Sermons for the Month
Fair Is Fair … Or Is It?
DATE: September 18, 2005
SERVICE: 18th Sunday after Pentecost
TEXT: Matthew 20:1-16“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
Some of you may have watched the Drew Carey Show, a rather irreverent sit-com that was set in Cleveland. One of the later episodes came to mind this week as I reflected on today's Gospel lesson.
Drew's nephew played on a children's soccer team and this particular league emphasized fun and teamwork rather than skills and winning. So, no distinctions were made among players based on ability and no scores were kept. This drove Drew to distraction because he wanted there to be clearly defined winners and losers. How else would a person know when to celebrate and when to be depressed?
The memory of that TV episode then reminded me of a time when I was going to play the board game Scrabble, which involves creating words, with four other people. Three of the four wanted to play the game without rules and without keeping score. Two were high school students who figured they had no chance of winning and one was an adult who had the best chance of winning but avoided the conflict that often comes with competition at all costs.
I could not imagine playing the game without rules or winners. I mean, what would be the point? In fact, I even made that statement that for me the game would be no fun if we didn't keep score or abide by the rules. Now, I'm not particularly proud of that, and I'll even admit the uncomfortable truth that I wanted what I was "due" because I'm pretty good at Scrabble. It somehow seemed unfair to be the one who created the best words and not get credit for them.
Do you know what I mean? If so, then today's Gospel lesson probably raised a few questions in your minds since it addresses this whole question of fairness. I'll summarize it quickly.
A landowner goes to the marketplace himself early in the morning to recruit laborers for his vineyard. They agree on a fair wage for the day and the work begins. But then the landowner makes four more trips to the marketplace - at around 9 a.m., Noon, 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. - finds more laborers and sends them into the fields. The day ends and they all are paid the same wage - that which was agreed upon with the first group.
I should mention that those who were at the marketplace ready to go to work at dawn probably were the most motivated and may have been the best workers. Yet, they received the agreed upon rate of pay for the day with no bonus. "No fair", they cry! It's not that they want more money necessarily, but they certainly do not feel that it is fair for the latecomers - who may have been sleeping part of the day away before finally showing up at the marketplace to look for work - to be paid the same as they were paid.
They don't think it's fair, and would guess that most of us are inclined to agree with them. People should get what they deserve. If they are better soccer players, they should be in the game more than the person with less skill. If someone can create a word that uses the "z" and the "q", and play it on a triple word square, all of those points should be placed under his or her name on the score sheet. If a laborer works eight hours he or she should be paid more than the person who works one hour. After all, fair is fair.
And yet in both today's Old Testament lesson and Gospel, God is not portrayed as fair. Did you notice that the reason Jonah balked at going to Nineveh to proclaim a word from God is that he knew God had this habit of being gracious and merciful? He suspected that the people of Nineveh would be given a second chance even though Jonah did not think they deserved it. So, he was disappointed when the people repented and God in turn repented from bringing calamity upon them. It's not fair, he says, as he sits pouting outside of the city.
Both Jonah and the early morning laborers want God to act according to their standards of fairness, and they both want to limit the generosity of God. God asks Jonah, "…should I not be concerned with Nineveh, that great city…?" And the landowner says to the laborers, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?"
The answer that immediately springs to mind in both cases may be, "No." No, God, we do not want you to be concerned about people who we feel are undeserving of your mercy. Or, no, if you are going to be too generous you should not be allowed to choose how to reward people."
So, why do we care if God is generous? Why all this focus on fairness? Well, it's because we are functioning from a very worldly stance. You see, there is a conflict here between the divine and the human point of view. We are operating on different planes. Our minds are on reward, but God's is on grace, the unmerited, that is unearned, love and favor that God generously offers humanity.
But there is another reason we want to limit God's generosity - and this is painful to admit - it is that we do not see ourselves as needing it. If we identify with the hard working laborers or the skilled soccer players or the word wizards, and know that we can earn our reward, then there's no need for grace in our lives.
However, if we were in the shoes of a person who would have gone hungry that day had it not been for the fact that he or she was hired late in the day and paid a decent amount, it would be a different story. Had my friends wanted to play tennis rather than Scrabble, I would have been more than happy to abandon rules and score keeping and to accept a little grace.
Do you see what I mean? Only when we clearly see ourselves standing with the people of Nineveh who were grateful for a second change or as the person who rejoices that he or she was given a break do we truly appreciate who God is and what God has done for us.
In this parable Jesus is making three important points. Two of them are tied to the context, and therefore do not mean as much to us, but I'll mention them any way. He is telling his disciples that they have no claim to a special honor or place because they are among the first Christians. And, he is making it clear that those among them who are Jews have no higher status than the non-Jews who became Christians.
However, the primary message that Jesus is conveying is significant and life-changing for us. It is that God's love is radical in nature, that God is willing to do that which seems unfair because God's focus is not on reward but on grace. To put it in simple language, those who do not deserve it are forgiven through Jesus and promised the gift of eternal life. That includes those who appear to need grace and those who do not appear to need it, but may need it more!
It's an amazing concept that only God could have thought up. Is it fair? Well, since everyone can benefit from God's generous grace, it seems pretty fair to me! AMEN