Matthew 20:1-16

Proper 20 (25) - Year A

 


The Presence of G*D is generosity expressed to a fault.

More could be said; a multitude of stories told to exemplify this intentionality that runs from creation to eternity.

But more can't be said and one more story won't make it any more or less true.

Our response seems to be less an image of G*D than anti-G*D. Given half a chance our envy and stinginess comes to the fore. We try to hard to control the blessings by focusing on our work and diligently attempt to deflect rejection by limiting G*D's options. In each and both cases we want not only our own, but to have our own be the most.

It would seem that a better response to generosity is humility. A simple thank-you to be able to witness generosity applied liberally prepares us to participate in being generous for no reason at all. Any other response keeps us from learning and re-learning and expanding our learning of this key quality of life.

For those in the American political scene, take a step back from the negative ads and ask some questions about generosity of heart. Perhaps "your heart will tell you as my heart has told me" that at this point the Republican presidential candidates have more to learn than the Democratic. May they both grow more generous with the last, lone, least and move away from those whose outsize expectations lobby for restrictions on generosity for the benefit of societies first privileged.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html

 


 

Read Barbara Ehrenreich's, Nickel and Dimed. We pay people to work, but we don't pay them enough to live.
There are certainly living wage issues in Jesus' story. We can also see how the working poor are pit against one another instead of against the system that keeps them all poor, with some being much poorer than others.

Work for Living Wage legislation in your community, state, and nation.

Do this work from a sense of generosity rather than some idealized agenda.

There is so much Poor Think all around - seeing economic resources as being much more limited than they are. A part of the Progressive movement is to not be frightened by those who predict disaster if the economic modeling moves away from the current overemphasis upon profit for the corporation. Here, as everywhere, we are called to see and prepare for the Great Reversal of swapping out last for first and vice versa. This is a far more reliable rule of thumb over an eternal long-haul than our time-bound models that encourage the rich to get richer and the poor to become poorer.

Our negative temptation in a scarcity model is to become stingy. Our positive temptation in an abundance model is to become generous.

Be positively tempted. :)

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/september2002.html

 


 

Male, mostly Caucasian, heterosexual, educated, Protestant . . . . So run but a few of my privileges. Simply being born into this USofA culture brings a boatload of advantage baggage. In my case I can claim that I've been hard at work and persevered, so I am worthy of a little extra in my paycheck.

Musically, Lou and Peter Berryman have yet another delightful song out explaining class differences, the refrain of which goes:

"Hard work and perseverance,
Grim determination of the soul.
I'd say from your appearance
You could use a little self-control!"

I ought to get an extra star in my crown for this accident of birth and circumstance. No affirmative action in my life, thank you. No consideration of the accident of the birth and circumstance of anyone else - - particularly "ladies", "colored", "homos", "retards" or "non-Bible believers" . . . .

The upshot of this is that I get first claim on what is fair or unfair and it is unfair to not get paid more than one of these johnny-come-latelies. Since God is supposed to be fair and my not getting paid more is not fair, God doesn't have the prerogative to lump us all together and pay us all the same. Because God is supposed to be fair, the first ought to be first and the last deserve to be last.

Its a good thing we came along this early in the week to keep those with a tendency to a liberal bias on the straight and narrow of appropriate privilege -- progressive prophets deserve better than we get.

Want another dose of class warfare -- check out responses to hurricane relief. Too little, too late (who's going to care), promise jobs for everyone (they're too dumb to do the math), pay workers below scale no matter how hard they work (Trent Lott needs to get a better house back than he lost so the Royal W can go visit), pin medals on incompetent cronies (we're first, they're last), "etc., etc., etc." as says another king.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html

 


 

Ahh, what a state of affairs -- you meant it for ill and I turned it to good (remember Sir Joseph of the Coat?) and. now, I meant it for good (mercy to all) and you turned it to ill (charges of "unfair!").

Wherein lies the perspective that will free us from our knee-jerk speculations of what an event means? It seems we insist on making meaning even when none exists (unless you are one of those who asserts all things work for good, for whatever reason, or who assert that nothing works out, so Armageddon is constantly upon us).

