Presence Weekly 5/06/2024

20 “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. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 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?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 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.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 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.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.” Matthew 20:1-16 (ESV)

Those of you who are regular readers of the Presence Weekly know that we take vocation and labor very seriously. As a result, it seems right to take some time to consider work and the economy of the kingdom of God. And so, we find ourselves with a parable about work and the economy of the kingdom. 

It’s a familiar parable: We have the master of the house (a manager), a vineyard needing to be harvested, workers looking for work, a work day completed, and a very interesting payday. Much of this makes sense to us because most of us are workers who get paid for the work that we do. This is the regular story of work: the employer looks for workers for his company, they agree to work for a particular pay structure, they do the work they were hired to do, and then they get paid. With that said, there are several places where this parable seems a bit off, and we should talk about those. 

First, it seems like poor planning by the manager. How can the master of the house (manager) not know how many people it will take to harvest his crop? It’s his job to know this. Why not at least hire a bunch of people early and have them all be done early rather than keep going to look for more workers? Why would he keep coming back five different times, especially just an hour before the day is done? Some have said the workers were not doing their jobs, so more were needed. But there is nothing in the text that indicates that is true. Noticing this is a step in the right direction to unlocking the point of the parable. 

Second, it appears to be a poor spending decision by the manager. This is especially poor stewardship of the landowner’s money. Why would you pay someone who has only worked an hour a full day’s wages? In the standard business economy, this makes no sense. We should not gloss over this difficulty, either. 

Finally, it seems unfair to the workers hired earlier. If you will pay a denarius to someone who only worked an hour, then wouldn’t you pay those hired earlier more for having worked a full day? If you are trying to come up with a system for promoting motivated workers, this is not it. At this point, it seems obvious that everyone hearing this parable would have been stuck on the economic incompetence of the master. But if the reader thinks they should identify with the master, they are wrong. 

All of this is exactly where Jesus wants to take the listener (and now, in our case, the reader). There is a reason that the parable ends with those being hired last being paid first. It forces the reader into the perspective of those hired first and their anticipation. Because that is who was listening to the parable. 

What is the Parable About?

We must remember that this is a parable about the Kingdom. Specifically, it is directed to those who would have considered themselves the first hired. Matthew’s primary audience are Jews, not Gentiles. But his specific rhetorical target are his followers. Not just the twelve, but the full group of his regular followers. This interaction comes just following the rich young ruler as they are on the way to Jerusalem from Damascus. Jesus is going to die, but the disciples are about to enter into a discussion that will lead two of them to ask to sit at his right and left hand, because they believe that the Kingdom of God is their opportunity to be elevated to a position of power - since they have been with Jesus since the beginning. Jesus’ jarring response is that the first will be last, and that he came not to be served but to serve. Jesus uses this parable to build an expectation of increased reward in the hearts and minds of those who got in early, on the ground floor. They saw themselves as the first hired at an internet start-up. 

In most commentaries, the workers hired first are often said to represent the disciples, and that’s the immediate context. But I think it is just as safe to say that the workers hired first represent the whole of the people of Israel. They were the people God had been working with, theirs were “the covenants, the giving of the Law, the promises, and the prophets. (Romans 9:4)” But remember, true to God’s redemptive trajectory, he had called them to reach others - to reach every tongue, tribe, and nation. Abraham was called to be the father of many nations. The people of God existed to bring the nations in. In this context, that meant not only the sinners and tax collectors, but the Samaritans and the Gentiles. The fact that those groups would share equally in the rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven would have been entirely objectionable to the (original) people of God. And this is exactly the point of the parable. 

The Purpose of the Parable

Irony and unexpected antagonists are rhetorical tools in the parables of Jesus. The final scene of the parable is of the workers hired first, going from rubbing their hands together in excitement of a bonus, to bewilderment and anger. They felt mistreated by the landowner - just as the disciples and Jews were feeling mistreated by God when the Gentiles were offered an equal seat at the table. When we understand the story that way, we get it, and our sinful disposition is revealed by it. 

