Random Acts of Kindness . . . of Grace?

September 22, 2002

Ralph DiBiasio-Snyder

Matthew 20:1-16

Introduction to the Scriptures:

Jesus was a storyteller. He was not a philosopher theorizing about the existence of God, the definition of good and evil, the origin of the universe. He was not a lecturer, defining and explaining, tracking down endless implications of this or that hypothesis. No, he was primarily a storyteller.

Oh he was a teacher, a rabbi . . . he was a truth-teller. And sometimes he could be very specific. We think of the Sermon on the Mount:: you are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth. And he gave some very specific commands to his followers: Give to anyone who asks of you; if someone strikes you on the right check turn also the other; don?t worry about food and clothing; let your "Yes" really mean "Yes," and your "No," "No." Do not hate, do not lust, and so on. So Jesus could use very plain language to teach about life, and about God.

But most of the time Jesus taught with stories, parables. We think that he did so because they caught people's attention, and they were easy to remember. But primarily he told stories because they require us to figure them out, and it?s up to us to apply them to our own lives. Listening to a parable of Jesus we get drawn into the story, thinking we know where it?s going. And just when we're hooked, with a little momentum growing, and we're anxious to get to the punch line ? the conclusion we're sure is coming ? then comes the twist at the end. "Ohhh!" we say, at first just a little surprised. And then, "Ohhh!??" the implication of the parable starting to sink in. And then comes the "Oh." And finally, "Oh, my. Jesus, are you sure you mean to say that? What about this, and what about that, and, well, surely Jesus you don't mean . . . " And the struggle begins: the struggle to understand, and the even greater struggle to obey what Jesus is telling us.

Like in today's parable, we are left to faithfully wrestle with what Jesus means. As I say, Jesus was not a philosopher or theologian, still less was he a preacher setting out the four steps -- or five or ten or twenty -- toward happiness. He knew the complexity of life, the ambiguity of the world. For he had the eye of a poet, really. Not in the sense that his sayings rhymed. No, by "poet" I mean someone who knows life to be full of joys and sorrows, beauty and ugliness, good and evil. Sometimes, the poet knows, things make sense, and sometimes they just don't. A poet knows that life can?t be reduced to mere formulas: Do this and that will happen; believe this and God will do that.

Molly Peacock in her book, How to Read a Poem . . . says that the poet is one who has a "strangely easy compatibility with ambiguity - that is to say, the mystery of adult life." [Page 2] A "compatibility with ambiguity" ? answered but yet unanswered questions, conflicting feelings and thoughts ? an uncertainty that is part of adult life, and (I would want to say) part of what faith is.

The United Church of Christ has a new website: www.stillspeaking.com ? you would enjoy visiting it sometime. And a new symbol they are using is a comma, with this quote from Gracie Allen; for those of you who are too young to know, was a comedian with her husband George Burns, and Gracie said: Never place a period where God has placed a comma." Do you get it? God, we believe, has spoken in the past, but is still speaking, if we will listen. And that?s why Jesus spoke in parables. That's why he was a storyteller: so that the conversation can continue. The parables don?t end with a period. They end with a comma, for there is always more to be said, always a new way of applying what Jesus has said to the complex and changing, sometimes frightening and always challenging world our faith must address.

But we haven't yet even heard the parable, have we! It is commonly called "the parable of the workers in the vineyard." I think a better title is "the parable of the outrageously generous landowner." Let us listen now for what God may be saying to us about living graciously in the world.

[The parable is read.]

Well: what does it mean? Or in other words: what is God saying to you, to us? Let's make sure we understand the story. We have an unusual landowner here, don?t we. He has a "manager" who does the payroll at the end. But the owner of the vineyard himself does the hiring. He?s anxious to get his grapes harvested -- they're just right, and have to be picked as quickly as possible. So he hires throughout the day. Maybe the workers who were hired in at 6:00 a.m. weren't as good as he had hoped? Or maybe they tired quickly, especially through the"scorching" heat as they point out. So more workers were needed. Or did the owner care about the jobless, and wanted to provide work? Whatever his reasons, this owner is unusual.

But of course what makes him really different is his pay scale! Notice that he directs the workers to be paid in opposite order of when they were hired: the last ones hired are the first ones paid. Imagine the surprise of ALL the workers ? and excitement, and optimism? when they see those who worked only one hour getting paid for the whole day! "Here is a generous owner indeed!" they all say down the line. And they start adding up in their heads: "Let's see, if one hour?s work gets twelve hour's pay . . . I worked half a day, so I'll get 6 days of pay!" And those who had worked all day long: they're thinking they really can't expect twelve days pay, "But surely," they think to themselves, "I'll be getting a nice big check!"

