More Than Fair!
Preaching
Preaching the Parables
Series IV, Cycle A
Object:
I ran across a website a while back that said something that we all know, intuitively: "A roll of the dice is not fair." Literally!
According to the website, if you roll a die (that's the singular of dice) 10,000 times, the side with one dot will come up 1,654 times, and the side with six dots will come up 1,679 times. That's not a great difference, but it's enough of a difference to make the casino business immensely profitable. If you play long enough, the casino will win -- always. The odds are against you. It isn't fair.
Neither is life. If Hurricane Katrina didn't convince you of that, I have it on no less an authority than Jesus himself. In that sermon he preached "on the mount," Jesus said that "[God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). Doesn't sound fair to me. But much of life is like that. Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. It's not fair.
In the Old Testament, Job says that in the end of life,
One dies in full prosperity, being wholly at ease and secure ... Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good. They lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them.
-- Job 21:23-26
Is that fair?
The writer of Ecclesiastes said,
In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing.
-- Ecclesiastes 7:15
The Bible is very aware. Life is not fair. And neither, it seems, is God.
I have that on Jesus' authority, too -- in that parable I read about the day laborers and the apparent disparity in their pay. Jesus began, "The kingdom of heaven is like ..." (Matthew 20:1). That's a signal that the story to come is not just about heaven, but also about earth.
Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." This parable is a story about what the world would be like if that happened. And frankly, it isn't fair. What happened that day would fit no definition of fairness that I can think of.
A landowner hired a group of laborers to work a twelve-hour day at a usual rate of pay. That much was fair. Everybody knew up front what was expected and what they would get out of it. But then the unexpected happened. The first group of laborers had been hired about 6 a.m. About 9 a.m., when that first group had already put in three hours of work, the landowner hired another group. About noon, he hired more workers. About 3 p.m., he hired more. And at 5 p.m., even more. The landowner said to all these later workers in turn, "You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right" (Matthew 20:4). In effect, promising these later hires only that he would be fair.
And if at the end of the day he had been fair, he would not have been faulted. Those hired at five would have been happy to get one hour's pay. Those hired at noon, a half-day's pay, and so on. That's all he had to do to be "fair," but he wasn't.
When the group that had worked only an hour was paid first, he was more than fair. A lot more. They got a whole day's pay! Twelve times more than they had earned! So, too, those who had worked three hours and six hours and nine hours. A full day's pay for them, too. By the time he got to those who had worked all day, who had "borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat" (Matthew 20:12), who had worked twelve full hours, they were expecting a bonus. "They thought they would receive more" (Matthew 20:10). After all, fair's fair! Right? Wrong -- apparently.
They all got the same. One day's pay for one day. Twelve hours earlier, those who worked the whole day had considered "the usual daily wage" (Matthew 20:2) to be fair -- and were no doubt glad to get it. But now, at the end of the day? "Not fair!" they said. And that is Jesus' point. The kingdom of heaven is not about being fair. It's about being far more than fair -- like God.
The question we need to ask ourselves is why does this parable rub us the wrong way? Let me suggest it is because we most readily identify in the story with those folks who started work at 6 a.m. We resonate readily with a television ad for a brokerage firm that says, "We make money the old-fashioned way. We earn it!" Presbyterians are not among the richest group of Christians on earth for no reason. The Protestant work ethic pays off.
Presbyterian minister, Ed White, of the Alban Institute has said of you and me that "Presbyterians are self-made people. And as self-made people we have a lot to be proud of but little to be thankful for."
Why is that? Read the story!
Who do you think, in Jesus' story, was most thankful? Who grumbled? Who do you identify with in the story? Interestingly, the grumbling was not about getting more for working more. It was about others getting the same for working less.
"When the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled ... saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us ...' " (Matthew 20:11-12). The perceived unfairness was not with what they got, but with what the others got -- more than they "earned." Those who had earned their full day's pay resented that.
But the landowner replied, "What's your problem? You got what you earned! And I did what I wanted with my money. What's it to you?" What it was to them, what it feels like to us, is unfairness. Which it was, and it is, thank God.
The story is saying that the grace of God is not something any of us can earn. We cannot work our way to the kingdom of heaven. A kingdom where, Jesus said, "The last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matthew 20:16). That, too, sounds "unfair," but it's really more than fair.
Play with those words today. The first will be last. The last will be first.
But if the first are last, and the last are first, then the first and the last are both "first." If the parable is an explanation of how that works, then it isn't that the "first" lose, but that the "last" win. Instead of win-lose, which is the way of our world, the kingdom of heaven is win-win. And that's more than just fair.
No? Let me tell you another story.
There is an old rabbinic parable about a farmer who had two sons. As soon as they were old enough to walk, he took them to the fields and he taught them everything that he knew about growing crops and raising animals. When he got too old to work, the two boys took over the chores of the farm and when the father died, they had found their working together so meaningful that they decided to keep their partnership. Each brother contributed what he could and during every harvest season, they would divide equally what they had together produced. Across the years, the elder brother never married, but stayed an old bachelor. The younger brother did marry and had eight wonderful children.
