14 Pentecost, Year A

Proper 20 -- Exodus 16: 2 - 15; Psalm 105: 1 – 6, 37 - 45; Philippians 1: 21 - 30; Matthew 20: 1 - 16

A homily by:   Fr. Gene Tucker

Given at:         Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, September 18, 2011

“FAIRNESS - OR - GENEROSITY?”

(Homily text:  Matthew 20: 1 - 16) 

            “But it’s not fair!”

            Can’t you just hear the reaction of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day as He tells the parable of the laborers in the vineyard?  Perhaps if any of the Pharisees who’d come to test Him earlier (see Matthew 19: 3) were still standing around, they might have reacted with just the sort of statement with which we began:  “But that’s not fair.  It’s not fair to reward those who worked just one hour with the same wage as those who’d worked all day.”

            And the point, of course, is precisely that:  In God’s reckoning of things, it isn’t fair at all.  But, God’s standard of fairness and yours and mine are entirely different things. 

             You see, God tends to be much more generous than we are. 

           For we live in a world which operates on the basis of contracts.  Contracts are everywhere!  We agree to work for such-and-such an hourly rate, with time-and-a-half for overtime, or perhaps double pay for even more overtime.  And if workers aren’t paid on that basis, they often are paid in some other sort of an exchange, such as so much pay for a certain amount of piece work.

           Contracts existed in the spiritual mindset of the Jewish people 2,000 years ago.  For the picture we get from the four Gospel writers is that people back then tried to scrupulously keep all the various commandments of the Law of Moses.  And, the expectation was, if you kept all those, you earned your way into God’s favor.

            We should remind ourselves that that’s the sort of world we live in:  so much reward for a certain amount of work.

            It’s no wonder that people in those ancient times thought that by their efforts alone, they could curry favor with God.

            The early Church wasn’t immune from that sort of thinking.  A British monk named Pelagius, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, taught the same thing.  Boiled down to its essentials, Pelagius’ teaching maintained that people were capable of earning their own salvation.  We didn’t need God’s grace and generosity to come into favor with God, Pelagius said.  “Pull yourselves up by your own spiritual bootstraps,” is a good way to characterize Pelagianism, which the Church wisely branded as being a heresy.

            But let’s return to Jesus’ parable.

            The point seems to be simply this:  God, our generous and gracious God, showers blessings on people who don’t deserve them at all!

            God showers His blessings on people who respond to His call to come into His service very late in the day, or very late in life.  Answering God’s call, even then, carries with it a reward which is never equal in any way to the length of service rendered.  That is one point that Jesus makes in today’s parable, for sure.

            God showers His blessings on people who weren’t born into His family.  That seems to be another point that Jesus is making in today’s parable, and one that might have meant a lot to the Church that Matthew seems to be addressing, an early Church, located perhaps in modern day Syria, and which was composed of both Jews and Gentiles.  To those who weren’t born Jewish, this parable says, “Never mind.  You have answered God’s call to come into relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.  That’s all that matters.”

             And what does the parable have to say about those who answer the call? 

           I think that’s an important part of the lesson Jesus wants us to get today, and we should make a point of it.

            Notice that Jesus says that the workers who were standing around in the marketplace until the eleventh hour (that’s 5:00 PM), were standing there “idlely”.  They had no purpose.  And the landowner asks them why they are standing around, to which they reply, “Because no one has hired us.” The landowner responds, “You go into the vineyard, too.”

           When God calls us, at whatever time or at whatever point in our lives, that call gives us a purpose we would not have had otherwise.  For, you see, God’s call brings us into line with His plan and His purpose for our lives.  When we respond to that call and go into the vineyard to work for Him, we will find our truest and deepest selves.  When that happens, the talents God has given to each of us will find their highest purpose in serving our generous and gracious God, and in serving others.

            So, to repeat the comment with which we began, we might say, “It’s not fair!”  Yes, from a human point-of-view, we can.  But God is the Lord who acts according to His standard of fairness, and according to His generous and gracious nature.  When we respond to His call to come into a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, we will find our truest selves and our highest calling.

            May God’s Holy Spirit enable us to look upon God’s generosity and not on our ideas of fairness, for all of us have been blessed by His grace and His favor.

            AMEN.