Texts: Matthew 20:1-16; Philippians 1:27-30

On first glance the scriptures appointed for our reading and reflection today seem to pull in opposite directions. In Paul’s letter we hear him admonishing his followers in Philippi to live lives worthy of the gospel ... evoking in us the tendency to ask what exactly it would be that would make us worthy, and to then scurry and scamper about trying to do whatever we’ve been told will build up the necessary worth or value in God’s eyes. But then, in the story that Jesus tells, we find the ridiculous proposition that it isn’t about the amount of time you put in or how long you’ve been with the program — it isn’t what you do that matters so much. It’s all about God ... loving us all the same, offering everyone the same chance to join the party ... turning upside-down the notion of our net worth being based on the measures of a value added system. It isn’t about whether you’ve paid your dues or not .... but about whether or not you are ready and waiting when God calls upon you to join in the harvest. They seem like two messages ... even opposed in some ways ... but both addressed to those who follow Jesus and seek to live life in his name. Let’s start with the gospel.

In Matthew, Jesus tells this story as he comes toward the end of his ministry. In the scene immediately before this one, Jesus has been sought out by a very rich young man or ruler, asking about the deeds necessary to have eternal life. I’m sure you remember that Jesus tells him to go and sell all his stuff, give the proceeds to the poor, and to follow him, Jesus, into a new life. The young man turns away sad ... for he had lots of stuff. The disciples witness this encounter, and hear the teaching about how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, and they are troubled. "Who then?" They ask. And what about us? We have left everything. What will happen to us? And Jesus responds with the puzzling image of a kingdom turned upside-down: many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. It at this point that Jesus offers the parable that was read for today. He offers it is an example of what he is talking about: for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

Every community has a place where you can go to hire day laborers. Sometimes you see them outside the Home Depot, or near another lumber or supply store. In the city it might be at the bus station, or near the corner grocery store. When you go there you meet those without "regular" or "secure" employment, but who are needing to work just the same. So they gather, waiting for someone to hire them. They are all different ages and sizes ... some of them look strong, some tired ... most look hungry... hungry to work. Some get chosen ... some don’t, at least not at first. The waiting is painful ... and so is the resentment felt when one of your friends gets chosen over you.

You’ve gone to school, and waited in gym class while the team captains pick the team. Perhaps some of you were always the first one picked. Most of us though, hold our breath and hope against hope that we at least won’t be the last. How devastating to be the one someone has to take because all the good players have been chosen!

And now you’re all grown up. And some of you have lost or are soon to lose your jobs. Most of you aren’t going to go stand on the street corner, offering yourself as a day-laborer to the next contractor who pulls up in his pick-up truck. But you may be spending a good part of your days surfing the job sites on the internet. Or sending out resumes. Or making calls to friends, acquaintances, family and former co-workers or colleagues. "What do you know? Is there anything open at your company? Who should I talk to?" And you practice waiting ... and activate your contingency plan. You try to be strong ... but you get tired. And you try to rejoice when you hear of a friend who finds a job as you fight off those 10 year old feelings of not being picked. Your self-worth falls and your faith is tested.

Jesus describes a scene where the landowner just keeps coming back to hire more laborers until everyone has been chosen, until everyone has work to do. At the end of the day, the landowner begins to settle up with those he’s hired. And those that were hired early watch as those who came on board later are given the wage for a full day of work. Cool! They think, at first. That means we’ll get even more. But that isn’t what happens. They, too, receive the usual daily wage ... and then they begin to grumble. Sputtering with frustration, they complain that even though they’d worked the longest ... and through the worst part of the day ... the others have been made equal with them. I think it isn’t even the wage issue that makes them so made. It is that others have been made equal to them ... to those who were feeling to cocky for being picked first. Ironically, they get the point and miss it in the same moment. Yes ... the others have been made equal!! That’s how it is in the kingdom of heaven. Worth isn’t measured in terms of how much we contribute ... how good a player we are ... whether we’ve paid our dues or not. All we have to do is show up for the game and we get on the team.

The issue is relevant even in this political season. Of the four candidates on the presidential tickets ... two are tried and true, paid their dues, kind of people, and two are relative newcomers. Of course, this isn’t any accident .... both parties want to appeal to those looking for experience and to those looking for change, for a fresh look at things. And there has been a lot of energy spent on convincing people that it is experience that matters ... and even more energy and treasure spent on convincing voters that those coming late to the vineyard ... young as they are, have as much to offer as the long-timers , maybe even more. According to the economy of the kingdom, all are equal. Now, of course, that isn’t to say there aren’t many criteria to use when evaluating a worker, or a presidential ticket. When we look at presidential candidates and party platforms, we need to look for their values and beliefs about government and its role in building up the common good for all people. We need to look at their integrity and consistency and whether they are able to walk their talk in small and large ways ... and whether their talk demonstrates respect and hope for all kinds of people and situations. And these are the issues whether they are long-timers or new-comers to the scene.