Some years later, when they were having a wonderful harvest, the old bachelor brother thought to himself one night, "My brother has ten mouths to feed. I only have one. He really needs more of this harvest than I do, but I know he is much too fair to renegotiate. I know what I'll do. In the dead of the night, when he is asleep, I'll take some of what I have put in my barn and I'll slip it over into his barn to help him feed his children."
At the very time the older brother was thinking that, the younger brother was thinking to himself, "God has given me these wonderful children. My brother hasn't been so fortunate. He really needs more of this harvest for his old age than I do, but I know him. He's much too fair. He'll never renegotiate. I know what I'll do. In the dead of the night, when he's asleep, I'll take some of what I've put in my barn and slip it over into his barn for his retirement."
And so one night when the moon was full, as you have already anticipated, those two brothers came face to face, each on a mission of generosity. The old rabbi said that [though] there wasn't a cloud in the sky, a gentle rain began to fall. You know what it was? God weeping for joy because two of his children had gotten the point. Two of his children had come to realize that generosity is the deepest characteristic of the holy and because we are made in God's image, our being generous [our being more than fair] is the secret to our joy as well.1
The rabbi had it right. The kingdom of heaven is not fair -- it is more than fair -- and not just with "them," but with you, and with me.
Albert Einstein once said, "God doesn't play dice with the universe." He doesn't. In the end, it isn't just the luck of the draw or the toss of the dice or the turn of the wheel. In this life, as in every casino, all that is stacked against you. In the end, God is for you in Jesus Christ.
Xavia and I had the privilege of attending the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance Service at the National Cathedral after Hurricane Katrina struck. Readers read. Choirs sang. Bishops and a rabbi and an imam pronounced. T. D. Jakes preached. President Bush spoke. And all of us sang hymns.
The president said, in part, "Americans of every race and religion were touched by this storm; yet some of the greatest hardships fell upon citizens already facing lives of struggle -- the elderly, the vulnerable, and the poor. And this poverty has roots in generations of segregation and discrimination that closed many doors of opportunity. As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality. Let us deliver a new hope to communities that were suffering before the storm. As we rebuild homes and businesses, we will renew our promise as a land of equality and decency. And one day, Americans will look back at the response to Hurricane Katrina and say that our country grew not only in prosperity, but in character and justice."
I hope and pray it will be as the president has said, because if it is, the American people will be said in our time to have been more than just fair.
____________
1. http://www.30goodminutes.org/scec/sermon/claypool_4317.htm.
According to the website, if you roll a die (that's the singular of dice) 10,000 times, the side with one dot will come up 1,654 times, and the side with six dots will come up 1,679 times. That's not a great difference, but it's enough of a difference to make the casino business immensely profitable. If you play long enough, the casino will win -- always. The odds are against you. It isn't fair.
Neither is life. If Hurricane Katrina didn't convince you of that, I have it on no less an authority than Jesus himself. In that sermon he preached "on the mount," Jesus said that "[God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). Doesn't sound fair to me. But much of life is like that. Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. It's not fair.
In the Old Testament, Job says that in the end of life,
One dies in full prosperity, being wholly at ease and secure ... Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good. They lie down alike in the dust and the worms cover them.
-- Job 21:23-26
Is that fair?
The writer of Ecclesiastes said,
In my vain life I have seen everything; there are righteous people who perish in their righteousness, and there are wicked people who prolong their life in their evildoing.
-- Ecclesiastes 7:15
The Bible is very aware. Life is not fair. And neither, it seems, is God.
I have that on Jesus' authority, too -- in that parable I read about the day laborers and the apparent disparity in their pay. Jesus began, "The kingdom of heaven is like ..." (Matthew 20:1). That's a signal that the story to come is not just about heaven, but also about earth.
Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." This parable is a story about what the world would be like if that happened. And frankly, it isn't fair. What happened that day would fit no definition of fairness that I can think of.
A landowner hired a group of laborers to work a twelve-hour day at a usual rate of pay. That much was fair. Everybody knew up front what was expected and what they would get out of it. But then the unexpected happened. The first group of laborers had been hired about 6 a.m. About 9 a.m., when that first group had already put in three hours of work, the landowner hired another group. About noon, he hired more workers. About 3 p.m., he hired more. And at 5 p.m., even more. The landowner said to all these later workers in turn, "You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right" (Matthew 20:4). In effect, promising these later hires only that he would be fair.
And if at the end of the day he had been fair, he would not have been faulted. Those hired at five would have been happy to get one hour's pay. Those hired at noon, a half-day's pay, and so on. That's all he had to do to be "fair," but he wasn't.
When the group that had worked only an hour was paid first, he was more than fair. A lot more. They got a whole day's pay! Twelve times more than they had earned! So, too, those who had worked three hours and six hours and nine hours. A full day's pay for them, too. By the time he got to those who had worked all day, who had "borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat" (Matthew 20:12), who had worked twelve full hours, they were expecting a bonus. "They thought they would receive more" (Matthew 20:10). After all, fair's fair! Right? Wrong -- apparently.
