17th Sunday after Pentecost – September 24, 2023

Matthew 20:1-16

Ever since Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden because of their disobedience…society has been plagued with labor problems.

  • Without fruit and vegetables right there for the taking…
  • Adam and Eve would have to work for a living.
  • No more pomegranate juice cocktails at dusk in a grove of palm trees.
  • No more grapes…figs and dates just for the asking.
  • No more free lunches of cucumber and tomato salads.
  • The free ride was over.
  • The house was no longer going to comp all this good stuff.

 

God minced no words:

  • “Cursed is the ground because of you…by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground…for out of it you were taken…you are dust…and to dust you shall return.” (Ash Wednesday).

 

So…labor issues are common in the Bible.

  • The squabbles Abraham and Lot had over where their cattle could feed.
  • That we must sow before we can reap.
  • That laborers are worthy of their hire.
  • That the harvest is plentiful…but the laborers are few.
  • That if we don’t work…we won’t eat.
  • And today…labor strife is not uncommon…The United Auto Workers are striking as I talk.

 

Today…many day laborers are paid in cash at the end of the day.

  • They get no raises…no holiday pay…no paid days off and no promise of continuing or future employment.
  • They show up for work every day with the knowledge that they are always disposable.
  • And they may be working alongside someone who is a company employee who does get raises…holiday pay…paid days off and who is getting paid more for the same work.

 

Unfair labor practices were rampant when Jesus walked the earth.

  • The story he told stirred up his listeners…the hired hands.
  • The United Farm Workers do not have their backs.
  • They cannot submit a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
  • They know that Jesus’ little story about the angry workers is all too true.
  • A person who is hired in the afternoon might indeed get paid as much as the guy who started work at 7 a.m.
  • We identify with the guys who worked like crazy for 12 hours in the scorching heat.
  • And we do not identify with those who were hired at the last hour and were paid a full day’s wage.
  • And we are jealous of those who get it.

 

We are a bit like the prophet Jonah here.

  • The ancient prophet preached in Nineveh and told its people that the city had 40 days to repent…
  • Or the one true God of Israel would dispatch the entire lot of them to kingdom come.
  • They repent. God spares the city.
  • Jonah sulks and complains:
  • “O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?
  • I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful…slow to anger…and abounding in steadfast love…and ready to relent from punishing.
  • And now…O LORD…please take my life from me…for it is better for me to die than to live.”

 

Jonah wanted God to be fair.

  • He is much like the disgruntled day laborers.
  • Jonah…like the workers…is not pleased with how God is conducting his affairs.
  • God does not seem to be fair.
  • Jonah and the hired do not care for generosity…
  • They do not care for the grace and mercy granted to latecomers…sinners…people unlike them…people not of their tribe.

 

We spend valuable moments in life being grumpy about and jealous of the good fortune of others.

  • Complaining about our own perceived lack of most-favored-person status.
  • We are like the apostle Peter who…
  • After receiving marching orders from Jesus on the shores of Galilee after the resurrection…
  • Looked at the disciple John and asked Jesus: “Lord…what about him?”
  • Jesus responded much like the owner of the vineyard.
  • The vineyard owner said:
  • “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?”
  • Jesus said to Peter:
  • “If it is my will that he remain until I come…what is that to you? Follow me!”

 

There is no more common complaint of a child than “It’s not fair.”

  • We adults have enough life experience to know that life is not fair.
  • We tell others to suck it up…get a life and move on.
  • In Jesus’ comment to Peter…Jesus destroys all questions about preferential treatment and perceived notions of fairness.
  • Jesus has a point: “What is that to you?”

 

Look at Peter on the shores of Galilee after they had just enjoyed a breakfast of buttered toast and tilapia.

  • A breakfast that Jesus had prepared…by the way.
  • Peter saw his colleagues…and singled out John…
  • Who along with himself and James was a part of the Big Three.
  • Jesus’ celebrated inner circle.
  • Look around at family…relatives…neighbors and associates nearby.
  • So…what if some have lucrative careers…bigger houses…better health…greener lawns and can afford Hulu…Netflix…Prime and the NFL channel?

 

And then we might get all resentful about freeloaders who abuse government food programs…people who get Section 8 rent reduction assistance…the elderly who get an assistance check every month and deeply discounted medical care.

  • Oh…and farmers who get government subsidies.
  • Oh…and CEO’s and CFO’s and COO’s who commit felonies but are never arrested.
  • Oh…and politicians who take bribes.
  • Oh…and insurance companies who do not pay hurricane claims.
  • Oh…there is a lot of unfairness out there.

 

In Jesus’ words: “What is that to you?”

  • His second comment is a direct order:
  • “Follow me.”
  • Jesus is telling us that it is not about fairness.
  • It is about following.
  • Will we…or won’t we?

 

If we follow Jesus…we are surrendering our ill-conceived notions of what is fair and what is not to a trustworthy God.

  • We are saying that we will follow Jesus and surrender our lives to God.

 

Saint Paul said that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…of whom I am the foremost.”

  • That is why he understood that the worst possible outcome for all of us would be that God is fair.
  • In this he agrees with the psalmist:
  • “He does not deal with us according to our sins…nor repay us according to our iniquities.”

 

The worst thing that could happen to us would be to wake up to a world in which God decides to be fair.

  • Fortunately…we need not worry.
  • Because now we know the Good News:
  • God is not fair…and we will follow him faithfully.