Eighteenth Pentecost
Matthew 20:1-16; Philippians 1:21-30; Jonah 3:10-4:11
Numbers have always fascinated me. Especially when we try to place them in the real world. These past few weeks have seen the media filled with numbers as the various federal, state and local agencies have tried to cope with the consequences of Hurricane Katrina. Projections of the death toll have fortunately been proven so far to be greatly exaggerated--unless the life lost was that of a family member or loved one. Then one death was too many. The President has begun to make proposals for the reconstruction and Congress has acted with initial funding of billions of dollars--the final projected costs are easily going to exceed several hundred billions of dollars. Hundreds of billions plus the hundreds of billions for the war in Iraq plus the operating budget of the US Government--made me pause for a moment and reflect on that number "billion". What gives a number meaning is how it touches our lives. While we have had great compassion for the human suffering following the hurricane--we have great difficulty discerning exactly what meaning numbers like "a billion" have on us. A billion in the United States is a thousand million or 1 with 9 zeros after it. The mathematician David Schwartz observes that "If a billion kids made a human tower, they would stand up past the moon. If you sat down and counted out loud to one billion you would be counting for 95 years." A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into perspective by noting that a billion seconds ago it was 1974--a billion minutes ago Jesus was alive--a billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes at the rate the US Government budget spends and that does not include the war in Iraq or the Hurricane Disaster recovery allocations. A billion--and the Federal debt as of yesterday was approaching 8 trillion dollars--we don't even want to begin to talk about trillions. This morning they are only numbers--numbers that have great implications for our financial and social well-being--numbers that will have an even greater impact on our children's futures if we do not deal with them. It all depends on how you add things up.
Numbers play an important part in our world--even in scripture. But just as it is difficult to fully grasp the meaning of certain numbers in the real world--so the mathematics of the Bible is often elusive and demanding. I think especially of the way Jesus used numbers. On one occasion Jesus made 99 and one equal--in fact it might be argued that to Jesus one was greater than 99. Why else would he have such praise for leaving 99 sheep in the wilderness in order to look for one lost sheep. Then there was the woman who took nearly a quart of fine perfume costing over a year's salary and poured it on Jesus' feet. I have a real problem buying perfume or cologne primarily because they sell it in such small bottles--the stuff is really expensive. A quart of even the cheapest perfume is not intended for massaging feet. It just doesn't add up yet Jesus has no criticism for her actions. That is what we find again and again in the stories about Jesus. Things just don't add up the way we would think. Jesus watches the respected members of society dropping their bags of money into the temple treasury--bags of money--not single coins and yet when a poor widow comes and drops her single little penny into the temple offering Jesus claims that she had given more than all the others put together. That was an observation that obviously had no meaning in terms of real dollars.
And then there is today's parable. The owner of a vineyard goes into town twice in the morning, again at noon, then in the middle of the afternoon, and finally an hour before the end of the day to hire workers to pick his grapes. I find myself wondering a little about who would still be waiting for work at 5 p.m. Why are they still available so late in the day? Most likely they are the most feeble, the oldest, the least desirable workers. It is probably safe to assume that all the workers depended on these temporary jobs to feed themselves and their families. The first laborers were hired for the usual daily wage. Each additional group was promised to be paid "whatever is right". You can almost imagine what happened when each group got to the vineyard. Someone must have asked the first group what they had been promised and the calculations had begun. "The owner said one-hundred-and-fifty bucks!" Everyone did the math.. One-hundred-and-fifty divided by twelve. Even the ones hired for the last hour were looking at $12.50. That would provide something for the table for the night and maybe even something for breakfast in the morning. When the workers last hired opened their pay envelops at the end of the day there were smiles all around. Unless there had been some mix up with the paychecks they had been paid for one hours work as if they had worked all day. The same was true for those who had worked only the last three hours of the day. Those who had sweat through the heat of the day undoubtedly accepted their pay with great anticipation of the bonus that so generous an employer must surely be planning to extend to them for their 12 hours of hard labor. But their pay is the same as everyone else received. It takes little imagination to know what the reaction would be. The grumbling and complaining about fairness and equity. The whole story is very troubling to most of us because it violates our understanding of the way the world should be ordered. The principles of capitalism and even fair labor laws simply don't allow for this kind of pay calculations. No business would last very long if everyone were paid a livable salary regardless of how hard or long they worked.
