Someone getting what they deserve has an ominous tone to it. While it could indicate someone being rewarded, the sound of it feels more like someone is suffering as payback. Whichever the case, people getting what they deserve signifies an exacting judgment to ensure fairness. Jesus’ parable this Sunday is about a landowner who doesn’t make exacting judgments. He gives all workers the same generous sum no matter their length of time on the job. In other words, the landowner doesn’t give laborers what they deserve. Some people react negatively, asserting it is not fair.
Journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff did not get what they deserved when they died at the hands of ISIS. It wasn’t fair. 500,000 Iraqi’s did not get what they deserved when they died at the hands of the Bush Administration and its soldiers. That wasn’t fair either. Will ISIS devote themselves to making sure other Americans get what ISIS thinks they deserve to even out the numbers? How many people and years will the U.S. devote to making sure ISIS gets what the Obama Administration thinks they deserve? People getting what they deserve seems to have gripped our collective imaginations. Who will loosen the grip? Who will give people the understanding, respect, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, peace … that we do not think they deserve but in fact they do deserve?
Jesus’ parable is about a God who is not bound by people getting what others judge they negatively deserve. Jesus’ parable is about a loving God who gives people all the good they deserve, lovingly and generously so. Such love and generosity is what co-creating the Community of God is all about. Co-creating it is a labor of love here on earth and we deserve it, all of us.
Prayer: Dear Laborers of Love, we open ourselves to a spirit of generosity.
Question: How do we loosen the grip of vengeance and live from a vision of love?
September 21, 2014 Gospel Matthew 20:1-16a Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time