Peter Moore, my homiletics professor at Trinity, used to encourage us to look for the bottom line of
each scripture passage we preached on. He said the question we should always ask ourselves is
“What’s the big idea?” That is, what’s the single, central, overriding message in the passage? Fr.
Stenner, my former rector and boss in Maryland, used a summary that I think captures the big idea
in this morning’s Gospel reading well: “God is God, and I’m not.” I offer this right at the outset to
frame a parable that may tend to leave some of us scratching our heads.
This all has to do with how we think God should act. Seems like there are a lot of opinions these
days as to how God should act. And after all, what good is God unless we can kindly inform him how
He should act, right? Like Thomas Jefferson some church leaders are now wanting to get the
scissors and cut out pages of scripture they consider to be objectionable or unreasonable. A few
weeks ago I mentioned that there’s a movement afoot to reject the doctrine of the Atonement—of
Christ paying the penalty for our sins—as being somehow beneath us in this “more enlightened”
age. I’m sure there are many passages of Scripture where they’d be inclined to comment: “Well,
that certainly wasn’t very nice of God!” In fact, I’ll admit to thinking that once or twice myself in
moments of befuddlement.
C. S. Lewis recognized this back in his time. Even then he heard people in the church commenting
that now we know better than those poor, benighted people in Bible times.
Lewis called this attitude “chronological snobbery”, and countered with his Christ-character, Aslan
the lion. Aslan of course is courageous, heroic, and loving. But several characters in The
Chronicles of Narnia comment that Aslan is not a tame lion. He did and said many unexpected and
even shocking things, at least if you’ve cut your teeth on the image of “gentle Jesus meek and mild.”
I think we hear one of those things in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. Here Jesus gives
us some surprising but crucial information about the nature of God and His kingdom. Let’s set the
scene for his parable. In Jesus’ story the time of year may very well have been close to the season
we’re enjoying now. This is the time of year in the Mediterranean that the grapes are about ready
for harvest. For vineyard managers this is a tricky time of year. You see, when the grapes are ripe,
there’s a very small window of time before the fall rains begin in the Near East. And any grapes left
unharvested when it starts raining are often damaged or destroyed. Having lived for many years in
Northern California, I can attest to the anxiety this can create among growers. If it rains at certain
stages of growth, the result is mold and a destroyed crop. So the landowner needs to be very
careful about how many workers to hire, and when. And the workers need to be ready when it’s
harvest time.
This is the kind of situation Jesus describes in his parable. In the early light of dawn, the landowner
hires a number of workers to work the vineyard. He promises them a day’s wages—fifty bucks. The
workers agree and start picking. A few hours later the landowner strolls over to the Employment
Development Department and hires several more. They start picking. As the days wears on, twice
more he selects workers out of the line. The last of these are hired as the autumn rays are slanting
low across the dusty vineyard, a mere hour before the end of the work day. So the work day winds
down and the sun rests briefly on the western horizon.
As the workers are toting their lunch pails to the landowner’s office to get their paychecks,
something unexpected happens. The workers hired last are the first to receive their pay. And what
to they get? Fifty bucks. And then each preceding group is paid in turn. The ones that were hired
at 3 o’clock get fifty bucks. The ones hired at noon: Fifty bucks. The nine o’clock hires: fifty
bucks. By then those tired, sunburned early morning hires are starting to glance silently at each
other, their eyebrows arching with curiosity and squinting with suspicion. They step up to the
landowner’s desk, and each receive how much? Fifty bucks.
And then, what had been unspoken begins to leak out, and the muttering starts. “Uh, hello! I work
twelve hours and get the same as these guys who’ve only been there an hour? Let’s see, so I’m
getting $4.17/hour and these layabouts are getting fifty? Where did you say you got your MBA?”
Obviously, this isn’t fair, right? What would our November candidates say about this! That vineyard
manager is fired, if not prosecuted! He’s toast! “I’ve instructed my team to launch a full
investigation! If I’m elected there will be justice!”
Well, to illustrate some of what Jesus is trying to say to us through this parable, please allow me to
share a little story of when I was a teenager back in Sacramento. I was the goalkeeper on our high
school soccer team. From the first day of practice I worked hard to learn the basics of the position,
and with the help of a good offense, I managed to have a pretty good record in the goal box. Then
several weeks into the season, this big, popular, walk-on athlete joined late and announced that he
wanted to play goalie. You might imagine how I felt in response to this. Honestly, for a while my
thoughts were focused neither on the good of the team nor on the good of my rival. I just felt
indignant. I mean, who is this guy waltzing in after the schedule has started and wanting to share my
position? If my coach had been a Bible-reader he might have said, like the landowner in the
parable, “Are you envious because I’m generous?”
