Prepare

Jesus’s parable of the workers in the vineyard has been seen as a story of “who gets to heaven when and how.” It’s interpreted almost like a “gotcha” Jesus plays on the Pharisees, who Matthew’s gospel loves to paint as grumbling rule followers. This reading turns the parable into an allegory, with each character representing someone in Jesus’s world—or ours.

The trouble is parables aren’t allegories. They’re not even fables with a moral lesson at the end. Parables are like prisms. Pick them up, hold them to the light this way and that, and see rainbows here, there, everywhere! I love how Jerome Berryman describes parables in his Godly Play curriculum. The props for telling the parable stories are housed in golden boxes, and the storyteller picks up the day’s box and wonders aloud with the children, “I wonder where it will open today?”

It may be that your group needs to be reminded that God’s grace is for everyone, falling equally on people who’ve been a part of the group for a long time and for new people. Seeing cliques? Maybe there’s something here that speaks to our human tendency to break into factions.

It may also be that your group is keying into injustice in the world. Perhaps there might be space to wonder aloud with them about what happened the next day. Would the first-hired come back? Or would they risk not working in the hopes of having a few hours off in the morning? Would anyone ever work for this guy again? What does your group make of the landowner’s retort that he can do what he wants?

parable of the workers in the vineyard

Eventually, I drew the parallel to group projects, at least in part because my tweenager had her first honest-to-goodness group project already this school year. Unfortunately for her, one of her parents has taught group communication for years, and there may have been a mini-lecture on Bruce Tuckman, a psychologist and educator, who taught that groups cycle through stages: forming, storming, norming, performing.

In other words, it is common for groups to go through rocky periods and to learn how to work together. If your group took a summer break and is newly reunited, perhaps this group of workers might provide the opportunity to think about why you gather. I appreciate Tuckman’s theory because it reminds me that conflicts are normal in a group and give us the opportunity to name our expectations of one another and remind ourselves what we’re about. I wonder how the early church heard this parable. We know that a unique feature of early Christianity is that it grew among interesting and unexpected groups of people: widows, slaves, outsiders. Perhaps this parable encouraged them to include others in unexpected ways.

Opening Exercise

Using well-known cartoon or animated movie characters, describe what you are like when you have to work on a group project. Why did you pick that character? (Bonus question: is this another character that describes what you wish you were like when you work on a group project?)

Text Read Aloud

Matthew 20:1-16 in The Message

Laboring Together

I thought my high school chemistry teacher liked me. Then he assigned a group project in class. Not only that, but he assigned the groups, separated my friends, and put me in a group with this guy who was surely too old to be in high school and taking chemistry for at least the second time. If he wasn’t screwing around in the back of the class, he was asleep. We both knew who was going to carry the weight of this project. It didn’t seem fair at all.

This is pretty much what happens to the first-hired workers in the vineyard. They work all day, but on payday they get the same amount as the people who come in to work hours later. It doesn’t seem fair.

In Jesus’s time, many people worked as day laborers, depending on each day’s work to provide for their families. The laborers would stand in a common place each day, hoping wealthy landowners would hire them to work on their farms, fishing boats, or in their industries. Most of the time, they would get just enough to keep their family fed, but not enough to restore what had been lost.

But what if morning turned to afternoon, then to evening, and you waited and waited, yet were not hired? Do you even bother to go out into the field if you think you’d only bring home pennies? What is fair for these last-hired workers, who equally need to feed their families?

Laboring Together

And yet, the first-hired workers needed all the other laborers, even if they didn’t want to admit it, because, if the conditions are right for harvesting, you harvest. Neighbors help neighbors to bring everything in before animals eat it, weather ruins it, or it overripens on the vine.

The landowner kept bringing in more people to help, giving the earliest hired the opportunity to rest and pace themselves. In the end, the harvest happens because of every character in the story. The landowner needed the workers; the workers needed enough money to support their families; the workers needed each other.

I would love to wrap this up with a beautiful story about how I learned this lesson on my group project. But I can’t. I spent the project resentful and frustrated and whiny. I finished the project, mostly by myself, while that guy goofed around. Occasionally, though, he told a joke that made me laugh and untangled my overly serious self for a second or two.

Group projects are hard because we have to figure out what we’re doing, how we’re going to do it, and who is going to do what work. We must figure out how to include different personalities and learn how—for at least a little while—to trust each other to get the work done. We have to admit that we need each other, even if it is only for a few jokes and a finished chemistry packet.

Reflection Questions

1. What makes this a difficult parable?
2. What does it mean to be fair? How do you determine if something is unfair?
3. Is the landowner fair in this story?
4. How do you include others in groups you are a part of? What has been particularly helpful in including new people?
5. What does it feel like when a group is working well together? When a group isn’t getting along?

Closing Activity

Divide into groups of three or four. Tell the group, “In a few minutes we will pray together. We will hold hands, and squeeze the hand of the next person as we are finished praying. Today, you have to pray for someone else in your small group, and everyone has to be prayed for. So, in the next few minutes, decide who is praying for whom and then share one thing you’d like others to pray for. It doesn’t have to be complicated or deep, it can be about an upcoming test or sports game or a project you’re working on.”

