"Unfair Wages"
9-21-14 (Proper 20, Ordinary 25 A Semi-Continuous)
Exodus 16:2-15; Matthew 20:1-16
Unfair Wages
“It just isn’t fair!”
Fill in the blank after that point - older brother gets to stay up later than his younger siblings, the classmate whose parents bought him or her a car when they turned 16, but your own parents are making you borrow the station wagon when you want to go out with your friends, the co-worker who gets “employee of the month” because they kissed up to the boss while you did the extra work and they slacked off.
We’ve all felt that sense of imbalance, of things just not being fair. Sometimes, it’s all we can do to not lose our tempers and scream at the injustices we perceive in our lives. Something deep within our very essences knows that things ought to be fair, that there’s a balance that needs to be kept, that there’s a way things ought to be… and when that balance is off, it puts us out of balance with it.
The two passages we’ve heard this morning really highlight that perception of injustice and unfairness, but they also put it into a different perspective for us as we take a step back and look at what each group is experiencing and complaining about.
In our first reading, we hear the Israelites engaging in one of their favorite pastimes during the Exodus: they’re grumbling and complaining. As we come upon this group of malcontents, the complaint is straightforward enough. Sure - Moses and Aaron led them out of Egypt and they escaped from all those nasty plagues and the whole “death of the firstborn” issue… but now here they were in the desert, and the people are starting to wonder… for what? What was the purpose of leading them all out of there if they were just going to die now in the desert from lack of food and water? They’d left in such a rush, Moses hadn’t even given them time to pack properly, to ensure that they’d brought enough food and water for themselves for a long trip… they hadn’t even had time to bake proper bread before they were being rushed out of their homes and led out into the wilderness. And so here they were, still making their way through the desert and they were hungry and thirsty with nothing to sustain them.
They weren’t griping over who got to march at the head of the column. They weren’t being the quintessential “kids in the back seat” asking Moses “are we there yet?” They were voicing what they perceived as a genuine concern and expressing their own fears and resentment to Moses and Aaron. “It would have been better to have been killed by God in Egypt and have full bellies than to be killed out here in the desert by starving to death! It’s not fair!”
“It’s not fair!” cry the workers in the vineyard, hot and sweaty after a full day’s labor, as they come to the paymaster for their wages and see that the people who only worked for a few hours got paid a full day’s wage, as well. And to be honest, it’s not hard to see their point of view. Even in our own society today, we can understand why the people who’d worked all day might have been upset - after all, they’d worked the full day and expected to be paid that day’s wages. They weren’t asking to be paid more for what they’d done than what they’d already agreed upon… but at the same time, it seemed incredibly unfair that the people who worked fewer hours got paid just as much as the ones who’d put in an honest day’s work. The ones who’d worked all day were simply upset that their work was put on an equal level as the work of the ones who’d come in at the end of the day.
It’s only when the owner of the vineyard confronts the complaining workers that things really get put into a different perspective for us - the owner chastises them. He rightly explains that he’s done them no wrong - he paid them exactly as they had both agreed they should be paid; what they both saw at the time as “being paid whatever is right.” And so he puts the question to them: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
The answer to both of those questions is “yes.” And in that answer, perhaps we can find a change for our own perspective, as well. The fact is… at least in some ways, the owner of the vineyard wasn’t “fair.” But the owner was just. And there’s an incredible difference in the two words once we look at what, exactly, it was that the owner does do in this parable. When the owner goes out at five o’clock to hire the final group of workers, he’s not hiring people who suddenly showed up after all the work was done and were looking for some kind of handout… he asks the workers why they’ve been “standing idle” all day and their answer is simply “Because no one has hired us.” These are people who have been waiting all day for someone to pick them up and put them to work, and who for one reason or another have all been looked over as others were hired instead. They’re people who may have had families of their own that they were hoping to support, who were relying on whatever employment that they could obtain in order to provide their families with their daily bread, and who at five o’clock as the day was coming to an end, were pretty sure that they’d go home with empty pockets and spend another night hungry. But when this vineyard owner came and hired them, and then paid them a full day’s wages. Was it fair? No. But from the perspective of the owner of the vineyard, who saw the situations of all of the workers he chose to hire, his decision was just.
