Pentecost 18 2005
Exodus 16.2-15, Psalm 105.1-6, 37-45, Philippians 1.21-30,
Matthew 20.1-16.

I used to manage a small business in Shepparton, in Victoria.
It was a small branch of a larger graphic arts and repro company that was based in Albury, NSW. It was in Shepparton largely to service one particular company whose main trade was labels for the tinned food industry, an industry which is pretty much the backbone of the Shepparton district. All of the SPC and Goulbourn Valley labels, a large proportion of IXL jam labels, and many other labels in the early 90’s came through our little place. It was mostly a happy place, apart from that inferiority complex that you will often find in the poorer, under-resourced and neglected branch office of a company who seem to want to extract money but not invest in equipment and training. And I’d have to admit that I wasn’t ready to be a manager, I had very little, actually, no training whatsoever, or experience, and I was pretty much sent there because the previous guy had made life difficult for himself with personality clashes with the staff. And the fact that no one else wanted it. He went back to Albury, and I moved in.
It all went ok, until the two photo-typesetters were discussing their wages. It turned out that one was on more than the other, even though she had been there a shorter time. Suffice to say that the one on lower wages didn’t think it was fair. And gee, did the proverbial hit the fan then. I had a revolt on my hands, and the only way to quell the riot was to convince head office to make the pay rates equal. Disaster was averted – just, and we went on, until I ran away to Adelaide, and that, my friends, is another story for another time.

The parable in the Gospel reading for this morning is kind of similar. It’s about the fairness of wages in the workplace. It’s an industrial dispute. Whilst at Ross Graphics it was different pay for the same amount of work, in this parable we have workers who have done different amounts of work getting the same pay. The money they have been paid is nothing extravagant – it is enough for them to live on for one day. That’s all. It’s not like they are company executives or anything. The problem is the grumbling of the ones who have worked all day against the ones who have worked a shorter time, who get the same cash. Now, on the human level, there is some justification in their complaints. It’s not fair, is it, by human standards? They should be paid by the hour, they should be paid fairly for the work they do, and if they don’t do enough work, then they should get less than those who have been there all day. But the thing is, this is not on the human level. It is a parable about the kingdom of heaven. And God’s abundant generosity.

Now, unless you hadn’t noticed yet, you will know already that the kingdom of heaven is very much NOT the kingdom of humans. The rules are different, the perspective is different, and things operate on a different set of rules, a different set of industrial laws. Not for this kingdom is the highly regulated labour market sought after by the ultra-lefties, or the dog eat dog utopia envisioned by the neo-liberals. No, it runs on the law of God’s grace. A believer is a believer and is saved, regardless of the amount of time one has been a believer. There’s no gold watch for long service. The wage of faith is life eternal, salvation, forgiveness, God’s love. Regardless of whether the believer is a long term Christian or a newby.
As a church, we are called to live in the kingdom NOW, as much as we possibly can. That means sharing that grace that God offers us, as unconditionally and fully as we can. There are implications in this for us as members of the church. Especially in the way the church, the diocese and the parishes are run.
Who is a full member of the church? Who has the right to make decisions? Who controls the church? Every baptised member, guided by God, is the correct answer. But often it is the long term members of the church, who are given or who take the power, who control the destiny of the parish or diocese, and have great difficulty allowing newcomers to have a voice. Perhaps it’s that old respect your elders thing. Now there isn’t anything wrong with that as such – respect for your elders and your seniors is important. However Jesus is pointing out that this is not how the kingdom of God operates. That giving of power to the longest serving members, the giving of special priveledges, is a human thing, not a God thing.
In the Kingdom of God, all are equal. No one is more equal than anyone else. Everyone is saved. Everyone is given grace. God’s grace is infinite. How do you get more of a share of something that is infinite? Its only limited by our capacity to accept it. It’s a hard thing to comprehend, but from God’s perspective, individual things like length of service, or how many brass plaques are about the church with your name on them don’t matter a damn. God doesn’t give out gold watches for 50 years service to the Kingdom. God gives out grace and forgiveness to all who ask and who accept Jesus into their lives, regardless of the length of time they are believers. Everyone is equal. Everyone gets love. It’s up to us to get over our sense of injustice about it, and share that infinite love and grace just as abundantly and recklessly as God does.

So then, in terms of our parish, how might this affect the way we live? Well, what it means is that every member of this community of faith has an equal say in the future of the parish, and the present of this parish. Everyone can take part in the decision making and the vision forming and the mission of this parish. Some may choose not to take this up – that’s up to them - but it is there. Everyone is free to have a say – even the kids. And no one has the right to shut them up. They have a right to say what they think just as much as adults do. I was at a parish once where, at a meeting about children’s ministry, someone said “Who cares about the children. They don’t pay the bills”. Shocking, isn’t it. Yet I think that person was actually brave enough to voice what many others think. It’s the same with new comers, and with other people who we see as not having as much right to a say in the church. It shouldn’t be based on length of service or the amount of giving. Clergy are really good at trying to silence voices. We have to listen to each other, to be able to allow each other to have a voice. Going back to what I said a few weeks ago about confronting each other when we need to, the key is listening and affording each other the respect that is due to a fellow human and a fellow member of the family of God. No one deserves more or less respect due to their social position, their age, their gender, their length of membership, their giving to the church, or even whether they are ordained or not. Every single person deserves our respect as fellow human beings, especially in the church. Any rule that states this is so is not from Jesus, it is human in origin. Membership, full membership of the Kingdom of God, and hence the church, is based solely on our faith and our acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. Hopefully our community will reflect this.
The Lord be with you.  ¶ 4:29 AM