Everyone wants to be in a position of deserving and mediating the grace of God . But that is not the role to which we have been called in this parable or in our lives. The parable exposes our inclination toward entitlement, bitterness, and self-focus. More specifically, we are often angered by God’s grace towards others, and, in being so, we diminish the grace that has been shown to us. 

Our emotional response, relational demeanor, and perhaps even vocational motivation may come from treatment at work as we see someone who was just hired offered more money than we are receiving despite our greater tenure. There is an appropriate and needed debate to be had around this issue because it centers around justice. However, as Christians serving and leading in Washington, our problem occurs when we attempt to transpose our moral expectations of justice in the worldly marketplace with those of the ingdom of God. Why? Because, unlike our worldly economies, the economy of God’s Kingdom is based entirely on grace. Thankfully, economy is a biblical which that comes from the Greek oikonomia, meaning “manner of household administration.” This is a word that would have been well known to Jews and Gentiles during this period. Theologically, it also serves as meaning, “relating to the administration of redemption and salvation.” And so we ask, what is the purpose of the parable? The purpose is to illustrate important truths about the economy of the Kingdom of God.

In the economy of the Kingdom of God, God offers us work

This is where the story starts. A manager looking for workers. In the economy of the kingdom, all workers are needed. There is work for everyone, and there is room for everyone. The question is asked, “Why are you standing around?” The workers answer, “Because no one will hire us.” The response of the manager was, “I will hire you.” If you are a Christian, you must know that God has invited you to work in and for his kingdom! If you are a seeker or skeptic, and you are searching for vocational meaning, you need to hear that God is offering a calling in His Kingdom.

In the Kingdom of God, there is work that is needed. This parable presents a crop that needs to be harvested. the manager communicates what needs to happen and then sends them to do it. We must see our invitation to “come and work” in the kingdom as the most important job we will ever have. 

In the Kingdom of God, there is work that brings dignity. Having meaningful work is important to us. We are created to work, not just stand around all day. We are given a real sense of longing to experience this dignity from labor. The invitation to work in the Kingdom of God is important because everyone needs this dignity.

In the economy of the Kingdom of God, God keeps his promises

The payday is at the center of the parable. Everyone who worked expected to get what they were promised. As Craig Bloomberg says, “all the workers were expecting to be paid a living wage for their labor - so they would not die.” This would have been set against the backdrop of Old Testament ethics laws (See Leviticus 19). The worker deserved to be paid a fair amount for a day’s work, and a denarius was the fair rate at the time. We must be careful not to mistake this as a parable about the reward for work because God is not a debtor! What this part of the parable is intended to teach is that our God is a fair God who can be trusted to make good on his promises. The manager promised them that at the end of their labors, they would receive a reward. We live in a political world where we are used to others not keeping their promises. Thankfully, we serve a God who keeps his promises.

In the economy Kingdom of God, God offers us grace

This parable triggers us to look wrongly at the way God works. It triggers us to say, “Hey, wait. Why don’t I get more than promised? Why are they getting the same thing that I am?” But it also directs us to see the grace of God. Remember, everyone in those fields, by the grace of the manager of the house. What those hired first had missed is that in the morning, they all went to the same marketplace, hoping that someone would hire them. 

Believe it or not, this scene occurs every day in most cities. For almost 18 years I have had a friend named Marc. He, like many marginally employed workers and many of the people who provide the labor from which you benefit, starts his day as one of a hundred or so men and women needing work. They get up early in the morning and wait outside at the crack of dawn for various managers to come and hire them for menial tasks. The tall, strong, and good looking mixed in among the weak and gangly. All of them need to have their names called out. Not having their name called would be devastating. Marc told me once, that you stand up straight, you try to look tall, but no matter what you do, you are still someone in a day labor stand. You are hoping to be hired, just for enough money for the day. It will buy you food, and it will buy you a bed. You not only want this job, you need this job. But you are at the mercy of the manager. 

In this parable, they were all waiting on those hired early and those hired late, and they all needed someone to ask them to enter into the field and to provide the means through which they might live. Everyone was waiting in the same marketplace. And all were called by grace! This is important, but not surprising, because the economy of the Kingdom of God is based on grace.

