That's not fair!

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time September 24, 2023

Is 55:6-9 Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18 Phil 1:20c-24, 27a Cf. Acts 16:14b Mt 20:1-16a

That’s not fair! How come he gets a larger piece of cake? How come she gets the corner piece with all the frosting? How come she gets to stay up later than me?

At one point in time in our lives we have either said or thought these similar comments, or possibly even heard them from our own children. Our concept of what is fair or just is often very immature. It centers around what we think is fair for us, that we should have the same or better than someone else. And it’s not just children who may think and react this way, but we too as adults still have this one-sided view of fairness.

For example, I’ve worked for the same company for nearly 33 years and have been promoted over the years until I reached my current grade and pay. However, on any given day, my boss could hire a new employee, who is younger than me who has recently graduated from college, into the same grade and pay scale. Is that fair? I’ve been working for this company for many years, why does the new employee get to receive the same salary and compensation I do?

Sound familiar? Kind of like what the parable in our Gospel is about. What we think is fair and just does not always align with what is fair and just in the eyes of God. As we hear from Isaiah in our first reading, our ways and thoughts are not like the Lord’s, for his ways and thoughts are far above our ways and thoughts; as high as the heavens are above the earth.

So, what is the backdrop to Jesus’ parable? Who is he speaking to, and what is he saying to them? First, the landowner is God, and the vineyard is the kingdom. The workers hired at dawn are the Israelites, to whom he first offered his covenant. Those hired later in the day are the Gentiles, who, until the coming of Christ, were strangers to the covenants of promise. In the New Covenant, established by Christ, the same blessings will be bestowed not just to the Israelites, but to all nations. This is the great generosity of God, to bestow his mercy and forgiveness to all, and to welcome all his children into his heavenly kingdom, no matter how late in life they turn away from their life of sin.

Which is the message that Saint Paul proclaims in his letter to the Ephesians.

Therefore, remember that at one time you, Gentiles in the flesh, … were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ. [Eph 2:11a, 12-13]

And so all of us, Jews, and Gentiles alike, partake in the New Covenant, and are sharers of its promises.

Now for me, this parable also calls to mind three other scripture passage. The first is the that of the Prodigal Son. Like the landowner who went out at dawn, then again at noon, at 3pm and finally at 5pm, the father too goes out over and over again looking for his lost son to return, and when he does, puts the finest robe around him, a ring on his finger, and has a feast to celebrate his return. And like the first workers of the vineyard, the older brother complains to his father: “All these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fatted calf.” In other words, “that’s not fair!” In response the father reminds him that he is here with him always and that now is a time to celebrate and rejoice. In other words, he has always had the father’s love and that he has never been without. How often do we forget this? What more do we need?

And as we look at today’s parable, the early workers agreed to what was the usual daily wage. A wage that would be enough to feed and care for themselves and for their families. But to the other workers, the commitment was to what is just. Would half a day’s wage be enough; would one hour’s wage be enough to meet one’s own needs and to care for one’s own family? Sadly, this is a struggle that still exists today, with many living and struggling in poverty, living paycheck to paycheck, often making minimum wage, being underemployed or unemployed. And while this reading can be used to speak about the awareness social justice and social equality, that everyone should receive what is just, that is not the main point.

So, what is it? Well, that’s where the second Scripture passage comes to mind, that of the Good Samaritan. Both the Priest and the Levite came upon the same individual that was robbed and beaten but passed by him on the other side of the road. One would think that a Priest and a Levite would set the example of being a good neighbor to the one in need, but instead, they were more concerned about remaining spiritually clean so as to continue the work they believed fitting their role. And so, it was a Samaritan, an outsider who does what the Priest and Levite should have done. Which is, the work of the Kingdom.

And just what might be this work of the Kingdom? Well, that’s where I’m reminded of the third Scripture passage about the Shepherd who separates the Sheep and the Goats. And when asked, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs.” The Lord answers, “Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these ones, you did not do for me!”

This is the work to be done in the Lord’s vineyard. The harvesting of and the caring of souls, what we commonly refer to as the Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy. And the daily wage, the just wage for our labor, regardless of when we join the labor force, is the covenants promise. A promise made possible because Christ himself took on flesh and bore upon himself our sins that we might be forgiven. It’s not fair that Christ alone should bare all our guilt, yet it was truly right and just so that we might inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let us therefore be like Saint Paul in our second reading today. Let us conduct ourselves worthily, struggling and working in the vineyard to bring all men and women to the praise of His name. And let us remember that which we heard in the Collect, our opening prayer, as we prayed. “O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbor, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life.

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