And it’s this same difference in perspective that we see in Exodus as we take a step back and remove ourselves from the sandals of the Israelites. From the Israelites perspective, they were hot, hungry, and thirsty. They saw nothing but desert ahead of them and empty water-skins at their sides. But from God’s perspective, there was a different story that the people of Israel needed to hear time and time again. The theme that runs through so much of Exodus is one of God’s response to the call of God’s people - over and over again, the Israelites call out to God, and God answers their cry. The Israelites cried out in anguish over their slavery, and God sent them Moses to deliver them. They cried out as they faced the Red Sea with the Egyptian army on their heels, and God parted the waves to lead them across over dry land as the army behind them was swallowed up. And then, when they left the Red Sea and came to Marah with its bitter water, they cried out again and God once more answered their cries, making the water drinkable. And then he led them to a place where they could camp under seventy palm trees and drink from twelve different springs for a time. But now, as they felt their stomachs tighten and rumble for lack of food… it was no longer a matter of “what has God done for us” but “what has God done for us lately?” And yet… and yet… God still answered their call. God gave them manna and quail to fill their stomachs every day for forty years as they wandered the wilderness.
It wasn’t fair. God could have told the Israelites to fend for themselves. God could have ignored their cries. If they weren't willing to listen to what God had to tell them, if they couldn’t trust God to do what God had promised, then it would only have been fair for God to let them go their own way and find another people to call and bless. The owner of the vineyard could have looked at the workers who hadn’t been hired yet and realized that there was probably a good reason that none of them had been hired earlier in the day - it’s no wonder the other laborers were upset that they were being held at an equal level as those people.
But that’s when perhaps we should take a second and realize… God’s not fair. And you know what? That’s a good thing. God’s not fair - and that’s the very thing that allows you, me, and everyone in this crazy, unfair, mixed up world any chance at all. Because each and every one of us are the recipients of wages we didn’t earn - and that we can never earn. Each and every one of us have been given a gift of grace through Jesus Christ that is unfair for us to receive. And yet God has given it to us freely, without hesitation, because it is God’s to give to each of us so generously. It’s not fair that God becomes flesh and lives in our midst, and we thank God by nailing God to a cross instead. God’s not fair… but God is just. And God loves us enough to give us God’s own son, God’s own self, so that we might be made right through God. Thank goodness God’s not fair. To God be the Glory. Amen.
Exodus 16:2-15; Matthew 20:1-16
Unfair Wages
“It just isn’t fair!”
Fill in the blank after that point - older brother gets to stay up later than his younger siblings, the classmate whose parents bought him or her a car when they turned 16, but your own parents are making you borrow the station wagon when you want to go out with your friends, the co-worker who gets “employee of the month” because they kissed up to the boss while you did the extra work and they slacked off.
We’ve all felt that sense of imbalance, of things just not being fair. Sometimes, it’s all we can do to not lose our tempers and scream at the injustices we perceive in our lives. Something deep within our very essences knows that things ought to be fair, that there’s a balance that needs to be kept, that there’s a way things ought to be… and when that balance is off, it puts us out of balance with it.
The two passages we’ve heard this morning really highlight that perception of injustice and unfairness, but they also put it into a different perspective for us as we take a step back and look at what each group is experiencing and complaining about.
In our first reading, we hear the Israelites engaging in one of their favorite pastimes during the Exodus: they’re grumbling and complaining. As we come upon this group of malcontents, the complaint is straightforward enough. Sure - Moses and Aaron led them out of Egypt and they escaped from all those nasty plagues and the whole “death of the firstborn” issue… but now here they were in the desert, and the people are starting to wonder… for what? What was the purpose of leading them all out of there if they were just going to die now in the desert from lack of food and water? They’d left in such a rush, Moses hadn’t even given them time to pack properly, to ensure that they’d brought enough food and water for themselves for a long trip… they hadn’t even had time to bake proper bread before they were being rushed out of their homes and led out into the wilderness. And so here they were, still making their way through the desert and they were hungry and thirsty with nothing to sustain them.
They weren’t griping over who got to march at the head of the column. They weren’t being the quintessential “kids in the back seat” asking Moses “are we there yet?” They were voicing what they perceived as a genuine concern and expressing their own fears and resentment to Moses and Aaron. “It would have been better to have been killed by God in Egypt and have full bellies than to be killed out here in the desert by starving to death! It’s not fair!”