Grace moves us from entitlement to humility

Consider their sense of entitlement. Those hired early assumed they were not just entitled to the wages that they agreed to, but they were entitled to more. They had been there the whole time. When we fail to understand the economy of God, we live with a sense of entitlement rather than humility. This is what is behind the early frustration of Psalm 73 and the question about why the wicked are flourishing. But here, the question is, why are those who are just coming in getting the same that I am getting? But grace moves us from entitlement to humility. Those hired early were supposed to see that they were recipients of the same grace. They were not entitled to a job. They were only entitled to the promised reward. When we consider that we enter his kingdom by grace alone, there can be no sense of entitlement, only humility. When we consider the frequent insufficiency of our labors there can be no sense of entitlement, only humility. When we consider all the ways in which we have fallen short of the glory of God, there can be no sense of entitlement, only humility. Grace moves us from entitlement to humility. 

Grace moves us from bitterness to thankfulness 

Notice how quickly they had become bitter that someone had received more than them - even though they had all received the same thing, the proper reward for a day’s labor. They had all received what they were promised. So often, we are resentful of generosity toward others, especially when we believe that we are more deserving. Again, grace changes everything. The economy of the kingdom does not foster a hierarchy of rewards. Everything we receive, we receive by grace. If you want to move out of your frequent place of bitterness and towards thankfulness, we must acknowledge that we are all recipients of grace. Bitterness moves us away from worship, but thankfulness moves us towards worship. We all have much to be thankful for, even if it is hard to see. 

Grace moves us from self-focus to compassion

Notice the focus of the workers hired first. This parable use the workers hired at the 11th hour as the lure for those hired earlier to calculate how much more they would be getting. But, the lens through which they were processing information was completely distorted. They were more worried about themselves than others. What they should have seen was their neighbor. The same people that they had been standing next to earlier that morning hoping to receive a day’s wage - just as needy and desperate for a job as they were. Those who loved their neighbors as themselves would have had compassion on those in need. Those who loved their neighbor as themselves would have been asking for compassion for those in need because they, themselves, were in need. When we realize that what we have received is by grace, we are moved from self-focus to compassion for those around us. 

 If we want to move from a place of entitlement in the workplace to a place of humility, we need people who understand grace. If we want to move the workplace from a place of bitterness to a place of thankfulness, we need people who understand grace. If we want to move the workplace from a place of self-focus to a place of compassion, we need people who understand grace. 

 This is, of course, not really about workers in the field, or wages - it’s a parable about God’s administration of salvation. You were saved by grace, through faith, so that no man may boast. It is best to see the parable in reverse. 

In the economy of the Kingdom of God, many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first, because the economy of the Kingdom of God is not based on the same things that our marketplace is based on – the economy of the kingdom of God is based on grace! That means, the last shall receive the same as the first. And, I, for one, am very thankful for that. 

• Monday: Morning: Micah 4:1-5:1, Matthew 9:1-17, Psalm 38, 39, 40 // Evening: Micah 5:2-15, Galatians 1, Psalm 38, 39, 40
• Tuesday: Morning: Micah 6, Matthew 9:18-34, Psalm 44, 45, 46 // Evening: Micah 7, Galatians 2, Psalm 44, 45, 46
• Wednesday: Morning: Hosea 1, Matthew 9:35-10:23, Psalm 50, 51, 52 // Evening: Hosea 2:1-13, Galatians 3, Psalm 50, 51, 52
• Thursday: Morning: Hosea 2:14-3:5, Matthew 10: 24-42, Psalm 56, 57, 58// Evening: Hosea 4:1-11, Galatians 4:1-5:1, Psalm 56, 57, 58
• Friday: Morning: Hosea 5:1-7, Matthew 11, Psalm 62, 63, 64// Evening: Hosea 7-8, Galatians 5:2-26, Psalm 62, 63, 64
• Saturday: Morning: Hosea 9, Matthew 12:1-21, Psalm 68 // Evening: Hosea 10, Galatians 6, Psalm 68
• Sunday: Morning: Amos 3, John 6:22-40, Psalm 71, 72 // Evening: Isaiah 44:6-23, Mark 1:35-45, Psalm 71, 72

