Meditation 

Good Morning!  And Welcome, dear Community!  Welcome, dear Family!

We’ll start with an overview:  We heard that, after Jonah’s short sermon, the Ninevites all repented, and God decided to spare the city.  Jonah objected to this, and became angry when God ordered a worm to destroy a plant providing shade.  It ends with a question from God that challenges any who aren’t ready to forgive:  “Jonah, you’re all worked up about a bush, but shouldn’t I be concerned about 120,000 Ninevites”?

Then Matthew narrates one of Jesus’ wild parables, in which he says that the reign of God is like that of a landowner who pays his workers the same wage no matter what time of day they began to work.  When God changes God’s mind about punishing Nineveh for their evil ways, Jonah is angry.  Yet God is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love.  In baptism we receive the grace of God that is freely given to all.  As Martin Luther wrote, in the presence of God’s mercy, we are all beggars.

Our message today will be in two parts.  The first part is about our Gospel reading, and the second part is about the writings of Paul, one of which we had today.

So:  Topic ONE:  A Humorous Sermon on Matthew 20:1‑16 — “The Vineyard Pay Dispute”,  or,   Why God’s “Unfair” Payroll Policy is the Best Policy Ever

Before digging in, I’ll tell a story about work and pay.  Early in my working life, I was with a company that was growing very fast.  Often, policies and procedures couldn’t keep up with the workload.  One time, a group of new hires were sitting together at lunch, talking about their pay rates.  They were making more than me, even though I was a level above them!  It really ticked me off.  But the next day, my boss took me aside, and told me that a raise was coming my way that would make everything right.  Whew!

Imagine you’re a landowner in first‑century Israel, and you decide to run your vineyard like a modern startup.  You post a job ad: “Day laborers needed — $1/day, all day long.” You hire 20 people at 6 a.m., 10 more at 9 a.m., 10 more at noon, 10 more at 3 p.m., and finally 10 more at 6 p.m.  By the time you’re done, you’ve got 60 workers.

Now, here’s the twist: at end of day, you pay everyone the same $1/day, regardless of how long they worked.  The early birds are like, “Hey, we worked 12 hours in the sun, we deserve more!”  And the latecomers are like, “Wow, we only worked an hour, and we get the same as the guys who worked all day?  That’s not fair!”

That is exactly how we sometimes feel when we hear this parable.  We’re the early birds — we’ve worked hard as Christians, we got hot, we got thirsty, and we expect a bonus.  But Jesus says, “That’s exactly what the kingdom of heaven is like”.

Think of it like a corporate “equal pay” policy.  The CEO says, “We’re going to give everyone the same bonus, no matter how many hours they work.”  The early workers are like, “That’s not fair!”  The late workers are like, “Wow, we only worked an hour, and we get the same as the guys who worked all day?  That’s not fair!”

It’s like a pizza party where the host says, “Everyone gets a slice, no matter how long you’ve been here.”  The early arrivals are like, “I’ve been here since 6 a.m., I deserve two slices!”  The latecomers are like, “Wow, we only came at 6 p.m., and we get the same as the guys who came at 6 a.m.?  That’s not fair!”

Jesus says this is how the kingdom of heaven works — not by “fairness” in the human sense, but by grace in the divine sense.  In the kingdom, no one is worth more than another.  It’s less about “what you deserve” and more about “what you need.”

The joke is that we are the ones who should be offended — not by the landowner’s “unfair” generosity, but by the fact that our lives, relationships, and communities aren’t more like the kingdom we pray for.  So next time someone says, “That’s not fair,” remember: in the kingdom of heaven, fairness is overrated.  Grace is the real currency — and it’s paid the same to everyone, whether they worked all day or just an hour.

If you’re still grumbling, just remember: the landowner could have paid you more, but he didn’t. And that’s the best part.  Because the Kingdom of God isn’t about fairness, it’s about generosity of the greatest kind.  It isn’t about working for forgiveness, but accepting it, freely given in grace.  It isn’t about earning salvation, it’s about accepting it, and then growing in faith, and helping others do so as well.  And if you’ve been a good Christian your whole life, and the person you meet becomes a good Christian late in their life, that’s something to celebrate, not question.

Parables are meant to turn the mirror on us, and beg us to put ourselves in the story. No matter where we are in the payment line, this parable asks us to consider how we might respond to God’s grace, whether expected because of a relationship established long ago, or something that comes in the middle of the day or even at the last minute.

All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.  But if we can get past our resistance, if we can get past the grumbling, we might just discover a better response to grace – gratitude. For what God gives to others, and for what God gives to us as well. That is what the parable is driving us towards.

And then, we can truly proclaim those words of the Psalmist:   The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.

And so, on to our second topic.  Our Phillipians reading reminds me of what a theologian recently wrote: above all, the apostle Paul preached God’s inclusive love:  Paul gives us a basis for loving all others as Christ has loved us.  Paul offers a theological and solid foundation for human dignity and human flourishing that is inherent, universal, and indestructible by any evaluation, whether it be race, religion, gender, nationality, class, education, or social position.

We now believe the reason this one man enjoyed such immense success in such a short time is that he gave human dignity back to a world that had largely lost it.  One more god in Greece and Asia Minor would have meant little, but when Paul told shamed populations they were temples of the divine, this made hearts burn with desire and hope.

The account of Pentecost in Acts 2:1–11 emphasizes that people from all over the world heard the Galileans speaking in the pilgrims’ individual languages after the descent of heavenly fire and wind.  The theological message is clear: God loves everyone! God’s love and favor are both totally democratic and unmerited.  This was meant to be the end of all exclusive and elitist religion. Sadly, it did not last long.

One of the reasons Paul’s teachings had so much influence in Asia Minor was that he restored human dignity at a time when the region was a key source of enslaved people, women were considered the property of men, temple prostitution was a form of worship, and oppression and injustice toward poor and marginalized people were universal norms.  Most of the world was not yet aware that human rights even existed.  

Paul shouts into this corrupt and corrupting empire, “One and the same Spirit was given to us all to drink!” (1 Corinthians 12:13).  He utterly levels the playing field: “You, all of you, are sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus … where there is no distinction between male or female, Greek or Jew, slave or free, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26–28).

This is quite amazing, considering the divided world at the time!  In Paul’s estimation, the old world was forever gone, and a new world was born.  This was surely impossible and frightening to some people, but utterly attractive and hopeful to the majority who had been given no dignity whatsoever.  Who does not want to be told they are worthy and good?  Who does not want their social shame taken away?  

No longer was the human body a cheap thing, degraded by slavery, or sexual, verbal, and physical abuse.  Paul is saying, “You are the very temple of God.”  Scholars now believe this is Paul’s supreme and organizing idea.  Such an unexpected affirmation of human dignity began to turn the whole Roman Empire around.

So may it be for all of us.   God loves you, and so do I.  Amen!