A Different Look at the Laborers in the Vineyard

 I'm reading the book Short Stories by Jesus, written by Amy-Jill Levine.  I just finished the chapter called Laborers in the Vineyard, based on Matthew 20:1-16.  To briefly summarize the parable, a householder hires workers beginning at dawn, for a reasonable wage, and then continually, every three hours, throughout the day, until the last group is hired and works for only an hour.  They are all paid the reasonable wage of one denarius.  Those who worked all day complain about the fairness of the pay - they worked longer; they should be paid more.

Levine make a (good) case for the parable not to be a statement of God rewarding everyone the same - those who have been believers for a long time (or those who were Jewish followers) and those who came to believe just lately.  Instead, she asks that we look at the parable differently.  What if the parable is really about how the rich - those who have the means - should treat those who have need.  The householder goes and looks for those who need to work, employees them, and pays them a reasonable wage.  Everyone has the funds to support themselves.  Those hired first receive what can be expected for their work - they complain because the householder is generous. 

What if this is what the kingdom is like?  What if the kingdom of God is a place where those who are able, who have the means, provide for those who don't have the means?  What if the work of some of us supports all of us?  Levine says, "[Jesus's] focus is often less directly on "good news to the poor' than on "responsibility of the rich."  Can the workers be content with what is right rather than what they perceive to be fair?

What if the message of this parable is for us to learn "what it  means to act as God acts, with generosity to all."?  What would that generosity look like?  It would be counter to our entire society.  The goal of the householder (or the business owner) would not be to keep as much as possible and pay as little as he can get away with.  The reaction of the workers would not be to analyze what would be fair and complain about the good fortune of others, but to join the householder in generosity, grateful that everyone has enough money to live.  

Matthew 13: Conclusions

This is the fourth in a series of posts to examine three parables from Matthew 13. Much of the material in these posts is based on the International Bible Series lesson I used to teach Sunday school at Annual Conference.

So, if we take these three parables together as glimpse of what God’s kingdom is like, we might get a better picture:

•  God’s kingdom is now and in the future. In the now, there are challenges, but we can trust it all to work out in God’s time.
•  We don’t always know how God works, but we don’t have to understand it in order to believe it – to expect miracles – to point them out to others, and to have enough faith to have and bring hope.
•  We can be the yeast that changes the world

Matthew 13: Parable of the Yeast

This is the third in a series of posts to examine three parables from Matthew 13. Much of the material in these posts is based on the International Bible Series lesson I used to teach Sunday school at Annual Conference.

Matthew 13:33

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

What does this parable say to you?

Have you ever baked bread? A few years ago, I taught myself how to bake bread with yeast. If you’ve never done that, it’s kind of an amazing process. You start out with lots of flour – and lots of other ingredients – and this little packet of grainy powder. Powder that looks like it would do nothing for the recipe. And yet, it’s the power behind the whole bread baking process. Without it, I would have an ugly pita. With it – beautiful, gorgeous bread.

It’s then smallest ingredient in the recipe. But it’s life. Alive. And it brings life.

I remember a song we sang when I was in youth group – It only takes a spark to get a fire going – that’s how it is with God’s love.

I teach stewardship classes sometimes. One of the curriculum I use talks about how a movement can start. One person, alone, might not be able to do it. But if he can attract one other, then together – just the two of them – can start something new. It’s like that in church, isn’t it. It doesn’t take a whole lot of people to make a change – With God and with a faithful few, we can change the world.

How can you be the yeast? What friend can you recruit to help you start a movement of hope?

Matthew 13: Parable of the Mustard Seed

This is the second in a series of posts to examine three parables from Matthew 13. Much of the material in these posts is based on the International Bible Series lesson I used to teach Sunday school at Annual Conference.

Matthew 13: 31-32

³¹ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³² it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Question: What does this parable say to you?

Think about a tiny tiny seed that grows into a 20 foot plant. It is a parable about dynamic growth. Do we understand how that happens? Could this be a call to us to recognize that God is at work in ways we cannot understand? Does it speak to us about letting go of control in God’s kingdom?

God begins the kingdom of heaven in what seems like a tiny manner, but it ends with something extraordinary.

Question: Have you seen something in your life or in the life of your church that began with something small and grew into something unexpected, extraordinary, God-at-work?

Another way to look at this parable is stated in the student book:

...it may appear that the presence of God's kingdom is almost microscopic, and the world's injustice and cruelty may appear to overwhelm, it only takes a small start for God's kingdom to begin to grow and to produce wildly more than expected. It's not the size, it is the creation and the will of God that brings such things into being....Do we ...look carefully at what is before us that is of God? 

