When Is Enough,
Enough?
By Rev Steven R
Mitchell
Mountain View
United, Aurora, CO 9/21/2014
Based on Matthew
20: 1-16
Dr.
Charles Campbell, Homiletics Professor at Duke University Divinity School
suggests a look at the story of the manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:2-15),
as helpful in understanding this morning’s parable about the Laborers in the
Vineyard. So I thought I would share a
part of his reflections as a spring board to mine.
Dr
Campbell says: Out in the wilderness with
Israel, God is creating a new people who will embody an alternative to the ways
of Egypt, the ways of domination and submission, rich and poor, powerful and
powerless. Central to the formation of
that people is the gift of manna. The
manna is nothing fancy or luxurious; it is basic sustenance, “daily bread.”
Most importantly, however, manna is a
gift that cannot be hoarded. Indeed,
when people try to gather more than their share, the extra manna becomes worm
ridden and foul. With manna, everyone
has plenty, but no one has too much. The
leaders and the servants receive the same amount. The able and the disabled
receive the same amount: plenty, but not too much – and it is all a gift. The story becomes an embodiment of the Lord’s
Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Feasting
on the Word, YR A, Vol4 pg93.
As we read this morning’s parable the
most stricking conclusion seems to be that “there is an acceptance by God” of
everyone. Those laborers who were hired early
in the day could represent those of us who become followers of Christ early in
age, busily doing the work of God, expecting a certain reward – heaven, for our
loyalty and efforts. Then at the last
hour of the day, those who have not yet found work are invited to work and
because of their acceptance are given the same reward as those who accepted
earlier. Seen in this light, it is a story of
who gets “in” and possibly an implication that no one is left out. This is where some of us start to have
problems with what Jesus is trying to say.
My former mother-in-law use to say to me, “you know, most of us Christians are going to be very surprised at who
we will see in heaven!”
This parable also
relates closely with the story about the Prodigal Son, where the older brother
who stays home and works, resents the generosity of his father. He resents his father, as well as his younger
brother. So the resentment spoken about
in our parable centers around the gift of “equal” which is given by the land lord. God treats everyone with the gift of equality
– meaning it doesn’t matter when you start to recognize your relationship with
God – God is going to give you the same gift of life.
This
understanding of the parable makes sense if our understanding of relationship
with God means that the reward is going to heaven. But what happens if our understanding of our
relationship with God doesn’t mean going to heaven or the lack of our
relationship with God means not going to hell?
Another way of thinking about our relationship with God is to ask the
question, “What does being a Christian
mean?” Is “being a Christian” a basic
insurance policy for getting into heaven and not going to hell, or is there
another reason to be a follower of Jesus?
The most prevalent understanding of “what
being a Christian” in this country is based on a “heaven and hell”
theology. Some folks “get in” and others
get “left out.” Some are rewarded while others
are penalized.
What I
appreciated with Dr Campbell’s understanding of the manna in the desert story
was his exposure of the domination system, the system in which Egypt operated
under, making slaves of the Israelites.
God, through the giving of the manna while out in the desert provides an
alternative to this old system. It is a system of egalitarianism. A way of life, where everyone has enough, but
no one has “too much”. It is a system
where resources are available to everyone.
At the time that
Jesus was telling this parable to his disciples, Rome was enforcing a domination system
upon the Israelites, it was life being lived under the old order. In today’s world, we still are battling life
as we live under the old order of Domination, only now days we call it “free market of Capitalism.” We have been conditioned to believe that hard
work should be rewarded accordingly.
Seniority gives priority to the newbie’s, both in pay and
privilege. But ah! There lies the under meaning of this parable
– equality. In a society where we base our self-worth on
our “output” and “stored up wealth”, this story should be most unsettling to us.
Here we see a
landlord, hiring workers to work in his field; an agreed wage is set with those
first workers and they go out and start working their little hearts out. Periodically during the day, the landlord
see’s others who need work and also invites them into the labor force; here we
do not see a discussion upon wages being agreed upon, it seems that just the
opportunity to work is enough. Then at
the last hour of work, those who are still unemployed are also invited into the
field to work. Everybody seems to be
happy until it comes time to receive their wages for their work. Those who worked only for the last hour were
paid first, in front of those who had worked all day long.
Seeing those who
worked only an hour receiving a wage equal to what they had agreed upon by
those who hired on in the morning, lead them to believe that they would receive
a greater amount than what had previously been discussed. When they receive the agreed upon amount of
wages, which was the same as those who had worked only an hour of the day, they
became very resentful and were quite angry with the landlord for treating those
last workers as equal to them.
Jesus, in using
this parable, tries to help his disciples understand a new order of living – an
order of life that is different than the old order of domination. God’s economy is one of equality and one of
having “enough.” I so enjoy Gene
Rodenberry’s “Star Trek”, as it gives a vision that is different than that of current
cultural values. This series does not
see humanity as being given the privilege to dominate creation, but rather
where humanity is working at being a steward in God’s universe. One thing that I most noted in this series
was the idea that people worked for the good of everyone else without the need
of compensation of money. Everything was
provided for your daily needs and enjoyment.
This is the concept of God’s economy – there is enough for our daily
needs. We pray this each week during
worship, but do we really live it?
This parable also
exposes the harm that happens to society when we operate in the domination
system. What I mean by “domination
system”, is a system that restricts the flow of resources equally to all. The accumulation by a few at the expense of
the many. It is a system built on the
concept of scarcity.
Dr Campbell again
says: This parable painfully unmasks the
deep presuppositions that all too often form the “air we breathe” and shape our
lives to such an extent that we cannot even imagine alternatives. It exposes the fundamental metaphors that so
often structure social relations: winners and loser, superior and inferior,
insider and outsider, honored and shamed.
It unmasks an order and often encourages us to pray, “Give me this day
my daily bread,” rather than, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
This exposing lies behind the householder’s odd
method of payment, in which those who worked the longest must watch everyone
else receive the same as they do. Those
who worked all day complain, bringing to mind the grumbling of Israel in the
wilderness. Their complaint does not
simply concern money; it goes much deeper, to what the money represents. The real issue is superiority: “you have made
them equal to us.” Work becomes not
simply the means for earning daily bread, but a source of division and
competition, a means of reinforcing the categories of winners and losers,
superior and inferior. Feasting on the Word, YR A, Vol 4, pg 95,
97
The issue for the
church to understand is, that in the “domination” systems, there develops a
theology of who “get in” and who is “left out.”
We do this throughout our society, at all levels. There are restricted neighborhoods, there are
restricted clubs. The church has lost a
whole generation of people because it has become a group that also teaches that
some are good enough to “get into heaven” and there are those who are “not
worthy enough” to be let in.
This is a hard
parable to accept, because it goes against the way we have been conditioned in our society
through economics, and of competition
that “capitalism” is based upon. We
easily can fall into the trap of thinking that we deserve more while others deserve
less, solely because we feel entitled and view others as not being up to “our”
standards.
The other side of
this coin is that we may feel that we are not worthy enough to deserve the gift
and grace of God, which would keep us outside of the field and not enjoying the
freedom to use the gifts that God has already given to us. This story is about the Love of God toward
all of us! It is about how we are seen
as equals in the eyes of God. Our challenge
is to then look at each other and see what God see’s in each of us! Amen
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