Give them roughly two minutes per group member to share, then gather them for prayer. If your group is only a handful, listen carefully to one another and have each person pray for the person on their left. Consider starting or ending the group prayer with the prayer below.

Final Prayer

Loving God, when we work with others, help us to be gracious, fair, and kind to each other and clear about our plans. In the groups that we are part of—youth group, sports teams, after-school clubs, and even groups of friends—be with us; help us to include and care for one another and to be included and cared for ourselves. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Bio

Adrianne Meier is an ELCA pastor who serves among the people at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Indiana. When she’s not working—and even when she is working—you can find her furiously knitting.

Contributed by Jen Krausz, Bethlehem, PA

Warm-up Question

When would you rather be last at something, rather than first?

It’s Not Fair–Thank God

My father-in-law passed away over the summer. He was only 63, and our family was not ready for a leaky heart valve which led to a lengthy hospital stay, followed by strokes which left him comatose and unable to respond.

But in the weeks before the strokes, while he sat in the hospital waiting for his kidney function to stabilize, an amazing thing happened. His heart toward God changed.

A previous church had judged his family for the behavior of another family member instead of offering help or support. This unchrist-like behavior had turned him off to churches—we thought, for good. He was a loving father, grandfather and husband. He helped many people and treated others better than they deserved in many cases. He just didn’t want to get involved with churches anymore, and held God at a distance because of the way God’s people had treated him.

But when he landed in the hospital, he started talking to our pastor. People from church, many of whom he did not know, called and visited. They became the hands and feet of God to him, and he began to see, through this caring and through talks with the pastor, that God loved him. He expressed his wishes to join the church when he recovered, not knowing that the expected recovery would not take place.

At his funeral, the pastor was able to share this story of a man who discovered God’s love and salvation at the end of his life. What an inspiration to those who heard that story!

 Discussion Questions

• Do you know anyone who is “turned off” to church because of a bad experience? What do you think might change someone’s mind once they’ve had an experience like this?
• What can churches do to minister to people who have been mistreated in the past?
• Do you think it matters to God whether someone comes to faith early in life or at the end of their earthly life? Why or why not?

Scripture Texts (NRSV) for Sunday, September 18, 2011 (Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost)

 
Jonah 3:10-4:11

Philippians 1:21-30

Matthew 20:1-16

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year C at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

Wouldn’t it be great to work one hour and get paid the same as people who have worked an entire day? Absolutely, it would. However, would you like to be the person who worked all day and had to watch someone who only worked an hour get paid the same as you? Not likely.

Unfortunately, people who have followed Christ for many years can take the same attitude as these day-long laborers did in this week’s scriptures. According to these verses and others (such as Jesus’ promise to the thief on the cross that he would be with Jesus in Paradise on that same day), those who come to Christ at the end of their lives are promised the same reward: eternity with God in heaven.

Is that fair? Well, Jesus cautions, we may not want to be so focused on what’s fair. After all, let’s consider that Jesus’ payment on the cross for our sins wasn’t fair to him, was it? If things were really fair, we would all be in trouble! This parable reminds us that God is in charge, and it’s up to God to decide what happens to people. If God decides to give people every opportunity to find faith and salvation, even with their dying breaths (and it seems that God has), what is that to us?

I would add that there are many blessings in following Christ here on earth, so even grumbling about fairness is not really justified. In God’s economy, glorifying God also benefits us in many ways. Go figure!

I don’t know if you grew up like I did, hearing my parents use verse 16 of this scripture as a life lesson. Whenever my sister and I clamored to be the first to get or do anything, we heard, “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” And although we got tired of hearing these words, they were a good reminder that being first is not necessarily best in God’s eyes. God takes everything into account; even the last and least are important to God, and they should be important to God’s followers as well.

Discussion Questions

•  Do you consider yourself to be a long-time follower of Christ or a new believer—or someone who is still seeking faith?
• If you consider yourself a long-time follower, how do you feel about those who come to faith at the very end of their lives?
• What special opportunities belong to those who are last (think about being last in line, last to do something)?
• Does your view of what’s fair change when you consider that no person deserves salvation or even God’s love?

Activity Suggestions

As a group or individually, commit to visiting at least one person who is in the hospital. It could be a church member, or a non-member that someone in the class knows. The purpose of the visit is not to evangelize, but to show love and concern. Pray out loud for the hospitalized person during the visit (ask first to make sure they are open to it).

Brainstorm other ideas for how to show God’s love to others in a non-judgmental way. There are many ways for students to do this in their daily lives—sitting with someone at the lunch table who normally sits alone, offering to help carry an injured student’s books, helping a struggling student with homework, treating brothers and sisters the way they would want to be treated, etc. It is so sad that so many people miss out on church (and God) because they have not experienced the love of God’s people! We as a church need to make sure we are reversing this trend, not reinforcing it.

Closing Prayer

Holy God, you can do anything in this world, but you choose to work through flawed people. Give us strength and willingness to be your hands and feet to the people around us, especially those who are hurting and need your love. Thank you for being unfair to us and forgiving our sins when we didn’t deserve it. In Jesus’name, Amen.