This Sunday’s gospel reading is the parable of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew 20.1–16. It is also, coincidentally, the gospel reading set for our Café service at All Saints. In this story Jesus tells of a landowner, who goes out to hire workers to work in his vineyard. In Jesus time, just like today, many agricultural workers were casual labourers. They were hired by the day and were required to turn up in the marketplace or town square each morning looking for work. It was a very precarious existence for many of them, with an unreliable income and no other assets.
In Jesus’ story, a landowner comes into town to hire workers first thing in the morning. He agrees a wage with some workers and sends them into the vineyard. Later in the day, he realises there is more work than the workers can manage, so he goes out and hires more workers. This happens twice more in the day. At five o’clock, only an hour before sunset, he is surprised to find that there are still people standing around looking for work. When he asks them why they are still there, they tell him that no-one has hired them. So, the landowner sends them to work in the vineyard as well.
When evening falls and it is too dark to work any longer, the landowner calls the workers together and starts to give them their day’s wage. To the surprise of those who were hired first thing, he gives all the workers the same amount, one denarius, the usual wage for a day’s work. Those who were hired first start to grumble. Why were those who worked less paid less? Why did they not get paid more? The landowner explains that everyone was paid what was agreed. No-one was cheated or treated unfairly. The landowner has a right to be generous.
In the past, this parable has often been treated as an allegory, with the different groups of workers being different groups of Christians, who turn to God at different times. It might be the Jews and the Gentiles. It might be cradle Christians and deathbed conversions. But I can’t help thinking that Jesus was painting a simple image of how we should behave in the kingdom of God. What if Jesus was saying that this is how the rich should treat those less fortunate, if they want to be part of the kingdom of heaven?
If so, what does this parable tell us about the ethics of the workplace? How can it help us think about the effects of economics in our society? With an election looming next year, does it give any pointers towards the sorts of policies we might want to see our politicians proposing?
There will be more opportunities to reflect on these and other thoughts at the 8 am service at All Saints and the 10 am service at St Mary’s. At 10.30 at All Saints, there is our café service, where we continue our series looking at the book of Jonah. This gives the following services for this Sunday:
8.00 am – All Saints – Holy Communion
10.00 am – St Mary’s – Holy Communion
10.30 am – All Saints – Café church
Through this week, we have our usual mid-week services, with Celtic Morning Prayer at All Saints on Wednesday and Holy Communion at St Mary’s on Thursday. Next Sunday, there is a Harvest Communion service at All Saints. At St Mary’s there is Creative Church in the morning and Evensong in the evening. This gives the following services for the coming week:
Wednesday 27th September
9.00 am – All Saints – Celtic morning prayer
Thursday 28th September
10.00 am – St Mary’s – Holy Communion
Sunday 1st October
10.00 am – St Mary’s – Creative Church
10:30 am – All Saints – Harvest Communion
6:30 pm – St Mary’s – Choral Evensong
May God bless you in all you do this weekend and through the coming week.
Mark
St Mary's, Fishponds 