Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16
Jesus tells us the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who hired people to work, and who reserved the right to choose how to pay those workers--and avoided conventional wisdom in the process. Jesus is describing a God who is not stingy, whose dream is to bless the whole world. Those who heard Jesus' parable complained because the landowner (God) didn't think like them. Like the disciples, we hear Jesus' words as an invitation to get involved in God's work at any hour, in any life situation, without needing to analyze how others are called or rewarded. "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," we pray as followers of Jesus. We need not stop to think
about how God's Kingdom or God's way of doing things will be scandalously different than the ways we might construct with our prejudices and limited sight. God is God. God gets to choose. Not us.
Prayer: Merciful God, your ways are beyond us, but we trust them with our whole lives. Thank you for your wisdom, choosing to be gracious; rather than stingy. Enable us to live in this grace, now and into the life to come. Amen.
Jesus tells us the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who hired people to work, and who reserved the right to choose how to pay those workers--and avoided conventional wisdom in the process. Jesus is describing a God who is not stingy, whose dream is to bless the whole world. Those who heard Jesus' parable complained because the landowner (God) didn't think like them. Like the disciples, we hear Jesus' words as an invitation to get involved in God's work at any hour, in any life situation, without needing to analyze how others are called or rewarded. "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," we pray as followers of Jesus. We need not stop to think
about how God's Kingdom or God's way of doing things will be scandalously different than the ways we might construct with our prejudices and limited sight. God is God. God gets to choose. Not us.
Prayer: Merciful God, your ways are beyond us, but we trust them with our whole lives. Thank you for your wisdom, choosing to be gracious; rather than stingy. Enable us to live in this grace, now and into the life to come. Amen.