The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard

    Esther, Cleopas and his wife Mary[1] had listened to Jesus recount the parable of the workers in the vineyard[2] and, afterwards, were in an animated discussion about the story.  What was Jesus trying to tell them?

   The parable is about workers who had agreed to work a full day for a denarius yet others worked for half a day or less and got the same pay.  Those who worked the full day complained that it wasn’t fair; they said that they should receive more than workers who had not done a full days’ work.

   The vineyard owner replied, “I paid you according to our agreement. Why complain about my generosity when I paid the others the same wage?  What I did was perfectly legal.”

   Cleopas emphasized that the story was relevant because Jesus and his brothers were day laborers.  They had lost their land because of the Roman urbanization of Galilee.  An actual incident like the parable related had caused a family feud.  “That’s the point,” said Mary; “the landowner was being generous because the people are living in poverty.”

   “Generous, shmen-erous,” retorted Cleopas. “That’s just a tactic to split the community so the Romans can maintain control.” 

After some discussion, they all agreed with Cleopas. 

“After all,” said Esther[3], “the land belongs to God not Caesar.[4] We should follow the law of the Torah, ‘love God and neighbor’[5]; share the wages according to need.”

Mary responded, “As Jesus says, the kingdom of God is here insofar as we follow the law of the kingdom. We are citizens of the kingdom of God who are militarily forced to be subjects of Imperial Rome.”

 

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[1] Mary, the wife of Cleopas, is the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, (Jn. 19:25,  Lk. 24:18)

[2] (Matt. 20:1016)

[3] See the Book of Esther in the Jewish Bible and the Christian Old Testament.

[4] (Lev. 25:23-24)

[5] (Duet.6:4-6) 

A TIME FOR JUDGEMENT AND HOPE – A Statement of the Wisconsin Council of Churches

 

The events of January 6, 2021 were like nothing else in our country’s recent history: a mob stormed and invaded the U.S. Capitol, threatening violence and disrupting Congress in an effort to overturn an election, and committing theft and vandalism. The event left five persons dead and a nation badly shaken. Similar groups demonstrated at or besieged capitol buildings in other states. What is God revealing to us in these events, and how is God calling and empowering us to respond?

It is not enough to condemn the assault on the Capitol building, or to demand that those who participated in it be held to account. The assault was the bitter fruit of repeated and blatant violations of the commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” – not merely false statements, but lies intended to hurt and oppress others whom God calls us to love.

The mob was incited by a steady stream of lies about the election from holders of the highest offices in the land, spread through social media. It is no coincidence that the lies were focused on overturning election results in urban areas with large populations of Black and Brown voters. The lies and the assault were ultimately rooted in the pervasive and longstanding lies of white supremacy – lies that have protected the power and privilege of one part of the community at the expense of persons of a different race or national origin.

Those besieging the U.S. Capitol could be seen erecting crosses, carrying flags with Christian symbols and “Jesus saves” banners – one more example of the ways that the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ has been twisted to support racial and other forms of social and political oppression. The assault, and the lies that fueled it, are attacks not only on our democracy, but also on the way of Jesus and on all who long and work for the realization of God’s beloved community of love and justice.

In this moment, when anxiety, anger and even despair over our nation threaten to overwhelm us, the church year points us to wellsprings of Christian imagination, courage, and hope.

The assault on the Capitol happened on Epiphany, the day we recall the manifestation of God’s true life- giving purpose for all people and all creation. Next Sunday commemorates Jesus’ baptism. Our own baptism calls us to die to sin and repent, as individuals and as a church, of all the ways we have betrayed God’s purpose by speech or silence. But baptism also gives us new life in the Spirit which “renews the face of the earth” (Ps. 104), empowering us for the work of repairing our fragmented nation with the courage to tell painful truths. Above all, we know that we are not alone or abandoned, for in the Christmas season just past we again celebrated the gift of Immanuel, “God with us,” incarnate in the midst of this sinful and
unjust world, the light of grace and truth which the darkness has not, and will not, overcome. (John 1:5, 14)

Approved by the Board of Directors January 8, 2021

 

Jan 6, 2021: Herod in the White House? - Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox

 I have spoken of the need to sometimes pray the news.

