Scripture: 25th Sunday in A, Sept. 21, 2008. Isaiah 55:6-9. Psalm
145:2-3,8-9,17-18. Philippians 1:20-24.27. Matthew 20:1-16. Lectionary #
134.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,
says the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8-9). This is a direct revelation in Second
Isaiah and shows us the transcendence of God. God is totaliter aliter
(totally different) from what we imagine and think. The revelatory lines
help us to understand the parable that Matthew gives us today to really
think about God a new way which requires a metanoia or a thinking "out of
the box". The parable is unique to Matthew and shows us the justice and
mercy of God through God's generosity which we would incline to criticize
if it is the way the parable says. But so it is and we have to live with it
and figure it out for ourselves. God is not running a company or a
steelmill. The parable needs to be seen in the realm of the spiritual and
also the ecclesial. Matthew is also directing it toward his community of
Gentiles and Jews living together and finding it difficult to accept a side
by side neighbor who is different. (Maybe we still do this at the sign of
peace)!
Possibly Matthew directs it to the Jewish people who have been callef
as the first ones to enter this community. The Gentiles come in at the last
hour and receive the same generous graces from God as those who have lived
out the covenants and the commandments. In some ways it is similar to
Luke's parable about the elder brother and the profiligate younger son of a
very forgiving and generous father.
If we think only on a temporal level we will reject the message of
the parable according to labor rules in the American Federation of Labor
and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). It is true the only
strong point in favor of that way of looking at the parable is that each
worker agreed to the standard pay. Their complaint was that those who came
first worked longer bearing the heat of the day. They expected to receive
more. But Matthew's theology and Jesus' words are counter-cultural in their
disturbing the social and economic order of ordinary thinking. Perhaps,
the Social Encylicals of the Catholic Church come closest to what the
parable is all about since they too are dealing with God's common good for
all workers. The encyclicals push us toward kingdom of God thinking as we
think also of labor, work, equality, and dignity in the workplace.
There are five different stages here in Matthew who has a
subconscious tendency toward the symbolic value of the five--the number of
God's written word in the five books of the Torah's from Genesis to
Deuteronomy. So, no matter how we think logically it will not work in
understanding the meaning of this troublesome parable. Only the insight of
Isaiah can unlock its meaning for us. It is a challenge to us to be open
to think "outside the box" when it comes to a biblical revelation that
touches upon the justice, mercy, and generous love of God. Jesus and God
are thinking outside of our boxed-in-way of thinking, so to understand them
we need to think "outside the box" which is really the biblical word for
"metanoia" or a topsy-turvy reversal of our normal patterns of thought when
it comes to the ways of God and our images of God which are normally too
small. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth. so are my ways
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Thus speaketh
Adonai the God of Israel and the God of Jesus. Amen.