“UNION RIGHTS IN THE KINGDOM”

Matthew 20:1-15

Sunday, July 20, 2008

We live in a very competitive world! Everyday we hear stories about winners and losers. I went on Google.ca this week and typed in “Reports on Winners and Losers.” The result was astounding - 35,600 hits. This is very clearly the language of our times - winners and losers in the investment markets - winners and losers in the global warming issues and the future survivability of our planet - winners and losers in the employment world - winners and losers in global relations - winners and losers in the field of sports. And on and on went the list.

We love it when we win and hate it when we lose! Summer ball and soccer around Ayr produces a lot of excitement for both the kids and their parents. It’s fun to win – but, oh, it’s tough to lose. Unless it’s a tie, someone’s always the loser.

When I came up with my sermon title back in June, ‘Union Rights In The Kingdom,’ the first thought that came to my mind was the image of a ‘Trade Union.’ Fairness in the business world is supposed to follow certain rules of conduct and behaviour. Rank, position and seniority are all weighted on the basis of value. Labour Unions were originally designed to fight unfair labour practices by employers.

In today’s parable, it could be viewed as a step backward in good labour relations. Right away we hear the word “UNFAIR.” It is for many of us one of the few parables left in the Bible that still has the power to disturb us, even

to anger us. Something about this parable offends many people.

Some people in this story were living by the win/lose approach to life - and were quite surprised when life didn’t turn out as expected.

Life isn’t always about winners and losers. Sometimes life isn’t about rights and privileges at all. Life as Jesus talked about it is really all about being generous.

In this morning’s gospel, Jesus tells a story which offers us another way to look at life. In this parable, what seems fair and just is turned upside down. This is not a parable for the purposes of showing us how our world works. It is a parable intended to show us how the Kingdom of Heaven works. God’s kingdom is not based on what is fair but on what we need. We don’t need justice, we need grace. The Kingdom of Heaven, you see, is not just a place in the “sweet by and by” that we will see someday. Jesus came to make it possible for us to begin enjoying kingdom living now. In this present Kingdom reality, rules, rights and privileges are all turned upside down. The new value of the Kingdom of God is all ‘win/win’ - the economics of God’s amazing grace.

The setting could very well be a Niagara Peninsula story at grape harvest time - which happens around the end of September. The details of today’s story are the sort of thing that could easily have happened in any Jewish village at grape harvest time. When the grapes are ripe, there is an urgency to hire a crew of workers to bring in the crop.

The Kingdom of Heaven, said Jesus, is like a man who owned a vineyard that needed harvesting. Early in the morning - at the crack of dawn - about 6a.m. - the man goes out into the marketplace (the local unemployment office) and hires some workers, agreeing to pay them the going rate for a day’s work - one denarius. A denarius was the basic amount a family needed for subsistence. The workers agree and go to work in his vineyard.

Throughout the day, the landowner continued his hiring spree -- some at nine o'clock -- some at noon -- some at three o'clock -- and, finally, a group of stragglers at five o'clock - one hour before quitting time. He didn't offer these groups a specific sum of money, just a promise to “pay whatever is was right.”

If you're keeping score, by the end of the day we have different groups of workers in the vineyard who have been there for twelve hours, for nine hours, for six, three, and only one hour. Everyone’s a winner. They all get a job.

So far so good. A normal situation we can all understand.

What follows is not quite so good. As we hear, it’s downright UNFAIR!

At the end of the work day - at 6p.m. - the workers were called in from the fields to receive their pay. This roving employer pays those who got there last, first. To everyone's amazement, he pays those who have only worked one hour a denarius - a full day’s wage. In fact, all the rest of those who worked a portion of the day also received a denarius. “Whatever is right” has sure come out like a landfall win. What a deal. Bonuses beyond belief. Happy days are here again!

So that means that those who have worked for twelve hours, sweating in the vines all day long, will probably get....twelve denarii. Right? Wrong! They get exactly what they agreed to work for, one denarius.

