forever, and through which He prepares us for service in His Vineyard. 

And so, let us pray:  O LORD, you opened the eyes of Balaam’s donkey to see your Angel and obey Your will.  Through this gift and the suffering it caused the donkey, you revealed your power and your will to save, as you spoke truth and wisdom through the mouth of the animal, convicting and preparing Balaam for conversion to faith in You.  By your amazing grace, grant us, Your servants, eyes to see Your ongoing presence and protection in our daily lives, so that we might ever flee to the means of grace You use to sustain our faith, and so be prepared to serve in Your Vineyard, according to Your holy will, through Christ Jesus, our Lord, Amen.