Friday, September 16, 2005
An Offensive Parable.
Next weeks Gospel:
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
"About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the market-place doing nothing. He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went.
"He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'
" 'Because no-one has hired us,' they answered.
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.'
"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'
"The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'
"But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
Matt 20: 1-16 (NIV)
Is anyone else's sense of natural justice outraged by the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard? Mine is! Does anyone else feel that this is blatantly and self-evidently wrong?
I would guess that I'm not the only one. If we do feel that way it reveals the power of the parable - one that speaks into our society especially well - even if we have never laboured for a day in the fields in our lives.
Somehow it feels like the latecomers haven’t earned what they’ve been given. And that is exactly the case. It’s an offence to justice because it isn’t just – it’s gracious. Maybe that’s why this one parable is actually an enormous challenge in our times. Whether we like it or not we are the products of our consumerist, and ever more money-driven society. We live in a world where most university students are required to borrow off the state to allow them to pay the rent and food bills. Where we rightly get concerned when pensions, the things that we’ve contributed to over the years to ensure our later survival are eroded. A world where the minister’s stipend looks like a painful anachronism to all who think about it (not to mention the worries of the minister him or herself about where they will live when the stipend stops).
It doesn’t feel right because we know the world doesn’t work that way. There’s no explicit intention in the parable to undermine our current economic regime, although many in this world might approve of that reading. The point is that parables exist to challenge the way we see the world and to question our assumptions. We can speak lightly of God’s grace, yet find it hard to recognise the very nature of grace. And is it significant that it takes an economic/financial implication to rouse my unconscious indignation?
If all Jesus' parables had the same effect to our sensitivities what would your reaction be? I, personally, am not sure if I could make the same response of faith demonstrated in the disciples and very earliest followers of Jesus.
Familiarity and a glib tongue have blunted so much of the sheer audactiy of Jesus' teaching - and yet he entrusts us with the continuation of his mission. If the Spirit calls us to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" then I'm too comfortable. Anyone dare to agree?
¶ 3:34 pm I would guess that I'm not the only one. If we do feel that way it reveals the power of the parable - one that speaks into our society especially well - even if we have never laboured for a day in the fields in our lives.
Somehow it feels like the latecomers haven’t earned what they’ve been given. And that is exactly the case. It’s an offence to justice because it isn’t just – it’s gracious. Maybe that’s why this one parable is actually an enormous challenge in our times. Whether we like it or not we are the products of our consumerist, and ever more money-driven society. We live in a world where most university students are required to borrow off the state to allow them to pay the rent and food bills. Where we rightly get concerned when pensions, the things that we’ve contributed to over the years to ensure our later survival are eroded. A world where the minister’s stipend looks like a painful anachronism to all who think about it (not to mention the worries of the minister him or herself about where they will live when the stipend stops).
It doesn’t feel right because we know the world doesn’t work that way. There’s no explicit intention in the parable to undermine our current economic regime, although many in this world might approve of that reading. The point is that parables exist to challenge the way we see the world and to question our assumptions. We can speak lightly of God’s grace, yet find it hard to recognise the very nature of grace. And is it significant that it takes an economic/financial implication to rouse my unconscious indignation?
If all Jesus' parables had the same effect to our sensitivities what would your reaction be? I, personally, am not sure if I could make the same response of faith demonstrated in the disciples and very earliest followers of Jesus.
Familiarity and a glib tongue have blunted so much of the sheer audactiy of Jesus' teaching - and yet he entrusts us with the continuation of his mission. If the Spirit calls us to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" then I'm too comfortable. Anyone dare to agree?
Comments:
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O, I certainly agree. But agreeing is easy; doing something about it is difficult.
# posted by 
: 3:16 pm, September 16, 2005
: 3:16 pm, September 16, 2005
I've been reading a bit about Paul for seminary. One point it made was about this parable- that we gentiles are those who step in a the last minute and who get the full inheritance. I'd never thought about it like that before. It challenged me
mostly I think it's unfair that God forgives me so much -and I struggle forgiving people for even tiny things.
that's what's going on in my world. how's yours?
mostly I think it's unfair that God forgives me so much -and I struggle forgiving people for even tiny things.
that's what's going on in my world. how's yours?
# posted by : 11:23 am, September 19, 2005
: 11:23 am, September 19, 2005
Tanks for the comment Lorna. I'm well aware of the interpretation of the parable in the context of the Jew-Gentile debate, but this is just the way it has always struck me. One of thise rare parables that impacts the emotions, which rarely become too prominent in my faith, rather than just the intellectually engaging tale, which is very common in my faith.
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