Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

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Preached by Winton Boyd on November 16, 2008
Matthew 20:1-16 (Contemporary English Version) – full text at the end of this sermon.

As we work our way through this sermon series on the essential stories of the bible, this one about the workers in the vineyard – is probably the least popular of the one of the three parables of Jesus we are addressing (the Prodigal Son and Good Samaritan being the other two). It is a bit more problematic. I found this out the hard way when my children were little and complained about unfair treatment when it came to chores they were assigned. When one thought vacuuming was easier than sweeping, cleaning a toilet harder than washing mirrors, or picking up sticks in the yard more tedious than dusting, they would cry “unfair.” But my attempts to appeal to this story – as a thinly veiled way to say “get over it” – weren’t all that useful or helpful. They certainly didn’t prompt thoughts of spiritual growth!

And yet, this story is a story of human behavior. It is a great illustration of our complex relationship with fairness, justice, entitlement, and gratitude. It is a timeless example of how we struggle together in so many of our interactions.

There was a short article in a recent Economist magazine about British people and their inconsistency between stated values and lived practice around compassion and fairness. “They loathe queue jumpers and disparities in the standards of hospitals and schools; but are more relaxed than other Europeans about inequality in income. They tell pollsters that they care about the poor, but are disinclined to pay more tax to help them. In particular, many see the jobless as shirkers and freeloaders, and think their benefits too generous. At least, that is the consensus that has evolved in the fat years. In leaner times, surveys suggest, attitudes are more charitable, and redistribution more welcomed…they espouse an enchanced version of fairness when it chimes with their self interest…they embraced the National Health Service not because it embodied an abstract collectivist ideal, but because it offered them cheap health care. Likewise, sympathy for the victims of economic misfortune may rise in recessions because more people have friends or relatives among them.” (November 1, 2008, p.40).

You get the picture – and it is probably not just in Britain. Those of us in the First World, like the hard working early birds in the vineyard – promised a days’ wage for a days’ work – can be quite self righteous in our sense of entitlement and privilege. Like the workers in the story, we are often more attentive to justice when it concerns us and when we are affected. In fact, our sense of justice and fairness is rooted in how we compare with others, rather in than in a spirit of gratitude for a days wage, even if someone else got it with less work.

One way of looking at this story suggests it is a story of God’s trickery and “gotcha” approach to getting our attention around justice. It suggests, with a rather strange view of God, that God’s way of evening the score, of leveling the playing field, of rewarding the least among us – is through punishing or tricking or decieving others among us.

It is my hunch, however, that when Jesus is telling this story about the Kingdom or realm of God – he is talking first about us, only later about God. He is raising the question of what is required of US in order to grow spiritually, and only later saying something about the nature of God.

If this is the case, then the “truth telling” in this story is that life often requires us to let go of those things that we never had in the first place. The early bird workers have to let go of the idea that they should get more than others who started later – an idea they held onto not because of what the owner had told them; but an idea they held onto because it was an illusion or faulty assumption, the imaginary entitlement, that they lived with. The truth is that their idea of how to handle payment was never real in the first place. It might have been real at another vineyard, it might have been true at this vineyard at another time, but it was not true in this vineyard on this day. Rather than being tricked by the owner, they were forced at the end of the day to face their illusions –which was painful.

I was leading a retreat with other clergy and professionals this week at a wonderful retreat center in the Pocono Mountains called Kirkridge. Set in a beautiful valley with autumn colors hanging on in the face of encroaching winter, we had some conversations around the idea of spirituality and letting go just as trees let go of their leaves. One participant described several occasions in which he had to “let go” of myths he lived with.
• Early in his career he lived with the myth that every church he ever served would totally love his work – which lasted until a church fired him because they didn’t appreciate him or his work.
• In early adulthood, he lived with the myth that he had an ideal marriage, one crafted as he imagined a good marriage should be crafted– which last until his wife divorced him.
• Throughout his life, he lived with an unstated, but very real myth of his own immortality– which lasted until he contracted colon cancer and non Hodgins lymphoma and faced the very real possibility that he would die.

