Sometimes it helps to know about the historical context of Ancient Israel and the Ancient Mediterranean world in order to better understand a scripture passage and to apply it to our own modern world. I have been to Spain to walk the pilgrimage route of St James the past three years. Spain is a part of the Mediterranean culture, just like Israel. When one goes into a restaurant for lunch or dinner in that part of the world, one is served a bottle of wine with the meal rather than a glass of water. Wine is a big part of the culture there. And in the days of Jesus, without refrigeration and without an advanced water purification system, wine was the safest thing to drink. Thus, the grape harvest was very important in Ancient Israel. The grape harvest took place at the end of September, which was followed by a rainy season. Thus, if the harvest was not gathered quickly, it could be ruined. The vineyard owners welcomed all workers to help with the harvest, even if they could give just an hour or two. The laborers would meet in the market-place, waiting for work. Jesus’ parable today is really about divine justice, in which God is compared to the landowner who hires laborers to work in his vineyard. Those who worked a full day were promised the expected wage, but those who only worked a part of the day, or as little as an hour, were promised to be paid “what is just” by the vineyard owner. You can imagine the feelings of those who worked an entire day as they saw those who worked just an hour being paid this same amount - they felt that they had been treated unjustly. However, the owner of the vineyard told them that they were not the victim of an injustice. What can we take away from this parable? We cannot think about this parable just in terms of our earthly values. What God gives us is not the same as a pay check we would receive from a job; what God gives us is a gift. God does not give us a reward, but rather he give us grace, offered from his love and mercy.
But how can we think of God’s love and mercy for us in the context of our earthly values? Let’s think about the love and devotion many of us have for our sports teams. The 3 big universities in Mississippi - USM, Ole Miss and State - all have huge sports fans. And amongst sport teams, the Braves and Cardinals in Baseball and the Cowboys, Saints, and Packers in Football all have huge followings. Most of you all know that for me, it is all about the Chicago Cubs. I was in Seventh Heaven last year when the Cubs won the World Series. Since the Cubs were in town when I was in Chicago for a conference in July, I just HAD to go to a Cubs game - I could not pass up that opportunity. A friend of mine had asked when I had last gone to see the Cubs. It was back in 1996. And the time before that, I was 11 years old! I remember growing up, my mom, my aunts and uncles, and my grandfather - they all thought the Cubs were the greatest thing ever. And you know, it did not matter whether the Cubs won or lost. They loved the Cubs. They loved watching the games on WGN. They bled Cubby blue! And as a child, even though I saw the Cubs having one losing season after another, breaking all their fans’ hearts again and again, I didn’t dream about rooting for another team. When I want to the Cubs game on 4th of July this summer, it was the biggest home crowd they had at a regular season game in more than 4 years. At the time, we were not having a good year. We had won 42 games, but we had lost 42 games at that point. Not a great record. But that crowd at Wrigley field - oh my goodness. Everyone just so excited about the team they love. Even little children there had Cubs caps and jerseys on. The love we have for our sports teams means we still cheer them on whether we win or lose. We can forgive bad losses or mistakes. But the love we have for our sports teams, the sense of belonging we feel with the other fans, that is nothing like the love God has for us, nothing like the love, mercy, and forgiveness God has for us. Nothing - there is no comparison.
I want to say one other thing about God’s mercy and social justice before I close. Unfortunately, social justice has become a politicized term in our world today. We want to label people, right? We are either a Republican or a Democrat, a bleeding liberal or a staunch conservative, a traditionalist or a reformer. We also label people in the Church, don’t we? We are either a conservative, traditional Catholic, or a liberal Catholic who wants to modernize everything. These labels are divide us. I am here as your pastor. I am here to help you on your journey. I am here to preach the values of God’s Kingdom, the message of the Gospel. Sometimes the Gospel message can push us, it can challenge us, it can make us feel uncomfortable and make us think. But don’t be put off by the Gospel message. Struggle with it. Wrestle with it. Ponder it in your heart. But we are here together on our journey. We are not here to divide. We are here to bring social justice and the values of the Gospel to the world.
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