Today’s Scripture reading and meditation raise a most important--and, potentially disturbing question--namely, what or who is it that we depend upon? Do we depend totally and absolutely on God? Or, do we largely depend upon a whole bunch of other things, peoples and institutions? Years ago I read the biography of J. Hudson Taylor, British missionary, and the founder of the China Inland Mission, and I must say that I was shocked. During the founding of that mission society and over the entire period that he was in charge of it, he allowed no fund-raising letters and no telephone or television appeals of any sort. In fact, even during a worship service or meeting connected to the mission, he made no mention of money and no mention of their needs. He expected God to provide--without any human prompting or intervention--and He did! For years! I found this example to be most disturbing and upsetting, for I, for one, could never measure up to that kind of faith. Sure, I might pray, but then I’d always hedge it a bit by just ‘happening’ to mention the need to someone. Anyway, it is something to think, and pray, about.

Our lives are full of choices. Every day we make hundreds, if not thousands of them. Now I happen to think that they do make a difference. Not as ‘Star Wars’ and its somewhat New Age thinking would have it, where everything in the cosmos is interconnected and one small change has a rippling effect through the entire universe, but as something that connects up with God and His will and purposes for us and everything else. And so, seeking first [that is, only] the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), and making our choices accordingly, certainly will have an impact. And yes, anything and everything, even if small, done in His name and according to His will. All of this He uses and fits into His most perfect plan.

The apostle Paul, in today’s reading from Romans, touches on a struggle that most of us know all too well, the inner struggle between doing what God wants versus doing what we want. And there are two truly difficult things about this, firstly, that we just naturally slide into doing what we want, often without even thinking about it. It just ‘comes naturally’. And secondly, the choice is often so unconscious that we don’t even think about asking God about it--or asking His help or His guidance. In this, we’re probably all ‘in the same boat.’

I find the story of Balaam to be surprisingly familiar, namely in how God may well give us ‘what we want’ or allow us to go our own ways, even though neither is what He really wants for our lives. God can be awfully gentle and permissive in this way, allowing us full range of our free wills, even if it is not really what is best for us. That said, how much better it would be for us if we simply listened and did what He said right away. But then, that’s not always the way it is for us.

Something that I am eternally grateful for is the fact that our standing with God is not at all dependent upon our faithfulness to God, much less our goodness, for in both counts we dismally fall short. Rather, our standing with Him is based solely upon what God has already done for us in Christ Jesus. He remains faithful even if we don’t.

But then, it is only right and proper that we try to reciprocate, to reply in kind, for such an amazing love. Such is our calling and our responsibility as Christians.

My earliest years as a young adult Christian were filled with incredible signs of God’s power, closeness and love. And so, when I entered into my ‘desert years’, where these things seemed so frequently few and far between, or even absent, it was a real test of my faith. But then I realized that I had a huge choice to make: was I going to trust the ‘signs and wonders’, and the great feelings that went with them, or was I going to trust in God Himself as revealed in His holy word? It was a trying and difficult choice, but I went with the latter, and I have never regretted it. God came through, loud and clear, even if there were those times when He didn’t seem to be at work. I learned to trust Him, regardless, which is a lesson for all of us.

Jesus never said that we should not be ambitious, only that we should only be ambitious for the proper things, things like His kingdom and His righteousness. And, in today’s passage, He skips over the generalities, and specifies what He means by this. He says that the proper ambition is not, as our society suggests (to look after oneself) but to look out for others, indeed, to be the servant of others. That, He says, is the proper ambition. Easier said than done.

It is not difficult to see why Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard might have raised some hackles--both then and now. Jewish leaders would have been most upset with the way that newcomers, folks who did not have the same passion for the Law as they did and certainly did not adhere to it as closely as they had, were elbowing their way into the kingdom. And, likewise, some in the early Church, the folks that Matthew was addressing, probably felt the same way about these new converts, Gentiles and other outsiders who did not really ‘deserve it', who were now enjoying all the benefits of salvation. And we in the church today can sometimes feel the same way about newcomers in the church. After all, we are the ones who have stuck around all these years and kept the place going! Anyway, the grace of God recognizes that none of us ‘deserve it’, and that all of us are equal in needing, but not earning, that grace. We all need God’s help and kindness, regardless of our tenure.

We often use the Jubilate Deo, Psalm 100, in public worship, specifically in Morning Prayer, but it would be easy to dismiss it as ordinary and ho-hum. However, it is actually quite exciting, a call to worship God, yes, and more. It identifies some very good reasons why we should praise God, and not just on Sundays, but all of the time.

Let me begin with a question: ‘just what are your expectations of God right here and now? Are we expecting things to continue on pretty well the same as before, with all the world’s hurts and hazards remaining in place, or are we expecting things to be different, for God to show Himself in some dramatic way and make some very big changes to the way things are? For God to surprise us, even as He did for ancient Israel?’ Sad to say, many back then were expecting nothing, and so they missed out on seeing and experiencing it. I would pray that we would not be the same.