Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 21, 2008 - Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Isaiah 55:6-9; Philippians 1:20C-24, 27A; Matthew 20:1-16A]For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.
God's words in Isaiah could be God's response to the disgruntled workers in the vineyard at the end of the day. We might ask ourselves what our "gut reaction" is to this parable. Did we find ourselves thinking, "Wait a minute, that's not fair?" Did we really read the parable closely? Only the first batch (the disgruntled ones) were given an exact contract. All the others were told only that they would be given "whatever is fair." In short, the owner is both an employer and a benefactor. It is true that at the end of the day, the owner could have decided to become a benefactor to the first group as he was to all the other workers. Instead, he chose to honor the agreement, and the first group is upset with him because they associate the quantity of work with the quantity of return (just as we Americans might!). In short, we might tend to see this as an employment discrimination problem. God's thoughts are not our thoughts, however. The owner in this parable is under no obligation to hire anyone. In the culture of Jesus' day, his obligation would have been a social one insofar as his hiring would be considered an act of generosity to all those who were hired. If nothing else, the first group had the "protection" of a guaranteed full day's wage. The other workers had no such security. When we wonder why God gave us X and someone else Y and we think Y is more than X or that we are more deserving of Y than those who received it, we are like those workers in the first group. We forget that the guarantee of the full day's wage was an act of generosity to begin with. Instead of being grateful recipients, we become "injured parties" in our own minds. This can give rise to what the owner suspects: ENVY. There is nothing more corrosive to a relationship than that! "Counting our blessings" can be an occasion of gratitude and love. It's when we start trying to count other people's blessings that we get into trouble! God's ways are not our ways. AMEN
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