August 3, 2008.

I am in the process of fixing up my garage this summer. Just a small little project, nothing major - adding a door, some drywall, new lighting, paint and carpet. Nothing close to the large-scale renovations that others of you have done. But I have learned through this process that I am a terrible price negotiator. When the guys come to bid the job I just go, "Uh, huh. Okay." I have so little expertise in what materials cost and how long it should take to install doors or put up drywall, that I am pretty much useless. My friend Mary helped me with this process and I am eternally grateful. The tension of negotiating fees is something I don't enjoy; either they feel cheated or I feel overcharged. There is so little room for everyone to be happy. So, when I come up on this story, this parable in the Bible, I can really relate. Everyone in this story would make me feel uneasy - the early workers for getting too little; the later workers for getting too much; the owner of the vineyard for making everyone uncomfortable. The worst job for me would be the manager who has to go down the line and hand out the money and receive the wrath of the early workers. But this story also gets my attention, because it offers us a new perspective on how God acts. The vineyard owner is not God, but he is supposed to remind us of how God would act. And God doesn't do things like humans do. God is different. God is generous; God gives us things we don't deserve - which we call grace; and God invites us to think about doing things differently too. Most importantly, this parable tells us what the Kingdom or Realm of God is like - a Realm, a way of living, that we are invited to build on this earth with God.

Do you know the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean?" Well, one of my favorite characters in those films is, of course, Johnny Depp. I think it is in the second film when he is in a few swordfights. He is charming and agile and he also fights unfairly when he is about to lose. When he cheats he smiles, shrugs his shoulders and says simply, "Pirate." This is his explanation for why he acts the way he does. So, during this story, every time you think, "Hey, that's not fair, that's not right, I want you to smile, shrug your shoulders and say "Kingdom of God." That will help you understand why things are different in this parable.

This story reminds me of the playground when I was a child. I was always pretty athletic so when we lined up to pick teams, if I wasn't the captain of a team, I was pretty sure that I would be picked fairly early in the selection process. I just crossed my fingers and hoped that the team I was on was a strong one, and the leader didn't pick their friends instead of picking the best players. I never once, as a child, noticed or cared who was last in line. In fact, honestly, if you had asked me, I would have silently wished that we didn't have to include the last two kids who you knew couldn't play very well. This was athletic competition after all, not church!!! It's not something I am proud of as an adult.

This Bible parable is like that playground practice. The day starts very early, while it is cool and the sun is low in the sky. The landowner has some vineyards that need workers so he goes out to pick his workers for the day to go out and pick the fruit. I expect the vineyard owner looked for strong, fast workers - people who could stand up to the heat of the day, work hard and get the job done. That means no pregnant woman or women with babies on their backs. No one too young or too old. No one with weak backs or bodies that weren't strong and able. Any good vineyard owner would want to get the work done in a timely manner. And then comes the part that I would not like, but seems pretty straightforward so far. The vineyard owner negotiates the daily wage. And off everyone goes.

But then we hear that the vineyard owner does something unusual; he goes out throughout the day - not to the field to check his workers, but to the marketplace - at 9, at noon, at 3 and again at 5 o'clock and each time he finds people standing idle, waiting to be hired. And he hires them (Kingdom of God!) I imagine who these people are. Are they the ones you would pick last on the playground? Are they the lesser workers who you really wouldn't want to hire early in the day? I imagine a few of those folks - an old man with hands that aren't smooth or agile, who has bad knees. A young boy whose mother has sent him to find some money to buy food for their poor family, who is too young to really work for 9 or 10 hours. I imagine that pregnant woman whose husband is too sick to work, desperate for household income, determined to bring in a little money while her husband is unable to work. I imagine the chronic alcoholic who has sobered up enough by 3 in the afternoon who is hungry and desperate for food. I imagine there all kinds of people who you wouldn't hire at 7 or 8 in the morning. And the Vineyard owner hires them throughout the day and sends them out to work (Kingdom of God!)

Finally, at the end of the day, it is time for everyone to be paid. They didn't get paid in paychecks back then so the owner has to get together little piles of money for his manager to dole out. He lines them up and starts with the last ones hired. You heard the story - turns out, each one in the line is paid a full day's wage! The ones who worked two hours, four hours, all the way up to 10 hours, all get the same amount. And as the manager is going down the line, the able-bodied ones who got picked first begin to imagine that they might get more than they originally negotiated! "If that old man who worked 2 hours and barely filled the basket got a full day's wage, I'm gonna get something good!!!"

But what happens? Everyone gets the same amount of pay. Everyone has enough. You can imagine how surprised they are - and how irritated some of them are on this side of the line. What is going on here!!!! As Thomas Long so eloquently puts it, "Everybody in the parable is tendered with the wealth of the kingdom; the deep river of providence flows through everybody's life. God gives everyone a daily wage so extravagant that no one could ever spend it all. A deluge of grace descends on all; torrents of joy and blessing fall everywhere. And there these first-hour workers stand, drenched in God's mercy, an ocean of peace running down their faces, clutching their little contracts and whining that they deserve more rain." (Matthew, by Thomas Long, p. 226 Westminster John Knox Press)

We are invited to imagine ourselves in various parts of this parable - imagine yourself being the first hired. Imagine yourself being the last hired. Imagine being the vineyard owner, the manager, the family member waiting at home to see if there is going to be money coming home that evening. Can we control our resentment when God is generous with others? Can we imagine giving people more than they really deserve? Can we imagine receiving more than we should? These are the questions that this parable is asking of us. This story invites us to ponder these questions and to apply it to the world in which we live. The goal is for everyone to have enough; for everyone to have work and food and God's generosity. Kingdom of God - Unusual place. We are invited to build it with God here on earth. Amen.