Fairness
Tony E Hansen
Sermon based upon Matthew 20: 1-16; Philippians 1:21:30; Psalm145; Exodus 16:2-15
Opening prayer
Guten Morgen! Ich studiere Deutsch und habe ich Vokabeln tauchen.
Heute, Today, we read how fair God is.
The parable of the laborers that arrive at different times of the day for work and all get paid the same. What is odd about this? Are we reading some socialist dogma?
The answer is why is it odd to you? It could be something entirely different from socialist.
We don’t know what these people were doing all day or the half day while the morning crew was presumably working. Were they participating in shenanigans? Were they sleeping in for a day? Were they out shopping?
Yet when called in the evening to get paid, they all receive the same pay.
Then the grumbling. You know it, you have seen it and heard it. Why did they get the same as us who worked all day and been here all day - in scorching heat? What have they been doing that we could have been as well?
What justice is this? What is fair about this?
The response is “The last will be first and the first will be last.” (Die Ersten werden Die Letzten sein.)
That is similar to how people think about church and religion. Those who have been here for all their lives compared to people walking in the doors for the first time today.
What privilege does being here all that time give us or should be bestowed upon us? Aren’t you special?
I work out plenty, but I still have a weight issue. How is that fair?
Thank you for being here and keeping the lights on and doing the necessary, but yours and my welcome is better when we receive more and more - When we celebrate those who have been found regardless of when they came and from where they came.
The radical nature of grace is something we haven’t quite realized when we think in terms of some notion reciprocity or as a transaction for our efforts.
The landowner gives “whatever is right.” Everyone gets what is “right.”
Face it life isn’t easy but God’s love isn’t dispersed based upon how long a tenure or years of service. God is abounding steadfast love.
That love is for each and everyone of us.
There is something that irritates and gets under folks’ skins here.
Those people aren’t taking advantage of us or God because God’s grace is just that radically given. We remember that judgment should be left to God but this feels like God not holding people account.
Yet there is a lot of power on display here. If we look at the landowner, first he goes out at different times to get more people. Could have just let the first work and have no help at all. If you are a farmer, we know that harvest is when you need the most help. This landowner is getting more and more help.
Second, the landowner tells them all they will get whatever is right. Then chooses to give - to distribute the same to the last - same as the first.
Is God not allowed to give what God wants or be as generous to us? That person on the corner holding a sign for begging or the person in jail who finds God or just the one who has done all the right things . The payout, the reward, is the same.
Yet there is envy. There is this consideration in many that “how is that right or fair?”
That Beloved is divine grace. It doesn’t have definitions for who can and cannot receive . It requires not our judgment or effort, but our belief and our celebration that others receive along side us - not resentment - not condemnation - not judgment.
This is also representative of an economy where people need work but have none. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Why do we blame those for standing around all day needing work but having none? How is it their fault ? How is that fair?
What about people who have none? Who continue to hold the signs in scorching heat and humidity?
We pray the words of the psalm all the time in our services, but do we actually turn them into our faith?
God is great and to be praised for ALL that is done and for ALL the people that God blesses, not just the people next to us in the pews or inside four walls of a church.
That ALL means something different when we chip away at it with our judgment and envy and prejudices. Instead, that ALL is precisely the grace that is meant to be and for us to truly realize the immense nature of the grace and mercy that are “abounding…“
That doesn’t require our approval or our weak judgments to proceed or be poured out to the many.
That does require of us to let go and Let God - like we said last time.
In that way, we become the last because we let God choose instead of our shallow expectations, prerogatives and our preferences. We let our faith be defined by God’s work and God’s guidance. We let God do for us and for all.
That is fair. That is God. Receive that grace.
Gott sei Dank, Amen.
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