September 20, 2026 · Rev. Dr. James Olson · Exodus 16:2-15; Matthew 20:1-16
From cold sanctuaries to missing toilet paper, Rev. Dr. James Olson has heard every church complaint, and so had Moses in the wilderness. Complaining can be holy if it's done well: pray first, come with a solution, tell preference from principle, practice gratitude, and no parking-lot conversations.
Transcript
I don't usually title my sermons, mostly because I'm not entirely certain where they're going to go until I preach them. But I titled this morning's sermon, The Sacred Art of complaining. The sacred Art of complaining.
In no particular order, here are some church complaints I have heard from you lovely people in this church and in all of the churches I have served. I did not know or I did not like the hymn. It's too cold, it's too hot, it's too bright, it's too dim. The bulletin is too small to read or we're wasting paper on large print bulletins. Here's the one I love. I tell this story. Larger church. We're all lined up, and a parishioner comes up to me. She came in hot. There's no toilet paper in the women's bathroom. The prelude is already going. Here's one I love. I didn't know about an event, even though it's been in the bulletin. In the newsletter announced for four weeks, there's been an email, a text, and there's a big poster in the fellowship hall.
Your sermons are too long. Your sermons aren't long enough. There are two academic. There are two basic. The worship time is too early or too late. You talk about money too much. And from the stewardship team, you don't talk about money nearly enough. You talk about politics too much. You don't talk about politics and about what's going on in the world. Enough.
You didn't visit me when I was in the hospital. The hospital cannot call me unless you direct them to. There are HIPAA laws. And there's another whole list just for the organist that I left on his desk this morning. He can. He can show you that one.
The point is that we are a people of complaints. There's a reason why the Seinfeld episode of Festivus. Have you have you seen this? Right. There's a poll that comes out and it's the season of Festivus, and it is the. It is the festival of the airing of grievances.
In our Scripture lesson this morning, we have lots of complaining. You have led us out into this wilderness to kill us. Forgetting that they were in bondage and starving and abused in Egypt. They complained against Moses and Aaron. There was no food. Are we there yet? Don't make me turn this exodus around.
In our gospel this morning. We have workers who, at the end of the day, all get paid the same. Whether they showed up at nine or at noon or at five. And the ones that showed up at nine were incensed. The injustice of it. I worked all day, and the ones that showed up at five are getting paid the same. And we can talk about the economics of that later. It's probably bad business policy to to pay the workers that showed up early, the same as the ones that work at the end of the day, showed up at the end of the day because tomorrow nobody's going to show up till the end of the day. But that's not the point of the story.
We are a people who will kvetch and whine and moan until the cows come home. When we feel like there is injustice, when we're slightly uncomfortable, when we feel like we have lost control over a situation, and it's not the big things that we complain about. It's that the pastor did not personally make sure that there was toilet paper in the upstairs restroom.
And God hears all that and loves us anyway. In Exodus, God heard the complaints of the Israelites and provided them with food, which was not all that they needed at that moment, but it was a start. And in Matthew, the landowner reminded the people that all that they had been given was the landowner's to give and to do with as he pleased. And so there is sometimes no control that we have over the situation that we are in.
And we live in a consumer culture. How is this benefiting me? We have this lovely phrase called church shopping as if it was a commodity. And here's the truth all pastors learn by hard, hard experience. You can please some of the people some of the time you can. You cannot please everyone all at once. And my corollary to this is that if you do it just right, you can everybody all at the same time.
Complaining. In the unproductive. I'm inconvenienced. I'm uncomfortable. I, I, I don't like this is not the way to help fix a situation. It's not how to help grow the church. It's not how to fix something that's wrong. It's not how to improve the church. It's not about you. Let me say that again. It is not about you. It's about us. Together.
Now I'm going to not stop there. I could that would be an okay place to stop a sermon. But for those of you for whom my sermon is already too long, too bad. Here's how we complain productively as a church. And let me just preface all this by saying that this particular church actually does a lot of this pretty well. Pray first before you complain. Ask yourself the question is this just because I am mildly inconvenienced or irked, or is this a concern for the whole body? Second, be prepared to be part of the solution. If you come to me with a complaint, have some ideas. Because I can't fix all of it. I'm not going to fix all of it. I may redirect you to the right person in the congregation who can fix an immediate issue, or to a board or committee that can have a conversation about a larger issue.
Distinguish preference from principle. Distinguish preference from principle. Things like physical comfort. Too cold, too hot. Yeah. Report it to somebody will take care of it. We talked too much about money. We don't talk enough about money. That's a matter of principle. That can be part of a longer discussion. And in this church, we don't talk enough about politics. We talk too much about politics. We're still sorting out how to straddle that line, how, where and when to have important discussions about what's going on in the world and how to respond to those things with faith and with our conscience intact.
Let go of minor grievances regarding style and focus on Essential matters. Not everybody is going to like the anthem that the choir sings. Nobody's going to like what I wear. Not everybody is going to like what I wear. Those are adiaphora. That's a word for you to learn. Those of you who've been to seminary. We love this word. It's a word that means it is of secondary importance. It's it doesn't matter. Ultimately, adiaphora. It's Greek.
And finally, practice gratitude. Be grateful that we still are a functioning church in a time and in a society where so many churches have closed. Even in this community, the Methodist church. Attend regularly. Come to church. Show up. Consistently. Engage deeply. Don't just come in, sit there, absorb, and then go home without it really affecting your life or your spirit or your soul. Serve faithfully. And looking in this room, I know that I have seen each and every one of you doing something else than just sitting here in the pew. This is a serving church. You do it really, really well.
Work to preserve unity. No parking lot conversations. No gossip. Let minor issues go. And I know many of them are twenty, thirty, forty years old. If you have anything against your brother or sister before you come to the communion table, go and forgive them and be forgiven. And then you are prepared to come exchange peace with them. And remember this to extend grace to one another in the way we extend it out to the world.
This is a church made up of human beings. We're cranky. Our joints hurt. We have headaches. We're not hydrated enough. We need a Snickers bar. We didn't sleep well last night. We're worried about our children or our grandchildren or our own health. We're fighting battles that nobody else knows about. We're made up of people. And people are messy and complicated and hard to love sometimes. And we are just exactly the way that God created us to be.
Complaining. Can be productive. The Israelites complained. God heard their complaint and they were fed. The workers complained about their wages and we're told that everything that they get comes from the landowner. And of course, you know, the allegory is that everyone gets the same from God. So complain. I'd rather hear it than not. The cabinet would rather hear it than not. Concerns that our unexpressed fester and become problematic over time. Be prepared that you might not get the answer that you like or you want. Because the cabinet is made up of human beings and your pastor is definitely human.
And remember that we are beloved children of God. Paul reminds us. That Jesus said, I will not leave you comfortless. And that is the answer to all of our complaints. Thanks be to God.