This morning our Gospel lesson Matthew 20:1-16 is the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, where everyone is paid the same wage for working in the field, regardless of when they started.

 

Just before Jesus tells this parable, Peter has asked Jesus about who has priority in the kingdom of heaven. He has suggested that there must be greater rewards for himself and the other disciples, who have left everything. Now Jesus explains what the kingdom of heaven is really like.  Listen now as the parable is told and paraphrased is the form of reader’s theater. 

 

A Reading from the Gospel        Matthew 20:1-16

NARRATOR:  For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 

 

Reader 1:
Whew! What a long day! I’ve been out there working in the hot sun since 6 am. And here it is 5 pm. I am looking forward to getting paid for this day.

Reader 2:
Me, too. I got called to work about noon, and you are right about the heat! Wow, was it ever hot out there! I can surely use the pay for this day.

Reader 3:
I didn’t work as long as you both. I got to work about 3 pm, but the work was hard, and the sun was hot. The pay will surely be welcome in my house.

 

“Why are you standing here idle all day?” 

Reader 4:
”Because no one has hired me.”  I never thought I would be chosen.   I was so grateful to be called for work. I only worked about one hour, but I was glad for the work. I hope that I get called again. Any pay I get will surely help my family.

Reader 1:
You only worked 1 hour?

Reader 4:
That’s right. I waited all day, and finally the landowner hired me.

Landowner:
Here you go. Equal pay for all of you.

 

Reader 1:
Wait a minute! I worked all day and you gave the same amount to the person who only worked one hour. That’s not fair.

Readers 2 and 3:
Yeah, that’s right. How come that person gets the same as we do?

Landowner:
Didn’t I have an agreement with each of you that I would pay you this amount for this day? Did I not give you what I agreed to give you? It is not your business what I have given to the others, to either the ones who worked all day, or since noon, or since three, or just one hour. It is my decision to treat each person fairly as I have agreed upon with them. No one of you is greater than the other. All of you are valuable in my sight, and my appreciation is given to each of you.

Narrator:
And Jesus said, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

 

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A four-year old cries to his father that, “It’s not fair that my sister gets a bigger cookie than I got.” A 16-year old yells at her mother that, “It’s not fair that I must stay home from the party on Friday night when all my friends’ mothers let them go.” A 35-year old complains to his friends that, “ It’s not fair that I was passed over for a promotion when my colleague has been with the company fewer years than I have and has not worked as hard as I have.” A 64-year old complains to friends, noting that, “It’s not fair that my retirement has been eaten away by a devastating market over which I have no control. A faithful long time member of the church complains to his pastor that, “It’s not fair  the new member in the congregation quickly becomes an elder, exerting more influence on program and worship decisions than some of us who have been here over the long haul.  The unfairness of life rages around us at every turn, no matter our age or stage in life. 

 

The story of the day laborers in the field reminds us of the seeming unfairness of the landowner who keeps hiring more and more day laborers to help him finish the harvest, and who at the end pays those who were hired last, the eleventh hour worker, the same amount the he pays those whom he hired first.  We just don’t like this story of the generosity of the landowner.  There is just something that offends our basic sense of justice and fair play about that story.  How could he pay the same denarius, a days wage…enough to buy 10 or 12 loaves of bread to those who came at five o’clock in the afternoon as he pays to those who started in the fields at 8 ‘clock in the morning and worked all day in the hot sun till sundown? 

 

The grumbling and the complaining “It’s not fair,” began immediately in that story and has not stopped.  Those of us who hear this story still find it troublesome.  Everyone got justice, but the landowner went beyond justice to generosity with the eleventh hour hires.  Grace is scandalous in the eyes of justice.  Where is the merit in what the owner is doing?  

 

We hear this story in Matthew, and we feel that rising tide of resentment that those who came late got something for nothing.  Regardless of the fact that they did come and they did work.  The first wave of anger is that they got something for nothing.  We put in more hours than they did, and we should get paid more and earn our reward.  We are not pleased when our work is lumped into the pot and all of us are treated equally.  Nobody is happy when the state legislature says that they will give a cost-of-living adjustment for inflation to all state workers, but there will be no money for merit raises.  The secretary, who comes in early, works through lunch, stays late, and takes work home is given the same cost-of-living wage adjustment as the airhead pen pusher that is there because her father knows the boss.  Everybody gets the same, and the amount and quality of my work is ignored.  It is not fair; it is not just. 

 

Most people if they are lucky enough to even have work in this awful economy, work either on an hourly basis or on a salaried basis.  Employers do not have a tendency to want to pay for more hours than are worked.  But in the gospel of Matthew we hear Jesus tell this story of the landowner who does this clearly backward method of a human resources type of policy of employee payment, and he does it in front of all the others. 

