The Parable of the
Bad Personnel Policy
(Proper 20A)
8:00 a.m. Said; 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass
24 September 2017
Parish Church of Trinity Ashland
(Oregon)
Jonah 3:10-4:11 Psalm 145:1-8 Philippians 1:21-30 Matthew 20:1-16
Jonah 3:10-4:11 Psalm 145:1-8 Philippians 1:21-30 Matthew 20:1-16
God, give us hearts to feel and love,
take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.
take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.
Day
laborers have always had it rough. Just
go by that parking lot in Talent where they congregate each morning during the
agricultural season from planting to harvest, or the warm dry season for
building or yard work. Look and really
see what is going on. They wait there,
patiently, until someone asks them to come and work. Wages are negotiated on the spot. They usually take whatever they are
offered. They have no union to represent
their interests collectively. Day
laborers are and have always been easily exploited. Throughout history, in almost every economy,
the number of people needing work has almost always exceeded the number of jobs
available, and this has meant that employers could keep wages way low. A simple case of supply and demand: with too many workers for too few jobs, the
value of unskilled labor was low, very low. And most societies placed a very
low value on the unskilled laborers themselves.
Many societies see them as lazy, idle, and not worth better paying jobs,
though if you look carefully you normally see that the poor unskilled workers
in most places are among the most willing to work hard, and are ingenious and
inventive in making a little money and making that little money go a long
way.
In Jesus’ time, day laborers were peasants who had been pushed off the land. Most lived in hovels in the towns and cities, and had no means of support other than whatever they could get by working on a day-to-day basis. They lacked all job security. Indentured servants, and yes, even slaves in large enlightened households, had more security and hope for the future. Religious leaders belittled and reviled day laborers, calling them the “Am Ha-aretz” (the people of the land), unclean and worse than Gentiles, just as our elites often call those people waiting for work at that lot in Talent “illegals.” As if any person could be illegal, as if any person could have so little worth.
Today’s Gospel is a parable of Jesus about such day laborers. I think it should be called the parable of the bad personnel policy because it deals with how angry the laborers get when they believe they have been treated unfairly by a well-meaning land-owner, but one oblivious how his actions might be perceived by the laborers. Like the king in last week’s parable of the unforgiving servant, the landowner here is one of the careless rich, oblivious to the realities of the people of the land, the illegals.
The way the story is told, it is clear that the landowner can’t be bothered to go through the math of prorating the workday. As little as he is paying these guys, it is simpler and cleaner just to give all the workers the same wage, whether they have worked a hard eight hours in the heat of the day, or whether they worked only an easy hour at the end of the day in the crush to get the harvest in before sunset. And that is in fact what lies behind the all-day workers’ reaction—they are being paid such a pittance that the landowner is willing to throw their entire day’s wage at the newcomers for convenience sake only. They want more. The revolt of those who have born the heat of the day is a revolt against what they see as an unfair and demeaning personnel policy.
The fact that there are plenty of people at 5 p.m. still waiting at the marketplace for work underscores the context in which this story unfolds. There is such an overabundance of people needing work that the landowner can pay as little as he finds convenient, and as much as he finds least troublesome.
Jesus’ parable asks us to wonder about what is fair. Is fairness determined by a mathematical formula that prorates worth by number of hours worked and hardness of the time spent in work? Or is fairness determined by recognizing human need and the dignity of each person? It most certainly is not determined by devaluing others, or treating people all the same simply because that is easier. One of the underlying assumptions in the story is the need for a living wage for all who seek and need work.
The Gospel of Matthew takes this parable and turns it into an allegory. Those who have worked long and born the heat of the day represent one group of people, the newcomers another, and the landowner perhaps God. Those who have born the heat of the day are seen as stingy and heartless to the newcomers. It is part of Matthew’s preaching to his own community’s Jewish members to accept newly believing Gentiles. “Don’t be stingy with God’s grace to others and don’t question it if God is easier on others than he has been on you!” is the lesson Matthew takes from the parable.
I am not sure if such allegorizing does justice to this simple story that presents so many questions. But the way Matthew tells the story, does make us ask how stingy we are with God’s grace to others. And in this, it is wholly in line with Jesus’ idea that we mustn’t demean or objectify others, belittle their efforts and hopes, or base our ideas of fairness on a mathematical formula that determines worth by the marketplace rather than by need.
No matter how you read the parable—as a criticism of the resentful workers or as a criticism of the landowner’s carelessness and lack of regard for the needs and dignity of his employees—the story is about generosity. “Are you envious because I have shown generosity?” asks the landowner at the end of the story. Literally, he says in Greek, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”
In Jesus’ time, day laborers were peasants who had been pushed off the land. Most lived in hovels in the towns and cities, and had no means of support other than whatever they could get by working on a day-to-day basis. They lacked all job security. Indentured servants, and yes, even slaves in large enlightened households, had more security and hope for the future. Religious leaders belittled and reviled day laborers, calling them the “Am Ha-aretz” (the people of the land), unclean and worse than Gentiles, just as our elites often call those people waiting for work at that lot in Talent “illegals.” As if any person could be illegal, as if any person could have so little worth.