Actually, as it turned out, I didn’t need to be envious because my rival allowed five goals in his first
outing and never started another game. But he was still on the team! My coach was generous.
The point is this: Who’s on the team is the coach’s decision. I was playing by the coach’s good
graces. And I can assure you, based upon some of my early practices, he truly was gracious.
Do you kind of see the point here? The first thing the parable of the laborers tells us is that we’re all
chosen by the grace of God. It’s not just because we’re all irresistibly wonderful! And we’re chosen
on His terms, not ours. In His vineyard, His kingdom, it’s God who seeks us out and offers us a
position. And to underscore how gracious God is, it should be noted that, in God’s kingdom, eternal
life isn’t the pay for our work, but is a free gift from God. So then our labor is actually a labor of love,
in gratitude for this gift that we can’t possibly repay. So we’re chosen, loved, and rewarded by God
because in His grace that’s what He wants to do. “God so loved the world that he gave His only Son,
that whoever believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
The second thing this parable tells us is that we’re given basically the same payment regardless of
how long we work in the vineyard. Now Jesus also talked some about the greater and lesser in the
kingdom of God, but the end-of-the-day pay of eternal life in God’s loving presence is universal
among all believers. So, what’s so great about people entering the vineyard in the eleventh hour
and getting the same pay at the end of the day? Well, I’ll follow an old Jewish custom and answer
the questions with a question. The question is this: Is this not the best possible news we can offer to
others? Is this not the best possible news for every one of us? Personally, I’m pretty grateful for
this. If my paycheck were dependent on my personal merits, like perfect work quality and unflagging
enthusiasm, I’d be dead meat. But by God’s grace we’re all going to the same place as Mother
Teresa, even though I daresay she has a bit more seniority on the jobsite. By God’s grace, as long
as we draw breath, and until Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead, true
repentance is never too late. This is how much God loves us!
But (one might ask) what about people who’ve lived notorious lives? What about the Stalins and the
Osama Bin Ladens of this world? This is where it gets interesting. Because clearly Jesus’ teaching
here is that if they come to the Lord in true repentance even on their death bed, theirs too is the
kingdom of God. Do you suppose this would be the case if we were in charge? I think the only
reasonable conclusion here is that God’s love is wild, unpredictable and extravagant. Aslan is not a
tame lion.
His actions may seem a little unfair to us sometimes. But this steers us toward confronting a very
basic question: Who is in a better position to make wise and loving decisions, us or God?
Remember a couple weeks ago Bishop Frey talked to us a little about sin. We’re inclined to see
God’s warnings against sin as trying to squelch our enjoyment of life. Or maybe as the Church trying
to control us. But in actuality sin is something that hurts us and hurts those around us, sometimes in
ways we don’t even see. God loves us enough that He doesn’t want to see this happen to his
human creation.
In the same way, we’re often inclined to be critical of the Scripture’s accounts of God and His
actions. We think we’re being judicious by accepting some teachings and rejecting others in our
human “wisdom.” (“Well, I can accept a God that loves everyone all the time, but I can’t buy a God
that would judge people.”) In a very suspicious time it doesn’t come at all naturally to us to trust
blindly. But part of faith is exercising a certain amount of blind trust. Of reaching out to God’s hand
in the darkness and trusting that He’ll lead us in love, safety, and a fairness that is much better
informed than that which we’re capable of. That even some of the teachings we find
incomprehensible might actually make sense in the perspective of eternity. The fact is, for the
believer understanding comes more after we invest faith, not before. In fact St. Augustine once
said, “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but seek to believe so that you may
understand.”
And that really leads to the final point. If there’s an “error” in this teaching, it’s an error on the side
of grace and love. The workers complained because some thought they should get more than
others for their work. They truly were envious because the landowner was generous. But when we’
re invited to join the team and respond by investing our trust in Jesus, we are fully on the team. Our
service is accepted just as enthusiastically as if we had been on the team for decades. And God’s
incalculable reward for people of faith is offered to all.
I expect many wonderful things to happen as we move into our home base on Alameda. One of
these is that our numbers will grow. At least I certainly pray so. This will be one area for each of us
to guard our hearts. Will newcomers be accepted with the same openness and generosity with
which the landowner welcomed the new hires? Or will we give in to the temptation to engage in kind
of a hierarchy of seniority?
Jesus’ has made clear His standard for us. If we’re ever tempted to start being preferential about
people and their different ministries, we will do well to return to the Parable of the Workers. For it’s
here that we find the lavishly generous heart of Christ—a heart that quickens at the chance to share
in God’s work and in the immense rewards which He delights giving to all who serve Him. May each
of us attune ourselves to His Spirit, so that we will see our fellow workers as a pure blessing. And as
the harvest day approaches may we welcome wholeheartedly those chosen by the Landowner to be
our companions in the vineyard.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
each scripture passage we preached on. He said the question we should always ask ourselves is
“What’s the big idea?” That is, what’s the single, central, overriding message in the passage? Fr.
