Lately, I’ve been feeling more like the first workers,

the one’s hired early in the morning,

rather than the last ones.

I wonder if some of you feel this way too?

-whether you’ve been working hard on some church committee or ministry

or

-working hard at your job, trying to stay productive on top of smoke and COVID

or

-you’re an overstretched parent trying to juggle distance learning at home on top of work

Or

-you are a student, trying to navigate the realities of distance/online school

Or

-perhaps you’ve been putting in a lot more time and energy to caring for a sick or aging loved one

Or

-you’re someone who has been ringing the alarm bell on climate change for the last 10, 20, 30, or even 40 years…and yet too few have listened.

Whatever the reason might be, if you, like me, identify with these first workers, then perhaps you know something about that frustration they felt at the end of the day.

When they complained:

“These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.”

My version of this is to say something like:

“It’s not fair.  I have put up with this lockdown and staying at home for 6 straight months!  How come ‘those people’ get to go out and party/have fun/go camping/take a trip/etc.”

Or if I get even more vulnerable with you, I have heard myself say:

“I have been working so hard for the church and for my family…I deserve something for all this, I deserve to get this or that because I earned it.”

Those terms, “deserve” and “earned” are deep in our cultural DNA.  And there are good reasons for it.

As a way of cultivating personal responsibility in our children, we have taught them, and reinforced in our friends and loved one’s adages like:

“the early bird gets the worm”

“an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay”

“what you put in is what you get out”

And it is good that people act with a sense of personal responsibility.

We do in fact want people to put in an honest day’s work…our social systems rely upon people contributing their time and effort to help get all the various tasks done.

And so to make sense of that, and to ensure our continued survival, we’ve created economic systems where you

“earn” health care by working long enough hours….

you “deserve” a higher paying job because of the work you put in for that advanced degree…

“earn” sick and vacation time based on how many hours you’ve put in…

Perhaps I can sum this all up with one classic, universal childhood experience:

You can only get the ice cream or watch the TV after you finish your homework.

If you just got to eat ice cream, and watch TV no matter what, then why would you ever be motivated to finish the homework?

And so being raised in this culture, being formed and shaped by it, this parable of course grates on us.

This parable is frustrating because it doesn’t match up with our definition of fairness.  It isn’t our conception of justice.

For many of us, we were raised to believe that fairness and justice are about getting what you deserved, or had earned.

But as per usual,

when Jesus’ parables grate on us…

when they cause a kind of mental stress because they just don’t match up with the world we know…

it’s usually because the parable is trying to expose something about our world.

The parable is trying to show us how far our world has wandered from God’s dream for humanity…how far we’ve drifted from God’s Kingdom.

One commentator put it this way:

“the parable of the workers in the vineyard

exposes the fundamental metaphors that structure our social reality:

winner and losers,

superior and inferior,

insider and outsider,

honored and shamed.

[And I would add, ‘those who deserve a daily wage, and those who don’t’.]

The parable unmasks a social order that often encourages us to pray

“give me this day my daily bread”

rather than

“give us this day our daily bread.”

That’s the shadow side to our cultural value of personal responsibility, earning and deserving…it keeps us focused on ourselves.

We become hyperfocused on figuring out:

How can I earn more?

How can I deserve more?

And at a large scale we’ve seen this myth of “deserve” and “earned” gone amok:

-We routinely hear about rising wealth inequality…and it has reached the point where three individuals: Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos have as much wealth as the entire bottom 50% of Americans.

-There is the constant demand to consume more and more energy…so we can accomplish more and more and thus we deserve more and greater comforts & luxuries…no matter how much it costs the planet

-Americans are having to work more hours and more and more often multiple jobs just to keep earning enough to get healthcare and pay the rent.

While there is importance to being responsible…these ideas of earned and deserve hook us into an addictive illusion that “I” determine my fortune (material, spiritual, emotional) by my own effort.

And the corollary illusion to this is that ‘those people’ who have less than I do,

who are more marginalized by society,

in terms of the parable, those workers who were hired at the end of the day,

they didn’t put in the right amount of work and thus

they do not “deserve” a daily wage.

Do you see how this thinking then justifies, it allows, the continuation of environmental and human oppression?

If we think we have “earned” our current levels of success or comfort, while others “deserve” hardship because they haven’t worked hard enough (or made good choices)

then it’s no wonder that so many people can look at our country today and say

“this is justice”

“this is fair.”

But the parable does more than just expose the way our world has drifted from God’s intended Kingdom.

The parable also paints of picture of the blessing of God’s Kingdom.

You see in God’s vineyard…everyone receives their daily bread.

No one had to earn it….no one “deserves” it because they put in the “right” amount of work.

In God’s vineyard, it isn’t up to the individual to make it for themselves.

God’s vineyard is what some call a gift based economy.

A gift is something that is given freely.  It is offered to people not because they earned the gift…a gift is offered because the giver is generous.

A gift is offered because there is an awareness that the receiver has some innate worthiness as a human being.

And a gift is offered with no strings attached…if there are conditions, then it isn’t a gift…it’s an exchange.

You see the landowner is offering these workers a gift…he offers a daily wage…but also the chance to work at a vineyard, to be in a community, where everyone is worthy of life…of dignity…of respect…

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been here all day, or if you’ve just made it for one measly hour…

At this vineyard, it probably doesn’t matter if you’ve worked tirelessly all day,

or if you’ve slacked off…

In God’s vineyard, all the socially constructed systems of privilege and oppression that derive from “earning” and “deserving” fall away…the first become last, and the last become first…in this community we don’t view some as deserving more or less than anyone else.  All are children of God.

Everyone is worthy of receiving the fundamental necessities of life…of receiving recognition and belonging…everyone is worthy of love.

In the gift economy of God’s vineyard,

The name of the game isn’t “what have I earned from you?” 

the game has become “how generous can I be towards you?”

And that’s the question this parable should leave with you today.

The question that I want you to ponder this week,

in all your interactions…

with everyone you meet…

With those who you feel a sense of camaraderie with

And with those who you cannot stand,

With those who have more than they need,

And with those who do not have enough,

with those who have been laboring all day in the scorching heat…

and with those who have just shown up at the end of the day…

“How generous can I be towards you?”