We love when someone is generous to us. When someone gives us more than we expected or hoped. Generosity makes us feel special, like we deserve this gift, maybe a little surprised, and often happy. Generosity can elicit all those things and more. Scripture teaches about a generous spirit. Paul writes, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Cor. 9:6-7). We see God’s generosity when “the Lord is gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Yet we are not so keen when someone else gets more than we think they deserve. We like generosity when it benefits us, but not so much when it is lavished upon someone else.
Our gospel lesson is about the first being last, and the last being first, it is about an agrarian economy, it is about fairness, it is about an unusual landowner, and it is about envy and generosity. We know this parable as the Workers in the Vineyard. Jesus is speaking to his disciples who have and will again seek to secure their own status and security in the kingdom (Mt. 18:1, 19:27-30, 20:20-23). The disciples, like the workers, will splinter and become alienated. This parable is meant for them (Working Preacher, Stanely Saunders). READ Matthew 20:1-16.
My ex-husband is from Texas, so I have watched a good deal of Cowboy football. This landowner feels a lot like Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. He is attempting to manage the team even when he has hired managers. Why is the landowner recruiting labor several times a day, much like Jerry is in front of the cameras all the time. You can almost hear Jerry saying, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” But these workers are much like the day laborers we see and sometimes hire, who stand in front of Home Depot hoping to get hired for the day. They are simply without work, certainly not idle laborers. Then the landowner paying the ones last hired first, seems odd. But I could see Jerry doing that, so everyone could see he was a big man. He wants the others to see what he pays them.
You might be sitting there saying, “Anne, I thought God was the landowner in this parable, not Jerry Jones, and we are supposed to see God’s generosity.” Yes, you are right. This parable has often been interpreted that way. The landowner’s generosity is like God providing salvation to whomever God wishes. God generously offering grace not based on our merit but on God’s love and mercy. But I want to share some nuances I discovered about this parable. First when the workers grumble about their pay, when they worked 11 hours and the last hires worked one for the same wage, the landowner calls him “friend.” Friend in Matthew’s gospel is used ironically. Jesus called Judas “friend” right before he betrayed him in Gethsemane (26:50).
Also why is envy pitted against generosity? The landowner’s question, “Are you envious because I am generous?” is the translation of a Greek idiom, “… is your eye evil because I am good?” Think about that. Is your eye evil because I am good? Does one person’s goodness make you envious or look at them with contempt? Does generosity make you want to give someone an evil eye? This gets at how envy and comparison can twist us up when we see someone getting what we think we deserve.
A sparrow complained to Mother Nature, “You gave beautiful colors to the peacock and a lovely song to the nightingale, but I am plain and unnoticed. Why was I made to suffer?” “You were not made to suffer,” stated Mother Nature. “You suffer because you make the same foolish mistake as human beings. You compare yourself with others. Be yourself, for in that there is no comparison and no pain” (Sermons.com, King Duncan). Oh, if we could simply be ourselves without comparing, without a need for fairness or status.
The disciples struggled with this as well. Peter just asked Jesus, what will we have for leaving everything to follow you, Jesus? Jesus says you will receive a hundredfold (19:27-30). Peter is asking, how will my life compare with others? Then after this parable a disciple’s mother asks if her two sons will have an honored place in heaven which pissed off the other disciples. Comparison and status. Yes, God is generous, but this parable also teaches us about ourselves.
So why does the landowner tell the manager to pay the last hires first? It speaks to the first shall be last and the turning upside down of the economy. But at the same time, it creates envy, resentment, and a sense that things aren’t fair. If the first workers were paid without seeing what the later hires got paid, all would be fine. Maybe that is why we are taught to never tell people what we earn, because it creates a comparison; fairness and equality raise their justice seeking heads.
So I ask you, “Is generosity fair?” Is it fair that a rich landowner spends his money as he sees fit? He even asks, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” In America we believe that is true. If you earn it, you get to use it as you wish. But what about tech billionaires pouring tons of money into our politics, is that fair? I also don’t think it’s generous. Or how about the day laborers, real generosity would make their lives better, not keep them vulnerable and financially insecure. One commentator writes, “Day-laborers constituted a limitless and disposable fuel—bodies to be burned up—that made the ancient economy run. Our world is again full of such bodies, who make our clothes, produce our food, and assemble our electronic gizmos, yet never gain enough traction to be able to join the world of consumers. The parable thus pulls back the curtain on the ways our own world works, as it would have for Jesus’ audience” (Working Preacher, Stanely Saunders).
That is not generosity, that is capitalism. It also raises the question why have so many people seen the landowner, or kings, as the Godlike figure? “Is God really like these? Or are they merely god-like in our mind’s eye? Why do so many of us still want to believe what the powerful people say, even when it flies in the face of reality? The parable teaches us to read our world critically” (Working Preacher, Stanely Saunders).
This week I listened to a podcast with James Talerico, the Texas democrat running for the US Senate. He is a seminary student as well as a state representative. He attends St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, (PCUSA). I really appreciate his honesty, his faith, and his character. I rarely say that about a politician. He talked about loving one’s neighbor as his foundational principle and his public service is doing that to scale. He could criticize what is not working in Christianity, while always coming back to love and that God is love. Then he talked about incarnational politics, a term I had not heard. The incarnation is God dwelling within Jesus, God became human in Jesus Christ. So, incarnational politics is taking seriously that every person is made in the image of God, they are sacred and holy so that our politics seek to heal what is broken rather than just score points or tow the party line. Incarnational politics means we see the divine in each person.
I think that is when generosity is fair, when every person has the same value. When the day laborer and the CEO have the same value. I believe that is true in God’s kingdom. And this parable is teaching us about the kingdom of heaven and how we are working to bring that about here. Yet more often than not, generosity is not fair. We compare ourselves to others, envy others giving them the evil eye, and we get jealous over what others have or get. Yet we should be thankful that generosity is not fair. Especially with God. If God’s generosity was based on fairness, we would be in trouble. We could never do enough to warrant the unconditional love and acceptance we receive from God. God’s generosity is abundant and unlimited. Grace is generous. Love is generous. Forgiveness is generous. And yes, God is generous! Amen.
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