They all got the same. One day's pay for one day. Twelve hours earlier, those who worked the whole day had considered "the usual daily wage" (Matthew 20:2) to be fair -- and were no doubt glad to get it. But now, at the end of the day? "Not fair!" they said. And that is Jesus' point. The kingdom of heaven is not about being fair. It's about being far more than fair -- like God.
The question we need to ask ourselves is why does this parable rub us the wrong way? Let me suggest it is because we most readily identify in the story with those folks who started work at 6 a.m. We resonate readily with a television ad for a brokerage firm that says, "We make money the old-fashioned way. We earn it!" Presbyterians are not among the richest group of Christians on earth for no reason. The Protestant work ethic pays off.
Presbyterian minister, Ed White, of the Alban Institute has said of you and me that "Presbyterians are self-made people. And as self-made people we have a lot to be proud of but little to be thankful for."
Why is that? Read the story!
Who do you think, in Jesus' story, was most thankful? Who grumbled? Who do you identify with in the story? Interestingly, the grumbling was not about getting more for working more. It was about others getting the same for working less.
"When the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled ... saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us ...' " (Matthew 20:11-12). The perceived unfairness was not with what they got, but with what the others got -- more than they "earned." Those who had earned their full day's pay resented that.
But the landowner replied, "What's your problem? You got what you earned! And I did what I wanted with my money. What's it to you?" What it was to them, what it feels like to us, is unfairness. Which it was, and it is, thank God.
The story is saying that the grace of God is not something any of us can earn. We cannot work our way to the kingdom of heaven. A kingdom where, Jesus said, "The last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matthew 20:16). That, too, sounds "unfair," but it's really more than fair.
Play with those words today. The first will be last. The last will be first.
But if the first are last, and the last are first, then the first and the last are both "first." If the parable is an explanation of how that works, then it isn't that the "first" lose, but that the "last" win. Instead of win-lose, which is the way of our world, the kingdom of heaven is win-win. And that's more than just fair.
No? Let me tell you another story.
There is an old rabbinic parable about a farmer who had two sons. As soon as they were old enough to walk, he took them to the fields and he taught them everything that he knew about growing crops and raising animals. When he got too old to work, the two boys took over the chores of the farm and when the father died, they had found their working together so meaningful that they decided to keep their partnership. Each brother contributed what he could and during every harvest season, they would divide equally what they had together produced. Across the years, the elder brother never married, but stayed an old bachelor. The younger brother did marry and had eight wonderful children.
Some years later, when they were having a wonderful harvest, the old bachelor brother thought to himself one night, "My brother has ten mouths to feed. I only have one. He really needs more of this harvest than I do, but I know he is much too fair to renegotiate. I know what I'll do. In the dead of the night, when he is asleep, I'll take some of what I have put in my barn and I'll slip it over into his barn to help him feed his children."
At the very time the older brother was thinking that, the younger brother was thinking to himself, "God has given me these wonderful children. My brother hasn't been so fortunate. He really needs more of this harvest for his old age than I do, but I know him. He's much too fair. He'll never renegotiate. I know what I'll do. In the dead of the night, when he's asleep, I'll take some of what I've put in my barn and slip it over into his barn for his retirement."
And so one night when the moon was full, as you have already anticipated, those two brothers came face to face, each on a mission of generosity. The old rabbi said that [though] there wasn't a cloud in the sky, a gentle rain began to fall. You know what it was? God weeping for joy because two of his children had gotten the point. Two of his children had come to realize that generosity is the deepest characteristic of the holy and because we are made in God's image, our being generous [our being more than fair] is the secret to our joy as well.1
The rabbi had it right. The kingdom of heaven is not fair -- it is more than fair -- and not just with "them," but with you, and with me.
Albert Einstein once said, "God doesn't play dice with the universe." He doesn't. In the end, it isn't just the luck of the draw or the toss of the dice or the turn of the wheel. In this life, as in every casino, all that is stacked against you. In the end, God is for you in Jesus Christ.
Xavia and I had the privilege of attending the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance Service at the National Cathedral after Hurricane Katrina struck. Readers read. Choirs sang. Bishops and a rabbi and an imam pronounced. T. D. Jakes preached. President Bush spoke. And all of us sang hymns.
The president said, in part, "Americans of every race and religion were touched by this storm; yet some of the greatest hardships fell upon citizens already facing lives of struggle -- the elderly, the vulnerable, and the poor. And this poverty has roots in generations of segregation and discrimination that closed many doors of opportunity. As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality. Let us deliver a new hope to communities that were suffering before the storm. As we rebuild homes and businesses, we will renew our promise as a land of equality and decency. And one day, Americans will look back at the response to Hurricane Katrina and say that our country grew not only in prosperity, but in character and justice."
I hope and pray it will be as the president has said, because if it is, the American people will be said in our time to have been more than just fair.
____________
1. http://www.30goodminutes.org/scec/sermon/claypool_4317.htm.
