What's Fair

Sept. 21, 2014                                                                                     

Matt. 20:1-16

There was a man who had worked all of his life and had saved all of his money. He loved money more than just about anything. 

Just before he died, he said to his wife, “Now listen. When I die, I want you to take all my money and put it in the casket with me. I want to take my money to the afterlife with me.” He made her promise with all her heart that when he died, she would put all his money in the casket with him.

Well, he died. He was stretched out in the casket, his wife was sitting there in black, and her friend was sitting next to her. When they finished the ceremony, just before the funeral director got ready to close the casket, the wife said, “Wait just a minute!” She had a box with her, and she came over and put it in the casket.

Then the funeral director locked the casket down, and they rolled it away. Her friend said, “Girl, I know you weren’t fool enough to put all that money in there with your husband!”

She said, “Listen, I can’t go back on my word. I promised him I was gonna put the money in the casket with him.”

“You mean to tell me you really put that money in the casket with him!?”

“I sure did,” said the wife. “I wrote him a check.”

Prayer:

Our story today is a challenging one. There are several ways one could go with this story. A traditional view is found at the end in Vs 16… “The first with be last, and the last will be first.” Another view would be about eternal life. Another would be generosity. And another of which we will turn our focus… “What’s Fair?”

This story is unique to Matt. And surrounded by a parable of the rich young man, and Peter’s claim to have left everything to follow Jesus… Which he seems to make like a badge of honor that he’s been able to do. On the back-side of our story is Jesus’ 3^rd prediction of his death and James & John’s mother begging Jesus for prominent positions in the kingdom.

So… at first blush… there seems to be some coveting going on with Jesus’ friends as they think they’re a bit more special than others. So Jesus tells them a story about workers in a vineyard. Some start first thing in the morning… some at mid-day… And some near the end of the day. Then… at the end of the day the land-owner comes to the vineyard to pay the workers for their work. And that’s when a problem arises because the owner of the vineyard pays those that came to work last the same as those who started the day.

You can understand the rub… it’s not fair… right? Those who started in the morning should get paid the most… right? In the story following this with James & John… you can hear Jesus’ other friends saying the same thing… that’s not fair… we’ve been with Jesus too. You can understand the rich young man having to give up everything.

So… what’s fair in our lives? Over the past few years and in the last several months we’ve heard cries of unfairness as well.

The 99%... what’s fair?         The 1%... what’s fair?

The small business owner…. What’s fair?

The minimum wage… what’s fair?

Racism or the perception of racism…. Cops… Robbers…

Athletes… WHAT”S FAIR?

In our story… didn’t the workers who started in the morning agree to work for an agreed amount?  YES… it must have been a fair wage… they agreed to it! And doesn’t the owner of the vineyard have the right to be a generous as he sees fit with his money? YES… the story isn’t really about fairness as it is about generosity.

It seems to me that in part what Jesus is talking about is covetousness… That humanity covets what God chooses to give others. Think of the 9^th commandment… “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.” And in part we… humanity are thumbing our noses at the good gifts God does give us.

 Let’s be honest friends… covetousness is a problem isn’t it? The problem isn’t that others receive blessing from God, but that they are receiving blessing they don’t deserve. After-all… I go to church… I help out at church… I know how they live the other 6 days of the week…. They just don’t live the Christian life like me. I use to get angry and mad at my supervisor because she seemed to patronize the people who were always screwing around and not doing their jobs. They got the better schedules… all the perks. Until I got it in my head to do my job and do it well the rewards would come… and they did. When I was angry & resentful things often didn’t go well for me.

This is where our OT story in Jonah matches up with our gospel story. Jonah believes the people of Nineveh should be punished because they are bad sinful people. But God doesn’t do that… God forgives them. What we see is the generosity of God in the Jonah story as with the landowner, and Jonah’s covetousness as well as the point Jesus is making.

So… in closing… what I believe we can take away from this story is… in Vs 1 what Jesus is talking about is what the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of God is not just a place & time, but where all people recognize God’s generosity and good gifts which we all enjoy. That no matter where we’ve been in our lives… No matter if we’ve been 1^st or last we have a place in God’s kingdom. That God’s generosity is for all… the first… the middle… the last.

Lutheran Theologian Karl Jacobson states it like this… “The scandal of this parable is that we all are equal recipients of God’s gifts. The scandal of pour faith is that we are often covetous & jealous when God’s gifts of forgiveness and life are given to others in equal measure.”

So… my friends… WHAT”S FAIR?