Wages
Sunday, September 18th, 2005
Pentecost + 18
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 20:1-16
The cartoon that came this week was pretty funny. It’s from the lectionary comic strip “Agnus Day”, a play on the latin words that mean ‘the year of our Lord’, only Dei D-E-I, meaning Lord, is spelled D-A-Y for the strip. I get a weekly email that draws it’s inspiration from one of the passages to be read for today.
The two sheep, Rick and Ted (Rick's the one with the dark nose and the cup of coffee) are talking to each other, commenting on today’s Gospel reading.
“Let me get this straight.” Says Ted, “The last guys get paid the same as the first who thought they’d get more?”
“Yes,” says Rick.
Ted continues, “And Jesus is saying that this is a picture of life with God?”
“Yes,” Rick says again.
“Is it okay,” Ted asks, “to say that God is bonkers?”
“No” Rick responds.
And that’s where the strip ends. It’s rarely more than 3 or 4 frames.
But I have to tell you, since I first read that parable, I ALWAYS thought the same as Ted. On the one hand, I can understand the justification on the part of the landowner. It IS his money, his land, his property, and he is perfectly entitled to spend it as he wishes.
It’s the justice issue that I had to struggle with. The fairness issue: how can a JUST and FAIR God give the same reward to those who’ve done so little in relation to those who’ve done so much?
Any way you turn this story, it STILL seems unfair. Even allowing for the right of the landowner to do as he pleases. You see, IN that allowing, there is a human sense of disgruntledness. It’s a way of acknowledging, but still not agreeing with, what has happened. It is fundamentally unfair to pay someone who has spent a full day working the same amount as one who has only spent an hour working.
How can we reconcile that with our vision of a just God? How can we relate that response of “isn’t that what we agreed to?” to an extravagantly loving God, who gave himself for us in a way that it will take us our entire lives and MORE to understand?
As we saw last Sunday, it all depends on whom you identify with in the story. There are laborers who were hired early – at 6 and then at 9 O’clock in the morning, and there were others who were hired at noon, another group at three and another group at five.
For as long as I can remember, I always identified with the 6 O’clock or the 9 O'clock group. After all, I can’t remember a time when I DIDN’T go to church as a child. Neither can my parents, and I would venture to say that their parents before them were the same way.
The point is, as humans, we think in terms of the span of our lives and measure things in relation to that. So, our lifetime seems a long time. There’s an understanding, of course, at least on an intellectual level, that in the grander scheme of things, our lives AREN’T that long, but it is only on rare occasion that that piece of information truly sinks in and we grasp it. While our heads can understand the concept, it is not so easy for our hearts to do so.
I’ve thought that maybe a few of my friends who chose to follow Christ as teenagers might identify with the nine o'clock or the noon crowd. They understand the struggle of coming into a situation where there’s little or no common background to fall back on. Especially at that age, when so much other stuff is happening in and around them, to have to deal with becoming a Christ follower in the midst of all those other changes is definitely a daunting task.
Then there’s the three O’clock crowd. These we could identify with if we were to have come to faith as an adult. A goodly portion of our life has already gone by. We might have had some involvement around the edges of faith, or in the church, but nothing lasting, nothing true, until somehow, someway, Jesus came by, looked us straight in the eye and said ‘Come, follow me.’ If we live an average lifespan, there’s a chance we might be able to spend the second half of our life for Jesus, but there’s an equal chance that it might be considerably less time than that which we’ve already lived. So it goes.
Finally, we get to the five O’clock loafers. These are the folks who’ve just been hanging out all day. Not really doing anything, and just as the sun starts to get low in the sky, the man comes around and calls them into the vineyard to work. These are the lucky ones. The ones who get the nine o’clock crowd most disturbed when they find out they are all being paid the same wage. And rightfully disturbed! Bonkers! That’s a great word for it, don’t you agree?
But here’s where we get to the heart of the matter. What are we talking about, when we talk about the laborers who begin working in the fields at 6 or 9, and those who begin to work the fields at 5? What work is it, exactly? And what wage? What landowner?
