Septuagesima (28 Jan. 2018)

Its not fair!

All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.  Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?"  But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?"  So Moses cried to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me."  And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.  Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.  And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"  Exodus 17:1-7

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!  Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.  The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.  Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!  For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.  Psalm 95:1-9

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.  Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.  But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.  Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.  1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.  And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.'  So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.  And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?'  They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.'  And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.'  And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius.  Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.  And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.'  But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?'  So the last will be first, and the first last."  Matthew 20:1-16

Christ routinely taught in parables.  We often want to read ourselves into them, even though they are frequently about God's relationship with the people of Israel and their abandonment of the covenant.  The ones that are not are usually about all humanity abandoning God and needing redemption.

In the Gospel lesson, Christ depicts God the Father as an employer, and the believers as workers.  Some workers are hired right away, for an honest day's pay.  Some, though, are only hired at the last minute and paid fairly.  But apparently God didn't pay them fairly.

Which begs the question: Is God fair?

Not at all.

In the passage, the master of the house hired workers for a denarius, which is a day's wage of about $100 today.  Not bad at all.  He chose to pay all his workers the same wage.  Nothing compelled Him to, save His own gracious will.

Which is why, when those hired first grumble He doesn't increase their rate.  He promised to pay them a denarius.  If He wants to pay someone else the same amount, what's that to them?

Is that fair?  No.

The workers hired first through that, since those hired last were paid a denarius that they, who'd worked longer, should get more.  They were under the illusion that what they had been promised was no longer more than sufficient.  Did any of them deserve to be paid, or even hired?  No.

That's how grace works.  God freely gives what He will.  It is not based on any form of merit or work on our part.  How can it be when all our works are grumbling, complaining, and rebelling?  All we deserve is hell and death.

Thanks be to God that He is not fair, but through His grace has granted us salvation, not by our work and merit, but by Christ's death and resurrection.