The Generosity of God

The Generosity of God 

When Jesus tells the parable of the “workers in the vineyard,” I suspect that the workers who spent all day in the hot sun were not the only ones who felt that the land owner who paid everyone the same wage was unfair.  In an agricultural economy like the one Jesus grew up in, many, many people made their living working in the hot sun for twelve hours a day.  For them to imagine someone working only six, or three or one hour a day making the same wage must have rubbed them the wrong way completely.  I believe that is why Jesus told the parable in this way; to catch their attention.  After all, the parable is not really about work, but about generosity, the generosity of God, and perhaps, our generosity as well. 

There were people in Jesus’ day who found a life giving relationship to God at an early age and it served them for a lifetime.  For others it was much more of a challenge to believe in God or to follow God, or both.  In this story, Jesus is communicating that the Kingdom of God is not just for the early arrivals, or the particularly pious or holy.  The kingdom of God is open to the first, the last and those in the middle.  It is open to priests, scribes, Pharisees as well as prostitutes and tax collectors. 

We Christians need to hear this today.  We also need to hear that the kingdom of God is also open to Christian denominations other than our own, and also to Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, agnostics and atheists. 

God does not ask us to decide who gets in.  But God does ask us to invite everyone into the kingdom, by everything that we say or do.  I once served a church in a major U.S. city.  A city with all the joys, blessings and problems of most large cities in the world: crime, poverty, prostitution and homelessness were an everyday occurrence for many on our wonderful city.  One of the members of our church was a prostitute and another was a sometimes street person.  These two were welcomed by most into the church itself, but problems arose when they wanted to attend a book study held in a member’s home.  Most American Christians who worship in homogenous congregations do not usually think about this possibility.  The Church made the decision to move the book study to the church.  The woman who hosted the study did leave the church for awhile, but thanks be to God, came back fairly soon.  It can be hard to welcome everyone into God’s Kingdom at times.

If God’s Justice is to give priority to the “unwanted,” what does that mean for us, the church, the body of Christ?  Even though difficult, I believe that God’s Justice does not set one group against another.  Instead, it enables the whole community to grow together by making it vulnerable before those most vulnerable.   This is not easy, but the question for us is, can we be gracious and compassionate as God is?  Can we be slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love as I believe God is?  Yes, I believe we can.  It is not always easy, but I believe we can. 

We are gracious and compassionate when we listen to others, when we value their opinions and feelings, when we don’t assume that we are always right, even if we would like to believe that.  In writing to the Colossians, St. Paul shares a recipe for relationships that we can all learn from. 

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, cloth yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  Bear with one another and if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14) 

We can avoid jumping to conclusions as we listen to others and hear what they are really saying and we can get the facts on issues about which we disagree.  We as God’s people, God’s Chosen Ones, can “love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and we can love our neighbors as we love ourselves.”