The Sánchez Archives TWENTY FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME Year A

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

God Is Not Fair!

ISAIAH 55:6-9
PHILIPPIANS 1:20-24,27
MATTHEW 20:1-16

How many times, in the course of a given day, have you heard someone remark, “That’s not fair!”

Children on a playground may bicker over a toy or piece of recreational equipment... “I saw it first; that’s not fair!” Siblings doing household chores may complain, “I’m doing more work!” or “My chores are more difficult; that’s not fair” Students at school may resent the extra attention given to a classmate... “she’s the teacher’s favorite; that’s not fair!” When one student’s Science Fair project wins the first prize, disgruntled competitors may complain’ “My experiment was more interesting; that’s not fair!” A brother thinks his piece of pie appears to be smaller than his sister’s.. “That’s not fair!”

Employees who think their boss doesn’t appreciate their efforts or recognize their achievements may think: “that’s not fair!” Someone at work receives a raise in salary when another person thinks they are more deserving: “I have seniority. I’ve been here longer; that’s not fair!” The office with the bigger desk and better view is assigned to someone else; “that’s not fair!”

Shoppers waiting for service hear the sales clerk say “Who’s next?” Much to their annoyance, someone who has just come up to the counter pipes up, “that would be me!” Someone mutters, “That’s not fair!”

The coach of the Little League baseball team always puts her child in as st arting pitcher; other players are annoyed... “That’s not fair!”

Taxpayers bristle at the fact that increasing numbers of people are applying for and receive welfare from the government... “I have to work hard to make a living for me and my family. so should everyone else... that’s not fair!”

Veteran members of the military, recalling the rigorous training they had to undergo to carve out a career in the Armed Forces are annoyed at the fact that modern “boot camps” seem less stringent... “that’s not fair!”

In each of these several examples, human sensibilities regarding fairness and patience have been offended, precisely because of the fact that they are human. As regards our interaction, one with another, we human beings observe rigid and, at times, picayune standards. Most of us think that... Good work, seniority and experience should be rewarded... All should be subject to the same rules... First come, first served..... Everyone should be treated impartially. No favorites!... Everybody’s piece of the pie or of the great American dream should be the same size... Those who don’t work should not eat... etc. etc.

Therefore, when confronted with a situation such as that put before us in today’s gospel, our sense of fairness in provoked. We tend to carry the process of anthropomorphism to the extreme and assume that God’s manner of dealing with humanity is governed by the same standards which human beings consider normative in their dealings with one another. Humanly speaking, it does not seem fair that workers who labor for only one hour should receive the same wages as those who have put in a full day’s work (12 hours) in the scorching Palestinian sun! But this is the precise reason why this parable was told.

In the realm of the kingdom or the reign of God, human standards are obsolete. God’s ways are not like our ways; nor are God’s thoughts like ours (first reading, Isaiah). This realization should lead us to rejoice in the fact that God transcends all petty and picayune standards and deals with humankind, not in fairness, but in loving, merciful, compassionate graciousness. God receives and blesses these who come at the eleventh hour as well as those who have known and conducted themselves in a way worthy of the gospel (second reading, Philippians) from their earliest days.

In the words of the ancient psalmists, we have reason to celebrate because: “the Lord is gracious and merciful; the Lord is near to all who call... the Lord never treats us as our guilt and our sins deserve... so great is his love”(Pss. 145, 103). Indeed, it is true that God is not fair; God is love!

ISAIAH 55:6-9

A Sufi sage and teacher of the ninth century C.E. once described God’s thoughts and ways of dealing with humankind in this way: “He who approaches near to me one span, I will approach to him one cubit; and he who approaches near to me one cubit, I will approach near to him one fathom and whoever approaches me walking, I will come to him running, and he who meets me with sins equivalent to the whole world, I will greet him with forgiveness equal to it.” Deutero-Isaiah, prophet and companion of his fellow Jews in exile in Babylonia, offered a similarly comforting image of God.

