“Create in us clean hearts, O God, and renew a right spirit within us. Amen.”
Well, pick your analogous story to today’s fabulous, but potentially bitterness-inducing Gospel parable from Jesus:
Let’s say there’s a new hire at work, who comes on board right at the beginning of December. And when the boss hands out the Christmas bonuses, she gets the same amount as everyone else.
Or...you’ve got the guy who gets a World Series ring, even with only 4 plate appearances with Nationals! He still gets the exact same ring in October as those guys who showed up for Spring Training, and gave it all for the team day-in-and-day-out! Happens all the time.
Children jumping contest — but everybody gets a trophy
We’ve had a tactile example this week...of the rain here in DC-Maryland-Virginia region — showering everyone/everything, regardless.
And in this pandemic, what about all those who have got it better than you. Who seem to be in a much better place with work, kids, school, time off...fabulous stories, but potentially bitterness inducing?
Or...you don’t need an analogous story: could easily just connect to this same story that Jesus tells today. Every day, there are day-laborers, ready to work. Not sure if this exists here but in San Diego, outside of any Home Depot, groups of men (mostly) are hanging out early in the morning with cups of coffee, hoping you might hire them for some yard work or project in the house...
$20 for the day — that’s the equivalent to one denarius. $20 — not much for a day’s wage, but it’s enough to feed a family that night at the dinner table — some rice and beans, maybe a small bucket of fried chicken. So imagine a man doing some major landscape work instead of vineyard work, and he hires guys all through the day, and pays the ones he hires last, right around happy hour, the same wage he pays the guys he hired at 6am.
Any bitterness? Are you above it? Are you happy for the late hire-ons, the shortest jumpers?
When you think of it in terms of providing dinner that night for the worker and his or her family, maybe it’s understood a bit little differently. Seems to me that’s what the landlord in the parable was thinking. This tells us about Jesus:
God is certainly interested in everyone having enough to feed their family around the table. God is certainly interested in the community taking care of one another. God is certainly compassionate and generous. That’s what Jesus kicks off this whole story to say the realm of God is like...everyone having what they need, everyone having enough.
Do you hear this story and relate more to the land owner — what’s your first inclination, in terms of your perspective: are you too in a position to hire day laborers? Or do you relate more to the workers? Have you been or are you currently in a tight spot where you need to feed your family tonight or can barely eek out rent for this month?
My pastor colleague and friend Cyndi, who has always been an advocate for disability rights, and is in a wheelchair-scooter herself, shared with me that she doesn’t believe the ones who were hired last are lazy. They just weren’t as physically attractive and able as the big strong ones who were hired first. [pause] “This is a disability gospel, you see!” Cyndi exclaims. The late-comers desperately wanted to feed their families too; they wanted to be hired all day too. But someone else could jump higher, lift more, cut faster — offer more bang for your buck.
“Are you envious because I’m generous?” the landowner asks the bitter ones. There’s a perspective that I think we all may be able to share:
We can be envious of others’ blessings — those who seem to be doing better than me. Family members and friends who seem to be doing better than me. Co-workers who make more, parents who how have more, neighbors who show more...
As the temperatures drop (here in the mid-Atlantic regions), as the leaves start to change and drop, this is a season, an opportunity for growth and great soul searching. God is working on you quietly, even with all the noise and energy even chaos all around, God is working on you, whispering:
“Let go of your bitterness and resentment,” God’s words are deep down in our bones, “Stop worrying about what others are getting, and what you’re not getting. Do you have enough to eat tonight? I want everyone to have enough, you see? And your anger and your bitterness is pulling you down, holding you back from being the fully human being I created you to be. Let that stuff go, and share and love and enjoy...as I have shared and loved you — generously, freely, and compassionately. That takes some work, I know,” says God, “but I created you to do this, so I know you’ve got it in you...I know you’ve got that clean heart...and I know I created a holy community for you to support you in this heart-tending work.”
This is our time, friends in Christ — both to recognize God’s compassion and generosity, where everyone gets what they need, everyone gets enough, everyone gets to feed their families, roof over their head, the medicine they need, the education they need (I guess God gets quickly political here, if we’re paying attention, but if it’s God calling us to it, then food and clothing and health is literally theology).
Yes this is our time, friends in Christ — both to recognize and give thanks for God’s great compassion and generosity, and also this is our time to slow down and recognize God’s great compassion and generosity within ourselves...even and especially if its been buried. Don’t dig it out — God’s compassion that’s in you — let it rest in you today, let it settle, like a seed in the soil: God’s compassion grows in you, deep down, in and through us all, finally breaking the surface and bettering the world, offering beauty and food and companionship. These are the ways God’s love is made known — through us! In tangible, real ways — food and companionship... Isn’t it amazing when a new tree you’ve planted turns from from a beautiful little sapling, to an actual source of shade, or a source of food, or a source of beauty...and maybe even into a companion or a friend?
That’s the kind of growth God’s got in store for us, friends in Christ.
God has planted us, and grows us. See what’s also happening? Christ is both planted and planter! Sheep and shepherd. God is ultimately the gracious vineyard owner here, bestowing gifts of enough on all of us, no matter what time we arrived!
Siblings in Christ, we entrust ourselves to God, who loves us, who showers us with blessings, brings us in, calls and sends us out...with enough. With clean hearts to share our abundance, and this good news of our generous God whose name is Love.
This is a narrow way — recognizing, taking hold, and receiving God’s abundant mercy. And today we continue down this winding, narrow way...together, singing our praise and thanks for the broadness of God’s generosity all the while. AMEN.
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