Generous to a Fault
Matthew 20:1-16[1]
We live
in a world where the value of your labor is determined by how much someone is
willing to pay for it. If we look at respective salaries for different
vocations, it’s rather revealing as to what we value. We pay entertainers and
athletes millions of dollars for what they do. But living in a pandemic has highlighted
the fact that what we pay those who are truly “essential workers,” who do the
jobs that keep our lives going, is meager by comparison. Maybe one of the
changes this time will provoke is for us to re-think the way we reward a few
for entertaining us and wind up paying those who do the jobs that are truly
important much less, sometimes not even enough for them to live on.
Of
course, we can be a very generous people. Whenever we are confronted with
images of human suffering, we can be “generous to a fault.” Relief efforts for
national and international disasters raise millions of dollars. “GoFundMe”
drives for individuals in crisis raise tens of thousands. We clearly have the
capacity to help those in need in times of crisis. I wonder what it will take
for us to realize that many “essential workers” like teachers, police officers,
grocery workers, nurses, and many others provide services that are in fact far
more valuable than those who entertain us. Maybe it’s time we reevaluate who
gets to be “first” in our world, and who is considered “last.”
This is
the theme of our Gospel lesson for today. Jesus tells a parable about a man who
owns a vineyard. The harvest is ready and he’s anxious to get the grapes out of
the field as quickly as possible. So he goes to the market at the break of day to
hire day laborers for his field. Then he keeps going back all day long, sending
more workers to help with the harvest. When it comes time to pay the workers
things take a surprising turn. The vineyard owner instructs that the workers be
paid beginning with the last to be hired—and he pays them all the same thing!
Those who worked only one hour got a full day’s wage, just like those who put
in a full twelve hours!
When
those who had worked all day complain, the employer simply insists that he has
a right to be generous with what belongs to him. I think a big part of what
this parable is about is that in the kingdom of God, the realm in which God’s grace
and mercy and love defines life for all people, there is nothing to earn. In a
very real sense, we are all “eleventh-hour workers,” regardless of what we may
have done. We all receive far more than we deserve. In this kingdom, everyone
receives grace, unconditional love, and unfailing mercy equally. And that is
true simply because God is generous! As Desmond Tutu puts it, “There is nothing
we can do to make God love us more” and “there is nothing we can do to make God
love us less.”[2]
On one level, this comes to us as
unbelievably good news. But on another level, I wonder if it makes us a bit
uncomfortable. When the first are last and the last are first, it upends our
expectations that life will follow the predictable pattern that those who work
the hardest get the most rewards. The Kingdom of God is a strange one: those
who are deemed godless gain entry ahead of those who are supposedly righteous.
Little children are the example by which we all must measure ourselves, not
those who are accomplished and successful. Those who serve are viewed as the
“greatest,” and those who seem to be “great” are in fact viewed as “least.” For
those of us who have worked hard all our lives, this may not sound like good news
at all! In fact, we may perceive it as a threat to our way of life!
But then
maybe that’s part of what this parable is meant to address: we are comfortable
with a world in which the first are first and the last are last. Giving
everyone the same grace, mercy and love regardless of what they do sounds
unsettling. So does the idea that everyone receives God’s blessing equally,
regardless of how hard you work. We’re much more comfortable with a life that is
based on the principle that you have to work hard to earn your way in life. Those
of us who have worked our way to being “first” in this world like having the
“rewards” of our labor.
The truth
of the matter, according to our Scripture lesson, is that in God’s sight we are
all “eleventh hour” laborers. We all receive far more than we deserve. The fact
that in God’s kingdom, all people have equal shares means that we all enjoy
God’s grace, mercy and love freely and equally. That amazing gift is more than
we could ever earn, because we can never do enough to “earn” anything from God!
The Bible reminds us that this not only applies to our relationship with God,
but to all of life. We cannot claim anything we have as a “reward” for our
labor, because all of it ultimately comes from God. If this makes it sound like
God is generous to a fault, that should lead us not to object, but to rejoice like
the “last” workers in the vineyard did when they received more than they
expected!
[1] ©2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph. D. on 9/20/2020 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream: A Vision
of Hope for Our Time, 32.
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