Wednesday 23 August 2023
Today is Wednesday the 23rd of August, in the 20th week of Ordinary time.
Liz Vice with the Porter’s Gate sings, ‘We Labor Unto Glory’.
My God, my God, where e’er I go — glory.
Where I reap and where I sow — glory.
When my hand it grips the thorn — glory
In the still and in the storm — glory.
Oh, we labor unto glory
When heaven and earth are one,
Oh, we labor unto glory
Until God’s kingdom comes.
The sun it shines and then goes down — glory.
Rain, it pours and beats the ground — glory.
Dust, it blows and ends my days — glory.
Hearts they burn beneath Your gaze — glory.
My heart, my hands, they’re kingdom bound — glory.
Where thorns no longer curse the ground — glory.
Trim the wick and light the flame — glory.
My work, it will not be in vain — glory.
Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 20:1-16
‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the market-place; and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to him, “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 his manager, “Call the labourers 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 he 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?” So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’
For some elements of scripture, it can be helpful to try to experience the scene as if you were an observer. Using the imagination can be a revealing and engaging way into prayer and revelation. This parable particularly lends itself very well to this way of prayer. What is your immediate response?
Do you align with the commitment of the morning? Ready to work, contract in place, knowing what is expected?
Who knows why the others were still there waiting in the market place?
Idle doesn't mean lazy - it means able to, but not actually working.
Perhaps they were too old; too young; sickly or infirm; from the wrong side of the tracks or just off the hills. And if that's where you are, then one place may be very much like another. What hope is there when you are not ‘fit’ for the task?
The telling moment is that when the opportunity is given - they work; maybe work their hearts out to show what they can do. Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t fit in and tried, all the more, to prove yourself? How did that feel?
“Are you envious because I am generous?” A question to discomfort the righteous. The one place we rarely, and probably shouldn’t, put ourselves is in the footprints of the landowner. With the Lord’s guidance, we can imagine. It may be that we learn integrity and a sense of justice most deeply when our attitudes are called to account.
In a time of prayer, share whatever has arisen from this account with the Lord.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.