| Matthew 20:1-16 "Redemption & Restoration Under the Rule of God" |
| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 17 March 2007 | |
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Welcome on this 4th Sunday of Lent! One of my fellow doctoral students shared about an encounter her daughter had with a woman in her health club. From India, she was dressed in a traditional sari, and had been in the U.S. for only 6 months. Asked what she thought of America, the woman responded, “Its not what I thought it would be.” “How’s that?” came the reply. She answered, “I’ve always heard that America is a Christian country. “But nothing here is holy.” And then she added, “In India everything has a spiritual connotation to it. Here, things are just things.” Wow, it didn’t take this woman very long to figure out we Westerners live by a consumerism that commodifies everything, even people and religion. Part of what we do as a church is reclaim the holiness of things: the Creation and its Creator. We’ve been talking about Jubilee, the Hebrew concept of a year-long Sabbath. Jubilee was to be expressed as repentance before God and reconciliation with one another. This morning’s Lenten scripture reading is another of Jesus’ parables “in the spirit of Jubilee.” His vision of God’s justice is subversively counter-cultural, even by today’s standards. It asks the question, “How does Jesus’ radical vision of God’s justice challenge the way I live today?” Our reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew. If you have your Bibles turn with me to the 21st chapter, verses 1-16. As you are able please stand for the reading of the Gospel. 20‘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 market-place; 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.’ Prayer: God, we love you, we praise you, all that we have comes from you. We rejoice in your presence. Amen. I grew up with an overly developed sense of justice! My childhood mantra was “Not fair!” I still remember the 1st time my mom said, “Honey, not everything in life is fair.” What?! Who says? Don’t they realize the fate of the human species precariously hangs in the balance? That life isn’t always fair didn’t stop me from “One for you, one for me” score keeping! When my speech teacher, Melba Crain gave me a lower grade, I would have been willing to accept it, had not others students received higher grades then I thought they should. “Not fair!” When I confronted her, she didn’t deny favoritism. Instead my teacher responded, “I gave you a lower grade because I knew you could do better.” I wanted to say, “What if you’re simply deluded and that’s as good as it gets? Can I get an ‘A’ then?” We like our justice served up black and white, don’t we? That’s why I honestly struggle with Jesus’ parable! A vineyard owner hires day-laborers throughout the day. The 1st set of workers are promised “the going rate.” The next set, “what is fair,” and so on. At the end of day, the last ones hired are the first ones paid. The expectation is those who worked the longest get paid the most. After all, it’s only right. No so! Everyone gets paid the same. “Not Fair!” The Vineyard owner’s response? “I paid you what was promised. What business is it yours how I treat others?” As the parable ends, we imagine these day-laborers stomping off, muttering as they go, “Forget him! Let him hire 5 workers to fill my shoes. That’ll teach him!” You can’t fault them for being upset. It’s not fair! And if this is God’s sense of justice, do any of us really want it? The day-laborers in Jesus’ parable aren’t angry because the owner treats them unfairly. They got a fair day’s wage. Rather they’re angry, even envious of how well the other workers are treated. In so called “man law” the scales are balanced. Compassion and generosity do not fit in an economy of equitable justice! There is no room for grace in an “eyeless, toothless world!” Those who will have the hardest time buying into Jesus’ vision of God’ justice are those for whom: -welfare is merely a handout; -poverty, the fault of the poor; and -leniency, criminal (that is) unless it involves their favorite radio talk show host or politician. Equitable justice is derived from an attitude of entitlement. It comes from the belief that everything good in life is a direct result of our being good people, hard workers, godly folk, and all the bad that happens to others, the fruit of their failure. The point of Jesus’ parable is not how unjustly the vineyard owner treats some but rather how graciously the owner treats others. Those with the greatest need for grace receive it! Several years ago NPR ran a story on the plight of Russian orphans and the massive failure of infant development under state care. The one blaring exception to this massive failure were the infants housed in a single building situated in a complex of government run orphanages. Nothing explained why the infants in this particular building developed normally. Fortunately, someone thought to interview the night watchman. The authorities learned that every night when he made his rounds, he picked up each baby, and held it lovingly in his arms. What a great image of compassion for us! Church, that’s our job. At the end of the day, everyone we come into contact with should feel as if they have been held lovingly in our arms! Despite our strong desire for equitable justice, the greater human need is for compassion. In his book “The Secret Message of Jesus,” author Brian McLaren writes, This is the scandal of the message of Jesus. The kingdom of God does fail. It is weak. It is crushed. When its message of love, peace, justice, and truth meets the principalities and powers of government and religion armed with spears and swords and crosses, they unleash their hate, force, manipulation, and propaganda. Like those defenseless students standing before tanks and machine guns in Tiananmen Square, the resistance movement known as the kingdom of God is crushed. But what is the alternative? We really must consider this question. Could the kingdom of God come with bigger weapons, sharper swords, more clever political organizing? Could the kingdom of God be a matter of what is often called redemptive violence? Or would that methodology corrupt the kingdom of God so it would sop being “of God” at all and instead become just another earthly (and perhaps in some sense demonic) principality or power? Perhaps the kingdom could come with flawless, relentless, irresistible logic- a juggernaut of steamroller counterarguments to flatten every objection. Or would that mental conquest be as dominating as military conquest, reducing the kingdom of God to a kingdom of coercive stridency? What if the only way for the kingdom of God to come in its true form-as a kingdom “not of this world”-is through weakness and vulnerability, sacrifice and love? What if it can conquer only by first being conquered? What if being conquered is absolutely necessary to expose the brutal violence and dark oppression of these principalities and powers, these human ideologies and counter kingdoms-so they, having been exposed, can be seen for what they are and freely rejected, making room for the new and better kingdom? What if the kingdom of God must in these ways fail in order to succeed? Pp.69-70 The Secret Message of Jesus, Brian D. McLaren. Despite our strong desire for equitable justice, the greater human need is for compassion! God’s justice is characterized by compassion. A deserve-ist mindset claims we are owed: -The opportunity for meaningful and economically satisfying work. -We are owed equal opportunity. -We are owed life, health, freedom, success, and the pursuit of happiness! We’ve stopped saying “I’m going to lead a meaningful life,” and now say, “my life is meaningful to me.” “Personal meaning” has trumped “The greater good.” God’s intent for the creation is a much grander vision then family values or even personal fulfillment. God cares deeply about all of God’s children. “For God so loved me…” is a twisting of John 3:16. “For God so loved ‘the world’” is Jesus’ distinct claim. At last Summer’s World Methodist Conference in Seoul, Korea, the General Secretary of the World Methodist Council, Rev. George Freeman called upon Methodists to speak out amid the challenges facing the world. "With AIDS/HIV, wars and rumors of war, humanity and inhumanity, racism, unprecedented violence that makes a mockery of reconciliation, the voice of Methodism and the Wesleyan family needs to be heard widely and clearly, speaking truth in love …" He concluded by saying, “If the church does not disciple the nations, the nations will disciple the church.” My overly developed sense of justice is being challenged by God’s compassion and grace toward all of God’s children. How does Jesus’ vision of God’s justice challenge our views on undocumented immigrants? How does God’s justice challenge our view of war as a means to an end? How does it challenge our view of poverty as the “fruit” of the poor’s failure? In the words of Romans 12:1, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds…” “So,” concludes Jesus, “the last will be first, and the first, last.” Let me paraphrase that for you: Those who prioritize justice above compassion will someday find themselves…at the back of the line. Pray with me, “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” –prayer of Saint Francis. Amen. |
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