This happens in churches, too. I don’t see it as being as evident here as I have in some other communities. But it can happen that the long-timers resent the new-comers in a community and get into a grumbling pattern about how the newbies don’t deserve to be listened to as much since they can’t really know what is going on, or wondering why the pastor pays so much attention to visitors, or those just moving into the neighborhood, instead of tending to those who’ve been here the longest. But the message is clear. In the kingdom of heaven ... all are equal!!! Those who are different than us, those who got here later, those younger in age or in the faith ... all are precious in God’s sight.

So the question of worth, in Jesus’ perspective, comes down to God’s effort to enlist everyone in the kingdom of heaven ... to be sure that everyone who is seeking is given a job, a place, and rewarded the same as everyone else. This is an upside-down kingdom ... the last coming first, and the first not so high up anymore. The disciples likely still didn’t get it. We don’t find it so easy either. But it is at the heart of the message that Jesus is and offers us: God just keeps coming, looking for us, until all have a place in the kingdom.

In all truth, this is exactly the message that Paul also preaches: that God in Jesus Christ wants all people to know him and to live with him as their center. Paul’s letter to the Philippians was written a generation later. Jesus had been crucified, and a community formed around the experience of his ongoing presence and power among them. And the message of that community had spread through Peter, and Barnabus and Paul, and others. At one point, Paul had visited the city of Philippi ... the first city in Europe to hear the message of Christ. It was a Greek city along the Aegean coast, but had been resettled with Roman soldiers 30 years before the time of Christ at the end of the civil war with the Anthony and Cleopatra. When Octavian Augustus won, and became the ruler ... Caesar Augustus ... many of the Roman soldiers were retired and provided a life in Philippi. And so Philippi was a city of two cultures ... Greek and Roman.

It was into this mixed community of Roman citizens and Greek culture that Paul had come to tell of Jesus. Finding a small group of God-fearers ... not Jews but those who valued and observed many of the Jewish practices ... he told them of this New Way of Jesus ... a way of self-giving love, and joy, and finding one’s true home in the kingdom of heaven instead of the empires of earth. A prominent business woman, Lydia, was baptized, along with many others. And Paul developed a close relationship with this community as it deepened and grew in its faith and common life. Eventually Paul left ... but stayed in touch. And now it is many years later ... Paul finds himself in prison, attacked from competitors, and just plain tired after 20 plus years of hard traveling.

Paul writes to tell them of his own situation .... imprisonment... and to allay any concern over that, but also to address what he has heard is a tension within the community. There is a suggestion that there are power struggles between some of the leadership ... two of the women, particularly ... and there was also the ever present pressure from the surrounding culture and groups competing for the loyalty of the people. Paul writes ... acknowledging his own difficult circumstances, and suggesting that he’s heard of what they are going through. He rejoices in their faithfulness. And he reminds them of what is most important: whatever happens there is only one thing, he tells them.

We translate the Greek as "live your lives in a manner worthy of the Gospel." But the word in the Greek refers to living as citizens ... citizens of heaven not of Rome or Greek culture.... live as citizens of God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. And living as citizens means we do not live to ourselves but in relationship with others. And citizenship in the kingdom of heaven involves three things and Paul draws words from three different parts of society:

To stand firm evokes a military term describing what happens at the point of conflict, holding the ground that has been given or won, when two or more powers are bumping into each other and want some of the same territory.

Contending together draws on athletic language ... gladiators would fight side by side ... sun athleo ... developing their capacity to work together.

And worthiness. This term comes from commerce. Again, it is about life in community. Worth is about evening the beam. When you went to the marketplace to purchase grain, the kernels would be placed on one side and the weights on the other. Your bill was determined by the amount of weight when the beam was balanced. The worth was determined when the scales were balanced. To live a life worthy of the Gospel, then, is to give weight to what God has done in our lives by the way we live our lives toward others in the community and in the world – standing firm together - as one - and contending together, struggling together with the questions of faith and live.

Someone said recently that the problem in our churches is not so much that we don’t get along, but that we actually spend very little time together engaging the hard questions of our lives and facing our world. Living a life worthy of the gospel isn’t so much an individual task as a way to live in the community of God’s people and in the world. It is all about standing together, struggling together, being ready to join the team — whether you are picked early or late — and to welcome the contributions of all to the work of the kingdom.

And so, though the scriptures seem at first to pull in opposite directions, you find that these is this single message that it is God’s love and grace ... no matter your circumstances ... in good times and bad, even in the midst of suffering ... that saves you and reminds you who and whose you are.