Two days ago was the Feast Day of the Epiphany in the Christian calendar, epiphany meaning appearance, manifestation or showing.  In Washington D.C., it turned out to be quite a showing and manifestation indeed, revealing the very deep shadow in America's soul hatred and hypocrisy have been visible for years fanned by unbridled media and hypocritical politicians.

Live on our television sets yesterday, was a presidential speech repeating lies about an election he lost and urging a mob to march to the capitol building to interfere with the counting of election results.  the mob eagerly followed his instructions, many of them well prepared with gas masks, pipe bombs, guns, confederate flags and unbridled anger.

The traditional Epiphany story has two elements to it:  One is about foreign wise men traveling from afar to celebrate the birth of a holy child, Emmanuel or God-with-us.  But the second part of the story is about a wicked king, an agent of the Roman Empire named Herod who like lots of politicians then and today, traffics in lies and hypocrisy.  On hearing of the goal of the wise men to visit a new kind of prince, he tells them to be sure to return in order to tell him where he can be found so that he too can "worship this new born king." All the while he has in mind to kill this rival to his throne and, frustrated by the fact that the magi detoured from returning his way, he goes crazy angry and instead orders the killing of all new-born male babies.  

Back in Washington, we are appalled by the scene of this crowd of angry white men(mostly men), some with confederate flags in tow, invading the capitol building, desecrating the spaces of Congress people, taking their thuggery to the Senate chambers themselves, terrorizing elected representatives.  Meanwhile, still more than 140 Republican Congress people carry on the charade of "bogus election," carrying on the lies behind the coup attempt.

Amazingly, the capitol appears to be in large part unguarded even though everyone in the country knew that a "wild day" (the president's language) was forthcoming with so many "proud boys"and other white supremacists and domestic terrorists coming to town.

There is a reason why Satan is called "the father of lies."  Falsehoods banish truth.  When lies get preached over and over again by a person holding power (Hitler comes to mind), very bad things happen.

Thomas Aquinas taught that truth and justice are companions.  You can't have one without the other.  In other words, injustice builds on lies.  All kinds of evil follows.  Hatred is enflamed by lies.  And hatred was very much in the headlines of yesterday's events--as well as of the story of Herod, ambassador of the Roman Empire (whose leader Herod, ambassador of the Roman Empire (whose leader was worshipped as a filius dei or "son of God" in the first century).

When John Lewis left us his Farewell Letter last year, he urged the young to study truth from the past; truth does not diminish with age.

Two big truths come through in the epiphany story, one of them being to be wary of polititians who lie and practice hypocrisy. 

 Yesterday, the chickens came home to roost.

Speaking of John Lewis, there was another manifestation on Epiphany Day yesterday--his spirit won two elections in his home state of Georgia, both of the new senators representing a hopeful shift to more justice and peace in the American body politic on the horizon with a new administration soon to be inaugurated.

There was some good news amidst the dark news of the day.  Like the first Epiphany.

See Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh:  Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, p. 321 (on lies and hypocrisy); 186, 287-289, 293-296, 300, 311, 362, 294 (on hatred); 389-398 (on Hitler as a religious figure).

THE HOLY FAMILY

   Jesus and his family were invited to the wedding of friends at Cana.  Jesus’ family included his mother Mary, four brothers, James, Joset, Jude, and Simon, along with sisters Judith and Miriam. (Mk. 6: 3) (Jdt. 16)

   The long walk back to Capernaum featured a lively conversation centered on the replenishment of wine by Jesus.  Jude was angry.  He saw it as an imitation of the ‘eat drink and be merry’ Romans.  James, called ‘the Just’, wondered what John the Baptist would think.  His brother Jesus was with John until Herod threw John into the Palace dungeon.  (Mk. 6: 14-17)

   Jesus recently left the community of John and returned north to Galilee and his family.  He was beginning a new ministry of advocating non-violent social change and recognizing that the kingdom of God was present but not complete. 

   Judith was very impressed by her brother Jesus after he returned to Galilee and asked Jesus’ mother Mary for her thoughts.  Mary said Daddy Joe would be very proud of him. Judith danced and sang.

    James agreed with Jesus that non-violent action was necessary to change the Roman policy of enriching Rome and its collaborators at the expense of the poor, but what does more wine have to do with it?       

   Simon and Joset were worried about their young friend John who was in attendance at the wedding and who liked to write stories.  How is he going to explain the extra wine?  James claimed it would just be a story and not to worry about it.  Simon and Joset were concerned that the story would hurt the movement; can the movement be based on a lie?  James countered that it would be a story with signs pointing to a very difficult truth to explain.  Galileans liked discussions and parables. 

