One of the most difficult jobs I’ve ever had was detasseling.  In central Iowa this is a very common job for high schoolers, basically we would get up early, and pretty much at sunrise we were out in the field, walking rows of corn, pulling the tassels, the very top piece of the corn, we would pull that out of the female stalks of corn so that the male ears would pollinate the corn, basically making the hybrids for the seed corn.

 

This is the kind of job that makes you appreciate every other job.  I did it for four years. When we began the day, we would wear rain gear because the corn was covered in dew.  And our shoes would be covered in mud pretty quickly down the row, which were sometimes a mile long.  

 

Then it would start to get hot, so the debate was always when to take the rain gear off, too soon and we’d be soaking wet, and we would wear long sleeves because the corn leaves could cut us, at least scratch us.  Eventually we would dry out and it would get super hot, it was always in July so you can imagine. Usually we’d work ten hour days, occasionally twelve hours, but the pay was really good.

 

So with that I can really relate to this parable with the workers coming late, like for just the last hour, at the end of a twelve hour day when it was starting to cool down and getting the same exact pay for the day.  It would be unjust, upsetting.

 

Well, it’s easy to be envious, this is something we have to overcome as humans, and it would be easy to just stop there and focus our attention for this parable on envy, I’m sure many priests and deacons are preaching on that topic today. 

 

But the real point, or the twist about this parable is just how generous God is to us.  It said in the first reading: “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.” We need to try to see the world like God sees it.

 

Although to us it might seem like God is being unjust in the parable of the workers in the vineyard, what He’s actually being is merciful. Although to us it might seem like God is being unfair, He’s actually being generous. And that’s what the kingdom of Heaven is like. It’s the radical generosity of God. It's the radical mercy of God.

 

It’s just like we saw in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant last weekend. The unforgiving servant owed thousands of years worth of debt, and what did the master do? He forgave it with one word, just because the servant got down and asked for forgiveness. That seems crazy but that’s how God's love is, and that’s how His mercy is, and that is what His forgiveness is like.

 

And if you have any doubts about that being the key theme, you can just look at the Responsorial Psalm, the refrain was: “The Lord is near to all who call upon him.” Why? In verse eight it says because: “The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.”

 

So notice those two words. He’s gracious and He’s abounding in steadfast love. In other words, His love, His mercy and his salvation are abundant. He is generous in a way that we just aren’t. He has a radical generosity towards us, because He ultimately made us and desires our salvation.

 

This is what He is trying to get us to see, to desire each other’s salvation as well.  Last week the theme was forgiving others, and I put those sheets out, and if you read it you probably found the short forgiveness prayer that one priest recommended, he suggested saying something to the effect of, “I willingly forgive N., and I ask God to bless N.”

 

It’s a forgiveness that even desires their blessing, a forgiveness that wants to see them in Heaven someday.  In our desire for other people to receive justice we sometimes forget that we are not the judge, rather God is.

 

Back to the parable - the day’s wages here, the denarius, that represents salvation.  That is saying nothing of the hierarchy that we will fall into in heaven, in fact St. Paul said in our reading today, “If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” 

 

Our fruitful labor, how long we worked on this earth will still matter in Heaven, the rewards and our merits for good works will be given accordingly, but we will all live it out eternally - the equal part is that “eternity.”

 

So, this time here on earth has value, we should appreciate it for what it is and make the most of it, we should do as Paul said and “conduct [ourselves] in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.” How? 

 

My encouragement is to do what the Lord said to Isaiah in that first reading, “Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near. Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts; let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving.”  

 

We need God’s forgiveness, this is why Jesus came and suffered and died for our sins after all.  Before we can forgive others and desire their salvation more than the justice we feel they deserve, we need to receive His mercy.  Are we able to accept that forgiveness and change our ways to be more like His?