REFLECTION

This is a time of struggle. There is the continuing struggle with the virus and the struggle to keep up with all the laws and regulations. There is the struggle with the seeming shifting sands of morality that we encounter or are seemingly shifted 'on our behalf' by governments and sometimes businesses. Companies we have trusted for years give up some of their standards because of 'market forces'. If this struggle was not enough we sometimes are called to struggle with passages such as our Matthew parable today.
However much we read and reread it, in whatever version, the outcome is always the same, the economics of the Kingdom of Heaven doesn't add up! Our human sense of justice 'a fair day's wage for a fair day's work' - one of the pillars of social justice, would suggest you get paid for the number of hours worked - just as the original hearers of this parable would have expected.
Even our own government has a formula to work this out for employers who still employ people in this way. However, we know from news articles that there are still unscrupulous employers and world-wide the exploitation of workers is rife. How often do we hear of generous employers paying exactly the same wage to those who work full-time and part-time, not pro-rata, but exactly the same - I suggest never. Yet that is exactly what Jesus is saying here - full day's labour gets the same as final hour's labour.
Of course we say to ourselves, this is about Kingdom matters, love, compassion, care etc are not commodities to be bought and sold, somehow that makes the parable sound more palatable and perhaps we give up thinking about it because the alternative - to go on struggling with it is too much. But we are left with the notion that the economics of the Kingdom not only does not add up but is distinctly different to our carefully constructed notions of supply and demand and the building blocks of the study of economics.
We perhaps need to take a step back and reflect on this from the perspective of 'Creationtide' which has been adopted by many churches from an invitation from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul). It is a season (Sept-Oct) to reflect on ecology and our interdependence on each other and the plant and animal kingdom and all our dependence on our one planet. In this our traditional 'Harvest season' it is timely.
God in generosity has given one planet for humanity to inhabit along with all plants and creatures. How do we use this planet? Do the first grab it for themselves leaving the last to pick up what they can - or do we find another world order that says each person, each plant, each creature can have its place in a sustainable way? Looking through this lens, the parable of Jesus takes on another meaning, another dimension. Perhaps we need to spend time sitting with this parable again in the light of the threats to our planet. We might struggle a bit - but that is ok. Like Paul who struggled with his imprisonment for the sake of the gospel encourages the Philippians to continue in their struggle. For it was not just about the 'new Jesus cult' that Paul was imprisoned. The Roman empire was used to that, it was the implications to the way of life that following Jesus meant that was the 'threat' to the political and social order of that empire. Just how counter-cultural are we in even beginning to contemplate a different sort of economics in our real world - where we give first to the poorest and then deal with those who have more than enough.
As I write this there has been a report published about the lack of social mobility for those born in the most deprived areas of this country. Perhaps we need to read that alongside this parable and ask ourselves which economics do we follow.