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Readings: |
Isaiah 55:6-9 Philippians 1:20c-24,27a Matthew 20:1-6a |
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Date: |
September 23-24, 2023, Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A |
Today’s parable of the workers in the vineyard is one of those parables that elicits a different emotional response depending on who we identify with in the story. Someone who identifies with the owner of the vineyard will have quite a different emotional response to the story from someone who identifies with the workers who worked the whole day, or someone who identifies with the workers who only worked an hour. But I suspect that no matter who we identify with or where our response is on the emotional scale, our response is generated by a common way of looking at the world, a way that is very different from the way Jesus is trying to get his disciples to understand.
Jean Bethke Elshtain, a philosopher, wrote an article on Families and Trust a number of years ago that calls the way most of us look at the world a cash economy as opposed to the gift economy revealed by Jesus. A cash economy is basically a balancing of accounts. In every transaction, or exchange, ideally what is given and received balance out, as measured by some objective measure. Whenever the relative values of what is given or received are far enough apart, we get uneasy about the transaction, either recognizing it as unfair or unjust if we are on the short end, or worrying (or congratulating ourselves) about taking advantage of the other person if we are on the long end.
Professor Elshtain, uses St. Augustine’s words to explain the fundamental differences between the cash economy the world teaches and the gift economy that Jesus reveals as the way the kingdom of God works. Augustine focuses on two essential differences characterized by the medium of each economy. In a cash economy, the medium is money. If I give you money, I have less money myself. This is different from a gift economy where the medium is love. If I give you love, not only does that not reduce the love that I possess but it actually increases it.
In a cash economy, there is a conflict between what is best for the parties in any transaction. If I give you money, the best thing for you is if I do not expect anything in return. But the best thing for me is if I get something of equal or even greater value back. In a gift economy there is no conflict between what is best for both parties. If I give you love, the best thing for you is that I request that you give me love back. Even if you don’t love me back, I still have more love for having offered you love. And since love is not really yours until you give it away, it is best for you if you love me back.
Another subtle but important difference is that in a cash economy, my benefit depends on what I receive, and many times I have no control over that. In a gift economy, my benefit depends on what I give, over which I have full control.
In this section of Matthew’s Gospel, the author is trying present us with Jesus’ teaching that the kingdom of God is not governed by a cash economy. From the many stories that Jesus told about this different ordering in the kingdom of God, I suspect that he realized how difficult it is for most of us to switch the way we think.
Last week we heard Jesus tell the disciples that we must forgive 77 times, essentially without limit. That doesn’t make sense in a cash economy. If we are hurt, the person who hurt us must earn our forgiveness. In today’s Gospel we have the unbalanced exchanges between the vineyard owner and the groups of workers who worked various parts of the day. That doesn’t make sense in a cash economy. But in a gift economy, a just wage is one that gives each worker what is needed to sustain that worker and their family for the day. It is not one that is strictly based on effort.
Professor Elshtain, in her article, focuses on the negative impact that buying into the cash economy has had on the family, turning its value into something measured by how many things we consume. As anyone can is upto date on what is happening in our culture it is clear that this way of seeing things has threatened the very existence of families. And as we see from the several parables Jesus thinks that this is very important because he makes it clear that until we start looking at the world, and living in the world with a gift economy outlook, we cannot start to enter into the kingdom of God.
To get the full benefit of today’s parable, I think we have to see ourselves both as the workers who only worked the one hour, and as the vineyard owner. As the one-hour workers we realized God has gifted us far more than we have any right to be. Because we have been so gifted, we have an abundance that lets us turn around and like the vineyard owner, give to others without counting what we get in return.
So high are God’s ways above our ways, and God’s thoughts above our thoughts. But so high is God’s generosity above ours that God reveals to us his thoughts, and give us the strength and the wisdom and the courage to follow his ways. Let us all strive to live in a gift economy. And that way you and I can begin to enter into the Kingdom of God.