God is SO not fair!



I rarely manage to come up with sermon titles, but as I’ve been chewing on this text - another one of Jesus’ parables that display the kingdom of heaven - the working title has been, “God’s is SO not fair.”

We’ve all heard this exchange before. Most of us have been a part of it, on one side or the other. It usually involves a young person - most often it’s a teenager - and an older, wiser person in authority... a parent, a teacher, someone like that.

After the older person gives the younger person a boundary or limitation, the younger person responds, “But, it’s not fair!” And the older person responds with: “Life’s not fair.”

The so-called pursuit of fairness started early in my life, whenever something needed to be divided between my brother and I. If whatever was being divided wasn’t perfectly equal, the onslaught of whining would commence. I’d like to say that we were champions of justice, but the truth is, we were really motivated by the simple moral: “If I can’t get more than him, I’m sure as heck not gonna let him get more than me.”

I can only imagine how much the relentless pursuit of fairness aggravated my mother. Until she came up with the ingenious, “one split, the other pick” strategy. Talk about an internal motivation to make sure things were equal! Not only that, but we were forced to master a whole new level of precision when it came to dividing things. For those fleeting moments, at least, my brother and I were able to negotiate a measure of fairness in a world that is - by most accounts, pretty unfair.

All around us, we see examples of people given so much more than they deserve. They have so much. Life seems so easy for them. On the flip side, we know folks who seems to carry much more than their fair share of struggles... of suffering. Maybe we can relate to that ourselves.

Recently, I was visiting someone who had realized that they were done with the struggle. They had been fighting terminal illness valiantly for several years, and they were exhausted. They had so much more living they wanted to do, but they realized it was not to be. While previous visits had been about coping strategies - about staying strong and staying positive - the conversation shifted this time... to reflections on their life, gratitudes, regrets, funeral plans.

They let out a sigh, “It’s just not fair.” Life - and death - isn’t fair.

The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

He would have gone down to the market area where the day-laborers would gather, hoping to be hired for work. These gathering places can be found - even today - in large cities or other places where there is a large migrant population.. Folks who need work done in their yard or on their house know where to go... maybe it’s a particular corner or maybe it’s a hardware store parking lot.

In fact, the church that Gretchen used to pastor in Tucson is a gathering site for day-laborers. Every morning, men - locals, Mexicans, and from parts even further South - gather in hopes of finding work. They are desperate for a good day’s work and willing to negotiate a good price.

When one approaches the group, there is a jostling and a collective rush forward.. “Over here, sir!” “Good rate.” It makes me think of the inevitable swarm of interest whenever I wanted to hire a cab in India. There was often bickering, and it always made me uncomfortable. I’m told it’s not much different trying to get a cab from the train station in Beacon.

It’s always the same when people - desperate for money - struggle for a chance to feed their families.

I can imagine the commotion as the man from our parable selected his workers for the vineyard. When the dust settled, there would have been men selected for a good day’s work - and a good day’s pay. They were the lucky ones.

And, there would be those left in the dust. With nothing. They would have been forced to stay there in the marketplace, idle. Waiting for something - anything - to come along that would enable them to feed their families.

Later that morning, the landowner comes back. The grapes were ripe and it must have been a good growing season. Because, he needed more workers. Yet again, the workers would have shouted out, in hopes of being hired. “I’m a good worker, sir.” “Pick me.” Some would have been chosen. The others left behind to worry and wonder and wait.

The harvest must have been a bounty beyond his expectations because, even at noon, after a half a day’s work, he needed more workers. Again, the desperate jostling in hopes of getting chosen for work. Again, some were chosen and some were left in the dust. Nothing to do but hang out in the marketplace.

Finally, the landowner returns one, last time in the late afternoon. It was worth it for him to come back one, last time for more workers to make sure the entire bounty was harvested.

We know what happens at payday. I doubt that any of us would have responded any differently than those workers who would have been working in the heat all day.

But, let’s remember. Every single person lined up to receive their pay from the landowner started the day with nothing. Not only that, they had no contract, no guarantee that there would be work for them. They simply showed up in the marketplace hoping to find work.

And, they found it. They had worked, and they had been paid. Their families would be fed that night... whether they worked a full day or not. What mattered is that they had been given an opportunity to work, and they had been given a fair wage for their work... every single one of them.

What is it about we humans that makes us as uncomfortable with this parable as it’s first hearers? How is it that we expect some sort of proportional justice in our holy scriptures? Maybe it’s because we are so used to the lack of fairness in life, that we’d like to think that, at least in our holy books, there might be some justice.

Think about your average office building down in the City. During the regular work day, people come to work and leave at generally the same time. They all - more or less - do a full day of work. And, yet, we are so accustomed the the vast difference in wages between a receptionist on the first floor and the CEO on the top floor. Really, not fair at all. That’s just the way the world works.

But, the good news is that, in the kindgom of heaven, it doesn’t work this way. The scandal of the kingdom of heaven is that all are given a chance to work and rewarded justly... with just enough.

Remember those Hebrews wandering in the wilderness from our first scripture reading for today. They had been freed from the Egyptians by the wondrous power of God, who had heard their cries in slavery. And, yet, at least in slavery, they could be assured enough to eat. How different now, to be truly free... without the slave-owners to rely on for their daily bread.

God hears their complaints. But, instead of punishing their lack of gratitude, God sends them exactly what they need. Quail are sent in the evening, and manna - that soft, flaky bread of God - is found on the ground after the morning dew evaporates.

They were instructed to take as much as they needed for one day and no more. In fact, if they took more and tried to store it, it would become putrid and rot.

The only exception to this phenomenon was the Sabbath. The day before the Sabbath, they were instructed to harvest an extra day’s worth so that they would have exactly what they needed on the Sabbath day. It would not rot, but last them through the day of rest. Even on the day of rest, God provides what is needed. Only take what you need... enough for one day. There will be more tomorrow.

We have a world where we are all enticed to be rich and we honestly struggle to know the difference between wants and needs. The income of the super-rich continues to grow, while increasing numbers of folks sit idly in the marketplace. More and more people struggle to make ends meet, and this church has not been spared the struggle of these times... individually and corporately.

And so Jesus’ parable is good news for us. We are reminded of a God who is generous... not necessarily in showering us with wealth and comforts. Not necessarily even giving us a little to store for a rainy day.

We are simply given a chance - all of us - to get exactly what we need for the day. And we are given the strength and opportunity to wake up the next morning and embrace the exercize in trust again tomorrow.

In Give us this day our daily bread, we pray together... along with the saints throughout the ages who have prayed this prayer.

In an unfair world... in a world of obscene wealth and obscene poverty, may we dare to believe the scandal of our generous God. And, may we trust God to give us just what we need today... and tomorrow... whether we struggle to feed our families or we struggle to make the difficult journey home. May it be so.