Today’s Gospel is a parable of Jesus about such day laborers. I think it should be called the parable of the bad personnel policy because it deals with how angry the laborers get when they believe they have been treated unfairly by a well-meaning land-owner, but one oblivious how his actions might be perceived by the laborers. Like the king in last week’s parable of the unforgiving servant, the landowner here is one of the careless rich, oblivious to the realities of the people of the land, the illegals.
The way the story is told, it is clear that the landowner can’t be bothered to go through the math of prorating the workday. As little as he is paying these guys, it is simpler and cleaner just to give all the workers the same wage, whether they have worked a hard eight hours in the heat of the day, or whether they worked only an easy hour at the end of the day in the crush to get the harvest in before sunset. And that is in fact what lies behind the all-day workers’ reaction—they are being paid such a pittance that the landowner is willing to throw their entire day’s wage at the newcomers for convenience sake only. They want more. The revolt of those who have born the heat of the day is a revolt against what they see as an unfair and demeaning personnel policy.
The fact that there are plenty of people at 5 p.m. still waiting at the marketplace for work underscores the context in which this story unfolds. There is such an overabundance of people needing work that the landowner can pay as little as he finds convenient, and as much as he finds least troublesome.
Jesus’ parable asks us to wonder about what is fair. Is fairness determined by a mathematical formula that prorates worth by number of hours worked and hardness of the time spent in work? Or is fairness determined by recognizing human need and the dignity of each person? It most certainly is not determined by devaluing others, or treating people all the same simply because that is easier. One of the underlying assumptions in the story is the need for a living wage for all who seek and need work.
The Gospel of Matthew takes this parable and turns it into an allegory. Those who have worked long and born the heat of the day represent one group of people, the newcomers another, and the landowner perhaps God. Those who have born the heat of the day are seen as stingy and heartless to the newcomers. It is part of Matthew’s preaching to his own community’s Jewish members to accept newly believing Gentiles. “Don’t be stingy with God’s grace to others and don’t question it if God is easier on others than he has been on you!” is the lesson Matthew takes from the parable.
I am not sure if such allegorizing does justice to this simple story that presents so many questions. But the way Matthew tells the story, does make us ask how stingy we are with God’s grace to others. And in this, it is wholly in line with Jesus’ idea that we mustn’t demean or objectify others, belittle their efforts and hopes, or base our ideas of fairness on a mathematical formula that determines worth by the marketplace rather than by need.
No matter how you read the parable—as a criticism of the resentful workers or as a criticism of the landowner’s carelessness and lack of regard for the needs and dignity of his employees—the story is about generosity. “Are you envious because I have shown generosity?” asks the landowner at the end of the story. Literally, he says in Greek, “Is your eye evil because I am good?”
“Is your eye evil because I am good?” The evil eye here is what the Hawaiians call “stink eye,”
giving a sour face at someone when you’re annoyed or angry at them. Overcoming envy and jealousy is what today’s
Hebrew scripture reading is about. Jonah
is a drama queen with stink eye to end all stink eyes. “I don’t want to help Nineveh by preaching
repentance there. I’ll flee by boat to Spain!”
“The storm’s my fault! Throw me
overboard, feed me to the fish!” And
once back at work: “If you don’t wipe
out Nineveh as I prophesied, it’s too embarrassing! I want
to die!” “You sent the vine borer
that killed the bush that was giving me shade!
I want to die!” Jonah is the reading from the scroll of the
prophets assigned in synagogues for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement that starts
this coming Friday evening. Yom Kippur
is about forgiveness and compassion strong enough to bring you back from death
in the belly of a fish, transformative enough to deliver you from even such a
case of stink eye as Jonah’s.
I invite us this week to let this parable work in our hearts. Are there areas where we resent to good things that happen to others? Are there places where our envy and jealousy cause us to be stingy? Do we wish God were stingy too?
I invite us this week to let this parable work in our hearts. Are there areas where we resent to good things that happen to others? Are there places where our envy and jealousy cause us to be stingy? Do we wish God were stingy too?
I invite us all to find ways for us to
open our hearts and loosen our grip, whether on ourselves, others, or
money. This is not just the spirituality
of good stewardship, of all abundant, joyful life.
God is generous, perfectly so, and we too must be generous.
God is generous, perfectly so, and we too must be generous.
In the name of
Christ, Amen
When I was a starving college student and needed to move from one house to another I would put the word out that there would be homemade chili and scones after the move. People would show up all over the day and then we would repair to my new house where my dishes were and I would cook scones and dish up bowls of chili that had been simmering since morning. Everyone was invited whether they arrived at 8 in the morning or 8 at night. What I didn't know, however, is that we were enacting a parable. So nice to see your writings here cousin.
ReplyDeleteA really good sermon--an enlivening take on the parable, and also on Jonah. I heard it twice today, and read it aloud to Kathleen this evening, and it doesn't feel a bit used up by the repetitions. Good to help us see the day-laborer's situation anew, and good to help us see that the 'generosity' of the rich carries a sting of disrespect. Thank you!
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