We Are All Farm Hands

We Are All Farm Hands MT 20:1-16

“The first will last and the last will be first.”

I’ve got this image in my mind, of a kindergartner protesting with her hands on her hips, “That’s not fair!” The parent and teachers here today no this protest all too well. The reality is that we still carry this inner child with us. We monitor our social circles, looking for folks trying to bud in line and take what is rightfully ours.
Our gospel lesson today confronts us with a challenging reality. God is gracious and generous. God’s ways are not our ways. Our human nature is to set up our social world into hierarchies. We want to master the rules so we can move up the pecking order. We want some assurances that those of with seniority will get what is due to us. Like the vineyard workers protesting those getting paid for a whole days work, we grumble, “Who are these young up starts coming in here and acting like they can run the show? Someone needs to cut them down to size. Who do they think they are!
I have been to some newer churches where people proudly declare that “Our family are charter members of this church.” I wonder how they digest this passage. You might have been first but in the end you will be last. “ Whoa wait a minute that’s not fair!”
The church has had to deal with this pecking order issue from the very beginning. Early on it was the Jewish-Gentile question. Did you have to become Jewish in order to become a Christian? Peter and Paul got into a heated argument, when Peter refused to sit at table with Gentile Christians.
It is no surprise that this Pharisee attitude is still an issue today. We will always have to deal issues of puffed up pride and attempts to set up ranking systems. We see this in how people rank the Elders above the Deacons. We are equal all in the priesthood of all believers. We have a place and a roll regardless of when we joined or were elected to an office. We are all farm hands.
Our gospel lesson comes at key juncture in Matthew’s story. The suspense is building. They are about to enter Jerusalem for Jesus’ final show down with the authorities. Many still excepted Jesus to overthrow the Romans and Temple authorities and usher in the Kingdom of Heaven. They are looking to the Son of David to bring back the old order and they want to be sure they are on the short list as potential candidates.
We can feel this sense of urgency, A few verses later, when a proud Jewish mother approaches Jesus to lobby for her sons. She wants to be ensured they will have seats of honour in this new administration. You can just hear the disciples rehearsing their pitch “Jesus we have been here from the beginning, won’t you give me a key position in your inner circle. I want a cabinet position.”
Jesus challenges their viewpoint. This is the way of the world, not the kingdom of God. The greatest among us is not some one who lords their authority over others. Don’t get caught up with all these ranks and titles. This is not what defines your value in Kingdom of God. No the greatest among you is the one who is the greatest servant of all, a slave who extends sacrificial service to others. Earlier on, Jesus tells us that the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are those who humble themselves like little children.
It is fitting that in John’s gospel, at the Last Supper, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Jesus humbles himself and anoints their feet for the path they are about to set out on. Do you remember Peter’s initial resistance? In a world filled with pecking orders, we have a hard time accepting gestures of humility and service from our superiors. That is unless we fill entitled to it. None of us are entitled to God’s grace and generosity. It does not matter how long we have been in the church. Our works will never amount to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. We give and serve as an act of love and worship. We serve others as a testimony to how much God loves us.
When I was in the Army, I remember this guy who kept flexing his authority over me because he was a specialist and I was a private. He was capricious in the orders he gave me, and pompous when I did not jump at his beck and call. Later on, I was assigned to be the promotion clerk. My job was to process all the paperwork needed for someone to be promoted to the next rank. Although many of my comrades outranked me they were nicer to me when they knew that my work would determine when they could qualify for a promotion. This was an interesting reversal. Don’t worry I was never passive aggressive, I did not sabotage anyone. It was a blessing ,however, that I did not get the harassment that some of my fellow privates got from their superiors.
Sometimes the church feels more like a company of soldiers in God’s army. We have high ranking generals and colonels who have paid their dues, put in the hours and wield a lot of power and influence. A congregation is a dynamic organism that needs to be able to adapt and change in order to survive. The younger generation has a unique perspective on things. They sense where things need to go in order for the church to be relevant and engaged in our community. Bringing in young families is one of the key survival measures for our future.
There is a natural resistance to change. We face many obstacles. How might this parable about the vineyard and the reversal of who is first and who is last apply to our intergenerational relationships?
It does not matter when we started working in God’s harvest. God’s generous love is afforded to everyone, regardless of when they punched in. When God appeared to Moses he said, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Sometimes we are like Jonah refusing to go to Nineveh to offer the Good news of God’s grace and forgiveness. We judge others as not worthy of being in God’s fold. We sit and pout that it’s not fair that God is generous and forgiving of folks who have not been as devoted and faithful us. “ I want to see them prove themselves worthy.” Why should they get the same grace and forgiveness I get after all these years?
Today is the 26th Anniversary of the International Day of Peace. People throughout the world are following the United Nations call to pray for peace. Jesus, our prince of Peace calls us to be humble servants. In order for there to be peace in our world, the different faith traditions need to understand one another and work together to build on what we have in common. We need to mindful of not setting up pecking orders among us.
If we survey the major world religions, we share a common calling to be forgiving and compassionate. From our sacred texts, we follow a common calling to work for justice and peace, to care for the poor and oppressed. If we are to have peace in our world, we need to work together to counter the fundamentalist forces found in every major world religion.
As Christians engaged in interfaith dialogue, we must set aside any superiority attitudes about our historical role in Western culture. We may have been here first but in the end we will be last. We are called to humble service. This is how we love our neighbours in our diverse and complex global context.
Mother Theresa once described her evangelism as, “My job is love others, whether they are Hindu or Muslim. Conversion is between them and God.” Yet her order Sisters of Charity were recently attacked and arrested by Hindu fundamentalists. We pray for Christians throughout the world who bear witness to peacemaking and reconciliation. We must not respond to hate and intolerance with the same kind of attitudes and behaviours. We can’t let our faith be used as instruments in this clash of civilizations paradigm that pits us against one another.
God’s kingdom is a vineyard filled with farm hands. We humbly acknowledge that ultimately God will choose who labours with us and what our wages will be. As we join people throughout the world praying for peace, we follow the call of Isaiah to pound our “ Swords into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks.” These very words are the center piece at the front entrance to the United Nations in New York.
This is god’s harvest and we pick up the ploughshares that once were swords . We are all farm hands now, humbly working to narrow the gap in our Lord’s prayer “On earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus has shown how us to embrace the stranger and foreigner. Our brothers and sisters on the margins will join us in the fields and we welcome them as our equals.
God is gracious and generous. Whether we started at the beginning of the day or came later in the day, we are loved and embraced. Neighbours near and far are coming together to help prepare the grapes that will become the delicious wine served at our Lord’s Table. From farm hands, we will shift to working as busers and waiters. We remember what Jesus has modelled for us. The greatest among us are humble servants, no ranks or titles only fellow farm hands, busers and servers