I realized as I was going over this in my mind that as I was identifying myself with the workers who began working at nine, there was an unspoken word that sat at the back of the room and whispered to me “you DESERVE more because you’ve DONE more.” It’s that same voice that also can be heard to whisper “you’re BETTER than they are…” “you’re worth more, you count more, you’re respected more, you’re a more valued member of society … than they are …” it’s that insidious thought that ties in with our desire to EARN our way into the kingdom. That IS what the 9 o’clock workers were saying, after all, when they said, “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.”
There we go again, wanting to create barriers where God is trying to break them down. There is something in us that wants to create these distinctions between people that simply are not there in the eyes of God. We want to be paid more, be recognized more, be valued more, be treated differently, than others. How else can we establish our worth?
How else indeed?
Let’s try this. Let’s recast the story, retell it, and this time, intentionally place yourself in the place of one of those 5 o’clock workers.
You are a day laborer. You get up, get your shower, get the kids up and dressed and ready for school, and then jump on a bus that is supposed to get you to the pick-up site, only it gets caught in traffic, there’s a big wreck on the interstate, and you end up getting there AT NOON. There’s still a huge crowd. Some people get picked up just as you get there, you wait a couple of hours, and another bunch get picked up ridiculously late in the day, it’s probably not even going to be enough work for them to be able to pick up something to eat on the way home, but they go anyway. Then, just as you start to look for the bus home, the man in the truck swings by again, and asks if you want to work, and you say yeah, of course. It’s going to put you home late if it turns into an evening project, but the kids have fended for themselves before, they know the drill.
You get to the vineyard, and get to work. It seems like just a few minutes later you are called in along with everyone else. You realize that the day is over. And you wonder how there’s any way that this is going to end up being worth your time and frustration, what with the bus and traffic and all … and you’re told to get at the head of the line, since you were the last to be hired.
You walk up to the foreman, and he hands you a Hundred and fifty dollars. You are stunned along with everyone else. Because everyone else, as they go through the line, gets the same amount. Those who you can tell from looking at them that they’ve been out in the hot sun all day, and those who are a little – only a little – less worn out – who’ve been there since noon, and then those who are only a little more rumpled than you are … and then there’s the rest of the group YOU came in with. You’ve hardly broken a sweat, and you look at each other and sheepishly grin, trying to hide the smile.
So what exactly are we talking about again?
Salvation, of course. Salvation and grace, here and now as well as there and then. The gift of life – true, abundant life – that God gives us freely. And here’s the secret to the parable:
Everyone came to work at five.
Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (2:8-9)
There’s a sense of entitlement that creeps into our thinking when we first read the passage, a sense of just rewards that’s supposed to be followed in the parable. It’s ingrained in us, isn’t it? Even as … or especially as moral beings, it is right and appropriate to expect that to happen.
There are those of us who have seemingly worked long and hard all our lives for the landowner – for the Kingdom – and there’s something deep down inside that is telling us that because we did that, we should get a greater wage – a greater reward.
But we need to remember what we are talking about. If this WERE an earthly master, with workers in a field, then it would be understandable to expect that scaled pay – more pay for more work, less pay for less work.
But we’re not talking about an earthly master, are we? And we’re not talking about wages for working in a field. We’re speaking of eternity. We’re speaking of a God who is transcendent – whose thoughts are not our thoughts, whose ways are not our ways. We are speaking of an eternally loving, giving, suffering God who does not see our shortcomings and failures, but rather sees his beloved children and desires to give them ALL the most precious gift of all.
What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?
It means that we have work to do. But the work we are to be about is the work of letting all the other laborers know that even though we’re starting work at 5 o’clock, even though we have done nothing to earn it, the landowner is paying everyone the same wage.
There is no room in God’s economy to stand on what we have done, what we’ve accomplished what we’ve added to the kingdom, because it hasn’t been our doing. Yes, we have been and are instrumental in that spreading of the kingdom, but we are not rewarded for that. We are rather rewarded for the love of God – BY the love of God – for us all.
And that is the heart of the Gospel. That is the gospel of Grace. That is the message we can bring. It’s not about whose been here the longest. This isn’t a race, and it’s not a contest. We’re not doing a fundraiser for the kingdom. If you get 174 or more converts you get a personal DVD player. Nope. This is a family. And we are all on the journey together. Supporting each other, encouraging each other, sustaining one another in humility and love. And the greatest reward of all is waiting for us all.
Let’s pray.
