Let us pray.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
I started teaching a Bible study on parables last week, just as the lectionary started featuring parables in our gospel readings. The timing was fortunate because it reminded me that reading the parables is different from reading the early stories of our ancestors in faith in the Hebrew Bible, the narrative stories of Jesus’ ministry, or Paul’s letters to the different early Christian churches.
Jesus was a master storyteller, but he didn’t teach in parables to entertain his audience. His stories invited his listeners to consider a new perspective about God and, in Matthew, the kingdom of heaven. He challenged what the people expected of a Messiah and Lord and used the parables to turn their expectations upside down.
People often have a favorite verse or story from Scripture. We love the stories of the prodigal son or the good Samaritan, but this parable from Matthew, popularly called the Laborers in the Vineyard is not a favorite. In fact, it’s often disliked.
Because, among the Jewish people, the vineyard was a common metaphor for Israel, the simplest explanation of the parable equates the householder with God and the first set of laborers with the Jewish people and frames the whole parable in terms of who earns salvation and entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
Another aspect of the traditional interpretation centers on the laborers and the householder’s payment to them for their work. At the end of the day, regardless of when a laborer began working, each received a full day’s wage. And while the householder paid a fair wage and the agreed amount that they had set when he hired them, the laborers who had worked the most hours were outraged.
I want to challenge some of the assumptions though.
Often, parables tell a story that illustrates an aspect of who God is or what the kingdom of God is like. Other parables compare two things. But it’s helpful to remember that they are stories and illustrations, not historical events, and that while they often make comparisons, but they do not necessarily equate two things. (Luise Schottroff, The Parables of Jesus. 211)
In the same way, we can say a giraffe and a leopard are like one another because they have spots,
but no one would mistake one for the other.
The kingdom of heaven is given to us, not earned by us.
The late Episcopal priest Robert Farrar Capon (kay-pon) wrote that God demonstrates “a grace that works by raising the dead, not by rewarding the rewardable.” (Capon. Kingdom, Grace, Judgment. 395)
And Paula Gooder, an Anglican biblical scholar wrote that “Justice is not diminished by generosity.” (Gooder, The Parables. 44)
As we reflect on this parable,
instead of focusing on salvation, fairness or even justice,
I want to talk about generosity and about relationship.
In his response to the outraged laborers, the householder asks, “
“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
New Testament scholar Luise Schottroff writes that “private property in the sense of [this verse] directly contradicts God’s Torah.” (Schottroff, 216) Her comment prompts me to listen again to the householder’s words.
In my hearing of the parable, I never thought to question the ownership of the vineyard. But if I take seriously the words of the psalmist who says in Psalm 24,
“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,
the world, and those who live in it,”
then how can any of us claim land is ours?
Surely, we are only caretakers and stewards of what we hold and have.
And likewise, if all we have is given to us by the Lord,
then it makes sense that we would be prayerful and careful in our care and sharing of what we have first been given.
As many of you know, this is the time of year when you are asked to share from what you have first been given and commit to giving financially to the congregation for the coming year.
You have heard ministry moments and testimonies for why others give, and between now and October 4, you’ll continue to hear inspiring stories and stories about the many ways your gifts sustain our work both within out congregation and in the community and world.
If you have already offered your commitment for 2027, thank you, and if you haven’t, please do.
Today’s parable helps us remember that God entrusts us with care for ourselves and our households, care for our neighbors, community and world.
Understood this way, the parable invites us into the role of the householder, the one who looks out,
not only for those who are readily available and visible,
but also for those who may cross our paths later.
The householder goes to the marketplace not just once or twice, but five times. The parable doesn’t actually tell us he needed more workers, but he hired more anyway. He didn’t wait for them to knock on his door. He sought them out and invited them into the vineyard. He begins a relationship with them and brings them into the community.
Importantly, the parable never makes a qualitative judgment in favor of the first group or against the last group. (Amy-Jill Levine. The Short Stories of Jesus. 226) That has come from an inadequate translation of the Greek word agroi (ah-GROY) as ‘idle’ as if the laborers found later in the day were ‘lazy’, but the word is better translated as ‘without work’. The parable doesn’t tell us why they were “without work”. And whatever the reason, it didn’t change the householder’s response.
The householder’s generous welcome reminds us, as New Testament scholar Arland Hultgren wrote, “God saves us not because we are lovable, but because God is loving in a radical way.” (Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus. 43) We are called to love our neighbor with this same radical love.
Let us pray.
Generous and loving God,
Thank you for Your son Jesus who teaches us what love looks like.
Thank you for entrusting us with all that is Yours.
Encourage us to see our neighbors and invite them into relationship. Show us how to be faithful and generous
so that all will know Your love.
We pray in your Holy Name.
Amen.
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