Last month you will remember the massive public outcry following the publication of the “A” level results. The Department for Education had been concerned that this year’s results nationally should match up with the national spread of results over the last few years, and produced an algorithm – a computer programme – that would generate this spread. As you know, when the results came out they were regarded as being very unfair, and especially to bright children attending less successful schools. A furore followed, and the results were re-issued on the basis of teacher assessment. This meant many students did rather better than they would have done otherwise. Given the huge stress that the coronavirus has caused for our young people, we may well feel that this boost to their results is no bad thing.
I’m glad that’s the way it worked out. It seems to me a clear example of kindness and mercy being applied to the results process, instead of the cold and rigid application of rules based system.
One of the most basic tensions we see at work in the Bible is the tension between law, on the one hand and grace on the other. There’s a push-pull at work between law and grace all through the pages of the Old Testament. And then as the Bible’s story of salvation finds its climax in the coming of Jesus Christ we see that struggle between law and grace gets resolved and grace wins the day.
Let me explain what I mean. The Old Testament tells us how things get going. God gives the law as a gift to his beloved people Israel. Law isn’t a bad thing; quite the opposite! The ten commandments give a pattern of how life is to be lived out in society: making it a safer place where mutual expectations and obligations were shared and understood. So what did being faithful to God mean? It meant keeping the commandments, being conscientious in keeping the rules.
Fast forward to Jesus in the New Testament and things start changing fast. Jesus says: Love God, with all your heart, your soul, your strength. Love your neighbour as yourself. This is what matters. If you’ve got that, says Jesus, you have got the whole thing! All the detail of the law is summed up in those few words. Love God, love your neighbour.
Now most Christian folk are inclined to be rule keepers rather than rule breakers – I’d certainly put my hand up to that. But if you’re a rule keepers like me, we need to watch out. It’s easy to be a stickler for the rules , and yet to have no love in your heart. We will simply apply the algorithm, no matter what! It’s the rule-keepers are incensed when Jesus heals people on the Sabbath, mixes with so called “unclean” people, disrupts the smooth running of the temple by turning the tables there. Rules are rules!
But they don’t yet see that Jesus is God’s love made real, made human for us, and the love of God is not all about rigidly sticking to the rules. God’s kingdom works differently. And so Jesus tells us this story.
The boss goes out and hires some workers for the day, and they agree to do a day’s work for a dollar. Later on, some more workers are set on, at the same rate of pay. He goes back twice to set on more workers – so the last lot only work for a couple of hours. They are the ones who get paid first. Then the ones who were hired first are unhappy about this arrangement. They complain it’s not fair. They feel hard done to. The boss turns to the ones who were hired first and says. “Two things. Firstly – you agreed to work for a dollar a day – you didn’t say it was unfair then. And secondly – it’s my money surely I can do with it what I want!
I wonder who you identify with in this story? I wonder if you identify with the somebody who was hired early in the day. Here am I , grafting away since 5 a.m. over-worked and under-appreciated, and meanwhile there’s that lot over there, having it easy, not even starting until four in the afternoon, getting all the gain with none of the pain. I am starting to feel morally superior to that lazy bunch over there!
Or do you put yourself in the shoes of the person who was hired late in the day? There was I hanging around, unemployed, never thinking anyone would set me on. I didn’t really deserve to get a job anyway. And then this employer – such incredible generosity – I never expected it. I haven’t really worked enough to deserve the pay, I know but – I fell so appreciated, so cared for. I am humbled.
This is what the Kingdom of God is like, says Jesus. The first shall be last and the last shall be first.
It’s a wonderful parable because it shows us how the grace of God simply doesn’t conform with human rules. It certainly doesn’t conform to employment law! A law based approach would say the workers would be paid on an hourly rate. The worker who started at 5 a.m. would obviously be paid more than the workers who started later. Each worker would receive the number of hours worked times the hourly rate. That would be fair.
The parable is telling us about God’s grace to us in salvation. God’s saving grace and love is freely available to everyone, no matter how early or how late we come to the vineyard that is the place of God’s saving love to us in Jesus Christ.
I suppose I came to the vineyard early on in life. I’m a cradle Christian, baptised aged three weeks, and have spent a lifetime working out what it means to receive this amazing gift of being baptised in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen. I’m an early starter. But what about the late arrivers?
Mike was a late arriver. I got to know him around the time he started to become ill. We talked a lot, and I discovered that beneath the cynical and hard-bitten exterior there was a sensitive man who had been hurt by life, and who longed to be reconciled with the brother he’d fallen out with decades before. Mike went on retreat. He met up with his brother in the hospice and they laughed and reminisced together. He started to pray, and a couple of weeks before he died he said to “Frances, I was trying to pray the Lord’s prayer last night, but all I could remember was “Our Father….” The other words wouldn’t come. So I just prayed Our Father. Our Father. “ I told him, Mike that’s fine, God hears your prayer. No other words needed. Abba, Father, the prayer of Jesus, prayed from a longing heart.
Mike was a latecomer to the vineyard, I am an early arriver. This parable assures us that God’s grace for Mike is every bit abundant as God’s grace for me. There are no first and second class compartments in the Kingdom of God.
I once ministered in a church where asked someone to take on a role and she replied”, “But I’ve only been here ten years.” In this church, people who had been there the longest felt superior to others. Beneath a superficial welcome there was suspicion of newcomers, and subtle barriers operated to stop new people from using their gifts and serving the church. Of course many human institutions operate like this, but it is sad when such behaviour infects churches.
The Spirit lives to set us free, we sang earlier in our service. By grace we are set free from human systems of merit, deserving and reward. We don’t earn our way into the kingdom by good behaviour, but by the free gift of grace lavished abundantly on everyone. And that’s good news.
Frances Eccleston, October 2020