Sunday, September 18th, 2005
Pentecost + 18
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Matthew 20:1-16
1‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. 5When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6And 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?” 7They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” 8When 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.” 9When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12saying, “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.” 13But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 14Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 16So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’
The cartoon that came this week was pretty funny. It’s from the lectionary comic strip “Agnus Day”, a play on the latin words that mean ‘the year of our Lord’, only Dei D-E-I, meaning Lord, is spelled D-A-Y for the strip. I get a weekly email that draws it’s inspiration from one of the passages to be read for today.
The two sheep, Rick and Ted (Rick's the one with the dark nose and the cup of coffee) are talking to each other, commenting on today’s Gospel reading.
“Let me get this straight.” Says Ted, “The last guys get paid the same as the first who thought they’d get more?”
“Yes,” says Rick.
Ted continues, “And Jesus is saying that this is a picture of life with God?”
“Yes,” Rick says again.
“Is it okay,” Ted asks, “to say that God is bonkers?”
“No” Rick responds.
And that’s where the strip ends. It’s rarely more than 3 or 4 frames.
But I have to tell you, since I first read that parable, I ALWAYS thought the same as Ted. On the one hand, I can understand the justification on the part of the landowner. It IS his money, his land, his property, and he is perfectly entitled to spend it as he wishes.
It’s the justice issue that I had to struggle with. The fairness issue: how can a JUST and FAIR God give the same reward to those who’ve done so little in relation to those who’ve done so much?
Any way you turn this story, it STILL seems unfair. Even allowing for the right of the landowner to do as he pleases. You see, IN that allowing, there is a human sense of disgruntledness. It’s a way of acknowledging, but still not agreeing with, what has happened. It is fundamentally unfair to pay someone who has spent a full day working the same amount as one who has only spent an hour working.
How can we reconcile that with our vision of a just God? How can we relate that response of “isn’t that what we agreed to?” to an extravagantly loving God, who gave himself for us in a way that it will take us our entire lives and MORE to understand?
As we saw last Sunday, it all depends on whom you identify with in the story. There are laborers who were hired early – at 6 and then at 9 O’clock in the morning, and there were others who were hired at noon, another group at three and another group at five.
For as long as I can remember, I always identified with the 6 O’clock or the 9 O'clock group. After all, I can’t remember a time when I DIDN’T go to church as a child. Neither can my parents, and I would venture to say that their parents before them were the same way.
The point is, as humans, we think in terms of the span of our lives and measure things in relation to that. So, our lifetime seems a long time. There’s an understanding, of course, at least on an intellectual level, that in the grander scheme of things, our lives AREN’T that long, but it is only on rare occasion that that piece of information truly sinks in and we grasp it. While our heads can understand the concept, it is not so easy for our hearts to do so.
I’ve thought that maybe a few of my friends who chose to follow Christ as teenagers might identify with the nine o'clock or the noon crowd. They understand the struggle of coming into a situation where there’s little or no common background to fall back on. Especially at that age, when so much other stuff is happening in and around them, to have to deal with becoming a Christ follower in the midst of all those other changes is definitely a daunting task.
Then there’s the three O’clock crowd. These we could identify with if we were to have come to faith as an adult. A goodly portion of our life has already gone by. We might have had some involvement around the edges of faith, or in the church, but nothing lasting, nothing true, until somehow, someway, Jesus came by, looked us straight in the eye and said ‘Come, follow me.’ If we live an average lifespan, there’s a chance we might be able to spend the second half of our life for Jesus, but there’s an equal chance that it might be considerably less time than that which we’ve already lived. So it goes.
Finally, we get to the five O’clock loafers. These are the folks who’ve just been hanging out all day. Not really doing anything, and just as the sun starts to get low in the sky, the man comes around and calls them into the vineyard to work. These are the lucky ones. The ones who get the nine o’clock crowd most disturbed when they find out they are all being paid the same wage. And rightfully disturbed! Bonkers! That’s a great word for it, don’t you agree?
But here’s where we get to the heart of the matter. What are we talking about, when we talk about the laborers who begin working in the fields at 6 or 9, and those who begin to work the fields at 5? What work is it, exactly? And what wage? What landowner?