It is amazing how people always want more as soon as they hear someone has more favourable terms than they have.

Can you imagine how the workers who had put in 12 hours of work felt? To say they were angry was to put it mildly. They grumbled loudly about the injustice. Grumbling always hurts the church. Grumbling always creates a negative spirit. Is this any way to run a vineyard? If we are honest with ourselves, we think the laborers have a valid complaint. Maybe they really do need a Union to go to bat for some fair employment practices.

But the money isn’t really the main issue. They had agreed on a denarius for the day’s work and that’s exactly what they got. The scandal of the story is not about everybody, regardless of when they started to work, getting the same amount. In fact, the story has very little to say about money. The real scandal in this story is all about the graciousness of the landowner and his desire to treat everyone as equals - no matter when they went into the field to work.

Someone has said that a denarius is really not all that generous. A denarius was the absolute minimum needed for a family to survive. Giving everyone a denarius is certainly not throwing his money around.

Jesus’ parables are always about ‘The Kingdom.’ Like it or not, the rules are different. The message Jesus wants us, his hearers, to hear is found right in the opening line: “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard.” The money is just a smoke screen, drawing our attention away from the real message of the parable. The heart of this story is all about the illogical comings and goings of the owner of the vineyard.

He goes out in the early morning and hires workers for the day and that ought to be it. But to our surprise, barely three hours later, he's back again. And then again at noon. And then again and again. We wonder why that owner of the vineyard was so bound, bent, and determined to hire everybody off the streets whom he could lay his hands on. Were his grapes already overripe? Did he know it was going to rain and the harvest might be ruined? Did he have a soft spot in his heart for the unemployed?

We don't know. The story doesn't say. All that it says, and with great detail, is that this particular master expended a great deal of gasoline going back and forth from his vineyard to town, picking up anybody off the street who would consent to go work for "what's right."

In today’s employment practices, the issue of justice is a matter of remunerating people on the basis of what they are worth. You worked full-time - you should get more than a part-time worker. You stayed in school longer - you have a college or university degree - you should make more than an unskilled labourer. But the issue of ‘justice’ in this story isn’t based on “what’s right” - what we deserve - or what’s fair.

No, No! The real justice in this story is the generosity of the owner's repeated, unrelenting call to come into his vineyard. The generosity is not in what is earned, but in the invitation. The landowner just wouldn't quit going back and forth into town. He just wouldn't stop calling, wouldn't stop hiring, inviting, seeking, offering opportunities for service in his vineyard. The owner won’t be happy until everyone is at work in his vineyard.

The rules of the Kingdom of Heaven are drastically different from the kingdoms of this world. The way we do business is not the way God does business. God’s right is not our right.

Fairness isn’t the right word. God does not deal with us fairly and it is a good thing. We should be thankful God did not give us what we deserved. In God’s Kingdom – God has totally different values. He doesn’t pay a “fair wage” but is committed to supplying all his workers needs.

Jesus’ parable about the Kingdom of Heaven is all grace.

- grace to be hired in the morning,

- grace to be hired at noon time

- grace to be hired near the end of the day.

This is indeed a parable of hope. As one person said: “God gave up being an accountant, wiping away all the balances and nailing all our IOU’s to the Cross…. it really doesn’t matter whether the invitation comes at six, or nine, or noon, or three, or five o’clock in our life….To be invited is to experience God’s free-wheeling, extravagant, amazing grace.”

God is still looking for us. Our relationship with God will never be based on ‘what’s fair’ or ‘what’s right’. It’s not about how long we’ve been in the church, how hard we’ve worked, how many committees I’ve served on, or how much I’m honoured for community service. Our relationship with God will always be grounded on the invitation.

Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

God is out looking for you. You have been chosen. You are invited. God’s mission field, “the world”, is now before us. The pay may not be ‘what’s right’ - but the rewards are out of this world!