An excerpt from the concluding chapter of his work (Isaiah 40-55), today’s first reading appears to represent a time near the end of exile when the prophet consoled his people with the fact of their imminent return to Judah. Despite the political crisis they had weathered, when Jerusalem was destroyed and thousands of Jews were sent on a forced march to Babylonia, Deutero-Isaiah kept his contemporaries vividly aware of God’s presence. At first, it was a chastising presence which redressed those who had sinned against the covenant; Deutero-Isaiah interpreted the experience of the exile as a well-earned punishment for infidelity. But despite the deserved chastisement, God’s presence also afforded consolation, renewal and the hope of a new beginning. The Jewish exiles had only to seek and call upon God and, forsaking their wicked ways, would find that God was ever near with forgiveness in abundance to heal them from all their sins.

Deutero-Isaiah also helped his people to recognize God’s hand at work on their behalf in the ascendancy to power of Cyrus, the Persian. Earlier in his prophecies (Isaiah 46:11), the prophet had described Cyrus as a “bird of prey,” called by God to carry out his purpose for his people. Cyrus’ victory over Babylonian and his policy of setting free all the foreign exiles enslaved in Babylonia also earned him the title of God’s anointed or messiah (Isaiah 45:1). For Deutero-Isaiah and his contemporaries, Cyrus’ success was yet another instance of the restorative, reconciling presence of God among them.

In ways and with thoughts that are above human understanding, God remains near. His mercy and generosity in forgiving continue to offer consolation to all who find themselves in the exile created by human sin. The sixth century B.C.E. prophet’s message sounds remarkably like the teachings of Jesus who assured his disciples that they need only ask, seek and knock (Luke 11:9) in order to know and experience God’s presence.

As Henry Sloane Coffin once explained, “In the O.T. one may see that every time the words contrition or humility drop from the lips of prophet or psalmist, Christianity appears. Luther’s first thesis nailed on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg reads: ‘Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, in saying Penitentiam agite, meant that the whole life of the faithful should be repentance.’” (“Isaiah 40-55” The Interpreter’s Bible, Abingdon Press, New York: 1956). Today, the words of Deutero- Isaiah assure the faithful who are in need of repentance, that their seeking and calling will be blessed by a God who is near and rich with a forgiveness that transcends every standard of human fairness with divine mercy.

PHILIPPIANS 1:20-24, 27

When Paul corresponded with the church he had founded in Philippi, his personal circumstances were anything but ideal. Imprisoned, either in Ephesus or Rome (there is evidence in support of either location) Paul realized that his incarceration might result in his execution and he wished to communicate what could have been his final counsel to those whom he had brought to the faith.

Paul established the community at Philippi during his second missionary journey (ca. 50 C.E.). Because of its strategic location (as his first base of operations in Europe), the apostle to the gentiles wrote what are believed to be at least three letters, in order to preserve and maintain the integrity of the gospel as he had preached it and as the Philippians were trying to live it. What has survived of these letters has been amalgamated into one piece of correspondence. Scholars have distinguished: (1) Letter A or Philippians 4:10-20 as Paul’s initial letter. The Philippian Christians had sent him a gift (money) via Epaphroditus and Paul wrote to thank them; (2) Letter B or Philippians 1:1-3:1a; 4:4-7, 21-23 as Paul’s second piece of correspondence. Epaphroditus had been ill but had recovered and would soon return to Philippi. With him, Paul sent a message encouraging the Philippian believers not to be deterred by antagonism from non- Christians (1:28-30), but to grow more firmly united as a community in Christ; (3) Letter C or Philippians 3:1b- 4:3,8-9; herein Paul warned the community against the Judaizers, an ultra- conservative Christian missionary group intent upon making gentiles adopt Jewish practices (circumcision, dietary regulations, etc.) before they could become Christian. Aware of this fact, readers will more readily understand the rather abrupt changes and disjointed, but nevertheless invaluable, message of Philippians.

