Human fairness and God's justice

Sermon 21/09/08
Preached at the Eucharist at St Catherine’s, Catherine-de-Barnes at 11am on
Sunday 21st September 2008 - Trinity 18 – Proper 20 – Year A

Readings: Jonah 3: 10 - 4:11 Philippians 1: 21-30 Matthew 20: 1-16



In 1987 I joined British Gas as employee. At that time in British Gas there used to be an annual pay negotiation. The unions would argue that gas workers should get a pay rise to give them parity with what was earned by staff in telecoms or the electricity board. The management would argue that a more appropriate comparison was with council workers and the water board, and gas employees already received more than what theses groups earned. In the end a compromise was always worked out, but to achieve this, the management and unions had to put aside their chosen comparisons and focus on what made sense for the gas industry.
We know that comparison with other people is a very common way of determining appropriate pay in the working world. But we also know from today’s gospel reading that this is NOT how the kingdom of heaven works! In the parable there were some workers who had started work in the early morning, some had started at 9, some at noon, some at 3 and some at 5. At 6, when everybody finished work and was paid the landowner chose to give each one the normal full daily wage. It is very, very easy for us human beings to understand why the people who started work first thing in the morning might find that frustrating. The landowner has been very generous to some people, who started work late. Those who started early might well hope that he will be generous with them too. In fact he pays exactly what was originally agreed, which felt like a fair wage when it was agreed, but now suddenly it feels very stingy because other people have done a lot better.
But Jesus tells us that this is what the kingdom of heaven of like! The truth is that God gives out his gifts just as he pleases to each different person. We should not make comparisons between different people, because if we do we soon start to think, “It’s not fair!” And it is certainly true that on a comparative basis life can be very “unfair”. This “unfairness” is most obvious in the way people are born. Some people are born rich, beautiful and intelligent. Others are born poor, ugly and stupid. Some people are born into good families, are loved by their parents and grow up secure and happy. Other people are born into miserable family situations and grow up believing that nobody is out to help them and everybody is out to exploit them. But “comparative unfairness” is not just about birth. As we grow up, some people land good jobs, and buy into the housing market just before a housing boom. Other people struggle with jobs and get caught in negative equity traps on their mortgages. Some people enjoy good health, some people have poor health and some people die young from accidents or terrible diseases.
And religious gifts are not dished out equally either. Why should God have a “chosen people”? Are they any better than the rest of us? Why did God choose the Blessed Virgin Mary to be “blessed among women” (Luke 1: 42)? Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem and not in Catherine-de-Barnes?
If we think in comparative terms we can quickly start to see God as very unfair. We can even start to feel resentful or indignant towards God. But of course we know we should not think about God in this way. So why is it that God seems so completely unconcerned about fairness from a human perspective? Well this is something of a mystery which we need to ponder over time. But there is a big difference between the justice of God, and our human notions of fairness, especially comparative fairness. I would like to set out a few pointers to help us ponder the mystery.
First of all there is something very personal about our relationship with God. Each of us is completely unique. Each of us is loved by God in a way that exactly and perfectly matches our uniqueness. For each of us God has a plan, a route to eternal life, and this plan, this journey is very specifically ours; nobody else can walk the journey for us, nobody else can experience God in exactly the same way as we do. So the challenge for each one of us is not to grumble about the gifts that God has evidently given to other people, but rather to discover and make the most of and to rejoice in the gifts that God has specifically given to us personally.
Secondly, in the Church, the body of Christ, the community of Christian people the gift that God gives to one person is not solely for the benefit of that person but is for the benefit of the whole community. We all need to use our gifts for the benefit of the others. The one who can welcome, should welcome on behalf of us all. The one who can pray well should pray well on behalf of us all, the one who can make tea and coffee should do it for us all. We need to develop a culture of giving, of sharing. When we get to heaven I suspect that we will find that our gifts and good fortunes will be so perfectly shared among us that we will not pause to worry about which individual God originally gave them to.
Thirdly, as human beings we are created for eternal life. The time we spend on this earth is relatively brief, and although things might seem unfair in this earthly life they might look very different over all eternity. Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven, blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled, blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh,” (Luke 6: 20-21). St Paul teaches that the sufferings of this present life are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed (Romans 8: 18) and Peter preaches that after we have suffered for a little we will be restored, supported, strengthened and established by God (1 Peter 5:10).
Fourthly it was through his passion and death that Christ reconciled us to God. When we approach our sufferings in fellowship with Christ in his sufferings then they become immensely valuable. Through fellowship with Christ in his sufferings we can hope for fellowship with Christ in his resurrection and new life. Even if some people seem to suffer more than others in this life, we should not assume that they are less blessed. In fact the opposite might be true. Surely Jesus suffered greatly, and surely he is greatly blessed.
And I believe that we can use these four pointers to align our own lives with the kingdom of heaven, and to make our communities more like heaven. In particular we make our own contribution by seeking to walk the path that God has planned for us personally, discovering all its beauty and potential. We should not worry, but rather should rejoice, if God appears to have given other very attractive looking paths to other people. And we must also work on that culture of giving. The good things we have been given are given to us for the benefit of all. We need to be generous in giving and in receiving. Let’s not be too proud or ashamed to share in the good things that God has given to others. Rather, let’s give thanks and rejoice when this happens, because we start to make earth look more like the kingdom of heaven that Jesus described.