Tag Archives: Matthew 20:1-16

Standing Idle

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workers-in-vineyardCertainly, this parable is about the generosity of God and a good preacher would do well to develop that thought. Me? I’ll do something else. I was captured by the scene when the landowner goes into the marketplace and finds people there and asks them: “Why do you stand here idle all day?” Too often we assume they got up late or were not industrious enough, or did not want it bad enough. Certainly our recent and current financial times can help us re-imagine the scene. We all know friends, family members and associated who are “idle all day,” unemployed or underemployed, unable to use their gifts and talents because there is no opportunity available, or apparent – and they are just waiting, hoping that a generous “landowner” will come and give them an opportunity. Just the chance to use their experience, their God-given talents. Continue reading →

What Can We Say

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laborers-in-the-field-11thcentbyzantineWhat Can We Say. Patricia Datchuck Sánchez writes:

“Like most scriptural texts, this parable also should be evaluated and appreciated with regard for its various levels of development. At its initial or basic level, the parable defended Jesus’ missionary methodology of reaching out to extend the blessings of the kingdom to tax collectors and sinners. Whereas his contemporaries believed these to be pariah with no claim to salvation, Jesus’ words and works indicated that sinners were not only on equal footing with the righteous but were in fact the ones to whom God manifested special love and mercies.” Continue reading →

The Midst of Assumptions

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workers-in-vineyardCaught in the Midst of Assumptions. It is interesting that it is the “manager” or “steward” (epitropos), not the owner, who calls the workers and “gives them their pay/reward” (misthos). They are the ones who dispense what the owner considers right and just. They are also the ones who take the flak from those who disagree. I think we can all relate to being the one thrust into the middle of something not necessarily of our own making. Continue reading →

Usual or Just?

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Parable_of_the_Workers_in_the_VineyardCommentary. 1 “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 Going out about nine o‘clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ 5 So they went off. (And) he went out again around noon, and around three o‘clock, and did likewise. 6 Going out about five o‘clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’ Continue reading →

Calculus of the Kingdom

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When I was a youth I read a book, “Cheaper By the Dozen” that tells the story of time and motion study and efficiency experts Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, and their twelve children. I always thought they were on to something, at least in the sense that their must be a “calculus of child rearing.” So years later armed with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, an MBA, and zero child rearing experience, I thought I would offer a multivariate model of child rearing that could be of aid to parents everywhere. Continue reading →