• Cabinet Agency: The U.S. Copyright Office and their 450 staff who work to protect the creative and intellectual property of artists, writers, and other content creators. 
• Think Tank, Lobby group, NGO: The musicFIRST Coalition lobbies for fair payment to artists and creators whose work appears on various platforms. 
• • A word about ideologies. The selection of these organizations is not based on mutual affinity but on the belief that prayer is the most we can ever do to participate in Christ’s mission of making all things new.
• Weekly Delegation: The Congressional delegation of Nevada.
• News Events: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) selected 28 organizations to host members of USDA’s Working Lands Climate Corps (WLCC), an effort that will train the next generation of conservation and climate leaders, providing technical training and career pathway opportunities for young people and helping them deliver climate-smart agriculture solutions for farmers and ranchers. The staff at the Department of Education working to fix and streamline the FASFA form for college student-aid eligibility.
• Personal Requests: A couple working hard to save for their first home. A couple preparing to move overseas. Several Cabinet staff members are considering a move to the Hill or a think-tank ahead of the 2024 election. A senior staff member with a number of high-impact writing projects coming due.
• • A word about anonymity: Washington is a small town. In order to protect each individual’s identity yet facilitate prayer, details are intentionally vague. However, each represents specific people we are currently engaged with. 

• The New York Times has a must-read piece containing exit interviews with a number of individuals who are leaving Congress.
• The Rabbit Room has a brief but insightful piece on understanding and navigating conflict within community. (A more in-depth and academic treatment of this issue is found in “Stages of Community Making,” in M. Scott Peck’s, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace.)
• Psychology Today has an informative piece on the reason emotional formation is a critical piece of whole-life discipleship which discusses factors that contribute to men’s mental health and, more importantly, how they choose to deal with it. 
• Mars Hill Audio recently released volume 161 of their audio journal, along with a new website and subscription program. The latest volume includes Andrew Wilson on the post-Christian West and the fruits of Christendom, and Kyle Edward Williams on the history of the corporation and implications of corporate "personhood." 
• World Magazine has Mark Tooley’s latest on the abandonment of confessional orthodoxy within the United Methodist Church.

• ATTENTION: This Sunday is Mother’s Day! 
• The Washington Nationals are home against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading out on the road. 
• Tuesday, May 7th, the Center for American Progress is offering an online event, “Citizens United Overreach: New CAP Report Reveals Legal Risk in For-Profit Corporate Boards’ Political Spending,” to discuss the implications of free speech and political advertising. 
• Wednesday, May 8th, the Brookings Institution hosts “Rebellion: How anti-liberalism is tearing America apart—again,” examining assertions from a new book by Robert Kagan. 
• Thursday, May 9, the Hudson Institute hosts Keeping the Republic: A Defense of American Constitutionalism, with Professors Dennis Hale and Marc Landy, who argue that the Constitution provides for a free government because it places limits on the exercise of power. 
• Saturday, May 11th, from 10 am - 4 pm, is EU Open House 2024 Day! The European Union and its Embassies will open their doors to the public for a day of culture, food, music, and more. No registration, tickets, or passport required!
• ATTENTION: This Sunday is Mother’s Day!

Album: Charley Crockett, “$10 Cowboy”

Last week, one of the most talented singer-songwriters on the planet dropped their latest, long-awaited, album. Like many, I bought it immediately.

Charley Crockett (were you expecting someone else?) is a musician who plays both kinds of music, “Country AND Western.” Over the past ten years, Crockett has been polishing his craft writing what is best described as “roots country” music. Simple, straightforward, stripped-down western songs that tell stories in the heritage of Roy Acuff, Porter Wagoner, and Jerry Reed. Mr. Crockett has put together another true-to-form masterpiece of easy-listening, good-timing music, with lyrics that will set your mind at ease, your heart at rest, and your feet a tappin’!