The Rev. Dr. Jean-Jacques D'Aoust             XVIII after Pentecost     9/17/05         St Paul’s, Ft Collins

The Parable of the Generous Landlord

Peter Gomes, the chaplain at Harvard University, wrote a fascinating book some ten years ago, entitled THE GOOD BOOK: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart.  He makes the reading of the Bible so compelling by showing how the characters who, like ourselves,  are so often both confused and confusing, and yet play their part in the drama of human relationship to God. The stories of such characters, he adds, are not true because they are “in the Bible; rather, the stories are in the Bible because they are true to the experience of men and women with their God.”

 Perhaps there is no other character in Hebrew Scripture about whom this is as accurate as Jonah. It says a lot about our ancient ancestors that they included the Book of Jonah in the canonical collection of the 12 Minor Prophets. From beginning to end, this very short legend is a very funny piece of satire on the classical prophetic writings – a point that is lost on people who take things too literally and themselves too seriously. Jonah can be read as a literary figure of the anti-prophet. Instead of hearing, proclaiming, and doing the Word of the Lord, Jonah invariably does the exact opposite. Called to go east and prophesy repentance to the Assyrians in Nineveh, Jonah promptly goes west and gets on a ship bound for the Costa del Sol of Spain. When a violent Mediterranean storm comes up, the pagan sailors on board have infinitely more respect for the God of Israel than Jonah himself does. The episode with the whale is very funny and is to be taken as a hyperbole to mean a heck lot of trouble. Obviously, the throat of a whale could not possibly swallow a man. When, with great reluctance, Jonah finally goes to Nineveh to prophesy repentance, the king and all the city dwellers, including the animals, do something almost never heard of in the writings of an Amos or a Jeremiah; they actually believe the Word of the Lord and proceed to fast and pray in sackcloth and ashes.

And then God saw Nineveh turned away from its evil ways, and had compassion upon all who lived there. We cannot help but think that any ordinary prophet would be praising the Lord with all his might, but not Jonah. “This was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.” To paraphrase his words a bit: “This,” he said, “is why I wanted to go to Spain in the first place; you always do this! Here are all these miserable offenders who are not among your chosen people, and all you can do is be gracious and merciful to them, overflowing with the milk of human kindness, and you don’t punish them! What is the point? It’s not fair! I might as well be dead!” As the story draws to its close there is another episode of comedy involving a big tree-eating worm, and then the moral of the tale becomes clear: God’s mercy and compassion are indeed unbelievable; they go way beyond the human logic of what is fair and unfair. “Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, said the Lord, that great city, in which there are more than 120 thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left?”

The gospel reading for this morning provides us with the appearance of a similar story of something that is unfair. It should not be called the parable of the workers, but rather the parable of the generous landlord. As the story goes, the manager hires workers at 9 AM, then noon, then 3 PM, then, finally, 5 PM.  At 6 PM, he calls the workers to receive their pay.

Up to this point typical labor practices in the ancient world are described. However, the story takes a curious twist when the landowner instructs the manager to pay all the laborers the same as what had been agreed upon earlier.

Beginning with those who had worked only an hour and going on to those who had worked the full twelve hours, they all received the same pay. Seeing this, the other workers expect to be paid more, according to the number of hours they worked.

The disgruntled workers confront the landowner, pointing out that they have worked twelve hours and “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” It was unfair that they should receive the same pay as those who had worked only one hour. The owner reminds them that he has paid them exactly what they had agreed upon earlier in the day; so they should take their pay and go. “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?”

This is an upsetting parable, especially if you look at it from the human point of view. But, from the divine point of view, it is a different story.  God cares for all people; those who are fully employed and those who are unemployed for no fault of their own.

Those who were hired last had stood around all day in the unemployment line. They had a family and nothing to feed them with. Their hope disappeared when sunset came, Finally, when hired, they go and do what they can to bring something home.

It’s tough being an outsider, being one who has no hope, or very little hope. They didn’t feel very good at all. But then, the landlord does something completely crazy, completely wild, completely unexpected. He gives them a full day’s wage, even though they haven’t earned it. He gives them enough to live on. He gives them their families, their homes, their very lives. That’s incredible, isn’t it? So what is really the problem with the parable of God’s love?

The Lord looks at us, and he sees our needs and he meets those needs. And the question in God’s mind is not “how much do these people deserve, but rather how can I help them? How can I save them before they perish?”

It is all grace and blessing; it is grace to be hired in the morning, and grace to be hired at noon time, and grace to be hired near the end of the day. And we do well to remember it.

Jesus said, “The last will be first, and first last,” not to tell us how things are in the world, but to warn those who forget how they got to be first. That is the danger that we all face when we feel so comfortable in our position of being first that we dare to question God’s love for others who happen to come along after The parable of the Generous Landowner is offensive if you believe that God’s love is something you earn. It is offensive if you weigh and measure other people rather than really try to love them as God loves them. It is offensive if you do not cry over the hunger of the unemployed and weep over those who are wasting their lives away in things that do not profit them. It is offensive if you are the kind of trade unionist who believes that seniority is the only important thing, or the kind of businessman who thinks that generosity only counts if it is tax deductible.

But for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the parable is glorious news about God’s love for us all. Indeed, it is a source of hope and strength for everyone who is called to labor in God’s field rather than be left to perish in the marketplace with those who have not been chosen.

In the epistle, Paul expressed his desire to be fully united with Christ in the afterlife: “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not do what I prefer.”  Either way he will be allowed to accomplish God’s will. He expresses faith that the people will live and work together in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” 

Let us pray:

O Lord, who has given us so much, give us one thing more, a grateful heart, and help us to remember that while it is possible to give without loving, it is impossible to love with giving. 

Amen.