Today’s second reading is an excerpt from Letter B which Paul began with a formal greeting and blessing (vv. 1-2), a prayer of thanksgiving (vv. 3-11), and then the news of his own situation (vv. 12-26). Because of his unshakable faith in Christ and in the resurrection, Paul did not fear death. In fact, he welcomed it as a passage to a deeper, fuller experience of Christ’s presence. But Paul also revelled in life as an opportunity for continuing service to the gospel. He shared his ambivalence with the Philippians saying, “I do not know which to prefer; I am strongly attracted to both” (v. 22-23). More literally Paul had actually written I am caught, or hard pressed, in a dilemma. The Greek work senechomai (caught or hard pressed) was a term which described someone caught in a narrow passage with a wall of rock in either side. Unable to turn around, the traveler could do nothing else but press forward. This was Paul’s resolve-- to move forward, accepting whatever future his work for Christ and the church would bring. Whether it be death or continued life, Paul was at peace. He invites his readers to cultivate a similar outlook toward life and death and to know a similar peace.

MATTHEW 20:1-16

A parable unique to the Matthean gospel, today’s gospel never fails to tweak its listeners with the seemingly unfair situation it depicts. The interaction between the vineyard owner and the workers proffers an affront to those sensibilities which lean more toward human standards than toward the ways and thoughts of God. If the fact that the workers hired at the eleventh hour received the same wage as those hired first still rests uneasy in the heart of the listener, then the parable’s challenge remains timely and important.

At first reading, the parable may seem preposterous. What employer would go in search of employees not once, but five times in one day?! Actually, the parable is more realistic that it appears. In ancient Palestine, grapes ripened in late September not long before the autumn rains. In order to gather the entire crop before the rain ruined it, frantic efforts were needed; every available worker was needed, even if they could only work a short time or as little as one hour!

Like most scriptural texts, this parable also should be evaluated and appreciated with regard for its various levels of development. At its initial or basic level, the parable defended Jesus’ missionary methodology of reaching out to extend the blessings of the kingdom to tax collectors and sinners. Whereas his contemporaries believed these to be pariah with no claim to salvation, Jesus’ words and works indicated that sinners were not only on equal footing with the righteous but were in fact the predilect to whom God manifested special love and mercies.

At its second level of development, the parable, as remembered and preserved by the Matthean community, put forth the message that even gentiles who came “late” to the good news of salvation would enjoy the same benefits and those who were first to hear it viz., the Jews.

The third level of development, attributed to the evangelist, can be discerned from the context assigned to the parable by Matthew. Framed by a doublet saying of Jesus concerning the reversal of fortunes (19:30: “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first;” 20:16: “Thus the last will be first and the first will be last”), the parable offered a lesson in discipleship. Christians are not to concern themselves with recompense for their service in the cause of the kingdom; nor are believers to presume to mete our what others deserve for the services they have rendered. Human standards of fairness have no place in the reign of God. Each, and all are abundantly reward by God whose only standard is a generous, merciful, forgiving love. If God were fair, in a strictly human sense, precious few, in any, would live to enjoy the fullness of the kingdom.

In an attempt to further accommodate the message of the parable for contemporary disciples, Karl Rahner (The Great Church Year, Crossroad Publishing Co. New York: 1994) suggested that the daily wage or denarius which the owner of the vineyard gave to each hired worker is actually the gift from God of our very selves. “Our own selves, just as we are: with our life, with our temperament, with our destiny, with our surroundings, with our time, with our heredity, with our family”... These things cannot be negotiated or calculated. Whenever “we complain about others with whom God has dealt differently, we are really refusing to accept out own selves from the hands of God.” This then becomes our life’s work, to accept the denarius whom we are as God’s generous gift, mysteriously and gradually revealed. This gift is made more precious by the knowledge that when we accept it, God gives himself with his gift.

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