Lectionary 25A Pr 20
September 24, 2023
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
Psalm 145
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Philippians. 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Once again we have a parable that Jesus told to describe the kingdom of heaven. And we may tend to think of this kingdom as our eternal reward, that which we will enjoy in the “sweet by and by.” And, Scripture, teaches us some things about what life then will be like – no more tears, eternal praises and song, but truth be told, much of what we understand about that comes from our own imaginings, even down to who it is that we think we will see there. And, of course, who we are quite sure we will not see there. But you see, there is a very important truth about the kingdom of heaven is found in the repeated words of Jesus – the kingdom of heaven is among you. The kingdom of heaven has come near. The kingdom of heaven is here and now.
The parables of Jesus speak of this kingdom of heaven not as something in the sweet by and by, but as the present reality. Because, you see, Jesus is more concerned with how it is that we love our neighbor than how it is that we get into heaven. Jesus is more concerned with our interpersonal relationships than with who gets in through the pearly gates. Jesus is more concerned with the community of faith than he is with individual testimonies. Jesus is one of the here and now. Even then and even now.
And so then, he tells this parable about a vineyard and an owner and lots of workers. And our usual read of this parable leads us to this -- time after time, the vineyard owner went back and found sluggards, those who were just idle-doers. And they came to the vineyard to work. And then these ne’er-do-wells were paid the same amount as those who had been working all day. And perhaps some of the other workers may have gone on strike or given the landowner a 0-star review on Google business. It just ain’t fair!
Fairness. We have a lot of words that come close to this very American value. Fairness. Equitable. Justice. Fair and square. Even Steven. It seems to me that the notion of fairness is usually applied to a situation where there is some disparity in positions or possessions. And I think that it is tied to the notion that we don’t want anyone to have an “unfair” advantage over someone else. We see this at play when the NCAA rankings for March Madness are announced. Every year. I saw an article posted that was titled, “Who got “treated unfairly” – the language was more colorful than that – in the 2023 bracket?” It ain’t fair.
We see it at the tag office when we’ve been sitting there for what seems like hours and someone who came in after us has their number called before ours. And we fume, it ain’t fair.
And there was that time when we worked all night to finish the paper to turn in on time and our roommate who hadn’t even started her research got an indefinite extension. It ain’t fair.
Not to mention the possibility that some may have a good portion of their student debt relieved but, doggonit, I paid MY tuition. It ain’t fair.
I remember standing at the counter at the pharmacy waiting for a new medicine and it was expensive. The woman standing next to me was getting the same one. Mine was $15. Hers was $85. She didn’t have insurance with a drug plan. It ain’t fair.
And in today’s parable there is a landowner who seemingly isn’t very good at keeping accounts. This landowner paid the same wage to those who worked all day as he did to those who worked only a couple of hours. It ain’t fair.
But, oh the relief that those last workers experienced! It was equaled only by the disgruntled-ness of those who had worked all day. It ain’t fair – but the landowner rightly noted to the all-day workers – you have an evil eye – you are jealous because I am generous. No, it ain’t fair – but my ways are not yours. I will give what is mine to give to whomever I choose to receive it.
And that’s what happened in the story of Jonah. We usually recall this story as one about Jonah in the belly of the whale – or was it a “big fish” – and how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, anyhow? But what the story of Jonah is really about is God’s mercy and Jonah’s pouting when his country’s enemies repented of their evil ways and weren’t destroyed by God.
Mercy and pouting. Mercy by God and pouting by Jonah – because – it ain’t fair.
So, back to the parable. In the telling of this parable, Jesus is not talking about the doling out of eternal rewards. No. Jesus is teaching about what the kingdom of heaven is like today, here and now. A kingdom in which there is a tension between God’s mercy and grace and human notions of justice. They are not the same.
When I lived in Nashville, I was part of a community storytelling group of perhaps 150 that met once a month to share and hear true real life stories from 9 people of the group around a given theme of the month. One month, the theme was “decisions.” But one of the other stories I heard that night has had an eternal impact on me. And, here is a greatly abridged version of that story I heard from the pastor himself.
He served a church near Milwaukee, Wisconsin and every Sunday before worship they had Bible Study. And on that particular Sunday, there was talk about salvation and baptism and grace. And the conversation was lively, as these may tend to be. And this pastor was teaching eloquently about God’s grace, the washing and regeneration we receive in our baptisms when we are marked with the cross of Christ – forever. And there was one person who was a little perplexed at all of this. And rather hesitantly, asked, “But Pastor, even if this was Jeffrey Dahmer???”
Well, the pastor was saved from that question because the bell rang and it was time to get ready for worship. One day the next week in the ordinary course of affairs of a pastor, a call came from a prison chaplain who wanted to talk with the pastor about an inmate who wanted to be baptized. And they had a conversation and the pastor agreed that he could come to the prison for such a sacrament. It seemed a pastorly thing to do.
So he went to the prison and met with the chaplain and had all his pastor-like things with him – stole, Bible, shell, oil stock. And talked with the chaplain, thanked him for calling him for this sacrament and then heard generally about the one to be baptized. And then the pastor asked his name. And the chaplain said, “His name is Jeffrey Dahmer.”
And in this moment, the pastor of this church near Milwaukee, Wisconsin became the landowner of a vineyard. But not only that, this pastor also became one of the laborers hired early in the day. One asked to bring the paycheck of the full day’s pay to the one hired late in the day. A very human one in need of God’s mercy.
It ain’t fair.
The kingdom of heaven is here and now and all around us.
The kingdom of heaven is full of laborers – those who worked the whole day long, those who came in at the last minute.
The kingdom of heaven is teeming over with grace upon grace. Its cup runneth over. A cup that cares not a wit about what is fair. A cup that sits on the altar waiting for us to partake.
The kingdom of heaven in this parable is not about the sweet by and by. It is about here and now. How we as the people of God, the lovers of Jesus, deal with the times in our lives when we just know that “it ain’t fair.”
The times in our lives when we give more than we get. The times when we get more than we give.
You see, this is indeed the kingdom of heaven in our midst. A kingdom of grace beyond what we can imagine.
Amazing, isn’t it.
When we pray your kingdom come, we are also praying, let my kingdom go.