How will you bring hope to your congregations. Sometimes this is difficult, but in the light of this parable, how do you encourage hope and faith in a world where it is hard to do that?

Matthew 13: Wheat and Weeds

This is the first in a series of posts to examine three parables from Matthews 13. Much of the material in these posts is based on the International Bible Series lesson I used to teach Sunday school at Annual Conference.

Matthew 13: 24-30

²⁴ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. ²⁶ So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. ²⁷ And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ ²⁸ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰ Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Wheat and Weeds – This is sometimes referred to as the parable of the wheat and tares. A tare is a destructive weed that looks similar to wheat in its early development. Those listening at the time would have understood that they would had trouble discerning the weeds from the wheat because of that.

What are your thoughts about this parable?

It is often preached or taught in a way that leads to three conclusions:

• The preacher and hearer self-identify with the wheat.
• It provides the faithful with permission to judge not only the identity and source of the weeds, but also their ultimate and certain doom.
• It provides counsel to be patient with the self-satisfied certainty that we will be saved and THEY will be burned.

What are your thoughts about that interpretation?

The author of the teacher’s book suggests that we might use the parable as a comparison to church (not as it was originally written, but in a way that we might apply it today). There are those in the church who follow Micah’s instructions – to justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God. And there are those who deliberately harm others – gossip, backbiting, competition, anger or selfish and hurtful behavior. And there are those who are apathetic, and do nothing. And yet we live together.

Questions:

• Are we always the wheat or always the weed? If this is seen as an illustration of a church, then can people change?
• Can we always tell the difference? Are we ever wrong?
• God’s time is the best time – God will sort it out in the end. We believe this to be the case, then what might that mean? Is there an opportunity for God to make changes among us? How does that happen? What is our role?
• If this is calling for patient endurance, then how do we believers wait with patient endurance? What does that look like? What are some examples of endurance and tolerance in the church and in the wider world? (calls for patience with God’s people – how hard is that?)

One of the commentaries I read said this is not a parable about the origin of evil, but is instead one of ethics. We can look at this parable as a reflection of the world as it is. There is good and there is that which seeks to stop what is good. In other words, pure intentions always have to contend with unpure. So the ethical question is what do we do in the face of evil?

Questions: Do we do nothing?  If doing nothing is not the answer, then:

• How do we discern what to do? How can we take action – be the light of Christ in the world – while mercifully withholding judgment?
• Since we cannot always predict the consequences of our actions, how do we avoid unintended consequences?

For example, when the flooding happened in 2016, there were people who wanted to send clothes to the relief effort. These people had lost everything, and surely they needed my extra clothes. But when you spoke to relief workers, clothes were the last things that were needed. They were a burden - and that was certainly an unintended consequence of good work.

One of the ways we can demonstrate the love of Christ is by listening. Listen to those who are in mission work, and then supply what they ask for. Listen to those we are serving, and then serve in the way they need.

Finding Life

In Sunday school last week, we talked about the parable of Lazarus - not the story of the brother who Jesus brought back to life, but the other Lazarus story.  This is the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31.

Have you ever noticed that when the rich man has died, he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to him to bring him water, or to return and warn his brothers, that he still sees Lazarus as a servant - he's still asking Lazarus to serve him.  Nothing has really changed in the rich man's attitude, even after death.

The rich man lived his life in a way that didn't lead to life - it didn't lead to life, even when he was alive.  

How do we learn from that? How do we live a life that is alive, and not dead? How do we open ourselves up to eternal life NOW - if the kingdom is here and now, then so is life.  

Perhaps it begins by seeing the mistake that the rich man made.  He did see - in life or in death - Lazarus as a person.  Perhaps it begins by seeing the person in front of us as a person - not as a non-person.  And then bringing life to that person in front of us through service.  Life to that person, and life to ourselves.

Grace Greater

Think about the prodigal son.  Think about his conversation with himself as he contemplates returning home.  This is from Matthew 15, verses 17-19:

But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and  to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!  I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him,  “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;  I am no longer worthy to be called your son;  treat me like one of your hired hands.”

Nouwen, in his book, writes that the son comes back, not claiming the dignity of the son, but hoping to be accepted as a servant.  As we look at the story, knowing how the son left, then we might say that he doesn't even deserve that much consideration. And yet the son dares to hope that he might receive at least the role of a servant in his father's home.

The son plans his return by practicing his speech. He has no expectation of grace. And we do that.  Nouwen writes:

"...I still live as though the God to whom I am returning demands an explanation. I still think about his love as conditional and about home as a place I am not yet fully sure of.  While walking home, I keep entertaining doubts about whether I will be truly welcome when I get there.  

We never (or rarely) accept that grace is always -- always -- greater.