Sermon Title: "Strange Mathematics of the Gospel"
Date: September 21, 2008
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Matthew 20:1-16

Some of you are aware that our younger daughter Amy moved up to Sonoma in August to accept a teaching position in Northern California.  We had never been through that area, so on our return home from our summer vacation in Oregon, Peggy and I drove through the Napa and Sonoma valleys.  I have never seen so many vineyards in my life:  on the right of the car, on the left, ahead of us, and around every curve.  In fact, Amy says she drives through twelve miles of vineyards to her elementary school in Kenwood.  “Not a bad commute,” she says.

On our way south on 101, we passed any number of other vineyards around Paso Robles, and in the area between San Luis Obispo and the Gaviota pass.  And while it was not yet time to harvest, there were still plenty of vineyard workers’ cars parked alongside the road as they tended the grape vines.  Very little seems to have changed over the centuries since Jesus’ time in the manner in which grapes are tended and harvested.

It is probable that with today’s employment practices, a vineyard owner would not be able to get away with paying those who worked one hour the same as those who worked twelve.  In fact, if the Bible were updated, here’s how the story would go, with a little help from a friend who went through this actual experience.

Larry was remodeling his bathroom.  The new tub had arrived, and it would not fit down the hallway.  Also the existing bathroom had a big, heavy, cast-iron tub that wouldn’t fit through the doorway.  The only solution was to move them both in and out through the new window before it was installed.

Larry drove over to the Home Depot in Signal Hill.  As he pulled up in his pick-up, it was immediately surrounded by a horde of men clamoring in broken English to help.  Larry rolled down his window a ways, and using the few Spanish phrases he knew, he indicated he needed two men to help.  By this time, six were trying to jump into the truck or open the camper shell.  Larry finally settled a price with two men who got into his truck and rode with him to his home.

Using crowbars, wedges and levers, they attempted to get the old cast-iron tub loose and away from the wall.  They were finally successful, but Larry had a bad back, and couldn’t help them as they struggled to get it up to the window opening.  So Larry had the two men wait outside while he returned to Home Depot, and the same clamoring horde descended upon him again.  He got two more men, and between the four hired laborers, they got the tub out through the window, and the new one lifted in.

Job over, payment time, and Larry paid all four $20 each for a hot, sweaty job.  Fair or not?

I wasn’t there, and I didn’t think at the time to ask him what their reaction was.  But that story popped into my mind when I read today’s lesson.  Did you notice the payment schedule?  All grumbling would have been avoided if the landowner had paid them in the order he hired them, beginning with those hired first, then those at noon, and so on.  But he paid a day’s wage first to those who had worked one hour from five to six p.m.  Next, he paid the same day’s wage to those who had begun at three, then those at noon, then to those who began at nine, and finally to those who began at daybreak, who had been waiting and watching while each of the later shifts was paid exactly the same as they got.  No wonder they grumbled, and if it were us, we’d probably raise some fair labor law questions.

And yet if we could hear this parable from the standpoint of those workers who came late—the person because of a disability, lack of training or education, who was passed over all day long and only got hired at the end of the day, and receives the same wage as those who have been there the whole day—then there would be rejoicing on their part.

But Jesus is telling here a parable of what the kingdom of heaven is like, and the Gospels, especially Matthew’s, are filled with stories of strange mathematics.  Remember the widow who gave one coin, all she had, to the temple treasury, or the woman who swept her house looking for the one lost coin as if it were a fortune?  How about the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to go looking for just one lost lamb?  The common theme running through these parables is grace.  What Jesus wants to do for us is not a matter of shrewd calculation on our part, but rather it is a matter of his extravagant graciousness.

Most of us are unaccustomed to such strange math.  We think to ourselves, “As far as God is concerned, if I do this, then I should get that.”

But what if our relationship with God is not a matter of what we do, or the way we figure it, but a matter of what God in his infinite mercy, grace and wisdom does for us and the way God figures it?

Remember last Sunday, Peter came to Jesus wondering how often he should forgive someone who had wronged him.  Was seven times enough?  That seems reasonable, even more than reasonable.  It’s tough enough to forgive one time, let alone seven.  Yet Jesus’ answer was seventy-seven, or seven times seventy, depending on which translation you use.  More strange mathematics.  No matter; either number means endless forgiveness.

You could spin this whole topic onto fair wages for work done.  Years ago, most all things in the Lands’ End catalog said, “Made in USA.”  Today, most products say “Imported.”  You see it in the clothes we buy.  The tags say made in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Honduras, Egypt, Israel.  Are those factory workers being paid a fair day’s wage for quality work done?

Two weeks from today, we host the Third World Handarts Sale here.  The products are bought by a local agency so the crafts-men and –women have a viable market for their handcrafted items.  They are paid fairly by Third World Handarts, which utilizes many volunteers in its store to keep costs down, and sells primarily to church people.

Last fall, as a result of your purchases for Heifer Project and Church World Service at our November Alternative Christmas Market, I took it upon myself to funnel some of the proceeds to micro-loans for women which both those agencies administer.  One hundred dollars loaned to women living in a third-world country where costs are much lower than here enables them to buy supplies to make products to sell and thus support themselves and their families.  Upon the sale of their goods, they repay the loan, which through a revolving fund, is loaned to other women.  Simple math, simple bookkeeping.  No billion dollar government bailouts required, because church people like you and me supplied the small funds required.

It doesn’t matter when you became a Christian.  It doesn’t matter when you joined the church.  It doesn’t matter whether your pledge to the church is larger or smaller than the person sitting in front of you.  It doesn’t matter when you begin to think more of others’ welfare than your own.  The promise that Jesus made in sharing the parable of the vineyard laborers and their equal wages for their work assures us that God will welcome all into the kingdom of heaven.  And before that, the kingdom here on earth just might be a little better place as well.