For Sunday
Proper 20A
Collect
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
This parable is designed to make us squirm. And it has been making people of faith squirm for countless generations. Because it correctly assumes we’ll be stuck on what is fair—while Jesus is telling us that we’ve got it wrong.
Our sense of fairness is encoded with work and wealth accumulation. We think volumes will vary: more work equals more reward, less means less. We should know that this isn’t the only way to see the situation; it isn’t the only measure of fairness. And sometimes we get that. But the dominant view is about wealth as reward.
Jesus tells this parable to trigger our assumptions. He knows most of us will sympathize with the workers who showed up early. After all, most religious people are of the go-get-em variety. And he also knows that there are those who also know the unabashed generosity of unearned grace. So they’ll hear the landowner as doing what is right.
The delicate heart of this parable, however, comes at the last gathering of workers, near the end of the day. The landowner asks why the workers are still there and they say that no one will hire them. Treating this as true [throw off skepticism as the starting point] and we see exactly why the landowner’s generosity is right.
Neighbors are leaving their neighbors to starve. Without a day’s wage, there is no food that day. And in this parable, countless people are being refused work. Not because of laziness. Or because the jobs don’t exist. Or any other skeptical assumption we can make to blame the workers.
The landowner’s generosity is right when the world’s indifference is wrong.
Wealth isn’t a reward for harder work. It is a demand to provide for others. And being in a right relationship with God and community is predicated on generosity.