“It’s not fair!” cry the workers in the vineyard, hot and sweaty after a full day’s labor, as they come to the paymaster for their wages and see that the people who only worked for a few hours got paid a full day’s wage, as well. And to be honest, it’s not hard to see their point of view. Even in our own society today, we can understand why the people who’d worked all day might have been upset - after all, they’d worked the full day and expected to be paid that day’s wages. They weren’t asking to be paid more for what they’d done than what they’d already agreed upon… but at the same time, it seemed incredibly unfair that the people who worked fewer hours got paid just as much as the ones who’d put in an honest day’s work. The ones who’d worked all day were simply upset that their work was put on an equal level as the work of the ones who’d come in at the end of the day.
It’s only when the owner of the vineyard confronts the complaining workers that things really get put into a different perspective for us - the owner chastises them. He rightly explains that he’s done them no wrong - he paid them exactly as they had both agreed they should be paid; what they both saw at the time as “being paid whatever is right.” And so he puts the question to them: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
The answer to both of those questions is “yes.” And in that answer, perhaps we can find a change for our own perspective, as well. The fact is… at least in some ways, the owner of the vineyard wasn’t “fair.” But the owner was just. And there’s an incredible difference in the two words once we look at what, exactly, it was that the owner does do in this parable. When the owner goes out at five o’clock to hire the final group of workers, he’s not hiring people who suddenly showed up after all the work was done and were looking for some kind of handout… he asks the workers why they’ve been “standing idle” all day and their answer is simply “Because no one has hired us.” These are people who have been waiting all day for someone to pick them up and put them to work, and who for one reason or another have all been looked over as others were hired instead. They’re people who may have had families of their own that they were hoping to support, who were relying on whatever employment that they could obtain in order to provide their families with their daily bread, and who at five o’clock as the day was coming to an end, were pretty sure that they’d go home with empty pockets and spend another night hungry. But when this vineyard owner came and hired them, and then paid them a full day’s wages. Was it fair? No. But from the perspective of the owner of the vineyard, who saw the situations of all of the workers he chose to hire, his decision was just.
And it’s this same difference in perspective that we see in Exodus as we take a step back and remove ourselves from the sandals of the Israelites. From the Israelites perspective, they were hot, hungry, and thirsty. They saw nothing but desert ahead of them and empty water-skins at their sides. But from God’s perspective, there was a different story that the people of Israel needed to hear time and time again. The theme that runs through so much of Exodus is one of God’s response to the call of God’s people - over and over again, the Israelites call out to God, and God answers their cry. The Israelites cried out in anguish over their slavery, and God sent them Moses to deliver them. They cried out as they faced the Red Sea with the Egyptian army on their heels, and God parted the waves to lead them across over dry land as the army behind them was swallowed up. And then, when they left the Red Sea and came to Marah with its bitter water, they cried out again and God once more answered their cries, making the water drinkable. And then he led them to a place where they could camp under seventy palm trees and drink from twelve different springs for a time. But now, as they felt their stomachs tighten and rumble for lack of food… it was no longer a matter of “what has God done for us” but “what has God done for us lately?” And yet… and yet… God still answered their call. God gave them manna and quail to fill their stomachs every day for forty years as they wandered the wilderness.
It wasn’t fair. God could have told the Israelites to fend for themselves. God could have ignored their cries. If they weren't willing to listen to what God had to tell them, if they couldn’t trust God to do what God had promised, then it would only have been fair for God to let them go their own way and find another people to call and bless. The owner of the vineyard could have looked at the workers who hadn’t been hired yet and realized that there was probably a good reason that none of them had been hired earlier in the day - it’s no wonder the other laborers were upset that they were being held at an equal level as those people.
But that’s when perhaps we should take a second and realize… God’s not fair. And you know what? That’s a good thing. God’s not fair - and that’s the very thing that allows you, me, and everyone in this crazy, unfair, mixed up world any chance at all. Because each and every one of us are the recipients of wages we didn’t earn - and that we can never earn. Each and every one of us have been given a gift of grace through Jesus Christ that is unfair for us to receive. And yet God has given it to us freely, without hesitation, because it is God’s to give to each of us so generously. It’s not fair that God becomes flesh and lives in our midst, and we thank God by nailing God to a cross instead. God’s not fair… but God is just. And God loves us enough to give us God’s own son, God’s own self, so that we might be made right through God. Thank goodness God’s not fair. To God be the Glory. Amen.
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