For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner….who goes to the marketplace over and over, all day long, gathering everyone who wanted to come and work…a landowner who seems to be hiring people, not because he needs them to work…but because they need to be hired. And then, at the end of the day, gives them all…not what is fair…but what they need.
So often, reading this parable, I focus on the unfairness…because, well, I like things to be fair I had siblings, after all…and when you have siblings, you grow up obsessed with what is fair and what is totally not fair. Every privilege is measured up against theirs, every inch of back seat space is calculated, every slice of pie is carefully evaluated. And chores — who is doing more and who is doing less — are a never ending source of debate. So…my first reaction to this parable is to feel the outrage of the workers who put in hours and hours of work, and got the same reward as those who showed up late.
And when I do that…I miss the point. The kingdom of heaven isn’t about what’s fair. The kingdom of heaven is about God …who wants everyone to have what they need. God who comes calling in the marketplace in the morning, in the afternoon, late in the day…to find people who are in need of their daily bread. God, who goes out, not because God needs us…but because we need God.
Laborers who gather on the streets for daily work…are NOT people who have bank accounts and investments and rainy day funds. Laborers who gather on the streets for daily work are there to make enough to keep food on the table for the day…and if they’re lucky, a shelter over their heads.
And the landowner seeks them out…all day long…so he can give them what they need.
So…what do we need?
In confirmation, we are studying the Lord’s prayer…and Luther’s explanations in the small catechism. Luther wrote his small catechism for families…so parents could teach their children the basics of faith. He covers the 10 commandments, the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Communion and Confession. The basics of our worship together.
You can find the small catechism in your hymnal — He goes through each of these, step by step, asking “What does this mean?”
So after praying “Give us our Daily Bread”…Luther asks “What does this mean?” and his answer is —
In fact, God gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God causes us to recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving.
What then is daily bread, Luther asks?
Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
For Luther — these are our daily needs…which God provides in the abundance of creation. For all people. Whether they are evil or good. Whether they deserve it or not.
For those of you who are familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — Luther basically sums the basic needs up quite nicely — food, water, shelter, warmth, health, stability, security.
But just as Maslow realized that beyond our basic needs, we also have needs for intimacy, achievement and self-actualization — a need to belong and to feel accomplishment and to use our gifts….God also knows that our daily needs are greater than the daily bread Luther articulates.
And the landowner who comes and invites the workers to come throughout the day…is a God who not only gives us food, shelter, and stability…but who also gives us grace.
To those who are despairing…the laborers who have given up hope that anyone will hire them…to those who do not believe tomorrow will be a better day…God comes. To claim them. To declare them worthy. To restore their dignity. To give them hope for the future.
To those who are alone, the laborers who do not think they deserve a job…who cannot love others because they cannot love themselves…to those whose grief has dried hardened their hearts…God comes. To love them as they are. To use them as they are. No strings attached.
To those who are hurt and injured, the laborers who are unable to work all day in the hot sun…those who have been so damaged by abuse or injustice, that they have little left to give …God comes. To remind them that they are whole in God’s eyes. That they are as valuable as every other person. That their gifts are wanted and needed. That they matter.
God gives to all — the evil and the good, the deserving and the undeserving — the gifts of food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, etc, etc….
But God also gives to all — the evil and the good, the deserving and the undeserving — the gifts of grace. God goes swinging through the marketplace…over and over an over…all day long…picking us all up…offering us all a place in God’s company. And values each of us…exactly the same.
This week, we have once again been reminded of the how malignant the lies of white supremacy are in our world. Like a cancer, they spread and infect and kill. The idea that some people matter more…or have more intrinsic value or are superior to others…is the absolute opposite of God’s view of humanity. In God’s view, we all matter. We ALL matter.
The hard part about that…is that the people I would like to call evil…the ones who mow down innocent people or perpetuate lies about Muslims or Mexicans or Women….matter to God as well.
At our council retreat, I shared a video of Father Gregory Boyle. He works with gang members in Los Angeles at Homeboy and Homegirl Industries. With people who have done evil things. But he keeps swinging through the marketplace, inviting them to come and work at Homeboy…all day long, day after day after day.
He initially began his work over 30 years ago with the mantra that “nothing stops a bullet like a job”. But that changed over the years…because he realized that the job didn’t change things for the gang members…rather things didn’t change until they began to belong to each other. Until folks from rival gangs began to make connections with each other — form relationships. He calls it radical “kinship”. That there is not and “us” and a “them”…and that each of us is exactly what God had in mind when he made us. Some of us just have a lot of stuff that stands in the way, and we can’t see it. Radical kinship…the idea that all of us are called into the landowner’s vineyard as equals.
One interview I watched, he talked about what it means to belong to one another. And he talks about the fact that the victims of violence belong to us. It was shortly after the shooting in Charleston by Dylan Roof, the Lutheran boy who deeply believed that black people’s lives didn’t matter, and so he entered their church, was welcomed into their Bible study, and then took out his gun and mowed them down. Father Boyle reminds us, that the nine men and women he killed belonged to us. They were ours. They were family. But, Father Boyle reminds us…Dylan Roof belongs to us as well. He is ours. As Lutherans, we should feel that easily. But we don’t. We somehow believe that he is not ours….he isn’t really Lutheran. He isn’t really one of us. But he is. He is one of us…one of our Lutheran family…and one of human family. We ALL belong to each other. No exceptions. And God’s love is for us all.
This week, we remember that the Muslims of New Zealand belong to us. They are ours. They are family. But so is the one who mowed them down…49 innocent men, women and children. We ALL belong to each other. And Mother Teresa was right…that everything wrong in the world is a result of us forgetting that.
I believe this story of God, swinging through the marketplace again and again and again is the story of God…who loves us all. Who sees us ALL as beloved ones…who wants us to see ourselves the way God sees us. This is the story of God…who gives us what we need….ALL of us….not what we deserve. Who gives us love. And calls us kin.
This is the story of God…who is generous to us, even when we don’t deserve it. And whose generosity extends into mosques and prisons, beyond borders and race. And all we have to …is say thank you. As Luther said….may we recognize what our daily bread is…what grace we have been given… and receive it with thanksgiving. Amen.
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