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It seems like one of the earliest things that we learn as children is the concept of fairness.

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It's something we pick up on so early, the ability to judge if something in particular

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is equal or right or just.

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This is especially true if you have a sibling.

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If we couldn't articulate when something necessarily was fair, my sister and I could always tell

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you when something was unfair.

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Everything was on the table to be judged by fairness, where we sat in the car, what toys

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we got to play with, who got to pick the next movie or book or TV show, who got what piece

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of dessert, who got to stay up later than who.

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Everything was a conversation or more actually a complaint about fairness.

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We instinctively watched for who we thought was getting more than they deserved.

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Perhaps you have your own memories of this, perhaps you have watched your children do

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this with their siblings or friends, that bitter and impassioned search for true fairness.

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And as often as adults try to impress upon children the age-old adage that life is in

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fact fair, it seems to be a concept that we fully abandon as we age.

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We still want to live in a world that seems fair, where things are pretty much equal,

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where they work out the way that they should.

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We want to know that if we work harder we'll receive more.

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We want to know that if we do good things we'll get good things.

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And even as life in this chaotic and unpredictable world shows us that fairness is not always

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being out, we still want it to be so.

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Today's parable from Jesus, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard is a crash course

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for us in God's economics, a lesson for how God views possessions and money and how what's

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fair in the kingdom of heaven may not look like what it does here on earth.

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In this parable, Jesus turns inside out the idea of fairness and examines what true fairness

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in God's kingdom will be like.

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Our parable today is the culmination of a section of Jesus' teachings on rewards and

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money.

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There are stories before this that we've heard before.

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And the first, the disciples ask what they can expect when they get to heaven.

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They remind Jesus that they've given up everything, that they have given up their families, their

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homes, their jobs, their lives, and they want to know that what they're getting in return

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will be worth it.

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The next story is a rich young ruler who approaches Jesus.

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The gospel tells us that he's a good person.

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He's faithful, he's kind, he's true, he's a loyal follower of God.

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And he asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.

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Jesus tells him that he must sell everything, give it to the poor, and come and follow.

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And you know how the story ends.

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The rich young ruler leaves heartbroken, dejected.

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Jesus has pushed him just a bit too far, demanding of him just a bit more than he's willing to

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give.

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It's a scene that invites us to wonder what Jesus could demand of each of us that would

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be just a bit too far.

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Perhaps it's family or power or prestige or perhaps I'm willing to bet that for just a

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few of us this story hits home just a little too closely.

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That money, in fact, might sit just a little too close to the center of our lives.

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This of course brings us to today's gospel reading, the culmination of this section and

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the summation of these stories in Matthew.

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This parable, like the other two stories, deals with rewards and what we think we should

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get versus what God is willing and ready to give.

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In this parable, Jesus turns on the idea of fairness and justice.

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And Jesus invites us to consider who is being left out and how we can be a part of the solution

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to make this world just a little bit closer to the one God intends for us.

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This parable begins with a wealthy vineyard owner who needs laborers to go into his field

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to help him tend the harvest.

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So he sets out into the city to hire laborers for the day.

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He encounters his first group at 6 a.m.

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They agree to work for a typical daily wage, a silver denarius.

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This is not a meager or an extravagant amount of money.

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It's what a laborer who works a full day would expect to receive.

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This group agrees to the contract and they set off into the field.

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And now our story starts to get just a little bit interesting.

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Again, the vineyard owner goes back into the market to hire more laborers, this time at

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9.

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And again, he encounters people who agree to work with him in his fields.

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But missing from this second group and from all the subsequent groups that follow is the

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agreement for payment.

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Our parable states that they will be paid, quote, whatever is right.

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Our story then shows the vineyard owner going into the marketplace to hire laborers three

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more times at noon, at 3 p.m. and as late as 5 p.m.

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When the end of the day arrives, the owner of the vineyard tells his manager to pay the

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workers in reverse order of which they arrived.

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To the surprise of the latest arrivals, they are offered a full day's wage.

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We assume next to 3 o'clock arrivals are paid the same in the noon and the 9, all leaving

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with a full day's wages in their pocket.

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And finally, the 6 a.m. group is called, the ones who have been here for 12 hours, who

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have worked the full day.

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They've seen what the other groups have received.

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They have eagerly noticed how generous the owner of the vineyard has been.

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And now it's their turn to receive.

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But when they get there, they receive only a single silver denaris, the exact same payment

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that they agreed upon only a few hours before.

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And it's this moment when they're angry.

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They had thought that they would receive more.

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They had thought that it was only right, that it was only fair, that they who had worked

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the longest and the hardest should receive more.

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And you're not alone if reading this creates some friction.

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In fact, I think you're doing it right if reading this creates some friction for you,

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if it trips your innate sense of fairness.

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What about those who worked longer?

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Why did they get the same as those who worked only one hour?

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This tension is the point, and Jesus invites us to lean into that, to examine the part

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of ourselves that this parable offends.

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This is a parable about generosity, generosity that is grounded in the sincere belief in

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God's abundance and God's goodness, generosity that is concerned first and foremost with

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whether people have enough long before we start worrying about whether we can get more.

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This is a parable that suggests true fairness can only be achieved when everyone, all of

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our brothers and sisters have what they need.

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And this is a universal lesson that echoes through the years.

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How can anything be truly fair in a world where there are still people around us, our

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beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, still struggling and failing to make ends meet?

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How can anything be fair in a world where people around the world and in our own backyard

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don't have the ability to cover their basic needs?

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Amy Jill Levine, a professor of New York, writes in her book, Short Stories by Jesus,

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that we do well to pay attention to the vineyard owner and what he's doing in this parable.

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Why is he going into the marketplace so many times?

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Is he so incompetent that he doesn't know how many laborers he needs for his land?

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Is he so incompetent that he doesn't know how many fields he has, how much the work

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will be?

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Does he not do this every day of his life?

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So perhaps something else is going on here then.

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In his repeated trips to the market, the vineyard owner asks them, why are you standing here

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idle all day long?

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Amy Jill Levine suggests that a better translation is, why are you standing here without work?

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To which the laborers reply that they have had no one to hire them.

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No one has come, no one has sought their labor, no one has offered to pay them.

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So seeing this, the vineyard owner then hires them and sends them out into his field as

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well.

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And at the end of the day, he makes sure that they have enough to take care of themselves

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and their loved ones.

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So it is in God's kingdom where we are invited to worry about whether people around us have

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what they need.

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Where we take the good things that we've been given from God and that we use them to care

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for each other.

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Trusting and believing that if we are ever in need, we too will be cared for.

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God's gift for us is divine generosity.

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It is an abundance so extreme that it seems possibly wasteful.

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That God gives and gives and gives again and by the grace of God, God does not stop and

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consider what we deserve.

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God instead chooses to keep blessing us with good things, grace, and with love and with

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mercy.

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And God invites us to live into that same spirit of abundant generosity with each other.

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To give and to give and to give again until we live in a world where everyone has enough.

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Where all people hear the good news that they are invited into the vineyard because that

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above all else seems truly fair.

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Amen.