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Which One is Which?

"Which One is Which?"

Matthew 20:1-16


Happy Father's Day, or as Warren Johnson corrected me this morning, "Happy Father's, Grandfather's, and Great-Grandfather's Day."

This is my last Sunday with you. My two year internship has come to an end. I want to tell you that I have loved being with you. I have learned so much from you and received so many gifts from you. I have loved you and been loved by you. It has been a great privilege to be here with you and I want to thank you for this privilege.
I also have the privilege of preaching one more time. This means that I get to have the last word. And here is my last word - it is a wish for you, for us - that we work hard not to be distracted from our love of each other and our love of God by things that do not matter, by things that are not in our control. I wish this for us because I believe that there is no finer vocation, no better way to spend a life that to be in love with God, and to be in love with each other, by helping each other, and growing together in spiritual dignity.

Please pray with me.

I lived in Athens, Georgia for a lot of years. I did my undergraduate work there at the University of Georgia. After graduation, I stayed on and worked in Athens.

Every morning on my way to work, I would drive by a group of men hanging out on a particular street corner. These men seemed rough to me. Everyday, except for rainy days, they would be there, hanging out, shooting the breeze, smoking cigarettes, no place to go, it seemed. Get a job, I'd think. Do something useful.

It was my practice in Athens to visit Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church every now and then. I had a standing invitation from Maggie Johnson a friend who was a member there. Once, in services there, I recognized one of the deacons of the church. He was one of the rough men I saw hanging out on the street corner on my way to work. But today this man was dressed in deacon's clothes, a suit with vest. He wore a watch chain across his vest with a Masonic key attached to it. He was dressed and carried himself with great dignity. It was easy to tell from his bearing and from the respect he received that this man was a pillar of the community.

I asked my friend Maggie how to fit together the two very different pictures I had of this self same man, a picture of a rough man with nothing to do and a picture of man who is a pillar of the community.

Here is Maggie's answer. The Deacon and many of his generation had no profession but for the work they could do with their hands. They had received scant education, no inherited wealth, no credit with which to finance businesses, no access to the housing market outside of a tiny area where black folks were allowed to live. And so they worked, as she said, in the service of white people. The Deacon and the men on the corner were hanging out, because it was the designated spot where the white farmers and white contractors would drive by in their pick ups, and hire one, two or three men for the day. A day's wage would be negotiated, and having come to an agreement, the man or men would climb onto the back of the pickup truck, and be taken away to the farm, to the construction site to do a day's work. The employment of these men was on a cash basis, and no benefits were paid, no social security accumulated, no 401k invested, no chance of ownership or advancement. These were expendable men, a pool of cheap labor. Any man who was capable of the work was chosen.

They would be returned in the evening when the work was done. And if at the end of the day, the farmer or contractor reneged on the agreement, changed the terms of employment or paid unfairly, there was no recourse. The worker accepted what was done because the consequence was unemployment, physical harm, even death.

Maggie said that the women of the community, who were in the service of white people stood on another corner, to be hired for the day. The men and women stood on their respective corners if necessary, all day, because for them, it was their only choice for employment. Such was life, for a disenfranchised people, enduring the ignominy, the boredom, and the choicelessness of hanging around on a corner, waiting for a day of work to be offered because the body, the family depended on each day's wage.

Such was the world that Jesus was born into, a land occupied by a foreign government. The Roman's governor and court, the occupying army, the colluding ruling class religious leaders had, over time, stripped land and resources away from the mostly agrarian Jews, and had centralized wealth in cities, offering work to the peasantry as day laborers at subsistence wages.

Hear then the reading of the parable of Jesus.

"For the dominion of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for the vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, the landowner sent them into the vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. Going out again about noon and about three o'clock, the landowner did the same. And about five o'clock the landowner went out and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?' They replied, ‘Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.' When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to the manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.' When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 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 the landowner replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?

What I learned from Maggie that Sunday in her church was that it takes enormous spiritual energy and concentration not to be defined by one's work, by one's possessions, by the possibility or lack of possibility of advancement, savings or employment - that one's self worth is not defined by any of these things and dignity does not come by way of possession or dis-possession. One has to have a practice of prayer in order to remember that the world does not need to be fair for one to carry one's self as God's own.

I also learned from Maggie the enormous spiritual energy and concentration that it takes to be who God made us to be can be shared and supported by our congregation and those who love us. I learned that our self worth is defined by those who see us truly as we are, by those who can reflect back to us accurately our true self worth. In Maggie's church much of what the congregation provided for each other was an accurate reflection of self value, a place to enact dignity, a place to love one another, a place to practice loving one's enemies.

This is what the congregation of Pilgrim Congregational Church of Lexington, Massachusetts does and can do. I have witnessed the bearing of each others' sorrows and joys. I have seen you care for each other during illness and unemployment. I have experienced the love that passes between you, between us. I have learned how to be more fully human during my time with you.

Here's what else I hope for the congregation of Pilgrim Church, that where the world is unfair, you use your leverage, your love, your passion to make the world not just loving and beautiful, but also fair, so that Lexington, Arlington, Bedford, Winchester, Boston, Massachusetts, the United States in its business and civic affairs accurately reflect the value of each person in its doings.

Jesus said, just before he died that we would do much greater things than he was able to do. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven, with the help of God, is in our hands.

I want to tell you my wish for us again, this time by reading Paul's wish for the congregation in Rome, and for the congregation in Lexington.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect . . . Let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve God. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers . . . Live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceable with all.

The word of God. Amen.