God Is Not Fair

 Matthew 20:1-16

September 24, 2023

Red Vineyard Near Arles
Vincent Van Gogh

 

This is just not fair.

I mean you hear this story and it just sets off your “fair button.”

That button that was formed in us as children,

when one of your siblings got more of anything, “that’s not fair.”

Or when another student gets attention, or a better grade,

“that’s not fair”. Or when someone else gets the promotion that

you think you deserved. Or when the corrupt seem to have easy

lives and get away with everything, while the people who work

the hardest have to pay in every way. “that’s not fair”

There’s something in us that wants everything to balance 

out in the world that wants the universe to be equal.

The fair button gets pushed because this story isn’t fair.

 

I mean, if we’re adults, we know that the world is not fair.

We know by this time that things aren’t equal in this world

the systems are just stacked for some people and against others.

And then there’s just luck-- both good and bad – that tilt the scales.

 

But this is a story about God. About the kingdom of God.

And we still want to think that in the end,

God will follow those mathematical rules that we rely on.

Like the one that says that those that work

the longest doing the same work will get the most.

 

But this parable says that the kingdom of God is

not like that. It doesn’t fit our definition of fair.

The laborers who were hired at the crack of dawn

and worked 11 hours got paid their fair wage, it was

the one they agreed on it with the

landowner at the beginning of the day

It’s just that the ones who were hired at 5pm

and worked one hour got the same wage.

That’s the part that doesn’t seem fair.

 

The parable does not say that the landowner

paid the ones who worked longer hours less.

It’s just that the ones who worked less got paid the same as them.

 

Amy Jill Levine the Jewish scholar of the Christian bible

said that this parable shows that the kingdom of God is like this:

Jesus shows that in contrast to the world,

the rich people in the kingdom of God

fulfill their responsibility to everyone who

work for them by giving them enough to live on.

Which I love. The landowner fulfills his obligation

to see that everyone is fed and comfortable.

You might think that everyone would be happy.

But of course, everyone isn’t.

 

Of course, Dr. Levine and we

know that Jesus isn’t talking about wages.

Jesus is talking about blessings and favor and love

and honor both earthly and eternal.

 

The thing that inspired Jesus to tell this story was Peter.

He asked Jesus right before this, “so what are we going to get?

We left everything behind to follow you, and we got here first

I hope we get something special. How will we be privileged?”

Jesus tells him, You will get back a hundredfold –  isn’t that great?

But he also says “the last will be first and the first will be last.”

You will get yours, but others will get too.

Whether they were the first to follow or the last,

God is not interested in how many hours, or years, or how

much effort you’ve put in, or sincerity, or anything.

God’s favor is the same for all.

 

My guess is that Jesus could see that Peter was not happy

about this, Jesus could see Peter’s fair button going off.

Because then we get this parable.

  

Peter is like those early crack of dawn workers,

They were mad, not because they didn’t get enough,

but because the 5pm people didn’t get less than they did.

The crack of dawn people were mad because the landowner

was, they thought, overly generous to other people.

 

They got used to being the early workers.

They got used to the idea that they earned more

than those other people.

It doesn’t say that they were better workers

or harder workers, they were just lucky enough

to be the first to be hired that day.

They actually said to the landowner,

“You have made them equal to us.”

That’s what they were mad at.

That’s what was unfair.

 

This is how privilege works doesn’t it?

When we are privileged, we’re used to getting more than others.

Then when other people start getting equal, it almost

feels like a slight. We kind of get used to the status.

The unspoken, assumed hierarchy.

 

This is what we’ve found happens when

people who traditionally have gotten less rights

ask for equal rights, the people who have been

privileged start asking, what about me?

When women, people of color, LGBT people,

immigrants, have asked to be treated equally,

people who have normally had most of the privilege before,

have that fair button pushed in them.

It feels to some people like they are being cheated,

but all that is happening is that the other people are getting

what we got. Then people end up whining like Peter and those crack 

of dawn people, going “what happened?” 

“You have made them equal to us? What about me? I was here first. That’s not fair”.

 

Deep down it says, “Let’s keep things the way they are now,

so those who are used to being on top can still stay on top”.

 

But that’s not the way it is in the Kingdom of God.

God loves all of us the same. There is no status or hierarchy.