I realized as I was going over this in my mind that as I was identifying myself with the workers who began working at nine, there was an unspoken word that sat at the back of the room and whispered to me “you DESERVE more because you’ve DONE more.” It’s that same voice that also can be heard to whisper “you’re BETTER than they are…” “you’re worth more, you count more, you’re respected more, you’re a more valued member of society … than they are …” it’s that insidious thought that ties in with our desire to EARN our way into the kingdom. That IS what the 9 o’clock workers were saying, after all, when they said, “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.”
There we go again, wanting to create barriers where God is trying to break them down. There is something in us that wants to create these distinctions between people that simply are not there in the eyes of God. We want to be paid more, be recognized more, be valued more, be treated differently, than others. How else can we establish our worth?
How else indeed?
Let’s try this. Let’s recast the story, retell it, and this time, intentionally place yourself in the place of one of those 5 o’clock workers.
You are a day laborer. You get up, get your shower, get the kids up and dressed and ready for school, and then jump on a bus that is supposed to get you to the pick-up site, only it gets caught in traffic, there’s a big wreck on the interstate, and you end up getting there AT NOON. There’s still a huge crowd. Some people get picked up just as you get there, you wait a couple of hours, and another bunch get picked up ridiculously late in the day, it’s probably not even going to be enough work for them to be able to pick up something to eat on the way home, but they go anyway. Then, just as you start to look for the bus home, the man in the truck swings by again, and asks if you want to work, and you say yeah, of course. It’s going to put you home late if it turns into an evening project, but the kids have fended for themselves before, they know the drill.
You get to the vineyard, and get to work. It seems like just a few minutes later you are called in along with everyone else. You realize that the day is over. And you wonder how there’s any way that this is going to end up being worth your time and frustration, what with the bus and traffic and all … and you’re told to get at the head of the line, since you were the last to be hired.
You walk up to the foreman, and he hands you a Hundred and fifty dollars. You are stunned along with everyone else. Because everyone else, as they go through the line, gets the same amount. Those who you can tell from looking at them that they’ve been out in the hot sun all day, and those who are a little – only a little – less worn out – who’ve been there since noon, and then those who are only a little more rumpled than you are … and then there’s the rest of the group YOU came in with. You’ve hardly broken a sweat, and you look at each other and sheepishly grin, trying to hide the smile.
So what exactly are we talking about again?
Salvation, of course. Salvation and grace, here and now as well as there and then. The gift of life – true, abundant life – that God gives us freely. And here’s the secret to the parable:
Everyone came to work at five.
Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (2:8-9)
There’s a sense of entitlement that creeps into our thinking when we first read the passage, a sense of just rewards that’s supposed to be followed in the parable. It’s ingrained in us, isn’t it? Even as … or especially as moral beings, it is right and appropriate to expect that to happen.
There are those of us who have seemingly worked long and hard all our lives for the landowner – for the Kingdom – and there’s something deep down inside that is telling us that because we did that, we should get a greater wage – a greater reward.
But we need to remember what we are talking about. If this WERE an earthly master, with workers in a field, then it would be understandable to expect that scaled pay – more pay for more work, less pay for less work.
But we’re not talking about an earthly master, are we? And we’re not talking about wages for working in a field. We’re speaking of eternity. We’re speaking of a God who is transcendent – whose thoughts are not our thoughts, whose ways are not our ways. We are speaking of an eternally loving, giving, suffering God who does not see our shortcomings and failures, but rather sees his beloved children and desires to give them ALL the most precious gift of all.
What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?
It means that we have work to do. But the work we are to be about is the work of letting all the other laborers know that even though we’re starting work at 5 o’clock, even though we have done nothing to earn it, the landowner is paying everyone the same wage.
There is no room in God’s economy to stand on what we have done, what we’ve accomplished what we’ve added to the kingdom, because it hasn’t been our doing. Yes, we have been and are instrumental in that spreading of the kingdom, but we are not rewarded for that. We are rather rewarded for the love of God – BY the love of God – for us all.
And that is the heart of the Gospel. That is the gospel of Grace. That is the message we can bring. It’s not about whose been here the longest. This isn’t a race, and it’s not a contest. We’re not doing a fundraiser for the kingdom. If you get 174 or more converts you get a personal DVD player. Nope. This is a family. And we are all on the journey together. Supporting each other, encouraging each other, sustaining one another in humility and love. And the greatest reward of all is waiting for us all.
Let’s pray.
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