Thread by @dianabutlerbass

Good #SundayMorning! Time for a little tweet sermon for #Lent2. Today's passage is Matt 20:1-16, as assigned by the Narrative Lectionary. (Not the Revised Common Lectionary)

This is a great & upsetting story. It is one of Jesus' parables. In the story, a landowner hires workers. Some work a full day, some work 3 hrs less, some 6 hrs less, some 9 hrs less -- and the last workers to be hired work only 1 hour.

Yet the landowner pays them all the same.

The first workers get upset: "What? They worked only an hour and you have made them equal to us?"

That's not right!!!

And then the landowner -- who is "God" in the parable -- defends what has happened. "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Are you envious because I am generous?"

At face value, it does seem that God is unfair. A bad boss. But let's look at this more closely.

This is a parable about the economics of the Empire. The parable begins with a landowner hiring some day workers.

Interesting. There were no "day workers" (like guys in the Home Depot parking lot) in the OT. The class of landless laborers had been created by the Roman economy.

These workers constituted a new imperial class. Some were freed slaves, some were peasants whose lands had been seized by Rome, others victims of war, etc. They generally were immigrants and refugees doing piece work.

They were victims of Roman expansion and social structures. Generally, they were paid by "piece" -- how much wheat you picked, how many stones you cut.

So, the landowner goes out to hire some workers for his vineyard.

WAIT! What kind of landowner is this? Where are his slaves? Why is he hiring anyone?

Then, it says that he bargains with the workers for a wage.

OK. So this is a non-slaveholding landowner who engages in collective bargaining.

The landowner agrees to a decent wage -- a denarius. That would buy a laborer about three days worth of food for his family. (That was the same wage paid to Roman soldiers.)

If you are one of the workers, you probably think you've hit the jackpot! Not only is this owner hiring you, but you had some power in the situation, and you are getting a good day's pay. AND NO PIECE WORK! Woo hoo!

You go to the vineyard and are feeling good about this.

Maybe even grateful!

Then, 3 hrs later, more workers show up; 3 hrs later, the same; and again. Then, one hour before quitting time a new group arrives.

And when wages are distributed, EVERYBODY receives a denarius!

While the last workers are super happy, the FIRST workers go from grateful to grumbling. That's when they get angry that the landowner treats all equally. And the landowner defends his generosity.

There are lots of dimensions of this. But one of the reason the first laborers gets upset is that they have actually been colonized by imperial economics -- despite the fact that they are its victims.

For the story rests in an implicit contrast: Imperial economics versus God's economics.

Imperial economics is bases on scarcity, control, hierarchy and power. It is about a form of "fairness" based on entitlement, transactions, and quid pro quo.

*based

God's economy is one of abundance, openness, and freedom, based in gifts, generosity, and gratitude.

The landowner isn't just hiring these workers for a day. He's inviting them into a new life, an "economy" of generosity. This alternative economy undermines false notions of entitlement, limits, and "fairness." And it creates a community where all have dignity, where all are fed.

When we come face-to-face with God's generosity, with an alternate vision of worth and real justice, it is a bit terrifying.

We don't believe it. It can't be real.

We must game the system. We expect the quid pro quo.

We're suspicious -- even angry -- when something else happens. Stunned, perhaps.

And, of course, we have two stories of the bad ends of Imperial economy in the news this week. One, where entitled people game the college admissions system to amass more entitlement for their own families.

And the other story is of a man who believed he was entitled to a land because of his race -- and he kills 50 people he believes infringes on that entitlement.

Imperial economics always ends with injustice and violence.

And even its victims sometimes don't see that.

That's part of its power. Even when we hate it, we often wind up have been possessed by its twisted norms. The very things we hate.

Yet, there is a different way.

God freely gifts the world. The whole world. Grace. Free gifts. Life itself. Love, compassion, daily bread. Free. Gifts.

None are entitled. WE ARE ALL RECIPIENTS OF THE GIFT.

Sit in silence with that today.

What does it mean that we are all recipients? Every last one of us did nothing to deserve these gifts. Entitlement is a lie.

How should we then act?

Not by grumbling. Not by pressing our advantage. Not by picking up instruments of violence.

But by welcoming all to the vineyard, where there is dignity extended to all, and where all are fed.