Sept. 20 2020 16th of Pentecost

Matthew 20:1-16 (The Message)

1 "God's kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work. 3 "Later, about nine o'clock, the manager saw some other men hanging around the town square unemployed. 4 He told them to go to work in his vineyard and he would pay them a fair wage. 5 They went. 6 At five o'clock he went back and found still others standing around. He said, 'Why are you standing around all day doing nothing? 7 ' "They said, 'Because no one hired us.' "He told them to go to work in his vineyard. 8 "When the day's work was over, the owner of the vineyard instructed his foreman, 'Call the workers in and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first.' 9 "Those hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a dollar. 10 When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. 11 Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, 12 'These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.' 13 "He replied to the one speaking for the rest, 'Friend, I haven't been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn't we? 14 So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. 15 Can't I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?' 16 "Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."

We all like to think we are generous, and are eager to embrace generosity when or where ever it happens.  Yet we also quickly begrudge it when it doesn’t happen to us.

God’s generosity (grace) happens!  Sometimes to us and sometimes to others and we have no control over it.  God will be generous to whom God will be generous!

None of us deserve it; so it is always a gift.

Working long and hard in the Kingdom does not make us any more deserving of God’s grace then those who come in late and work little.  In fact, we are the fortunate ones, for we had the privilege of working long and hard in a task which brings joy and blessing. 

“God’s grace cannot be a random problem-solver doled out to the few and the virtuous—or it is hardly grace at all!”    Richard Rohr

Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, thank you for giving me much to do for you,

which enriches my life with grace upon grace.  And keep me from thinking I deserve it!”