We, of course, tend to view this parable told by Jesus as being among the first to enter the vineyard of the master. Most of us have been in the church for most of our lives and we recognize the vineyard as our place of employ. We are not especially comfortable with the idea that someone who enters the vineyard in the last hour has equal value in the eyes of the God. Certainly there must be some value in being faithful--in working hard. And yet I also recognize as an enlightened and compassionate Christian that those who were hired last may have had their perspective too. We know too well how the world makes its selections--the rewards for being the most intelligent--most athletic--most beautiful. There may be a place in the world for everyone but there is no denying the hesitation in hiring and the past discrimination that has excluded and limited persons of disabilities, limited training and education, those of other race, religion or sexual orientation from being welcomed into the world as having equal value with the rest of us--equal value with me. We pass our laws and hope our judges will attempt to set history and society on a better path of values and worth. . Each one hired needed a day's wages to live, to provide shelter and food for self and family. An employer who promises "whatever is right" could hardly be faulted for providing what was needed to live another day to all who worked for him.
This is not the mathematics of our world. We calculate. Most of us begin with the understanding that the harder you work the more you are worth. Study hard. Practice hard. Put in the long hours and it will pay off in the end. We have all been taught the firm work ethic often believed to be grounded in our faith. But today's parable doesn't fit that world. The numbers just don't add up. And if we were honest with ourselves we would also admit that the way our world calculates also misses some important points. Few employers today demonstrate any great loyalty to the hard working employee. The bottom line trumps even longevity, dedication or ability. The value of work is artificial and to a certain degree arbitrary. The millions paid to the professional athlete versus the teacher's salary, the cost of labor in this country versus the salary paid in China or some third world nation. Trying to make it all add up can lead ultimately to the grumbling and complaining or something unexpected. This is where the encounter with today's parable touches us most deeply.
Grace. In our world one plus one equals two. Most of the time we want our world to add up in such a way that if we do this then we will get that. Yet we also yearn for a world in which God's grace is more, not less, real. The initial reaction to the disaster of hurricane and flood is the unconditional offering of shelter, food, clothing without requirement of payment or evaluation of need or merit. The small insignificant numbers like one lamb or one insignificant looking person become very large in God's mathematics. There are moments in life that let us practice with such numbers. Adding a little grace to the hard calculations of the world. This past Friday I found myself at the bank filling out a deposit slip for my pay check and a number of miscellaneous reimbursements. As I was writing out the deposit slip I happened to glance up as a middle aged African-American woman and a younger Latino woman both entered the bank. They appeared by their clothing and look as if they were cleaning ladies and they both proceeded to teller windows with checks to cash. I was closest to where the Latino woman was and could hear the teller explaining that first he needed two forms of identification and then she was questioned about having an account with the bank. I could tell the young woman was flustered by the demands. Especially the requirement for two picture IDs. The look on her face suggested that she was already imagining the weekend without any cash. I caught the eye of the teller who knew me. I asked him if she could cash her check against my account. They both looked at me surprised. The teller stammered that I could do that but it wasn't very safe. The young woman suddenly had a hopeful look on her face. I handed the teller my checkbook and said, "It will be fine." I had never done such a thing before. Obviously there was a risk--but it seemed like the right thing to do. Especially when I reflected on the report that morning of displaced and homeless from Louisiana and Mississippi who were encountering banks that would not cash their insurance checks or Federal relief checks because they did not have enough identification or accounts in the right bank. It seemed that a grace moment was called for in a young woman's life.
That is what today's parable is ultimately all about. Making things add up in a way that brings hope and promise. Sometimes the smallest numbers are the most important. The one piece of bread--the one sip of wine--the one blessing--the one name in the prayer list that is the only name you really hear--because that is the name that cries out most hopefully for a moment of grace. This may be the first time you have heard this story. This may be the one hundredth. What ultimately matters is that we come to recognize that life is not about what we do for God but what God did for us and what God continues to do . How does anyone measure the worth of a life? Of the millions--of the 6.5 billion people on our planet --which one of us does God care about most? Which one of the billions really matters? The good news this morning is that no matter how you or I add it all up--we will be wrong. God's math is not our math. It is not a matter of billions. It is a matter of one. One who came into our world. One who died for our sins. One who said, "As you do it unto each one of the least of these you do it unto me." It is God who loves each one of us.
Amen