Pentecost 18

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 18
PROPER: 20A
PLACE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Kingsville
DATE: September 22,2002


TEXT: Matthew 20:1-16 - Parable of the Vineyard Laborers
But Jesus replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you know 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?”

ISSUE: This is what the Kingdom of God is like. It is not something you bargain for, but grace, free abundant grace. It’s cross bound bleeding grace, says David Buttrick. The Parable is a shock. It is not about fairness and bargaining, like in the world. The Kingdom of God is love. If that’s not what you want and need, then scram!
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There are few parables of Jesus’ that are so captivating for a variety of reasons than the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. It is a parable that seems so unfair that it makes us angry and sympathetic with those who worked all day bearing the heat of the day. The parable is surreal, and presents an astonishing understanding of God that is baffling. We Americans think like the labor unions think: “A Fair Dollar for a Fair Day’s Work.” This parable challenges that idea. Most scholars believe, incidentally, that because of the surreal aspects and daring challenge of this parable that it was a parable authentic to Jesus himself.
A man who owns a vineyard goes to the market place to select workers to start bringing in the harvest. It was, of course, critical to get the grapes harvested at the right time. He calls some men to work. Incidentally they would not have applied for the job, as that would have been considered dishonorable in this time, presuming to take something from someone else. The owner calls and selects his men to work for him, and they arrive at what was a fair days wage for a fair day’s work, a denarius, say $40 bucks. They agree to that arrangement in their bargaining.
Undoubtedly the harvest is a bountiful one, so that the owner of the vineyard goes out an additional five times in search of laborers. The work day was twelve hours long. He had selected the original men at 6 a.m. He goes again to the market place at 9 a.m., 12 noon, 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. to select more workers, who are idle in the market place. Each time he selects men, the owner tells the men he will pay them what is right. (There is no bargaining for an exact amount.) Be mindful of the fact that those who are selected at 5 p.m. in the afternoon are going to be working for less than one hour, and are working in the cooler temperatures of the evening. Those that came later were the leftovers of the crowd. These were the undesirables, the boozers, the goof offs, the dumb, and the unreliable tramps. These are those that no one else wanted to hire.
Then the owner at 6 p.m., the end of the workday has the laborers line up in front of the paymaster to get their pay. He has those who came last to line up first, which is very odd in itself. They are paid the denarius’s or the full day’s wage. Those who came first, of course as we might well expect, begin to complain that they worked all day, 12 hours in the heat of the sun, and should receive more than the laborers who came late. They are quite envious and complain to the landowner. We are sympathetic. The word envious in the story means they cast an evil eye on the landowner wishing that he were dead. The landowner tells the angry laborers that they got what they bargained for. “Take what belongs to you and scram, beat it!” or “Get the hell out of here.” What in the world is going on here? No one in the church tells someone who has worked hard to “scram.” Only Jesus, and he didn’t get crucified because he was a nice guy.
It may be that this parable was originally directed toward the early Jewish Christians who having been faithful Jews had expected some privilege over Gentiles and peasants joining the Christian community. Matthew is using the parable to show that those who come last, and who are among the lesser types of people are also worthy of honor and status within the church. Since, however, this parable is thought to be typical of Jesus himself, the parable would have been told before the formation of the church community, and Jesus is saying that even the undesirables, the poor, lame, handicapped, sick, boozers, and riff-raff are among the children of God, and part of the family of God. What is particularly interesting is that the early comers are treated as hired hands and paid a wage they bargain for. Those who come later, who do not bargain, and who haven’t born the heat of the day, are being treated not like hired hands but like family itself!
But in the world we Americans often think of ourselves as the better nation. We think of ourselves as the chosen. We look at our affluence and who we are and are inclined to think that we deserve whatever we’ve got. We worked for it. It is ours to possess and do with what we want and like. Only certain types of people like ourselves need apply to our clubs, organizations and church. We are the best. How dare we not be able to claim it all for ourselves, and get what we really deserve? If that’s the way you think says the parable, beat it! Scram! Get the hell out of the church, and don’t come back. You deny the Lord the very generosity that he extends to all his children in the world.
One of the things that we have to keep in mind is that this parable is about the likeness of God, or The Kingdom of Heaven, the Realm and Dominion of God. God’s ways are not the world’s ways. People in the world like to bargain. If we say our prayers, and we got to church and sing the hymns, and put some money in the plate, and try to be good, then we are worthy of the Kingdom of God, and all the rights and privileges thereof. In bearing the heat of the day as we work in the vineyard of life then we are worthy of God’s benefits more than others. If you work hard in your office or place of business, you would expect the appropriate wage and promotion.
The Hebrew Lesson from Jonah is very similar in its teaching. Jonah, who finally does what God tells him to do, becomes very angry. God has sent him to help change and redeem a sinful city. Jonah preaches and behold they change and receive God’s grace. Jonah gets furious, such love and grace is not deserved. God provides him shade with a gourd. A worm then attacks the gourd, and Jonah is concerned for the loss of the gourd. Well, then how much more is God concerned for the people of Ninevah, His creation? Even prophets need shaping up!
The parable of the vineyard is about undeserved love and grace that comes from God. Everyone gets enough. The parable is about Jesus on a cross dying for those who ‘don’t know what they are doing.’ The love is for the thieves and the robbers, the rebels, for the sinners: poor, lost, least, and last who now through the receiving of His grace become members of God’s family, God’s realm, Dominion. Folks you don’t bargain with God, you only have to receive thankfully God’s unearned grace bestowed upon us by the life and ministry, the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, and God’s Holy Spirit.
As difficult as the parable is, as we see it the way the world sees it, it calls us to change our relationship with God. God is not merely the boss; God is the Father; we are members of the family of Divine Grace that sees all as our brothers and sisters. So much love and grace is given to us that we simply share it in the realm and kingdom of God without bitching and complaining, and bargaining that we are some how better. Have we born the heat of the day for the glory of God and his harvest? Well then Alleluia! What a grand privilege! If you can’t see it that way, then bug off! You are a stumbling block to those in search of the free grace of God. Rather, receive the grace and let God’s Kingdom become the surreal reality for the world.