   Miriam led the family in song and dance as dawn broke.  (Ex. 15: 20-21)

The Working Catholic: Mobilizing and Governing by Bill Droel

 

The young adult activists who inspired the world this past summer now have the challenge of translating their fervor into practical reform. It is the transition from mobilizing to governance. The founders of our country were more prepared for the transition to governance than other revolutionaries, argues Hannah Arendt (1906-1975). She compares France to the United States in her classic On Revolution (Penguin, 1963).  By the time of their 1787 meeting in Philadelphia, our founders were able to craft a democratic system that endures to this day.  Our system, as detailed in our glorious Constitution and in its Bill of Rights and 17 subsequent amendments, is obviously imperfect.  it has suffered through rebellions, a civil War, a tyrannical-like presidency and more.  Yet ploddingly and setbacks, our experiment in democracy inches toward its goal of full its goal of full liberty and justice for all.

Back in France however, the 1789 revolution was followed by turmoil for a decade and by instability thereafter. Bastille Day was a triumph, but onto the next step. The French revolutionaries "had no experience [of governance] to fall back upon, only ideals and principles untested by reality," says Arendt.  the French Revolution was "an intoxication whose chief element was the crowd."  The difference Arendt concludes, is that the U.S. revolutionaries, in contrast to the French, had the experience of political assembly, long before 1776.  Or as John Adams (1735-1826) said:  The U.S. Revolution was well underway months and years before Lexington and Concord.  

Again, assembly in our 13 North American colonies was imperfect; a right for only some.  Black slaves could not initially enjoy that right and women could not vote for or serve in governing bodies.  Yet our revolution was not the product of chaos.  It was not an accomplishment of solitary heroics urging a rabble forward.  For example, Paul Revere (1734-1818) and William Dawes (1745-1799) did not ride as strangers through towns at midnight randomly knocking on doors.  They had advance planning that allowed them to alert small mediating institutions.  They knew the leaders of churches and other voluntary associations.  Revere himself belonged to five clubs or lodges in the Boston area.  Samuel Adams (1722-1803) belonged to the North Caucus, the Long Room Club and others.  The same is true for the other founders.  In their church committees, lodges, town halls, and taverns our founders practiced the arts of governance--deliberation, compromise, balancing interests, public speaking, correspondence and the like. 

Outsiders don't always make for good insiders.  Andrew Nagorski in The Birth of Freedom (Simon & Schuster, 1993) examines the monumental movements against communism in Eastern Europe, particularly the 1989 revolt in Poland.  He describes the difficulty of transitioning from "dissidents into established politicians."  Leach Walesa's problems as president were in part related to "the general difficulty of making the psychological switch from the politics of resistance to normal democratic politics," Nagorski concludes.

The Arab Spring of 2011 was like the revolution in our country in that groups, not solitary individuals, led the way.  Yes, Wael Ghonim launched a Facebook page to promote opposition to the Egyptian government.  Yes his and other internet sites helped plan actions.  But the leaders came from small groups:  lawyers' circles, engineers' clubs, the Arab Doctors Union, groups within the Muslim Brotherhood, Coptic churches, trade unions, alumni groups and soccer teams.  

The Arab Spring was on the other hand unlike our U.S. revolution.  Its leaders did not have prior training in the arts of governance.  The young adults involved did use their friendships to temporarily smooth over their religious and ideological differences under the stress of the moment, reports Robin Wright in Rock the Casbah (Simon & Schuster, 2011).  However before 2011, they had 'limited--and largely unsuccessful--political experience," she continues,  In fact, their prior experience with the government was mostly limited to detention and jail.  The Arab Spring was largely over by summer of 2012.  External factors, including governments' use of internet blocking and propaganda plus government counter-force, doomed the promise of the revolt.  But internal factors played a major part in the demise, specifically the rebels' lack of experience in governing.  

Choices await the young adult activists in our country.  They must decide:  Is it better to go it alone; to start fresh?  Or is it better to draw upon decades of experience from like-minded reform groups, including some labor locals, some churches, some professional associations, some civic organizations and more?  Can our idealistic young adults employ sufficient arts of governing to really implement better policies and institutions?