Stories from Matthew’s : Pondering Privilege Matthew 20:1-16 August 27, 2017 Rev. Peter K. Perry First United Methodist Church of Olympia Matthew 20:1–16 (NRSV) 1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Today’s memorable story about the laborers in the vineyard working unequal hours, putting in unequal effort, yet receiving the same compensation, is Matthew’s commentary on the previous story in his Gospel which is the story of the rich young ruler who asks , what do I need to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus of course respond, you must sell all you have and give to the poor. Of course, the rich young ruler is saddened by this, for he has so much, so very much, and he likes his stuff, and the status it gives him, he enjoys his place of privilege in the world and he doesn’t want to give it up. There follows a conversation between Jesus and the disciples about how hard it is for people of means, people of power, people of privilege to get into heaven. And the disciples are astounded because it seems like it ought to be just the opposite. We should be able to earn our way into God’s grace. The marks of success in our lives, should be signs of our worthiness! But Jesus, leaving them astounded, says simply, “Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” (Mt. 19:30) Then Jesus tells this story about the laborers. It is the only place in the Bible where the story is told. Scholars think, in part because of the story’s uniqueness, and the fascinating unexpected twist at the end of the story, that these are actual words of Jesus. We tend to interpret the story as allegory and think it is all about getting into heaven, but scholars think that Jesus originally told the story to justify the fact that he regularly associated with “the last” in his culture, with Gentiles, with women, with the poor and outcast of society. The story becomes one of the foundations for the overturning of societal norms and the message is forever one of hope and liberation for those who are held down by the prevailing culture around us. The first shall be last and the last first. It is a revolutionary call and a reminder that God’s kingdom is not like this kingdom, that indeed God’s kingdom turns this kingdom upside down and inside out. Where do you put yourself in the story of the laborers in the vineyard? The most common interpretation that focuses on heaven would put the people in our church pews in the first group. We were here first, with families who’ve been a part of the church as far back as we can remember. We’ve paid tithes to keep the doors open, taught the Sunday school classes, gone on youth retreats, attended far more than our share of committee meetings, potlucks, and choir rehearsals. When we die, you better believe we are going to have a reserved place in heaven. But we know that God is gracious, so those who confess faith in Jesus on their death bed, who’ve never darkened the door of the church, who have never done anything to deserve heaven’s rewards, will get in too because the first will be last and the last first.… grumble, grumble, grumble. It doesn’t seem FAIR! But it isn’t a story about fairness. It IS a story about generosity and grace… God’s generosity. God’s grace. Overflowing, abundant love that God gives to all. God says, “I will be generous and I will be gracious!” It IS a story about compassion… God provides what we all need, without regard to our abilities, our connections, our background, our education, or any of the other things we use to quantify and qualify each other. God says, “I will be compassionate!” It IS a story about human worth… God consistently shows lovingkindness to those who don’t have it so good, who have been denied a place of privilege by society. God says, “You are worthy.” It isn’t about fairness, but we so WANT it to be about fairness. Because if it is about fairness then we can jump to conclusions about why the poor are poor, and why we aren’t, about how people get what they deserve, about the idea that favor and position and status are earned commodities. But the doesn’t say anything about that… and it is our discomfort with God’ grace, generosity, concern for the needy, and inclusive embrace of all that makes us go there with this story. Those who came late must, of course, be lazy. They must be less efficient. They must be unskilled, uneducated, untrustworthy. They must be stupid. They must be undesirable. They must be unwanted. The story says none of that, but we read it in almost automatically. We do that because we live in a culture that proclaims every day in almost every way that the first should be first, and the last should be last! The bulletin quotes today are evidence of this truth. • Dale Earnhardt, legendary American Stock Car racer, once said, “Second place is just the first place loser.” • Casey Stengel, baseball hall of famer, who won 1149 games and only lost 696 as manager of the Yankees, once said, “Without losers, where would the winners be?” • And President Donald Trump, said “I don't like losers.”

Winners! We all want to be winners. No one competes to get second place, and no one is given awards for coming in last.

A preacher by the name of Dave Johnson tells a story about his third grade teacher.

My third-grade teacher, Mrs. Stevens, [was] an “old school” teacher who maintained a strict sense of order in class but who genuinely cared about each of us. On the first day of school she asked us to line up for lunch and there was a mad scramble to get to the front of the line. After we had lined up, Mrs. Stevens went to the back of the line, smiled and said, “This is the front of the line,” and led the class to lunch.

I still remember the surprised grin on the face of the kid who suddenly found herself in the front of the line, as well as the angry response from someone at the back of the line: “This is so annoying!”

The next day when we lined up for lunch we all scrambled to be last in line, so Mrs. Stevens went to the middle of the line and said, “Today this is the front of the line.” Eventually we all got the message and the scrambling to be first stopped.