Of course, the mood begins to sour as they see that the pay is the same for all. It's still a good deal for those who worked less than the full day. Everyone, except the 6:00 a.m. crowd, was given more than he thought he'd get when he hired on; they had all agreed to work, remember, for "whatever is right," presuming that less than a full day's work would be less than a full day's wage. But that earliest group: "You have made them equal to us," they say, sulking, thinking especially of workers who only put in one hour. If only there had been a union steward around to lodge a formal complaint.

Although, what did they have to complain about? As the owner points out, he paid them exactly what they had agreed to. "Can't I do what I choose with my money?" he asks. And then this, which probably hurt more than the money: "Or are you envious because I am generous?" Comma . . .

Well then: what is God saying? Some say that this parable raises the issue of fairness in labor and wages. Remember that Jesus begins his story saying that "the kingdom of heaven is like . . ." meaning, here is how it should be for people living under the reign of God, people who profess that they are followers of God, walking in the way of Christ. For those people, for kingdom people, everyone?s work is equally important. And so everyone is paid a living wage. The owner of the vineyard knew that those who couldn't find a job until the end of the day still needed to eat. They still had families to feed. And where God reigns all people are to have food to eat, a decent place to live, adequate healthcare, opportunities for education. That's the way it is in the kingdom. Isn't that what Jesus is saying to us?

Others hear in this parable a warning to the church about which members have the most status, and the most power. Matthew was writing his gospel in the early decades of the fledgling Christian church. There were those who had been with Jesus from the start, and had formed the first Christian gatherings, in some cases enduring hardship for the sake of the church at great personal sacrifice, working from early morning, as it were, through the scorching heat to build the body of Christ. Here were the long-time members, the "old guard."

And there were others who had come to faith only recently. They gladly heard the word of grace. They embraced the Good News that they were in the family of God, filled with the Spirit of God. And there they were in the church, starting to take leadership, using their gifts of ministry ? the newcomers. And guess what: there was resentment on the part of some of the old-timers, the charter members who had worked so hard, had been so faithful. And for them the message of the parable was pretty plain: in the kingdom, in the community of believers, ALL are welcome, ALL have received grace, ALL are loved by God and empowered by God! No matter how long they have been in the faith.

So for some this is a parable of equality not of wages in the world, but of respect and ministry in the church.

For still others the message of the parable is found in that penetrating and convicting question, "Are you envious because I am generous?" Perhaps a measure of one?s spiritual maturity is how glad one is when someone else is recognized, instead of me, when the other person gets the promotion, wins the praise, has all the luck. How readily do I rejoice with those who get the full day's wage for an hour's work? Or am I envious because God has been generous to someone?

But there is another word from God that many hear in the parable. It is the word of grace: the unearned, unmerited, free favor of God. You do nothing to deserve it; you can't work hard enough or long enough to be worthy of it. Grace is just there. And note that it goes far beyond simple kindness, the landowner being polite or thoughtful or giving a small tip to the one-hour workers. No, this is grace.

We have all heard of the movement that promotes "random acts of kindness" -- the local Rotary last week was encouraging us to practice these acts of kindness, and Lord knows our world could use a lot more of them. The Random Acts of Kindness homepage suggests some things we can do: Open a door for someone, Call a lonely person, Leave a Thank You note, Offer a ride, Walk a dog, Tip generously, Clean a neighbor's walk. All of them great things to do; kind things to do. But Grace: grace is something else again. Grace is kindness on steroids!

And grace is what I think the parable is about. The best illustration I have heard of the difference between grace and mere kindness is this. Imagine that you are living during the Great Depression when many people were jobless, and nearly starving, and it was not uncommon that someone might come to your house asking for a sandwich. Imagine that you hear a knock on the backdoor, and answering it you find a man obviously down on his luck. He is polite and embarrassed to ask for food, but he does and you give him a sandwich. He thanks you, and is gone. That would be an act of kindness on your part.

But imagine that a little later you see another man approaching the backdoor. Your cat is asleep on the steps, and the stranger rudely and angrily kicks the poor kitty out of his way/ It goes flying helplessly into a flower pot that crashes to the ground, dirt and flowers strewn across the driveway. Thinking no one has seen all this, the stranger knocks on the door, and with false humility asks for a sandwich -- no, for two sandwiches. If you give him some food: that would be not kindness; that would be grace. Unearned, unmerited, free grace.

Is God still speaking today? What did you hear in the parable? Jesus at least was saying what God has always been saying: That the grace of God is always amazing,  never predictable, never controllable, always free. The love of God for all and for each is "the radically free gift of a free and sovereign God." [Homiletics, September, 2002] And that is the Good News, not with a comma or even a period, but with an exclamation mark! Amen.