18 September 2011 “Begin With the End in Mind” Matthew 20:1-16

18 September 2011 “Begin With the End in Mind” Matthew 20:1-16

I have always been a big fan of Brenham State School. That’s the place in Brenham where people with mental retardation live and work. During my time there I learned so much about human behavior, supervising people, advocating for those who struggle to advocate for themselves, and much more. I felt, and still believe, it is a good place.

As good as it is people are people and some days the job can wear folks down. The staff work hard hours; 6/2, 2/10, or 10/6. They work holidays and weekends. At times the work is highly stressful and difficult physically and emotionally.
I had the advantage of working with the staff a long time. I knew them and they knew me and that was a very good thing for them and for me. But on occasion their job performance did not meet my expectations and we would talk.

Over time I learned who I could talk with easily and who would push back a bit. The push back folks almost always brought our talk to the point where eventually they would say, “That’s not fair,” or “You aren’t being fair,” or “The system isn’t being fair,” and on and on about something being unfair.

I must admit I seldom saw it that way. Being fair, while important in the context of being just, usually meant to the employee I should give them a break. They wanted me to overlook the rule or ignore unacceptable behavior because they believed themselves to be a good person, or they had not intended to break a rule, or there were special circumstances.

And they may have been right. This work discussion involved them and they felt they deserved to be treated fairly according to their definition. “Treat me fair,” they would say. “Don’t punish me.” “Don’t tell me I’m not doing my job correctly.” “Treat me differently if it means I’ll get a break.” Otherwise, I was not being fair.
Working directly with people in any and all settings can produce stress. We all feel it and it is obvious we will never totally eliminate stress from our lives. Even if we change jobs, move to another town, or retire. No matter, stress is just a fact of life.

We do learn over time that we can reduce our stress if we will be honest with ourselves about its cause. But we’ve made decisions and we have commitments and obligations. So our challenge becomes one of healthy vs. unhealthy decision making about the stressors we have and our habits or disciplines or responses for managing them.

When I taught stress management to the people I supervised I was not surprised by what stressed them. Money issues were the most dominant, followed closely by family concerns. Physical problems, addictive behaviors of all sorts were there too. Over and over again I heard the same unrealized expectation about these difficult life issues. Life should be fair, folks would say.

It is certainly clear where we want fairness. We want life and work and school and the law and mom and dad and church and especially God, to be fair.
Life and work and school and the law and mom and dad and church and God should be just and honest and good with all things being equal, impartial, unbiased, with even and equal treatment for everyone. Oh, we know what a slippery slope this can be.

We know full well life is not always fair. Work is not always fair. School, mom and dad, the law, church, those preachers, they are not always fair. There is not one place in the book of life where it says we can expect fairness. Even if we are promised fairness, we would all have a pretty strong self interest in defining what fairness would be and I dare say some folks would be left out of the fairness equation if it were up to us.

We all know life has established rules and laws to govern what is just and expected. Yet those rules and laws differ in different settings and circumstance. No two sets of parents have the same governing ideals. Rules do change.

Going in I naively thought people wanted to be treated the same. Oh, how I discovered that is not the case. We think we do, but we really don’t. If two people walk into work ten minutes late and the rule calls for a certain response they do not want to be treated the same. They want to be given a break and excused for their lateness for they have compelling reasons that should be considered. Oh how the slippery slope of favoritism and unfairness is being greased.

Your see, if we are punished it’s unfair. If another receives what we consider preferential treatment it is favoritism. Even when everyone receives the same consequence the system is seen as unfair. We hear, “Those people in charge should just overlook that. That’s not really that important. People do that all the time. No one gets hurt.”

Jesus tells the story this morning of workers receiving the same wage. It is a story of workers being treated the same. It doesn’t work. There is a cry that the landowner is being unfair. There is a really good reason given. Not all worked the same hours, they say. God is being unfair. God should not be giving the same wage; everyone should be treated according to their good works.

What these workers are saying is we should be treated individually. When justice is being dealt, we want our particular circumstances to be taken into consideration. This seems only fair. But then folks jump to the most outrageous conclusions when that individual treatment appears to show favoritism or ignores perceived justice. That’s not fair. I deserve more or less than those others. So, we go back to the basics. Treat ever one the same.

But we cannot ignore how we are programmed. ‘The early bird gets the worm.’ ‘Get to work early and work hard. That’s a sure path to success.’ On and on.
The vineyard boss should pay attention to the best worker, the first one into the vineyard in the morning and the last one to leave at night. Those first into the vineyard should be the first in line to get their pay. The boss will surely pay them what they deserve.

