Twenty-Fifth
Sunday of Ordinary Time
September
18, 2005
Does God play ‘fair’?
or, In today’s gospel, whom do you most identify with? – the owner
of the vineyard, those hired first, those hired in between or those hired last?
Today’s gospel is enough to
get a cradle Catholic’s blood boiling. There is no way around the central
truth in the reading. God does not play ‘fair’ – according to
our human notions of fairness. Those who labored all day long were treated the
same as those who worked just for an hour. How utterly un-American. How utterly
unfair and unjust. If I spend my whole life obeying the commandments, making sacrifices
for the poor, helping my neighbor at cost to my own life and own family, then
there should be a reward for that, right? There should be something extra that
comes back to me according to that line of thinking. Why should the lukewarm or
unbelievers get the same treatment as I who have labored all my life? If you found
yourself wrestling with this parable, then I think you are in good company.
I wonder, though, if there is a different way to understand this story, a different
way of praying into it that might help us think like Jesus does; that might help
us believe what Jesus believes. It has to do with the issue of which character
we identify with, which character wins our sympathy. If we identify with the undeserving
ones, the ones hired late in the day, the ones who still hadn’t found work,
we will be thrilled with the divine generosity. The existence of a day laborer
was so impoverished that the book of Leviticus said they had to be paid before
sundown on the day they worked so they would have time to get food for their family.
Good for the vintner who had mercy on them. However, if we identify with those
“who bore the day’s burden and the heat,” in other words, those
who deserve “what is just,” we may be troubled by God’s generosity.
In fact, we might even be tempted to judge this generosity as unfair.
Divine generosity is always a scandal to people who believe that it should only
be granted to those who deserve it. And it is in this conviction that their error
is laid bare, for no one deserves the generosity of God. It is a free gift, given
to all who will accept it. If we think we deserve it, we will resent those who
in our judgment do not. It is arrogant to think that we have earned it; it is
selfish to want to hug it to ourselves. SO, part of the way of letting this parable
work within us is to focus on those who need the gift. We all know folks who are
on the fence of a holy life, who struggle, who need mercy. If we are honest, we
have all stood in need of that mercy at one time or another. Perhaps this parable
will invite us to offer God’s generosity and mercy and aid to those we know
in our own world. Forgive a debt, offer forgiveness, invite one of the Katrina
victims over for supper…
Another way to identify with the characters in the story comes from the perspective
of winemaking. I am told that when the grapes are ready to be harvested, you
have about 36 hours to get them all off of the vine and into the vine presses.
Which is not a lot of time, especially in a society that used human labor. SO
the second point of the parable, besides the generosity of God, is God’s
overwhelming desire to get the harvest into storage before it is too late. ‘Get
it in, get it in’, is the overwhelming concern. Hire as many laborers
as necessary, but get it in. So in the morning, and mid morning and afternoon
and almost at the end of the day, comes the drive – make sure it all gets
harvested. It is worth it to me to make sure it gets harvested… Because
it is not about the laborers and who is doing what, but rather it is about getting
the harvest in. And suddenly, the divine generosity is nothing less than the
desire of God for the good of every created soul.
If you have ever been truly in love, you know this. You want what is good for
your beloved, whether they deserve it at that particular moment or not. So this
week, pray for the gift of falling in love again. Pray for the gift of wanting
the best for the other, whether it is a family member, a neighbor, or someone
you have never met before. Pray that you might know in your bones the same desire
of God – to make sure that all of our brothers and sisters get to share
in the goods of heaven and earth…