Holy Economics, Jesus!

A sermon by Paul Peters Derry on Matthew 20:1-16

May only truth be spoken,
And only truth be heard. AMEN

It was an event entitled “Cultivating the Art of Preaching,” held at the Kirkridge Retreat Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania. A week-long continuing education, Monday through Friday occasion to hear some of fine preachers – Barbara Lundblad, Barbara Brown Taylor among them – and participate in “preaching labs” where in front of one of those top-tier preachers, we got to practice our own preaching.

The exercise for those “preaching labs” – the invitation, of sorts – was to be assigned a biblical passage, and then take one hour – 60 minutes, no less but no more – to put together a sermon.

It was the sort of task that scared you-know-what out of me. For much of my time in congregational ministry, I followed a rhythm of careful, methodical preparation. Monday morning: a lectionary study group. I had colour-coded double-pocked folders for each Sunday. At various points in the week, a few minutes here, a few minutes there, and then usually on Thursday, I would finalize the church “bulletin” (order of service).

Even as I would preach without notes, I wrote out a full-script. It had to be on quad-lined paper, 5 squares/inch. Not 4 squares/inch.

Particularly in the early years of my ministry experience, throw a statutory holiday into the mix, or the pastoral demands of a funeral or other such occasion, and that presented a challenge to my carefully-measured rhythm of preparation.

The thought of preparing a sermon in only 1 hour, and even more to the point, to be assigned a scripture to preach on rather than choose a passage well ahead of time …

Still, I was away from home, and aside from one of my Lectionary study group colleagues who’d accompanied me to that event, I wasn’t ever going to see any of those other preacher participants again. So what if I fell flat on my face? What did I have to lose? And just maybe, I had something to gain …

I’m going to suggest that experience connects with what Jesus had/has in mind with what we read as tonight’s gospel, commonly referenced as the “Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard.” It’s a decidedly, and yet deceptively, simple parable. It’s also a parable that is downright offensive. It offends our Protestant work-ethic sensibilities.

Jesus announces, “The kingdom of heaven is like …”

A landowner goes out in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. I’ll hire you for the day, and let’s agree to a full day’s wage: 1 denarius. Everything’s above board, expectations clear and straightforward. The landowner then goes out – we’re told that is, only that it “about 9:00 o’clock” – and finds “others standing idle in the marketplace,” hires them, but this time says “I will pay you whatever is right.” Suddenly, things are going off-the-rails, or at the very least, take on a laissez-faire, loosy-goosy. “Whatever is right”!?!? What the heaven does that mean?

The story continues, with the landowner going out again about noon and about 3:00 o’clock, by which points we are told only that “he did the same.” What same? What rate? Are we talking minimum wage? Guaranteed annual income? Pro-rated salary? With or without benefits? With or without the payroll deduction tax? It’s a Human Resources nightmare!

Finally, around 5:00 o’clock, the landowner goes out and finds “others standing around,” and inquires of this final remnant, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” To which they respond, “Because no one has hired us.” Okey-dokey, you’re hired. And like that oh-so-smooth slouch-of-an-acquaintance, waltzes their way into the vineyard, it being practically quitting time, puts in the bare minimum of work …

The end-of-work whistle blows. And faster than we can shout “Yaba, daba, do!” we’re told that “When evening comes, the landowner instructs his manager to call in the labourers, beginning with the last and then going to the first, and each is paid precisely, exactly the same wage – one denarii – nothing more, nothing less. Regardless of however many hours you’ve sweat and toiled. All paid exactly, precisely the same.

Holy Economics, Jesus!

It throws ANY and ALL expectations borne of Protestant work ethic so far out the window. It offends our most basic of sensibilities and attitudes. What was it that Robert Fulghum announced in his list of “Everything I Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten” …. PLAY FAIR.

And Jesus has the chutzpah, to declare “The kingdom of heaven is like this.” With rules and protocols like that, or lack-of-rules-thereof, is that something we really want to be part of?

This parable highlights a dissonance. You and I are invited into a club, a kingdom or a kin-dom that if we had our play-fair druthers, we’d really rather not join. The last are first, the first are last. Everyone is paid the exact same daily wage, regardless of the number of hours we’ve worked, or the toil or wounds that we’ve endured. And even if we somehow manage get our heads around this upside-down, inside-out, or outside-in Jesus-economics worldview, we are immediately, and summarily, “arrested” by the landowner’s “gotcha” phrase …

Take what belongs to you and go.

I choose to give to this last as to the first.

 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

   Or are you envious because I am generous?

Indeed we are. We are red-hot filled with rage. We are a whole stack of $20 bills green with envy. Jesus knocks us over the head with that proverbial 2x4, declaring, or at one basic and undisputable level, reminding us, that life is not about what you or I do, but what God does, in-and-through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Holy Economics, Jesus!

No matter what we have done, no matter how far we have wandered, no matter the extent to which we have struggled, no matter whether we’ve worked ALL DAY or even just one portion of one small hour, you and I, and everyone else, are paid one denarius. Nothing less, but nothing more. And yet, or still, “more than we can ask or imagine.”

When the roll-is-called-up-yonder, or even here-and-know, as we work out our salvation in fear-and-trembling, FAIRNESS is not the currency by which God operates. Neither is MERIT PAY ever part of the picture. And the point at which we squirm, or wince with recognition, is almost certainly, a point of gospel proclamation resonance.

Part of “Holy Economics, Jesus” is to recognize a level of discomfort – along the lines of “Or are you envious because I am generous” as an indicator of gospel truth and promise.

Part of this Holy Jesus Economics is likewise to recognize, in your life and in mine, in measure small and large, with occasions extraordinary and ordinary, the call to work even one single hour, the last hour of the day, even, is a call that bears attention, and provides opportunities for faithful, faith-filled discipleship.

There are vocations of responsiveness that we spend our whole week in preparation, or our whole lives answering and fulfilling. There are likewise vocations of responsiveness that are no less, but so much more, than one hour here or there.

Whether we spent all week working on the sermon, carefully having prepared the double-sided pocket folders, and so on, or whether we stumble upon an opportunity of responsiveness and integrity, pulling an assigned scripture written on a thin slice of paper from the Bible left on the table. Sometimes we only have 1 hour to prepare… or even less.

Oh yes… and while I don’t remember a whole lot about that sermon I prepared in only 1 hour, other than I got paid “one denarius.”

So may the Word from Scripture, as the Word in worship,

be the Word each one of us, and the world, so desperately longs to hear. 

 AMEN