New Testament Eucharistic Readings for Sunday of Proper 20:Year A
Philippians 1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16:
“Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” (Matthew 20: 14 and 15)
This was probably written to explain the Christian movement assuming the responsibility of teaching and preaching the Good News Gospel after the self-serving Hebrew leadership hit a dead end. Personally, I don’t believe all Hebrews hit a dead end. But God needed to keep the promise alive. God needs to keep the promise to Abraham alive. God needs our Church to carry on the message of salvation even if we are the new-comers.
What puzzles me is, who were the early workers angry with, the land owner, or the late workers? The landowner was correct in that it was his prerogative with what he would do with what is his. He kept his word with regard to the “daily wage.” The daily wage was needed to pay the bills.
This is an old story about paying the last laborers the same as the first. Perhaps the owner of the vineyard, (a stand-in for God in this metaphor by Jesus), is looking past the working men themselves. Maybe the land owner is looking at the mothers and children whom the workingmen represent. These mothers and children require the same rents and food as the families of the men who were hired early on. Should mothers and children do without food and a roof over their heads only because the breadwinner couldn’t find work? The Landowner found a way to care for poor families and at the same time, give dignity to the men responsible for them.
When we look at those who didn’t do as much as we did, for as long as we did, we tend to feel like they didn’t “earn” their reward. As if to think, we did. God needs more from some of us than God needs from others, Fairness has nothing to do with it. Some don’t have it to give, be it time or talents.
Should the mothers and children of the men who weren’t hired early, suffer? “Because no one has hired us;” (Matthew 20:7) Again. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1: 27)
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine, Russia, and our schools
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 