This is the Gospel and Sermon for Sunday, September 20. Bishop Elizabeth Eaton is reading Gospel this week and Rev. Dr. Barbara Rossing provides the sermon.
Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, there was a businessman who owned a small vineyard in Napa Valley. As the economy changed and larger corporations were increasingly taking over the market, he began to see the writing on the wall. These larger vineyards were gradually squeezing out the smaller businesses, competition was becoming increasingly challenging, and he knew he would be facing major difficulties in the foreseeable future.
Therefore, he finally decided to sell while his business was still doing rather well. However, he wanted to give his workers one last holiday bonus. Ever since he first started the business, he had given his workers a holiday bonus based on the company’s yearly profit and each individual’s time on the job. And, the past year of operations had been a reasonably good one, so he decided to do something wild and crazy and give everyone a very generous bonus. Not only would everyone receive more than they had during the previous few years, each would also receive equally the same amount. There would be no differentiation based on the time each person had spent working for his company. In other words, if you were simply on the payroll as of December 22nd, the day the checks were written, you got the bonus!
When the envelopes were first opened, it seemed everyone was thrilled to see the amount of his or her bonus. However, as people began to slowly share information and compare checks, guess what happened! Voila!!! It was today’s gospel story in Matthew, chapter 20, all over again!!
The business owner could not believe it. He had tried to do something good for everybody and now he was getting angry phone calls from people who had just received larger bonus checks than they had ever gotten before, but were upset that everyone received the same amount. Envy and greed had become more important than what they had received. The long-time workers thought they had not been treated fairly. And, the business owner had to ask, “Are you envious because I am generous?”
Well, the truth of the matter is, yes. Not only are we human beings greedy and envious, as I mentioned last week, we are also great scorekeepers and bookkeepers. In fact, we love to keep score. And, when it comes to a person’s just reward for actions, work or whatever, we turn into some top-notch bookkeepers. We love to keep score and we are oh so good at it!! We keep score of day to day relational stuff that goes on within our families, wanting everyone to be treated fairly, yet quite often acting as though there is not enough love to go around. We keep score of the stuff that happens at work. We not only want everyone to be treated fairly for their efforts, but we also do not want to lose out on any rewards for ourselves. And, when it comes to fairness and score keeping between businesses, organizations, communities and countries, well…..all we need to do is take a look at the news headlines and the world around us. Yes, we want to be treated fairly, especially if we can benefit from that treatment.
In today’s reading, Jesus again tells a story about the reign of God, the household of the community of God’s people. He tells of a crazy landowner who treated his laborers equally, regardless of the disproportionate hours they worked. And, Jesus’ story seems to suggest that when it comes to life in the kingdom of God, there is an element of what we would consider unfairness. His words to us today are unsettling and they shatter our perceptions of fairness. His words cut right through the ordered world we try to create.
Yes, we want an ordered world in which everybody gets what we consider to be their just reward, what we consider fair. Friends, this perceived order and desire for what we consider fair is as old as humanity itself. When looking at our other readings for today, we discover that even Jonah struggled with his perception of what he considered fair and not fair. God forgives the people of Nineveh, but Jonah begrudges forgiveness for his enemies. And, in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Paul also addresses this issue. When we are deeply divided and see others as undeserving enemies, Paul reminds us that only because of God’s unending forgiveness for both sides of every quarrel or disagreement, can we really accept one another and live in unity.
Friends, the truth of the matter is that Jesus invaded this world to create a new order, an order that replaces our order, our individual, cultural and social assumptions of what is fair and not fair. The disciples have been struggling to understand this in-breaking reign or kingdom of God, this new order Jesus has been talking about. They have been operating out of the existing social framework and mindset with which they had grown up and were so familiar. They, like each one of us, have assumptions and understandings of the way the world should work, assumptions that include keeping score of rich and poor, superior and inferior, those who are in and those who are out – a list that goes on and on and on…. Then, Jesus goes and messes it all up by telling a story that again unsettles us. His story undercuts and interrupts our assumptions. But, through his words, he creates the possibility of something very new. Jesus gives us words to “envision the new order of God and unmask the deadly spirits and inequality of the old order.” (Feasting on the Word, p. 95)
Jesus holds before us God’s vision and desire for this world, a vision where all are treated equally. Jesus holds before us a new reality that undermines the old distinctions and the competitive struggle with which we are all so preoccupied. Theologian Warren Carter, describing Jesus’ story and the landowner’s surprising payment to the workers, says:
Instead of maintaining differentiation among the laborers based on performance, instead of reinforcing the superiority of some at the expense of the rest, the landowner has evened out the distinctions and treated them in solidarity as equals. Instead of using wages to reinforce distinctions, he uses [wages] to express equality and solidarity. (Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading, p. 394.)
Yes, Jesus describes a new social order and his words painfully expose the suppositions of the existing social order that has shaped us. I love what Professor Charles Campbell writes when describing Jesus’ words. He says:
[Jesus’ story] exposes the fundamental metaphors that so often structure social relations: winner and loser, superior and inferior, insider and outsider, honored and shamed. It unmasks an order that often encourages us to pray, ‘Give me this day my daily bread,’ rather than, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’” (Feasting on the Word, p. 97.)
While Jesus’ story makes us face some of our individual, social, and cultural assumptions, the biggest truth about today’s gospel reading is that this story is NOT about us. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!!! Ultimately, Jesus’ story is not really about us at all! Jesus’ story is really all about the endless generosity and amazing graciousness of God! His story is really about a God who, like the crazy landowner, bestows unmeasured grace and mercy to all people, regardless of how deserving or undeserving we think people to be.
The reality is that God’s generosity and grace disrupts, undercuts, and violates our assumptions and opinions about the way this world should be ordered. The good news is that the grace of God is showered upon all in equal measure. The good news is that with God, there is no such thing as “partial benefits!” The good news is that God’s love never runs out and it comes to us as an inexhaustible supply! In fact, the good news is that God is a lousy bookkeeper! The good news is that, in the cross, we see a God who loves us so much that we can let go of all our bookkeeping and scorekeeping efforts, and live into the love and grace that has been poured upon the world, in fact poured upon the cosmos! And, when that happens, we will find much greater joy in living.