Stenner, my former rector and boss in Maryland, used a summary that I think captures the big idea
in this morning’s Gospel reading well: “God is God, and I’m not.” I offer this right at the outset to
frame a parable that may tend to leave some of us scratching our heads.
This all has to do with how we think God should act. Seems like there are a lot of opinions these
days as to how God should act. And after all, what good is God unless we can kindly inform him how
He should act, right? Like Thomas Jefferson some church leaders are now wanting to get the
scissors and cut out pages of scripture they consider to be objectionable or unreasonable. A few
weeks ago I mentioned that there’s a movement afoot to reject the doctrine of the Atonement—of
Christ paying the penalty for our sins—as being somehow beneath us in this “more enlightened”
age. I’m sure there are many passages of Scripture where they’d be inclined to comment: “Well,
that certainly wasn’t very nice of God!” In fact, I’ll admit to thinking that once or twice myself in
moments of befuddlement.
C. S. Lewis recognized this back in his time. Even then he heard people in the church commenting
that now we know better than those poor, benighted people in Bible times.
Lewis called this attitude “chronological snobbery”, and countered with his Christ-character, Aslan
the lion. Aslan of course is courageous, heroic, and loving. But several characters in The
Chronicles of Narnia comment that Aslan is not a tame lion. He did and said many unexpected and
even shocking things, at least if you’ve cut your teeth on the image of “gentle Jesus meek and mild.”
I think we hear one of those things in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. Here Jesus gives
us some surprising but crucial information about the nature of God and His kingdom. Let’s set the
scene for his parable. In Jesus’ story the time of year may very well have been close to the season
we’re enjoying now. This is the time of year in the Mediterranean that the grapes are about ready
for harvest. For vineyard managers this is a tricky time of year. You see, when the grapes are ripe,
there’s a very small window of time before the fall rains begin in the Near East. And any grapes left
unharvested when it starts raining are often damaged or destroyed. Having lived for many years in
Northern California, I can attest to the anxiety this can create among growers. If it rains at certain
stages of growth, the result is mold and a destroyed crop. So the landowner needs to be very
careful about how many workers to hire, and when. And the workers need to be ready when it’s
harvest time.
This is the kind of situation Jesus describes in his parable. In the early light of dawn, the landowner
hires a number of workers to work the vineyard. He promises them a day’s wages—fifty bucks. The
workers agree and start picking. A few hours later the landowner strolls over to the Employment
Development Department and hires several more. They start picking. As the days wears on, twice
more he selects workers out of the line. The last of these are hired as the autumn rays are slanting
low across the dusty vineyard, a mere hour before the end of the work day. So the work day winds
down and the sun rests briefly on the western horizon.
As the workers are toting their lunch pails to the landowner’s office to get their paychecks,
something unexpected happens. The workers hired last are the first to receive their pay. And what
to they get? Fifty bucks. And then each preceding group is paid in turn. The ones that were hired
at 3 o’clock get fifty bucks. The ones hired at noon: Fifty bucks. The nine o’clock hires: fifty
bucks. By then those tired, sunburned early morning hires are starting to glance silently at each
other, their eyebrows arching with curiosity and squinting with suspicion. They step up to the
landowner’s desk, and each receive how much? Fifty bucks.
And then, what had been unspoken begins to leak out, and the muttering starts. “Uh, hello! I work
twelve hours and get the same as these guys who’ve only been there an hour? Let’s see, so I’m
getting $4.17/hour and these layabouts are getting fifty? Where did you say you got your MBA?”
Obviously, this isn’t fair, right? What would our November candidates say about this! That vineyard
manager is fired, if not prosecuted! He’s toast! “I’ve instructed my team to launch a full
investigation! If I’m elected there will be justice!”
Well, to illustrate some of what Jesus is trying to say to us through this parable, please allow me to
share a little story of when I was a teenager back in Sacramento. I was the goalkeeper on our high
school soccer team. From the first day of practice I worked hard to learn the basics of the position,
and with the help of a good offense, I managed to have a pretty good record in the goal box. Then
several weeks into the season, this big, popular, walk-on athlete joined late and announced that he
wanted to play goalie. You might imagine how I felt in response to this. Honestly, for a while my
thoughts were focused neither on the good of the team nor on the good of my rival. I just felt
indignant. I mean, who is this guy waltzing in after the schedule has started and wanting to share my
position? If my coach had been a Bible-reader he might have said, like the landowner in the
parable, “Are you envious because I’m generous?”
Actually, as it turned out, I didn’t need to be envious because my rival allowed five goals in his first
outing and never started another game. But he was still on the team! My coach was generous.