(http://www.christchurchcville.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Dave-Johnson- Sermon-9-18-11.pdf)

Mrs. Stevens found a way in her classroom to do away with first and last altogether. First, she taught the students that the first would be last and the last first, and then she taught them that neither first nor last really mattered at all, that the important thing was that we live in community, a community that ought to be defined by generosity, grace, compassion, and worth. It was a very Jesus-like thing to do… turning the rules of society upside down. As followers of Jesus, we are called to do Jesus-like things. We are called to apply God’s understanding of generosity, grace, compassion and worth to our world. [MOVE] Last week, Ruth spoke eloquently about the present reality of America’s original sin of racism and how it is being evidenced in the resurgence of White Supremacy. It is scary to watch. The explosion of racial tensions at Charlottesville may dominate our thinking in these days, but the truth is that in the United States we live in a culture permeated with racial bias. We may not be able to avoid racism, but we don’t have to accept it. If God’s kingdom is to come, and God’s will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven, things need to change. Our denomination forcefully condemns racism, but official pronouncements of condemnation are usually not enough to create real change, are they? So what can we do? I want to suggest three things we can consciously do to change the reality of racism in America. I think they are Jesus-like things to do. And I’d like to list them in the form of a prayer today. Dear God, help me to listen to other voices. Help me to recognize that my experience isn’t the only experience, that my perspective isn’t the only perspective. On Thursday morning, as I was driving to church in the morning about 8:30, I pulled up to the T- intersection at Cain Road and 22nd Avenue. At certain times of the day, it can be a hard intersection to navigate because to the north there is a heavily wooded area and the road curves back to the east so it is hard to see approaching traffic. Also, there’s another street, Wilson, that is offset just a bit from Cain and makes for some traffic conflicts. Anyway, when you want to turn left onto 22nd from Cain, you have to pull up to the limit line, and then some, to see the full traffic situation. I had done that and there was a small car coming south and I waited for it. That’s when the driver in the car behind me honked at me! She couldn’t see what I could see. She could only see what she saw. Her vision was limited, but she didn’t seem to care much about that. She was in a hurry. I was impeding her. Her reality, her world view, her experience, were the only things that mattered to her. They defined her truth. My reality, my world view, my experience was irrelevant to her. She could not see the world through my eyes. So she honked. I know this is a hard thing to do, but we must train ourselves to ask ourselves “What do others see that I can’t see? Am I in a position of limited perspective when it comes to race?” God, help me to listen to other voices. Dear God, help me to recognize my place of privilege. You may not feel comfortable praying this part of the prayer, because you may not see yourself as privileged. But I share this prayer as a white male cis-gendered American with not one, but two college degrees. I worked hard to get where I am, but I didn’t have to work as hard as people of color, women, immigrants or anyone who is not straight. I cannot change the historic truth of racism in our land. I cannot go back and rewrite the constitution that valued African slaves at 3/5 the value of my great-great-great grandfather. Nor can I cannot deny that my brown-skinned Filipino daughter-in-law gets ignored in the store while her white husband gets helped easily. But I can use my place of privilege to make tomorrow better than yesterday for all of God’s children, including my future grandson who will certainly look as much like his mother as his pale-skinned father. God, help me to recognize my place of privilege. Dear God, help me to speak out and show up when I see injustice. I will use my place of privilege to teach all who will listen that racism is so much more than segregation, slavery, lynchings, or beatings, things I’ve never actively participated, but it is a system that allows White America to hold everyone who constitutes "other" to a standard that I/we/they don't have to attain to get to the same place. As a clergyperson, I have been frequently asked to stand in solidarity with the victims of racism and other sins of violence and oppression. There is something about the presence of a clerical collar or a stole that redirects the conversation, guiding it to questions of morality, ethics, and the common good which is at the heart of the kingdom Jesus proclaims. But you don’t have to be a clergy person to make a witness. I am so proud of my daughter, who was one among the 40,000 who gathered in Boston last week to witness against White Supremacy. Nicholas Kristof wrote in an editorial several years ago: “The greatest problem is not with flat-out white racists, but rather with the far larger number of Americans who believe intellectually in racial equality but are quietly oblivious to injustice around them.” (N. Kristof, NY Times, 8-11-2014). We can no longer be oblivious. We can no longer turn a blind eye. We can no longer pretend that racism isn’t real. Like Bonhoeffer realized in Germany a generation ago, we know that if we do not speak up on behalf of the other, there will be no one to speak up on behalf of us. God, help me to speak out and show up when I see injustice.

Dear God, help me to listen to other voices. Dear God, help me to recognize my place of privilege. Dear God, help me to speak out and show up when I see injustice. May God hear our prayer and empower us to transform our world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that someday we will no longer concern ourselves with who finishes first and who finishes last. When that day comes we will all cross the finish line together, praising the God who calls each and every one of us worthy, and showers upon us compassion and grace with generous abundance. Amen.