Unfair Grace

Our two biblical stories today invite us to reflect about all the ways that grace shows up in our lives.  Would you pray with me?  “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, our God, our Rock and redeemer.  Amen.”

In our story from Exodus this morning, God has just brought the Israelites out of slavery, but hunger has set in.  Free, but hungry, the Israelites complain, yearning to be back in Egyptian captivity with full tummies.  Whenever I read this story, I remember people tend to look back on the ‘good old days’ and remember the past being different than what it really was.  There is good and bad in yesterday, just as there is good and bad in today.  The Israelites looked back on Egypt – which was horrible slavery—and remembered it being far better than it was.  But how did God respond to their fuzzy memories of the ‘good old days’ and their complaining even though they were now free?  Did God respond in anger?  In frustration?  No.  God responded in grace, and fed them.  Quail by night and bread from heaven at dawn.  The Hebrew word here is a wonderful pun.  This bread that appeared in the morning is called in the Hebrew man-ha.  Man-ha means “What’s this?”  The Israelites looked out at dawn and said, hey, what’s this?—and the name stuck.  God could have been angry and frustrated because the Israelites complained and had bad memories, but instead, God provided food.  The complaining Israelites deserved a swift reminder of how bad it was in Egypt, but God, in grace, fed them.  God did not respond fairly, but instead, in grace.

Our Gospel lesson from Matthew today also presents a story about grace wrapped up in a parable.  Parables raise more questions than they answer, they turn things upside down, and certainly, this parable does that.  Let’s look at this parable from the different character’s perspectives and see what questions come up for us.

The landowner, here called the kyrios, or lord, hires some workers in the morning, and then additional workers throughout the day.  We are given no explanation why he did not hire everyone in the morning.  He negotiated the salary of a denarius for a day’s work with the full-day-of-work group, but the other groups are told only their wages would be “whatever is right.”  What do you think the workers thought was “right?”  Work half a day and get half a denarius?  Well, that certainly seems fair.

From the worker’s perspective, when the ones who worked only an hour got a full day’s wage, they must have been elated.  But as the workers who had worked more and more hours were each given the exact same wage, regardless of how long they worked, the ones working the longest were very frustrated, and they grumbled loudly.  Well, I think we would have complained too, don’t you think?  Shouldn’t the landlord be fair to his laborers?

This is a hard parable, but maybe it is simpler than we sometimes make it.  Several years ago, I read this parable to my youth group and asked them what they thought.  After I read it, they all shouted, “That’s unfair!”  And they were right.  It is unfair.  Fair would be equal pay for equal work, but here, every worker got the same pay, regardless of hours worked.  What is going on here?  Everyone is given a decent wage here—no one is cheated or paid poorly.  Does this parable imply that there is a moral minimum wage?  And why does Jesus say the Kingdom of Heaven is like workers who are all unfairly paid the same, some working twelve hours and some working only one?  So if this is unfair, whom do you think was unfairly paid?  The first workers who worked all day, or the last workers who worked just an hour?

Let’s come at this from a different angle.  As parents, we try to be fair to our children.  A simple way to imagine fairness is parity—if every child is treated equally, that makes it fair.  But, thinking more deeply, parity and fairness are not the same.  For instance, a special needs child requires extra care.  In this case, to be treated fairly requires being treated unequally.  Parity is having one child cut the cake, and the other child then chooses which piece they want.  But if one child has an allergy to the cake, then true fairness of equal good health means one child can’t eat a piece all.  Treating children fairly really means providing unequally for their needs based on their unique individual capabilities and requirements.  We don’t treat a ten year old and a nineteen year old equally at all, as any dinner table discussion in a family with both will prove.  In the same way, all of us are different; we all have different needs.  God blesses us all with different capabilities, different skills, and different dispositions.  For example, can I see the hands of those here who have worked up in the church kitchen providing hospitality?  Thank you for your ministry of food and drink.  How about the hands of those on the House Committee who fix and patch and love this wonderful building?  Thank you for your ministry of fixin’ stuff.  How about the hands of those of you who are Lay Care givers?  Thank you for the behind-the–scenes ministry of visitation and friendship.  All of these ministries are gifts from God, all different.   And interestingly, we, as recipients, are not treated equally at all.  Is that fair?  God gives us, in grace, different gifts.  [pause]  So, if God gracefully gives us different gifts, God does not treat us equally.  Is that fair?

Now that question may come as a surprise because our culture is fixated on equality and fairness.  But if God were fair, the Israelites would not have been delivered from Egypt or been feed manna.  And maybe that is what this parable of the vineyard laborers is trying to say.  Can it be that the Kingdom of Heaven is not fair?  Instead, is the Kingdom of heaven a place where God’s grace is the first principle, not fairness or equality or parity?

This concept is repeated many times in the Bible.  The Prodigal Son leaves home and wastefully spends his entire fortune.  Coming back home penniless, his father throws a lavish party and welcomes him with open arms and heart.  How do you think the hard-working brother who had faithfully worked the whole time felt?  Angry?  Frustrated?  Hurt?  Do you think he yelled “Unfair!”?  Of course he did, and really, he was right.  It was unfair.  His brother blew his fortune.  But the father’s love was deeper than fairness.  This parable is also about grace, using a different metaphor to imagine the unfair, but graceful, kingdom of heaven.

Or how about the Beatitudes, Matthew chapter 5 when Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…[for]… your Father in heaven makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.”  Is providing sun and rain to everyone really fair?  It may not be fair, but it is an expression of God’s grace to all of humanity.  Is asking us to love our enemies fair—maybe our enemies have really been bad!  No, the command to love our enemies demands that Christians take on this same divine attitude of grace beyond fairness.  The point of all these stories speaks of a different way of being in relationship with God and with one another.  In these stories, fairness is NOT our first criterion.  Instead, these stories all ask us to pattern and model our lives after God’s grace, where we are given gifts not based on fairness, but instead on love and compassion and grace.

We just baptized Evan, a sacrament where we declare God’s grace here on earth.  None of us deserves to be sealed by the Holy Spirit as a child of God.  This is not fair-- God claims us by grace, not by fairness!  We do not earn baptism because we are good and deserve it.  God’s grace is wider and more loving than fairness or equality.  God’s grace is larger than our human yearning for parity or fairness.   God’s grace is blessedly unfair.  It is mysterious, marvelous, awe-inspiring and astonishing.  God loves us not with fair grace or equal grace, or but instead, God loves us with, well, unfair and [pause] amazing grace.  Amen