Cain, Jonah, and the Vineyard Workers Share a Meal
I am a story holder. As a spiritual companion and guide, I come alongside and accompany people on their spiritual journeys, and in the process, I hold their stories. I also hold other stories. Stories from our world and headlines. Stories from books. Stories from Scriptures. And of course, my own stories. I think we all hold stories and, somehow, stories change us. I can’t explain or even understand the way stories change us. It can only be felt and experienced. Like love.
I’ve noticed that sometimes the stories I hold begin to talk to each other.
One of the stories that I am holding is from the mouth of Jesus, and it makes me squirm. It is a story Jesus tells of a landowner who hires laborers for his vineyard[1] at different times throughout the day. At the end of the day, the laborers who were hired last were paid the same amount as those hired first. The laborers began to question the landowner’s ethics. This is a cutting indictment on the concept of fairness and justice and even who we think God is. The question the landowner then asks hits square in the gut,
“Are you envious because I am generous? I did as I did, it wasn’t unjust to you.”
Envy is resentment, a fiery spite that can become cancerous hostility, seething anger, and justifying self-righteousness. Envy is less about what one lacks than about what other people have. Envy turns us in on ourselves in a destructive and harmful way, poisoning our minds, and making us small. Envy grows from rivalry and competition destroying our capacity for gratitude and fixating on that nagging, horrible question: Why them; why not me?
Alongside some of the vineyard workers, I hear the ancient voices of Cain and Jonah.
Cain[2] was the eldest son of Adam and Eve and had a younger brother named Abel. Both brothers brought a sacrifice to God. God found favor with Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain’s. Envy and anger grew in Cain’s heart. He began to ask, “Why him? Why not me?” God came to Cain and asked, “Why are you angry?” There was a long silence. Cain seethed. God reminded Cain that it was the same for both siblings: “If you do well, will you not be accepted, just like your brother?” Here, God sounds like the landowner in the parable: “Are you envious because I am generous? I did as I did, it wasn’t unjust to you.” Cain acted on his envy, rose up against his brother, Abel, and killed him. With this act of envy, Cain became the first murderer.
The prophet Jonah[3] was called by God to go to Nineveh and prophesy disaster because of the city’s excessive wickedness. There were two calls to Jonah, both worded in a similar manner. In the first case, Jonah disobeyed the divine command; in the second, he obeyed.
After the second call, Jonah went to Nineveh and prophesied against the city, causing the King and all the inhabitants to repent. Jonah then became angry because of God’s great generosity towards the evil and wicked Ninevites. Jonah did not want a God who was generous to all and forgave no matter what evil was done.
Hoping for disaster, Jonah sat outside the city to await its destruction. A plant sprang up overnight, providing him welcome shelter from the heat, but it was destroyed by a great worm. Jonah was bitter and resentful at the destruction of the plant, but God spoke, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left?” God sounds much like the landowner in the parable: “Are you envious because I am generous? I did as I did, it wasn’t unjust to you.”
As I hold these three stories, I picture Jonah, Cain, and the vineyard workers talking among themselves as they pull themselves up to the table and share a meal of envy together—complete with appetizers of self-righteousness and anger, and a main course of Why them? Why not me? They wash it down with a bottle of bitter resentment. Envy poisons our capacity for gratitude.
A practice of gratitude is a powerful antidote to the poison of envy. Gratitude turns our attention away from ourselves, it opens us up to notice what is good and right in the world, neutralizing and correcting the venom of envy. Gratitude is a healing balm for our souls and this world.
As I bring this newsletter to a close, holding these God-stories that make me squirm, I reflect on the way stories change us. I am on my back porch gazing out and noticing the way the earth has begun to tilt. The sun is still warm as it reaches the high point for the day, but the mornings are crisp and cool. The leaves on the trees are beginning to whisper their autumn symphony but will soon gather strength and voice a crescendo of magnificent beauty for all to bear witness. The squirrels scurry, gathering nuts for the winter. Three pairs of cardinals fly across the lawn calling and chasing each other. My beloved hummingbirds were here yesterday, drinking more in a day than I thought possible. These are the stories spoken to me by Creation. They are stories of gratitude and redemption and, somehow, they sit in perfect tension with the other stories God has given me to hold. I am stunned by the abundant beauty of creation and the generous splendor of the Creator. I am deeply grateful.
When have you sat down at a table and shared a meal of envy?
What stories are you now holding? How might these stories be impacting you?
How do you practice gratitude? How does it change you?
[1] See Matthew 20:1-16.
[2] See Genesis 4:1-16.
[3] See Jonah chapters 1-4.
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In Other News:
The Season of Advent is slowly making its way towards us.
I will be facilitating a weekly online Advent Group. We will be using the book Making Room in Advent by Bette Dickerson. We will explore the wonder of the season as each page is filled with an original painting that will fill you with hope and awe during the Advent season. The twenty-five devotionals offer the stories of Advent, spiritual practices, breath prayers, and reflection questions that allow you to truly make room for God's work in your life, your community, and the world.
One of the unique aspects of Making Room for Advent is how it can take us back to that childhood place of wonder, even as it also focuses our adult mind on larger crucial issues facing humanity such as making room for the marginalized and the evil and violence we have in our world.
Details:
Tuesdays—November 28th, December 5th, 12th, and 19th from 2 – 3 pm EST
The group will be small, capped at 12.
The cost is $40 and does not include the book.
I would love it if you would join me and try this unique Advent experience for yourself. It is my prayer that you will feel it transform you inside while putting you back in touch with a seasonal joy and wonder you may have forgotten.
Please email me at bgrisell@gmail.com to register or if you have questions.
I am here to serve your soul in whatever ways you might need or long for … spiritual direction, spiritual companionship, leadership coaching, enneagram coaching, Ignatian Spiritual Exercises guide, and guided retreats. What does your soul need? What does your soul want?
Holding stories with you,