The point is this: Who’s on the team is the coach’s decision. I was playing by the coach’s good
graces. And I can assure you, based upon some of my early practices, he truly was gracious.
Do you kind of see the point here? The first thing the parable of the laborers tells us is that we’re all
chosen by the grace of God. It’s not just because we’re all irresistibly wonderful! And we’re chosen
on His terms, not ours. In His vineyard, His kingdom, it’s God who seeks us out and offers us a
position. And to underscore how gracious God is, it should be noted that, in God’s kingdom, eternal
life isn’t the pay for our work, but is a free gift from God. So then our labor is actually a labor of love,
in gratitude for this gift that we can’t possibly repay. So we’re chosen, loved, and rewarded by God
because in His grace that’s what He wants to do. “God so loved the world that he gave His only Son,
that whoever believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
The second thing this parable tells us is that we’re given basically the same payment regardless of
how long we work in the vineyard. Now Jesus also talked some about the greater and lesser in the
kingdom of God, but the end-of-the-day pay of eternal life in God’s loving presence is universal
among all believers. So, what’s so great about people entering the vineyard in the eleventh hour
and getting the same pay at the end of the day? Well, I’ll follow an old Jewish custom and answer
the questions with a question. The question is this: Is this not the best possible news we can offer to
others? Is this not the best possible news for every one of us? Personally, I’m pretty grateful for
this. If my paycheck were dependent on my personal merits, like perfect work quality and unflagging
enthusiasm, I’d be dead meat. But by God’s grace we’re all going to the same place as Mother
Teresa, even though I daresay she has a bit more seniority on the jobsite. By God’s grace, as long
as we draw breath, and until Jesus comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead, true
repentance is never too late. This is how much God loves us!
But (one might ask) what about people who’ve lived notorious lives? What about the Stalins and the
Osama Bin Ladens of this world? This is where it gets interesting. Because clearly Jesus’ teaching
here is that if they come to the Lord in true repentance even on their death bed, theirs too is the
kingdom of God. Do you suppose this would be the case if we were in charge? I think the only
reasonable conclusion here is that God’s love is wild, unpredictable and extravagant. Aslan is not a
tame lion.
His actions may seem a little unfair to us sometimes. But this steers us toward confronting a very
basic question: Who is in a better position to make wise and loving decisions, us or God?
Remember a couple weeks ago Bishop Frey talked to us a little about sin. We’re inclined to see
God’s warnings against sin as trying to squelch our enjoyment of life. Or maybe as the Church trying
to control us. But in actuality sin is something that hurts us and hurts those around us, sometimes in
ways we don’t even see. God loves us enough that He doesn’t want to see this happen to his
human creation.
In the same way, we’re often inclined to be critical of the Scripture’s accounts of God and His
actions. We think we’re being judicious by accepting some teachings and rejecting others in our
human “wisdom.” (“Well, I can accept a God that loves everyone all the time, but I can’t buy a God
that would judge people.”) In a very suspicious time it doesn’t come at all naturally to us to trust
blindly. But part of faith is exercising a certain amount of blind trust. Of reaching out to God’s hand
in the darkness and trusting that He’ll lead us in love, safety, and a fairness that is much better
informed than that which we’re capable of. That even some of the teachings we find
incomprehensible might actually make sense in the perspective of eternity. The fact is, for the
believer understanding comes more after we invest faith, not before. In fact St. Augustine once
said, “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but seek to believe so that you may
understand.”
And that really leads to the final point. If there’s an “error” in this teaching, it’s an error on the side
of grace and love. The workers complained because some thought they should get more than
others for their work. They truly were envious because the landowner was generous. But when we’
re invited to join the team and respond by investing our trust in Jesus, we are fully on the team. Our
service is accepted just as enthusiastically as if we had been on the team for decades. And God’s
incalculable reward for people of faith is offered to all.
I expect many wonderful things to happen as we move into our home base on Alameda. One of
these is that our numbers will grow. At least I certainly pray so. This will be one area for each of us
to guard our hearts. Will newcomers be accepted with the same openness and generosity with
which the landowner welcomed the new hires? Or will we give in to the temptation to engage in kind
of a hierarchy of seniority?
Jesus’ has made clear His standard for us. If we’re ever tempted to start being preferential about
people and their different ministries, we will do well to return to the Parable of the Workers. For it’s
here that we find the lavishly generous heart of Christ—a heart that quickens at the chance to share
in God’s work and in the immense rewards which He delights giving to all who serve Him. May each
of us attune ourselves to His Spirit, so that we will see our fellow workers as a pure blessing. And as
the harvest day approaches may we welcome wholeheartedly those chosen by the Landowner to be
our companions in the vineyard.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Workers in the Vineyard
Matthew 20: 1-16
Matthew 20: 1-16
September 21, 2008
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton