Work it

The best parables always say more about the reader than they do about the cast of characters in them, which is the point.  There's a bit in Monty Python's Life of Brian where Brian is trying to blend in with the manic street preachers, and begins to tell a parable of his own just to get the Roman guards to overlook him, and not notice that he was on the run from them.  As he starts to tell his parable, the people who are listening ask him for the names of the people in the parable,  and Brian says 'it doesn't matter!'  They don't take it too well, and ask for the names again, to which Brian responds 'Simon and Adrian.'  The crowd shouts back 'He's making it up as he goes along!'

Yeah, the names of the people in the parable don't really matter, because the parable isn't about those people, it's about you.  That's why it's vague.  These both aren't real people, but they are also absolutely real people, because they are you and me.  They're both everyone and no-one all at the same time.  And the parable about laborers in the vineyard is absolutely no exception.  Think for a moment about that parable, about those who were hired by the owner of the vineyard, and what they agreed to.  The first of the day were called into service and promised a denarius, that is, a day's wage for doing a day's work.  But the harvest was plentiful, and the workers were few as they tend to be, so the vineyard owner recruited more people to go out to work in the vineyard.  At the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hour.  And everyone agreed that what they were being paid was fair.

When quitting time came around, everyone lined up to get what they had contracted for.  The last guys to arrive, the ones who had only worked for one hour, each got a denarius, or a full day's wage for their work.  When those who had worked all day saw this, they got all excited, got all worked up, got all thrilled, and thought to themselves about all the money they were going to make.  After all, if someone gets a full day's pay for an hour's work, then how many days will you get paid for for an actual full day's work?  That's a heck of a question, and they were no doubt rubbing their hands together in anticipation.  And when the time came for the pay to be given to those who had gotten there first, they were paid.

One Denarius.

Now, that's exactly what they had contracted for, it was what they had agreed to, it was what they had said was fair, and it was what they were given, right on the money.  That sounds good, right?  Well, in this case, fair seems unfair, or to be more accurate, the unfairness that we saw last week seems really unfair now, to the point that those who had been there all day, working all day, were upset that they had earned the same denarius as those who had just arrived.  And so, they complained.

Their complaints, though well understood and duly noted, unfortunately run aground at one particular point.  They run aground on the virtue and understanding that they did actually get more than the late arrivals of one particular thing, and no, it wasn't the money.  It was the work.  They got to work for more time.

On the surface, that seems bad, right?  Wow, what a thrill, they had to work eight times as long for the same wage?  That seems bad.  But that only seems bad if you understand work as something to be avoided under pretty much all circumstances.  If you see work as something to be steered around, avoided, to be thrown beneath the bus of your own sloth and gluttony, then work is the thing you do to get the money.  But hopefully, you have found yourself in a situation, in an understanding, where the work you do is worth doing, and worth doing well.  If it's not, if you're essentially like a surly teenager just putting in the hours doing the absolute minimum to not get fired and cashing your paycheque at the end of the week then who's the sucker?

When we were younger, we all wanted an easy job.  A job where we could surf the internet all day and do as little as possible while still being paid.  it sounded great, right?  Show up for eight hours, and then go home, and when you get home, you.....surf the internet some more? After a year of this, give or take, something bizarre happened to most of us, where we sorted out that the job we had, if we were going to spend eight hours a day at it anyway, that job was going to have to be something that was worth doing, because no amount of money is worth you throwing your life away eight hours at a time for your most productive years.  And then you realize that the work you do has great potential in it, to do amazing, worthwhile things that will imbue those hours with meaning, that they might not be wasted, but might be productive.  And no, this isn't a story where I tell you to do what you love and the money will follow, because that's not really true.  Ain't nobody paying me for playing with slot cars, I tell you that.  Except when I bring them to youth group.  Then they do.  But beyond that, it's not a matter of doing what you love and the money will follow necessarily, and those who say that are in a really cushy, really easy position where if everyone had their sort of job, the economy would collapse.

For most everyone, you have a job that you have to work at, and you can't afford to just quit and take off backpacking through Europe for a couple of summers.  It's a job that you can stand, but likely not one that you like that much.  So you have some choices with the work that you do.  You can either mope through it, and survive each day, looking forward to the money only, or you can work through each day as an opportunity to partially define yourself through the output and the work that you do, to do it well, and to realize that you are able to do a job worth doing instead of sitting on the couch watching the price is right.

You know, if you're going to be working all day anyway.

And this brings us full circle back to the parable again, and the idea, the notion that the first men who arrived to work that day got to do more work than those who got there later.  No, not had to work, but got to work.  That is, they were allowed and welcomed to do more work than their tardy counterparts.  This point is cemented later on where it says that the men who were found later on were found standing idle, not going anywhere or doing anything of note. So they were recruited into the service in the vineyard.  They all got the denarius, but some of the workers weren't standing out in the marketplace all day.  They were working.  They were changing the land and having it change them.  They were defining that day through effort, through struggle, through achievement, and through work and through output.  For you need to know something about the beginning of everything, as well as the end.  From the beginning of creation, work was something that humans were supposed to do, were created to do.  They were made to work, they were designed for it, and placed in a space where they could do good, meaningful work.  Work wasn't a punishment for sin, work tied to survival was.  By the end of the scriptures, even in paradise, after the end of everything else, there is still the tree of life, still a garden, and still crops for people to bring in, though the curse of work to earn is gone.  And that's what we need to understand, which is that the work isn't tied to the denarius.  For us, as Christians, given the work that Christ has done on our behalf, the earning is done, it is accomplished, it is finished.  We don't get any more pay based on how long we've been working out in the field, and I hope last week's sermon really served to get that across.  It's not about the denarius, it's about the work itself.  It's not that you have to work longer for the same pay, you get to work longer.

We are a people who are desperate for meaning in our lives, and we are living in a world in which we are constantly told to define ourselves by our consumption; our starbucks orders, our furniture, the car we drive and the clothes we wear.  We are people who are less made up by the balance in our bank accounts, and more composed of the accumulation of things that we have .  That's what we have been told to define ourselves by, brands and logos.  But we all know that deep down, we are defined

by work . As redeemed people of Christ, we are defined by his work for us on the cross, and now that the denarius is earned, we get to also define ourselves by the work that we do in his field and in his kingdom.  For God wants us to do quite a few things.  He has in mind for us to accomplish certain things in his vineyard, he wants us love our neighbors as ourselves, to give to those who ask, to protect the orphans and widows in their distress, to stand for righteousness and faith and charity even and especially when it hurts.  He wants us to forsake sorcery and fornication, to flee immorality, and to be at work in his kingdom.  And he knows something important about us, which is to understand that this work is not punishment, for us as Christian people, as humans striving for meaning in a corporate world governed by purchase and brands, we are offered an identity not defined by what we are sold, but by what we do, output not consumption.  And when you look at the work that Christ would have you do, you'll understand something else, which is that observing his laws and commandments, repenting where you have gone wrong, and rejoicing in what you have done right, your every day is imbued with meaning, with purpose and direction.  You're not lost in a corporate morass, you're not fumbling in the darkness, you're guided by the light of Christ and being encouraged by his grace.  It's not there to punish you, or tie you to earnings through your output, rather to encourage you to embrace the work, to hold fast to the challenge, and to realize that the work itself is the blessing.

That's why Jesus wants you to be at work, because it's good for you.  Not so you'll earn more, for everyone receives the same reward through faith in Christ.  The work itself, properly considered in the meaning and blessing it can give, itself is the reward.  This parable is about those workers, of course, but it is also about you.