From what perspective might I find myself not relating things to previous states as a given?

-- One benefit automatically means all subsequent events ought to be ever more beneficial and I crash when one isn't.

-- Having been left behind so many times dooms me to being left behind forever and I fail the knocking opportunity when it arrives.

Here the operative perspective is that of generosity. This is how we are to live our political lives. Here following the "General Rules" of early Methodism come in handy, as well as the "Use of Money".

First, do no harm -- a generous act, in and of itself
Second, do good -- seems self-evidently generous
Third, attend to that which reveals G*D -- to which G*D? a generous G*D!

First, earn all you can -- that you might be more generous
Second, be as frugal as you can -- that you might be more generous
Third, give all you can -- that you might be more generous

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html

 


 

It is easy to get caught up in nuances between "minimum wage", "prevailing wage", "living wage", and other wage formulations.

How might this story look through the lens of the arguments of the past several years of privatizing social security? Or the recently delayed (not good PR timing in the presence of a disaster) attempt to do away with estate taxes?

These are only two of many USofA issues of privilege. I'd be glad to hear where this story, that caps that of the rich sorrowing away for their many possessions, hits home in other societies.

How does this work in a market economy rather than a labor economy and how might it bring "good news" beyond the "happy news" in today's media/world?

If you use this image as a jumping off place, what words do you put in Jesus' mouth? Is he talking to the disappointed left behind folk? Is he talking to the the disappointed first hired folk who didn't get more than they dreamed of? Is he talking to you?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html

 


 

Sitting on the shore of a great lake, with a state forest behind, it is easy to note that the context of our viewing/participating in life affects much. Here it is easy to note that when the Israelites of old heard G*D was coming they turned toward the wilderness. From whence else might G*D come? Everything else is too close to the usual sources of our complaining - inconveniences that don't match our projected desires.

For the preacher types it might be worth an intentional relocation of your reflection/writing/preparation time to meet G*D in your nearest wilderness. Yes, that might be a city as wide as Ninevah.

Jesus' story of a landlord hiring city folk to work a day or an hour brings together the rural and urban at a point of tension - the harvesting and consuming of food. At this point it is easy to find a dissatisfaction with life and a need to turn toward that strange wilderness of generosity beyond comprehension. Doesn't real generosity challenge all the structures we have put up around ourselves? In doing such we are again faced with a survival question - to protect ourselves from economic wildness do we need to give up radical generosity that comes with G*D from that same wilderness we have turned away from?

- - -

from the white breakers
methodically rolling on shore
to the indigo line
of the wide horizon
a circle wider than a rainbow
wraps a circle
around my eyes

there is no room
for personal ipod sounds
as giga-billions of rock washings
bring more sand to shore
slowing a stride to a stroll
until a next step
is taken in silence

with sight and sound
rhythmically cared for
doors to a wilderness within
crack open a bit
and with attention elsewhere
being a dance
to give themselves away

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

 


 

Since the future is not directly accessible we need to approach it obliquely, say through a parable.

Since we can note tangent points between a preferred future and a temporary present, a parable may be applicable to today without the fullness of the future being present.

What do you say to a country who has been devaluing all labor to the point of laborers being pitted against one another until each looking is for their own benefit, not that of all labor?

Well, one thing to be said is that a living wage is due everyone.

A second note would be that the generosity of the universe is available to be chosen in favor of. To choose maximal profit for a small group who got theirs early, is to miss out on being able to share the joy of being G*D with others.

Thirdly, might we go back to the creation stories and note the labor Adam and Eve were given, farming - garden care, vineyard care. Produce for the common good does not come easily. Imagine a farmer’s market to come which would have the work of each, from researcher to tomato grower to refuse hauler to money maker to forest manager to healer to fish catcher bring their gifts together and need is shared with need (not on the basis of some arbitrary value for each, but simply as a way to meet a need, knowing mine, large and small, will, in turn, be met).

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/09/matthew-201-16.html