Relationship Not Reward; Mission Not Money

Our typical reaction to today’s gospel of the laborers is:

“It’s not fair!”

It seems to be a common reaction to say

it’s not fair that the last worker gets the same as the first.

We protest as if we were the one

who was working the whole day laboring,

bearing the heat of the sun.

This gospel is less about an economic lesson plan for us

because a lot of us would object to this

as a mere socialism or a version of it.

The Lord is not giving a lesson to us about an economic systems.

He is trying to teach us about his mercy and love.

We even use the word “economy” of salvation.

We project onto God an economic system,

a merit-based system of eternal life or salvation.

But Jesus’ constant message over and over again

is that he will not be put into a box;

that God the Father’s love knows no boundaries;

that God does what God does

because God wants to do what he does.

There is this tension we constantly feel

between God’s mercy and God’s justice.

Without justice, you cannot have mercy

or mercy without justice.

They do go hand in glove if you would.

Today’s gospel,

remember we are continuing to read

the discourse on instructions from Matthew’s gospel,

is trying to teach us that salvation and God’s love is not an economy.

It does not work in a meritocracy.

We cannot win God’s favor by our good deeds per se.

In the parable, the owner of this vineyard is more interested in their need

than their contributions to the workday.

In that sense, it has more to do with motive and mission

than it has to do with money.

It has more to do with relationship than rewards.

The whole idea is about relationship and not about an economic system.

It is not about a reward-based or merit-based system

that I gain my salvation by being a good person.

The Lord upends that whole notion.

It offends our sensibility because

we are kind of like good Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts.

We do what we do and we get our badge.

We do what we do and we get another badge.

We do what we do and get another badge

and eventually we get the badge of eternal life.

That may be good for good social order

and it is good; and we need it.

We need good Boy Scouts and good Girl Scouts.

But that is not salvation.

That is not the gospel.

The gospel goes way beyond that.

It is not just about merit.

It is about God’s desire to love us.

God’s incredible, abundant and unconditional love

that comes out maybe all the more when we are deeply in need.

When we are most wounded,

God seems to step in even more and loves us all the more;

that when we are broken and in disbelief

that God comes to us and wraps us in a mantle of love.

Most often through the hands of those who care for us.

Let me give you an example of this relationship versus reward.

I have mentioned before that I am the youngest of 12 children.

My parents were once asked

which of your children do you love the most.

Of course you know being the youngest

I am expecting it to be, of course,

the youngest, the baby, Brendan is.

But my father never answered that way.

I will always remember the way my father answered.

He said, “Whoever is the one who is most in need.”

That is a deeply profound message

because I believe that is exactly what God the Father does for us.

He loves us all equally but he loves the one the most,

the one who is in need

at any particular time.

Who among you who have children or grandchildren,

won’t go the extra yard for the one who needs the extra yard;

who seems to be always troubled

and we do not know why or what happened.

Something happened somewhere along the line,

but they always seem to be in need.

Always hurting. And we continue to pour out.

Grandparents are notorious for this outpouring of unconditional love.

They get often scolded by their own children

for being unconditional in their love.

“Mum, Dad, stop doing that.

You are spoiling the kids.”

Exactly that is the whole point to give them unconditional love

which the parent cannot give them.

In fact, that is exactly what we want them to do.

We need somebody in our life

who will just pour out the love unconditionally.

People who do that are living in the second half of life.

They are no longer measuring out their love

or their affection based on some form of reward;

like you do this then I will love you more;

you do this and I will love you even more.

That is not what wise people do.

Wise people, masters or gurus of life,

they just love and they pour out their love on all children

maybe all the more on those who seems to be all the more difficult.

The challenge for us in today’s gospel

is not to get caught up into the economy of salvation,

the economic system of how God works.

But to accept that God’s law is a law of love;

abundant, unconditional love.

That is the start to keep in the head.

The next thing is to move it into the heart.

And what that means for us is

who is the person in our life right now

who is most in need of love;

who may have wounds and brokenness;

who may have said and done things to us

that have caused wounds and hurts but now they are in need.

And you or I have the ability to reach out to them and to love them.

Not because they merit it;

not because they have earned it;

but because God has given to us and we will give it to them.

That is the true economy of salvation;

that we give our love away for those most in need not most who merit.

Today, we love, or attempt to love,

as God loves us without measure, without boundary;

it is more about mission than money.