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Showing posts from September, 2017

Harvest - workers in the vineyard

Matthew 20: 1-16 The labourers have been hard at work: all around us there are cut fields, full barns, plentiful stores. And here in church we have the fruits of harvest – carrots, apples, bread. God has blessed us with plenty and we have come to sing our gratitude. So it’s good that we have heard a gospel reading dealing with harvest and plenty. But where we might expect gratitude we hear grumbling instead. “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”. Jesus says ‘the kingdom of heaven is like this’ and we try really hard to nod our heads wisely as Jesus declares the largesse of the landowner, who pours out abundant grace on those who only worked one hour. We know in our heads that God loves us all with a love so outrageous and so generous that it cannot be described as ‘fair’. This parable may be trying to convince our heads that this is a story about God’s grace and we should accept that, b