Pentecost 16 – 2020
Matthew 20:1-16
Marian Free
In the name of God who sees us for who we are, not for who we are not. Amen.
There is a video that does the round of FACEBOOK from time to time. In it a group of Christian school leavers are lined up as if for a race. They are told that the winner will receive $100 – but this is no ordinary race. The organiser begins not with a starter’s gun, but with instructions: “I am going to make a couple of statements. If those statements apply to you, take two steps forward.” He begins: “take two steps forward if you grew up in a stable household, take two steps forward if you had access to a private education, take two steps forward if you never had to help mum and dad with the bills, take two steps forward if you never wondered where your next meal was coming from[1].” As the ‘race’ continues those who are taking the lead become increasingly uncomfortable as they leave the others behind. At the end of the instructions, some are near the finish line, but there are still a few who have not even left the starting blocks. When he has finished with the instructions, the organiser reminds the students who are in the lead: “Every statement I’ve made has nothing to do with what you have done or decisions that you have made. The reality is that despite that you have been given a head start and its only because of that head start that you are going to win this race called life.”
While video is simplistic and just a little preachy the “race” is something of an enacted parable. It dramatises the fact that some of us have advantages that give us a head start with regard to education and therefore to employment and to a career. The “race” serves as a reminder that there are many in our community who never get to leave the blocks in the race of life – children who can’t concentrate at school because they are always hungry, who can’t complete their homework because they do not have a stable home, or because they cannot afford school books. It helps us to recognize that there are adults who have never been able to overcome the abuse or neglect that they suffered in their childhoods or who have physical or mental disabilities that limit what they can and can’t do: that there are men and women who cannot work because they have been severely injured in an accident or who are suffering from a terminal disease. At present, we are being forcibly reminded that forces not of our own making can leave people without work or with reduced hours at work. The global pandemic has meant that even those who thought that they were secure, that they were easily employable and that they could always pay their bills are now in danger (through no fault of their own) of falling behind.
Today’s parable is problematic for many of us. It offends our sense of justice. We see only the surface of the story and bristle with indignation at the unfairness of it all – what possesses the landowner to pay everyone equally? The latecomers – the lazy, good-for-nothing lay abouts – do not deserve a handout.
The video of the race, however simplistic, gives us a different way of looking at the parable. Hopefully it helps us to be more sympathetic to the late comers – there might after all be reasons for their still being in the marketplace at the end of the day.
Today’s gospel is a parable, not a story or a piece of history – there is no vineyard and no marketplace. It is intended to challenge or confront our established modes of thinking about God.
A little background is useful. Palestine in the time of Jesus was occupied by Rome. Large parcels of land had been given to Roman soldiers as a reward for their service. The effect of this was to push farmers off the land. People who had previously scraped a living from the soil were now forced to earn a pittance as day-labourers. This entailed going to the square in the morning and hoping that someone would employ them. Employers had their pick. One imagines that they would pick the fittest first. Why pay for someone who would not work as quickly and as productively as another?
Parables are notoriously short on detail, so we tend to add our own. It is unlikely that a landowner would return again and again to the marketplace – he would have known how many people he required. Maybe rain was imminent, or the original workers were not as efficient as the landowner had hoped. Whatever the case, when the landowner returned to the marketplace, he found those whom others had not employed – those who would contribute little to the harvest, those who clearly had less to offer an employer. Regardless, they have not gone home. They have not given up. The workers who are still there at the end of the day are not lazy. They are still there – waiting, waiting and hoping that they might get at least one hours work and have some small amount of pay to take home to their families.
In the end the detail does not matter. The parable is not about who gets paid what or who works the longest. The point is that God does not distinguish or discriminate. God doesn’t measure us up one against another or dole out God’s love according to merit. God loves us equally – whether we deserve it or not.
It is not, and never will be a competition – you can pray more than me, you can fast more than me, you can come to church more than me, you can do more good works than me, you can be more humble than me – and all that is good. But I am confident that no matter how far short I fall; how imperfect I am or how faltering my spiritual journey – God will not love you more and me less. At the end of the day I know that God loves you and I can be confident that God loves me.
[1] For the video and a commentary see – https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/as-a-video-about-white-privilege-goes-viral-again-experts-caution-it-could-actually-cause-more-damage-170528763.html
I’ve adapted it somewhat as it is a little superficial and very American.
Swallowsrest 