Matthew 20:1-16
Proper 20 / Year A
Moses said to the
people, “Draw near, for the Lord has heard your complaining.”
If there is one
thing connecting today’s two readings it is a deep sense of
dissatisfaction. I know complaining when
I hear it because I can complain with the best of ‘em. According to a website aimed at people in
their sixties, these are seven things people my age complain about the most:
· The weather.
· Other drivers.
· Waiting on hold.
· Little aches and
pains.
· Professionals who
don’t act professionally.
· “Kids these days…”
· The cost of food,
gasoline, and just about everything else.
Somehow complaining
about what the neighbors across the street are doing in our church parking lot
failed to make the list!
Another site
suggests there are three different kinds of complainers. First, there are chronic complainers – the
folks who are never satisfied… ever.
Cognitive research has discovered perpetual negativity actually re-wires
a person’s brain so that every experience is filtered with a slant toward what
is wrong with it.
The second type of
complainer is the venter. They express
dissatisfaction in order to garner attention and receive validation in the form
of sympathy. Vesting tends to release
energy building up inside, but at a cost.
Once the energy is dispelled, so is the drive to fix whatever one finds
so frustrating. And often the energy
doesn’t just go away, it gets transferred to the person listening who must now
carry the venter’s emotional baggage. As
an anonymous wag put it, “I think
some people enjoy complaining almost as much as they enjoy doing nothing about
it.”
The final type is known as the
“instrumental” complainer. This person takes
the complaint to source of dissatisfaction, names what is wrong, describes its
impact, stresses the importance of change, and cooperates in appropriate ways
to make it happen. There is an old
saying that holds, “The pessimist
complains about the wind. The optimist
expects it to change. The realist
adjusts the sail.”
One of the striking
features of Israel’s forty years in the wilderness is how passive the people
are. They want, they need, and they
expect God to do everything for them… the kinds of things most of us do for
ourselves. A predicable pattern emerges:
God provides and the people complain.
The manna is tasteless. The water
has a funny taste. What’s for dinner
tonight? Don’t tell me. Let me guess.
Quail!
Some 750 years
later God’s people undertake a second kind of Exodus; this time leaving exile
in Babylon to return to Jerusalem. Although
they were exiled, they where not enslaved like those who left Egypt. These Jews become part of an advanced
civilization, rise up in the ranks of society, and mingle with other exiles;
exposing them to new ideas and possibilities.
They don’t need God to deliver them.
They simply go to the king and ask his permission to return home. And when they get to Jerusalem they find its
walls breached, gates burned, and the Temple destroyed. What do they do? Under the leadership of Ezra, they roll up
their sleeves and rebuild the Temple.
Under the leadership of Nehemiah they repair the wall and construct new
gates. They don’t complain to God. They get to work.
If you know your
Virginia history you know the Jamestown settlement struggled mightily its first
few years. Thirteen years later the
colony in Plymouth was equally challenged.
Both began as collectivist efforts where everyone worked for the common
good of all. Shortages and deprivation
were common. You should not be surprised
to learn both enterprises reversed their fortunes and began to thrive after
allocating a parcel of land to each to each individual. The work each person put into his/her field
benefitted him/her personally. It seems
in life either we work hard to make for ourselves the kind of life we want or
we abdicate this duty to someone else and complain about the results.
Jesus’ parable
about the day labors in the vineyard can just as easily be called the Parable
about the Responsible Employer. By
paying a full day’s wage to those who do not work the full day he ensures each
laborer (and each laborer’s family) will have enough to get by on for that
day. Short of a day’s wage, those
workers who started later in the day would be in real trouble.
There wouldn’t be
much a story here if Jesus had changed one little detail in how he tells
it. He could have had the owner pay
first those who had worked the longest.
They would have walked away content with the pay they had agreed to work
for. Then Jesus could have had the owner
pay those who did not work as long and no one would be the wiser… but it
wouldn’t nearly be as interesting of a story. Jesus has those who worked the
most watch those who worked the least get paid the same amount. It doesn’t sit well with them and we get
it. It does not seem fair.
Barbara Brown
Taylor raises an interesting question about this parable. Why is it, she asks, as we listen to this
story we so closely identify with those who worked the hardest rather than with
those who worked the least? Why are we
drawn to the moral outrage of those who get shorted as opposed to the gratitude
of those who get more than they deserve?
If we are honest with ourselves, we will acknowledge we have each caught
our share of the breaks, been blessed beyond what we merit, generally have it
better than 99% of the people who have ever lived.
Of course Jesus’
story is not about business practices and social responsibility. It is a story about God and about you and
me. God blesses each one of us not
because we earned it, not because we worked for it, and not because we deserve
it. God blesses of us because God loves
us. God knows we need the daily bread of
justice, mercy, and forgiveness. God
knows each of needs to feel loved, valued, and accepted. God gives to me as God gives to you as God
gives to the people parking in our lot, working on their cars, and (on
occasion) dumping their trash.
So here is a hard,
but important truth… the person you complain about the most… well God loves this
person just as much as God loves you. It
may not seem fair. It may not seem
right. But it is the way it is because
it is the way God is.