We are all equal in the kingdom of God.

And since we, as Christians, pray for God’s will to be done on earth

as it is in heaven, we are supposed to do the work of justice -

to help those who don’t have the same rights

and favor on earth right now. To give extra attention and work for

those who are oppressed by laws, or tradition, or situations.

Latin American theologians call it

“The preferential option for the poor”.

 

Meaning the church needs to focus more attention, more effort

on those who are poor and are oppressed.

And as Christians, we are asked to let go of our privileges and

give them away to those who don’t have them.

To remember the last will be first and the first will be last.

 

This parable teaches us that God doesn’t count beans, or favors,

or sincerity, or hours or years. If you’ve been in God’s 

vineyard one hour or eleven it doesn’t matter. God’s love is the same.

This parable teaches us: God is not fair, God is generous.

 

When I was a seminary student, I did my field work 

in a farming community in Perkasie, PA. 20 years ago it was farms,

now I’m pretty sure it’s all suburban subdivisions.

Since I came from a very urban church in New York City,

my field ed director thought I would benefit from a different experience, and it was. 

Not that I really understood all the implications of that.

 

Since I was the sophisticated, urban seminarian,

I was asked to lead a class on sexuality.

Big mistake on someone else’s part, not my idea at all.

But I was a first year seminary student, therefore I was

arrogant and ignorant enough to accept the appointment.

 

So to start the class, I held up a sign that said in big letters

“GOING TO HELL” and I told everyone in that first year seminary way:

 

“So if we believe in the basic premise of the Lutheran faith,

we know that we are not saved because of our works

or what we’ve done, we’re saved by God’s grace.

So we remember that even criminals are loved by God.

And we know that people of different sexualities are loved by God.

So we are just going to forget that THIS is even an option”

And I crumpled up the sign and threw it on the floor behind me.

 

I was showboating. First year seminary.

My point was that we needed to put aside all the talk

of hell and damnation for anyone due to their sexuality

before we could discuss sexuality with any care or clarity.

 

I mean I thought this was Lutheran 101.

Justification by Grace through faith not works right?

I assumed I was just reiterating what everyone already knew

and believed and we could use that as a basis for our discussion.

And the discussion did go well for a few weeks.

 

But after I finished the class,

I heard from my supervisor that the president of the council

had come to him after my little spiel in the first class.

He wasn’t particularly upset about the sexuality part,

but he was concerned about what I had said about God’s

grace for all people.

 

The president asked the pastor:

“You mean I’ve been doing all of this work, and God loves people

who don’t go to church and who do bad things the same as me?

Is that what Lutherans believe?”

The pastor told him yes. That is what Lutherans believe.

 

And that is how I caused the president of the council of my

first field ed church to resign from the Council,

and leave the congregation.

To his credit, my field ed pastor didn’t blame me or

try and make me feel bad about this at all,

probably because he realized he should have been drilling

basic Lutheranism into his congregation and maybe

not let a first year seminarian teach a class on sexuality.

 

But what happened is the president’s fair button went off.

He just couldn’t live with the idea that they (whoever they were)

were equal to him. He wanted all the good things he did

and his dedication count more to God.

He wasn’t upset because he got less, he was upset because those

who were unworthy got as much.

I get that. He wanted a religion that was fair.

But God isn’t fair, God is generous.

 

And we thank God for that. Because if God was fair, we would

all be in trouble. If God was counting beans and sins and

good works, and bad works, we’d all be doomed. 

The president of that congregation, and the pastor, and me, and you. 

Things done and left undone, things known and unknown. 

The things we’ve said and thought in our minds and hearts. 

We have all fallen short of the glory of God.

 

The kingdom of God is like this.

Everyone is fed, and housed, and worthy, and loved.

Everyone has enough to live and not to worry.

Everyone is a child of God, heirs to God’s love and gifts.

Everyone benefits from God’s generosity.

 

So as Baptized believers, we’re called to put away that fair button.

We are called is to bring God’s gracious abundance to

to the places in this world that are starving for it.

We are called to share God’s love with the deserving and

the undeserving, by the world’s standards.

We are called to make God’s will done on earth as it is in God’s kingdom.

 

And we are called to give thanks for the fact that God is not fair.

But that God is generous.