Last or First, It's Alawys Grace

I find today’s parable one of the most hopeful of all the kingdom parables, for Jesus speaks on God’s self-gift of bountiful and absolute love for us. And this divine generosity is what is rightfully preached on. But, there is also a landowner who speaks of the “usual wage” and I ask myself what is God’s “usual wage”. And we know those hired last received the same “usual wage “as those hired first. But, the fact reminds some were hired first and some were hired last and does that tell us anything at all about us and God? In today’s parable Jesus compares God to a good landowner and those listening, to laborers. In the first reading Isaiah, gives us a hint into this landowners thinking “For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways. As high as heaven is above the earth so are my ways above your ways my thoughts above your thoughts.” Clearly there is a difference in thinking here. We are human beings (laborers on earth). We are not the landowner and certainly not God. His thoughts and ways are not ours for God is unconditional (that is nothing is before God) and only he is necessary, that is (everything’s comes from and is sustained by him). We are dependent on God for life itself and for how our life is formed and takes shape. We are not so very grand, but still the human person is the apple of God’s eye. And, of course, we are important because we can love and are loved by spouses, family, friends and our community of faith. What runs through all the readings and most especially in the Gospel is the mystery of God’s ways. And God’s way, experienced by human beings, is Grace. The parable of the landowner and the laborers describes the illogical generosity of the landowner. The twist is that the first hire at dawn (and so worked all day) and the last hire at the end of the day (so worked the least) received the same usual wage. Certainly, this is no way to run a business. And to be expected, there was grumbling about the unfairness of it all from those hired first. To this the landowner reminds them - “My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual wage? What if I wish to give this last one the same as you. Am I not free to do as I wish with my money?” First of all, any wage can only come from the landowner and never from the laborer. It flows one way. Secondly, it’s his money and he is free to do whatever he wishes to do with it. Thirdly, it’s a matter of opinion. What the first hired see as unfair, the last hired see as generosity. Here we are to recall Isaiah “my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways.” The landowner has every right to be generous and his generosity is something special. It goes beyond the world’s standards of the reasonable or logical and, as we see, it includes the first and the last. The Gospel says the landowner pays the “usual wage”. What might this usual wage be? At least from God’s point of view, I suggest the usual wage is Grace. The essence and substance of all Grace is God‘s gracious love for us. And God (the landowner in the parable) does not just dole out Grace (the usual wage). God is no miser. God’s love for us, experienced as Grace, is the absolute good, that has all good within it. And this wage is always unexpected and unreasonable, bountiful and boundless. Grace is experienced in many ways and as many things. But, Grace always does something somewhere to someone. Grace is not an abstract idea. It is an enlivening and uplifting indwelling force, experienced in a concrete ways. It is a good living wage. So we know that the rightful landowner or God is unimaginatively generous in the wages he gives and those wages he gives is Grace. So what about the laborers themselves? All human beings, who we shall call laborers lack something, which we will call the “usual wage.” Day laborers must hire themselves out each morning. They are always dependent on another for their daily bread. We have established that the landowner, who owns the vineyard has the right to hire whoever he chooses and to pay those hired what he wants. Of course, the laborers have the freedom to decline the offer. To look elsewhere. But, they are incapable of judging the actions of the landowner. His ways are not their ways! It is important to remember that wages as money is not what we desire. It never is. Money is only a means to an end. What we desire is what the money will purchase; food and shelter, goods and services, nest eggs and savings. And this is true for our laborers in the parable. So imagine, in the pre-dawn light all unemployed day laborers are equally worried and anxious. They need to be hired which will allow them to provide for their family. The laborers hired first, those already waiting at dawn, will, as we know, only get paid at end of the day. But, they already (and throughout the day) will be secure in knowing that they will receive a wage. As they work hard (and honest pay deserves honest labor) they already taste the bread and drink the wine they will enjoy that evening. They already see (in their minds eye) the smiles from their children for having food on the table, and a roof over their heads. Not to mention a toy or two. They are already partaking of what is to come. Those (standing idle) hired only at noon are anxious and uneasy until noon and only after they are hired do they work contented and at peace (in knowing what is to come). Those (still standing about) that were hired at 5:00 have been uneasy, anxious even afraid of not being hired at all, from dawn till dusk. They have suffered all day. And only as the sun begins to set do they feel the relief (in the knowledge of what is to come). So although all receive at the end of the day the same “usual wage” Shall we call it Redemption and Salvation? Those hired first enjoy a new happiness longer. Those hired first experience the first fruits of Grace lived out as hope and are rewarded at the end of the day for hope never disappoints. Does this matter? It does. Though Grace is God’s business, we participate (as receivers) of his gifttttttttttttt giftt, his “usual wage” when it is given early or late. Grace always comes as self-gift and it always elevates and enlivens the human spirit. Grace bridges the gap between us (the Laborers) and the landowner (God). fered us at dawn rather than standing idly at dusk.