‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard’ (Matthew 20: 1) … at work in a vineyard in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and this week began with the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XII).
Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right’ (Matthew 20: 4) … vines in the vineyard at Aghia Irini Monastery, south of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Matthew 20: 1-16 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 20 ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the labourers 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 market-place; 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 labourers 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.’
Covid, a stroke and personal problems meant I was missing my regular visits to Greece … not just for the blue skies and blue seas, but also the vineyards and the olive groves, and especially my friends there. So it was good to get back to Crete a few months ago after an absence of more than two years.
Of course, I was saddened to see a small vineyard I have known for almost 10 years in Platanias, east of Rethymnon, has been uprooted and turned into a site for development close to the beach. On the other hand, it was good to meet old friends like Manoli, who I have known for almost 30 years. When my sons were small children, he was like an uncle to them.
Early one summer, he was excited when he rang me and realised I was returning to his village, Piskopianó. Gushing with enthusiasm and delight, he told me how I must come and see what he had done with the ‘graveyard’ in Piskopianó.
‘The graveyard?’
Now, I am interested in visiting churches and churchyards, and graveyards and gravestones provide rich material for social, local and family history. But a graveyard is not the first place you think your friends want you to visit on a holiday in the Mediterranean.
I asked again: ‘The graveyard?’
‘Yes, you’re going to be delighted to see how the vines are growing with new life. You remember how I trimmed back the vines and the branches and how I built new trellises. Now there is a rich crop in the grapeyard this year.’
The grapeyard! Of course. Now it makes sense.
I had shown an interest in his vineyard and his grapes … and a healthy interest in wine.
Now a new lesson awaited me on how to grow grapes, how to trim the vines, and how vines, like people, only make sense in clusters.
We are all workers in the vineyard, and Christ even refers to himself as the true vine. But unless we have worked in a vineyard, some of the illustrations in today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 20: 1-16) may not fully resonate with us. And this helps to understand how some of the people who are depicted in today’s parable, and many of the people who first heard it, may have missed some of the subtle points Jesus was making as he told it.
This Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, despite being well-known, is found only in Saint Matthew’s Gospel.
As the story unfolds, the landowner (οἰκοδεσπότης,
oikodespotés), the head of the household or the owner of the land, is revealed to be not merely the owner of the vineyard, but as the Lord (ὁ κύριος,
ho kyrios).
The labourers (εργάτες,
ergates) are called at five different times in the day: early in the morning, at 9 o’clock, at noon, at 3 and at 5.
There are different tasks in the grapeyard, in the vineyard. Those who come early in the morning, at sunrise, can suffer from literal burnout later in the day as the heat of the sun becomes intense.
A variety of skills is needed: those who look after the soil; those who look after other plants such as the olive trees or lemon trees that help to protect the vines; those who watch the roses for the first signs of any disease that might hit the vines; those who prune the vines; those who pick the grapes and sort them out; those who tidy up in the vineyard at the end of the day – each and everyone plays a role in producing that bottle of wine as it makes its way to the shelves of shops and to our tables.
To some of the workers – and to us, at our first reading – the landowner appears to be unfair in the way he rewards those who work on his behalf. But did you notice how this passage begins ‘… the kingdom of heaven is like …’ and that the wages stand for God’s grace?
God chooses to give the same to all: the landowner pays ‘whatever is right’ – there is no social discrimination or class distinction in the Kingdom of Heaven.
I was living in Askeaton, in Co Limerick, for five years. For those five years I was there, although I was a late arrival, I was called a ‘blow-in.’ People understood I had arrived there late in the day, and I understood the parishioners had been there far longer than I ever knew.
Good partnerships mean mutual understanding, and can produce good fruit, not just in the vineyard, but in every aspect of life.
As people are more mobile these days, moving from city to countryside, and from provincial towns to the city, the term ‘blow-in’ may be beginning to die a slow death in many smaller towns and communities in Ireland. But I wonder whether the attitude it encapsulates is still prevalent in other aspects of Irish life.
Are newcomers to the Church as equally welcome as long-standing members of the Church, whose parents were regular parishioners?
How difficult is it for new churchgoers to find an invitation onto church committees, to read lessons, to be counted in, and to be seen to be counted in?
Sorcha Pollak’s column in
The Irish Times, ‘New to the Parish,’ has shown how new arrivals are regularly treated rudely, from the moment they show their passports at the airport, to taking up jobs, constantly being asked, ‘But where are you really from?’
In recent months, the far-right riots across England and in Belfast, the riots last year in Dublin, and the shocking attacks on proposed sites for housing and sheltering asylum seekers and refugees stories of racist abuse suffered by people throughout these islands.
How early do you have to have arrived in the vineyard before your labour is valued fully?
God is generous to all. This is God’s free choice. As the Lord of the vineyard asks in this morning’s Gospel reading, ‘Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
Jesus begins this morning’s parable saying, ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like …’
The kingdom of God is like a place where all are welcome, where no-one is treated rudely or abusively because they are new arrivals or treated favourably because they have been here since the early days.
In the Kingdom of God, there is no discrimination, no racism; in the kingdom of God, there are no late arrivals or blow-ins.
Grapes past their harvesting time at the Hedgehog Vintage Inn in Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 21 August 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘What price is the Gospel?’ This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Dr Jo Sadgrove, Research and Learning Advisor, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 21 August 2024) invites us to pray:
Pray for lessons learnt, humility, wisdom and repairs around the Anglican Communion as victims and perpetrators encounter each other as the Body of Christ.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
you are always more ready to hear than we to pray
and to give more than either we desire or deserve:
pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,
forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid
and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask
but through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
God of all mercy,
in this eucharist you have set aside our sins
and given us your healing:
grant that we who are made whole in Christ
may bring that healing to this broken world,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
God of constant mercy,
who sent your Son to save us:
remind us of your goodness,
increase your grace within us,
that our thankfulness may grow,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Grapes on a vine near the beach in Platanias in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
http://nrsvbibles.org
Grapes ripe for harvesting in Panormos, east of Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