Only, according to this morning’s gospel, those who get to work last will be first and the first to work will be last! Wait. What happened? The old ways of thinking about early birds, working long and hard will get you nowhere! Seriously! Surely something is wrong. This won’t work. It’s not fair.

And, it gets worse. Those at the end of the line will not only be paid first, they will be paid as much as those at the front. This is just so unfair. What was Jesus thinking? There is really going to be trouble over this!

Then the landowner reminds the workers. First, this is my vineyard. Second, I have paid you exactly what I said I would. Third, what business is it of yours what I pay the other workers? From his perspective, if he wants to be generous with his money should the workers begrudge his generosity?

Yes indeed. They do begrudge his generosity. They have a strong sense of what is fair, what is right and what is not. Equal pay for equal work is fair. Equal pay for unequal work is not fair. Paying top dollar to those who do the most work is fair. Paying top dollar to those who do the least work is not fair. Treating everyone the same when they are is fair. Treating everyone the same when they are not is not fair.

If life and work, mom and dad, the law and school, and church, are not going to be fair at least God should be. God should be the one sovereign authority whom we can count on to reward us according to our efforts, who knows when we have been naughty and nice, who knows how hard we have worked and who keeps those most deserving in the front of the line where they belong and then rewards them accordingly. Life may not be fair, but God should be.

It may be disturbing at first to hear this morning that this is not so. We believe God should reward us according to our efforts, our good works and according to what we believe we deserve. But it will not be so according to this morning’s gospel.

This householder, this landlord, this God puts the same amount of money into the hands of those who arrived last and worked least. And God starts at the end of the line on payday where those who gave the least effort stood.

Can you imagine the cheering, the laughter and back slapping back there at the end of the line when those there realized what was happening? While near the front, with the first and the most, there is loud grumbling and even hostility.
Everyone is paid. They are paid the same. But how it is received depends entirely on what each of us believes we deserve. Those of us who receive more than we feel we deserve are jubilant. Those who receive less are furious.

Not only does our response depend on what we believe we deserve, it also depends on where we are in the pay line. The majority of us would argue we have been short changed, After all, we are the ones who deserve the most, we are good Christians, we work hard at being faithful, we come to church, we give, we say our prayers, our sins are just so tiny compared to most people, we feel sorry for the homeless as we check to see that our door is locked when they walk up to our car asking for a handout. We feel sorry for the poor in areas of devastation as we avoid the alley ways in certain parts of Austin.

It is entirely possible that we are mistaken about where we are in line. It is entirely possible that, as far as God is concerned, we are, at best, halfway around the block from the front of the line and that there are all sorts of people ahead of us. Other folk who are far more deserving of God’s love than we. People who have many more stars in their crowns than we will ever have. They are at the front of the line, and we are near the end of it for all sorts of reasons.

I don’t mean to be pointing fingers here. There are so many things we mean to do and so many we mean not to do. Even when we do our best, things get in the way; people get sick, businesses fail, relationships go down the drain. There are a lot of reasons why people wind up at the end of the line and only God can sort that out.
But suppose for a moment that it is you back there and me too. I know you don’t want to be alone, surrounded by strangers, people who don’t understand you, friends who don’t care for you, loved ones who might abandon you. We are all there. And when we least expect it the paymaster faces the line and says, ‘We are starting at the end of the line today’ and God hands you your ticket and every one of us around you receives theirs and all of us near the end of the line begin to cheer. We begin to cheer for we realize God’s saving grace comes even to sinners like us. No matter the hour, God’s forgives, and God blesses us with God’s grace. No matter when we first went to work and began to believe and give our life to Jesus our salvation is the same as the saints. Our salvation is the same as the death bed converts.

We don’t know why, God seems to love us indiscriminately and seems to enjoy reversing the systems we set up to explain why God should love some of us more than others of us. By our standards, God may not seem fair or just, but for those of us who stand near the back of the line this sounds like very good news. Because then there is a chance we will receive from God much more than we are worth, that we will get far more than we deserve, not because of who we are but because of who God is.

God is fair and God is just. Not by our standards but by Gods. By those standards God is forgiving, loving and generous even to those who are late coming to the vineyard. And God extends that same grace to ones as undeserving as you and me and for that reason there is a very good chance that the cheers and back slapping, the laughter and gratitude will turn out to be directed to the least of these, found by our God, right back here where we belong.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God, now and forever. Amen.
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