The important point, he stated, was those were myths, and they were never real in the first place. He was not even letting go of something that was real – he was letting go of an illusion. This, he suggested, is the path of spiritual growth – stripping away the illusions, myths, assumptions and distorted realities that shape oru lives.

It begged the question for all of us at the retreat, and all of us this morning – what myths or illusions are we holding onto? What ‘certainties’ of our life have we held onto so tightly that we miss the movement of the Spirit nudging us to new realities?

If there is a gift in our current economic troubles – or in the many personal challenges we face in our lives – it is the opportunity to retool ourselves spiritually around that which is real and that which is not in our lives. That which brings us joy, satisfaction, comfort; and that which is only an illusion. As with my new friend this week, sometimes this kind of re-examination is painful, even if necessary.

And yet, when the trees let go of their leaves, they seed new growth, and we see the foundation, the actual tree, which sustains them. In the same way, we let go our the myths of our lives in order to see ourselves as children of God living in the kingdom of God –

Children blessed by an abundance that is not of our own making
Children inter-dependent on God and others for our survival and growth.

The story raises the question – not ‘what is mine’ and ‘what am I due’ – questions of entitlement, but rather, ‘what do I need to let go of in order to see God’s grace and hope in my life?’ Seen this way, we know that sometimes we are the early bird workers, but sometimes, frankly, WE are the ones who slip in just under the wire. We are the ones reaping rewards that are not of our own making.

The realm of God, the story seems to suggest, is about honesty, humility and gratitude. It is about stripping away that which clouds our vision of all God’s people. It is about deepening our awareness, not just of our reality, but also of the reality of others. It about recognizing that we, like everyone else, live with hope because hope is a gift. We live with talents and opportunities supported, sustained, and made possible by the gift of other people and their love, hard work, compassion and generosity.

So, if God is not the one pulling tricks or playing gotcha, where is she? Jesus ends the story uttering one of his now famous one-liners, “Everyone who is now first will be last, and everyone who is last will be first.” As we come to grips with our illusions, sometimes harshly and sometimes gently, God is there to receive us. God will not be placing bets on “the first” or “the last” to see who gets it first. God will be there for us, as God is for others, in generosity, honesty, and truth. God will support us as we strip away that which binds us to a false sense of entitlement; and God will walk with us as we walk through the harsh realities of how our illusions have hurt others, deceived others, oppressed others. God will receive us in both forgiveness and hope. The presence of the Spirit of God in the world is not one that seeks to “even the score” – but rather one that seeks to advocate and encourage abundance, joy, generosity, compassion, honesty, care and inter-dependence among all of his children. Amen

Matthew 16
1As Jesus was telling what the kingdom of heaven would be like, he said: “Early one morning a man went out to hire some workers for his vineyard. 2 After he had agreed to pay them the usual amount for a day’s work, he sent them off to his vineyard. 3 About nine that morning, the man saw some other people standing in the market with nothing to do. 4 He said he would pay them what was fair, if they would work in his vineyard. 5 So they went.
At noon and again about three in the afternoon he returned to the market. And each time he made the same agreement with others who were loafing around with nothing to do. 6 Finally, about five in the afternoon the man went back and found some others standing there. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?”

7 “Because no one has hired us,” they answered. Then he told them to go work in his vineyard.

8 That evening the owner of the vineyard told the man in charge of the workers to call them in and give them their money. He also told the man to begin with the ones who were hired last. 9 When the workers arrived, the ones who had been hired at five in the afternoon were given a full day’s pay. 10 The workers who had been hired first thought they would be given more than the others. But when they were given the same, 11 they began complaining to the owner of the vineyard. 12 They said, “The ones who were hired last worked for only one hour. But you paid them the same that you did us. And we worked in the hot sun all day long!”
13 The owner answered one of them, “Friend, I didn’t cheat you. I paid you exactly what we agreed on. 14 Take your money now and go! What business is it of yours if I want to pay them the same that I paid you? 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Why should you be jealous, if I want to be generous?”

16 Jesus then said, “So it is. Everyone who is now first will be last, and everyone who is last will be first.”