The Last and First
September 24th, 2023
Year A; 17th Pentecost; Proper 20
Exodus 16: 2-15
Psalm 105: 1-6
Matthew 20: 1-16
Matthew 20:1-16
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers 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 marketplace; 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 laborers 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.”
Homily by Rev. Megan Limburg
In the name of the Holy Three. Amen.
The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, God’s vision, God’s way for life on this earth. Will it look anything like the way we humans run things? Well, we get another parable today to spin our heads and perhaps help us to let go of our ways, and glimpse God’s kingdom. “The kingdom of God is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”
Why does the landowner go back to the marketplace repeatedly, five times in fact, to find more and more workers, even going once more just before the day is done, hiring workers still waiting there, asking them why they are still waiting:
“Because no one has hired us.”
And then at the end of the day when it is time to pay everyone, the landowner instructs his manager:
“Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.”
If he had paid the first, first, those workers would have left and never seen the last being paid the same wage as them.
But the landowner purposely plans the pay schedule so that the first will know that they have been paid the same as those who were hired last, that those who were chosen last were paid the same as those who worked all day.
The first workers do protest and complain. And the landowner gently but firmly reminds them that they have not been cheated in any way, shape, or form.
‘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.”
A generous kingdom of God, where no one, not even the last are left behind, but in fact, are treasured as much as the first.
Who are the last and the first?
I’d like to offer two examples to help us wrestle with this challenging parable.
A recent article in the Richmond Times Dispatch spoke of the last and the first, discussing the Governor’s Schools in Richmond and how students are chosen to attend them. Economically disadvantaged students are deeply underrepresented in these schools. The Richmond Public Schools are working to increase the opportunities for students living in poverty to attain spots in these excellent schools.
The article noted all the factors that place economically advantaged students as among the last, before they even apply:
“The connection between well-being and education results is one of the most persistent links in education research. Schools with consistently low-test scores tend to have a higher proportion of families living in poverty, while schools with families enjoying comfortable income consistently achieve higher scores. This correlation remains highly consistent over time. Affluent households generally do not face the same issues like access to food, health care and transportation.” (RTD, September 21, 2023)
I look at my own life; I was in the 3rd generation of my family to go to college. I was never hungry for one day of my childhood, and I never went to school distracted by hunger. I went to the pediatrician regularly and received all my vaccines on time. And whatever activities I was involved in my family owned two cars my entire childhood, so transportation was never an issue.
Before I even started school, I was thus among the first. I did not get to choose to be born into such a family, just as a student born into poverty does not choose their start. The last and the first, as we enter the maternity ward.
The second example comes from a different perspective and surprised me, and made me think about the last and the first in a new way. This perspective speaks to long-timers and new folks in any organization or community, including the church.
The writer Ray Speller notes:
“Jesus doesn’t seem to be interested in our warped ways of keeping the life ledger. According to Jesus, in the context of the kingdom of heaven, the last shall be first. Read more widely: the last to join the church or team isn’t the least worthy of having their voice and presence count…..The first shall be last and the last shall be first because, indeed, there is no person who is last or least in the kingdom of heaven.” (Christian Century, September 2023)
The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, God’s vision, God’s way for life on this earth. Will it look anything like the way we humans run things? All voices heard? No hierarchy of who is more worthy than another to speak?
Jesus invites us to allow our heads to spin a bit and hear and see God’s world in new ways, not waiting for the afterlife for things to be more generous, but to help in building such a world now.
A tall order, and a challenging one: do we spend our time frustrated by God’s generosity, God’s invitation to include more and more, or might we join God in inviting in the last ones—the economically disadvantaged, the sick, people of color, the latecomers, those deemed unimportant in our world.
I’ll close with a moment from Holy Week, when Jesus washes his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper. Jesus has talked and told parables and explained over and over God’s kingdom, and just before he must suffer and die, Jesus stops talking and shows his friends, and us, how to follow him. Jesus washes their feet, taking the role of the servant, the one who serves.
“When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
May we wash the feet of the last and the first, and invite all to join us as we labor to build the kingdom of heaven, now, here on earth.
Amen.