It's Not Fair

It's Not Fair

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

September 21, 2014; 15 Pentecost, Proper 20, Year A, Track 2

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Matthew 20:1-16)  Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, `You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o'clock, he did the same. And about five o'clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, `Why are you standing here idle all day?' They said to him, `Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, `You also go into the vineyard.' When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, `Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.' When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, `These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' But he replied to one of them, `Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?' So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

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Some lessons from today's Scripture readings:  God is infinitely graceful and merciful. God loves all alike, giving to all humanity divine acceptance and abundant life. God doesn't keep score. All God does is love.

It's no secret that my favorite service of the year is the Great Vigil of Easter, our Saturday evening service before Easter Sunday. We start in tomblike darkness. We light the New Fire and sing over the Paschal Candle. We tell stories of God's mighty acts in history, and we participate in one of God's mighty acts through the sacrament of baptism. Then we celebrate the first Eucharist of Easter, and afterwards have a delightful festive champagne brunch in the Parish Hall. I just love it.

Every year at that service we read a sermon based on this gospel about the laborers in the vineyard. It is the famous Easter Eve sermon attributed to 4^th century preacher St. John Chrysostom. It has been read on Easter Eve around the world for centuries. St. John's sermon welcomes those who have toiled and kept the Lenten fast from the first hour. It also welcomes those who arrived at their spiritual labor after the third hour and the sixth house and the ninth hour, "And those who arrived only at the eleventh hour, let them not be afraid by reason of their delay. For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first. …Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day! You who have kept the fast, and you who have not, rejoice this day, for the table is bountifully spread! …Let no one go away hungry. …Let no one lament persistent failings, for forgiveness has risen from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free."

The message of the gospel is very clear, and, to many, very scandalous. God's intention is that all humanity will be given new life through Jesus – "For as in Adam, all die; so also in Christ, shall all be made alive." You are just as welcome if you embrace your life in Christ at the earliest hour or if you wait until the eleventh hour. You can never be too late. All receive the same gift of life, and their bread for tomorrow, because that's the way God is. It's all about God's gracious generosity and mercy.

But it's easy to question God's generosity. It we've at least been trying while others have not, it seems logical to think that we've earned something. We might compare ourselves with those others -- of the third and sixth and ninth and eleventh and twelfth hour. We relatively good people probably think we deserve something more than those others.

Jonah's story humorously mocks us. God told Jonah to preach to Nineveh, that evil city of Israel's enemies. Jonah immediately took a ship in the opposite direction. So God sent a large fish to fetch him back to his call. Finally the reluctant Jonah spoke God's word to the evil enemy. They repented, and God accepted the Ninevites.

We pick up that story today in our first reading. We see Jonah, displeased and angry that all these evil people – the Isis and Al Qaeda of his day – could just repent, and God would forgive and accept them. It's not fair. It's not right.

Jonah is mad enough to die, and he nearly does in the desert heat. But God appoints a bush to shade and save Jonah. Jonah was very happy about the bush. At dawn, God appoints a worm to wither the bush, and the heat is unbearable. It's a rotten, unjust world, isn't it? Jonah would rather be dead.

God says, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow… And should I not be concerned about 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, and also much cattle?" Yes, God is also concerned for the animals.

God invites Jonah to accept his position among God's beloved, alongside the cattle and the Ninevites. That's pretty hard to swallow.

Human reason asks, Shouldn't justice demand a reward commensurate with one's virtue? Shouldn't evil be punished? Shouldn't people be paid only what they've earned?

Jesus gives us another story, the laborers in the vineyard. Jesus' home region of Galilee endured a period of great economic change during his lifetime. Galilee is a fertile and rich land producing abundant crops; it's sometimes called the "bread basket" of the region. But economic policies of the Roman Empire favored the wealthy elite and made it difficult for small, local landowners to maintain their farms. During Jesus' lifetime, many small landowners were forced to sell-at-auction property that had been in their families for generations. Few Galileans could afford to buy land being sold to the highest bidder, so much of Galilee was sold to foreign investors who created large estates. These estates were owned by absentee landlords and were managed by local stewards. Many of Jesus' neighbors who had lived on the land for generations were evicted and became day laborers, sometimes working on land that their families used to own. We see all of these as characters in Jesus' parables, including this one about the laborers in the vineyard.

The life of a day laborer was very hard. The working day was from sunrise to sunset. Laborers would walk from their homes to the village before dawn hoping to be hired for the day. The stewards, the land managers, would come to the village and hire the number of people needed for that day and take them to the land to begin their labor at sunrise. At sunset, traditionally twelve hours later, they would be paid one denarius, sometimes translated "the usual daily wage." A denarius was just enough money to buy food for a family for one day. A phrase in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," is also translated "Give us this day our bread for tomorrow." A prayer for a denarius. If a worker did not work, it would be likely that the family would have no food for tomorrow.

Some commentators wonder about the workers who are still "idle in the marketplace" at nine and noon and three. Under most circumstances they should have been hired earlier, during the first hour. It would be supposed that these may have overslept, or been lazy, or too drunk the night before to have been at the place of labor on time. There was no excuse for getting to the market so late.[i]

But at the end of the day, they all get the same wage – bread for tomorrow. And that doesn't sit well with the ones who worked all day.

So we're left to absorb the scandal. What if God gives the same infinite grace, acceptance and love to everyone? Can you accept that as justice?

Today's lessons:  God is infinitely graceful and merciful. God loves all alike, giving to all humanity divine acceptance and abundant life. God doesn't keep score. All God does is love.

What if God expects us to do the same? To give work to everyone, including the lazy. To assure bread for tomorrow to all, whether or not they've earned it? Even more scandalous, what if God expects us to take acceptance and forgiveness to Ninevites?

It's not fair.

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[i] Again I thank my friend Paul McCraken of the Jerusalem Institute for Biblical Exploration. This time for his  insights into first century life, from his weekly email Sunday's Lectionary Texts, September 17, 2014.