 

When it came time for the work to cease and the wages to be paid, the landowner began with those he had hired last, hired at even the eleventh hour, with the one who had been working the whole day long in the blistering heat looking on.  These ones, who were the first to be paid, got the full days’ pay.  “It’s not fair,” he grumbles.  “Not only do you pay me last but you pay me the same!  I deserve better!” “I am entitled to more wages.” The landowner gently reminds them of their agreement, a day’s wages for a day’s work, and ads, “Can I not do what I choose with what belongs to me?” 

 

We all know about the spots along many streets here in Houston where you go if you want to hire day laborers.  I see them squatting under signs for a little bit of shade from the scorching sun on Westpark off of Chimney Park and 59 south when I drive that way every other week to the recycling facility.  I suppose that every day the out-of-work men gather under small trees or light poles scattered along the highway near intersections waiting for someone to hire them.  They stand and look at every pick-up that goes by intently, hoping that driver will be the one who will hire them.  The men are all different sizes and ages, and some of them look strong, and some of them look tired, and all of them look hungry – hungry for work.  As the morning turns to afternoon, I imagine there are fewer of them, but not by many; we know that a lot of people aren’t hiring, these days.  The men who are still waiting lean on the trees or poles or squat down in the dirt, and they smoke their cigarettes, and watch the world passing by.  Who knows when they give up and leave; maybe it depends on the scorching heat, or what they are thinking:  Today, I wasn’t chosen.  Maybe tomorrow will be different.  By evening, the streets are empty. 

 

The precarious existence of day laborers sadly changes little across the centuries.  The simple replay of the parable’s long-waiting laborers “because no one has hired us” (v.7) echoes across the years in the words of Estefan, a 26-year-old indigenous farmer from Chiapas, Mexico who describes the aftermath of the corner competition for a potential employer’s attention, “sometimes you don’t go because you weren’t chosen.  You feel crushed.”

 

This parable captures all to well the unpredictability and uncertainty of daily reality for the disenfranchised without land or stable employment options.  We are challenged as listeners to attend critically to the harsh realities of those who toil on the margins.  “Why are you idle” is not a benign question.  It demands our attention and our response: to conditions that disenfranchise people, to abuses of power.  By hearing this parable again this morning, it stirs our consciences and calls us to act on behalf of the justice that is the true hallmark of the Reign of God.

We should all be reassured by this parable.  All the laborers and all of us will receive our proper reward for our labors.  Yet this parable suggests that in the economy of God’s kingdom there is something better than profit margin, greater than incentive and reward, more beautiful than a sharply run business – and that is abundant grace.  The kingdom of God has more to do with grace than with reward.

 

The prophetic message is that in God’s world, all are claimed by God – we are all called children of God.  God’s grace is given to others in ways that we do not understand.  Perhaps the reign of God has less to do with what others receive, and more to do with the ability of God to provide enough love and mercy for all regardless of our place in life.  There is sufficient love to go around. 

 

This parable, like many others in the New Testament, turns our self-understanding and perspectives up-side down.  Instead of assuming that such things as fairness, and earned rights or goodness will redeem us, the gospel reveals that God’s reign is one of generosity, being claimed as God’s children, and grace sufficient for our need.  This story is about a God who wants everyone inside the vineyard, who will not stop rushing out into the marketplace until all have been rounded up, who will not rest until the outsiders, the forgotten and the lonely have been included alongside the skilled, the timely and the hardworking, even if it costs God everything.  In their jealously and rage, those who labored in the vineyard all day long miss the blessing of the vineyard.  They forgo an opportunity to make the acquaintance of the landowner and celebrate the harvest of grace.

 

Then another surprise: In the economy of God’s grace those who are hired at the very end, those whom no one else wants, are the closest to God’s heart.  They are the first recipients of God’s generosity.  In the economy of grace the last are placed first in line.

Remember when you were on the playground as a child and the captains squared off to choose teams?  I’ll take her, I’ve got him.  I suppose you’ll do.”  You sat watching the others get picked and wanted to wave your hand.  “Pick me!” We’ve all been there.  Nothing hurts more than feeling as if you have nothing to offer and are looking in from the outside.  Hopefully this tactic is still not occurring on the playgrounds of our schools, parks, and YMCA’s, and churches, but I fear it still is.

 

To the unhired workers in the city square, to those who have been forgotten, to all who for whatever reason have been left behind, to all who are crying, “Pick me! Pick me! God in Jesus Christ responds, “You’re hired.  Come into the kingdom vineyard and take your place at the front of the line. 

 

Our God isn’t fair. Instead, our God is generous, incredibly generous. God gives to all of us far more than we deserve – forgiveness, life, eternal life, even the things of this life. In response to God’s generosity, our only appropriate responses are thanksgiving and a large dose of generosity ourselves.  Therein lies the good news about God’s kingdom.  God’s grace makes it possible for us to let go of our envy and sense of fairness and earned rewards and instead to live and work in solidarity with one another.

 

Thank you Jesus for your gracious and undeserved gift of love.  

Help us to receive the gift of you grace in our lives. 

Teach us your way of justice and lead us to practice your generosity.  Amen