Homily for September 21, 2008

Father Tom’s Homily
25th Sunday
September 21, 2008

Today the economy is a hot topic. With the bankruptcy of some of the major Wall Street firms, the stock market zooming downward, and hundreds of billions of federal money attempting to prop up our financial system, the economy has become a key point in the current political debate.
Today’s gospel parable is a story about an economic system (on a very small scale). Does it offer any ideas for the present debate on the economy? An economic system bend on profits is not interested in this parable. But it is very profitable for us to reflect on it’s meaning.

The parable tells about the wages paid to the day laborers working in a vineyard. In this parable Jesus leads his audience into an everyday story about the laborers coming to work throughout the day. Some working the whole day, some half a day and a few late in the afternoon.
There is nothing surprising in the story until a surprising twist at the end. All the workers receive a full day’s pay, even those who worked only an hour. The very generous owner of the vineyard represents God, and we are the latecomers who are overpaid.
Those who heard this parable had never heard of any such a wage policy. No employer would be so generous with the latecomers.

You recall what Jesus said to Peter in the gospel three Sunday’s ago when Peter tried to talk Jesus out of going to Jerusalem where he would be killed. Jesus said, “You are thinking not as God does, but as humans do.” God doesn’t think like we so often do.
God does not have good business sense, because he is not a CEO where the goal is profits. Rather, God is our Father/Mother like the father in the parable who welcomed back home his son who had squandered a family fortune on wild living in the big city.
The father’s tears of joy at the return of his wayward son are God’s tears when we return to his arms. The father says to his other son, “Everything I have is yours.” Not good business sense, but it’s the way God sees and does things.

God treats us as his beloved. Last Sunday’s gospel spells out God’s abundant love for all of his children. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…so that we might have eternal life.”
“Gave his only Son.” That’s a huge sacrifice for us, the beloved.
God is our Lover, unrelenting in the outpouring of his generosity. Lovers don’t keep exact account of profits and losses. For them, the bottom line is never about possessions, but about the wellbeing of the beloved.
In story after story in the gospel, Jesus is ever the generous lover, never keeping account of our worthiness.

To the woman caught in adultery and about to be stoned to death by the religious elders, Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, go and sin no more.” No accounting is made of her past deeds.
To the thief crucified at his side, he said: “Today I shall take you with me into Paradise.” Again, the past is brushed aside.
To all of us worried about being judged worthy of heaven, Jesus says, “Do not live in fear, little flock, for it has pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom.”

The accusation in today’s parable is that the owner of the vineyard is not fair. It means that God is not fair, giving to us what we truly deserve.
This is great news. In this parable we are the overpaid latecomers, receiving far beyond what is reasonable or fair.
The important point is, we are not able to earn God’s love and mercy. It is freely and abundantly given.

In the fifth century a monk named Pelagius preached that we get heaven through our own efforts. That it is up to us to earn our salvation, without the grace of God.
Pelagius was not making up something new. Lots of people think this same way. We are haunted with the thought that somehow we must behave well before God will love us.
St. Augustine lead the fight against Pelagianism that assumed that salvation is the result of human effort alone. Augustine said this is not true. He preached that God’s free gift of grace is necessary for salvation.
As weak and wayward as we are, we need a God who is will overpay us.

Most of us probably have a touch of Pelagianism, presuming that we have to prove ourselves worthy of God’s love before it is given us.
This attitude is forgetful of that father in the parable who had so missed his wayward son that he ran down the footpath to meet him when his guilty son return in ragged clothes, fearful of the anger and punishment his behavior had earned.
Instead, the father swept the son up in a joyful embrace. We long for a God like this.

Pelagian’s doctrine had an eye on a human accounting of sin and merit, forgetful of the divine economy of loving mercy.
Like a true lover, God is not guided by the accounting of the head, but by the outpouring of the heart. In the eyes of God, we are the Beloved.