Equality and Fairness

I would like to suggest to you that there are two ways of seeing the world that we all pride ourselves on – two ways of seeing the world that sound totally true, and right – two ways of seeing the world that stop us from understanding the Gospel according to Jesus.

The first is a sense of equality. We believe in equal rights, equal pay for equal work, and equal opportunity for all. The second is a great love of the underdog. Every movie, book, sports game, relies on the fact that we all hope the little person makes good. We all like a good “rags to riches” success story – especially when the powers that be get their just desserts.

Am I right? We all would like to think the world is fair and that we get what we deserve.

But along comes Jesus and turns all of our preconceived notions about how things work upside down. No matter what is happening Jesus is always talking about grace and reward as if we will receive God’s grace without having to earn it – and that what we do to deserve it makes little or no difference. It’s a tough pill to swallow.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? Why do innocent children die? Why should I get sick when I’ve lived a good life? In many ways when we ask questions like this we are asking the exact same thing as the vineyard workers who bore the brunt of the day ask – why shouldn’t we get paid more, having worked, two-three-four times as hard as these late comers?

Jesus answers, because God is not like that.

And this is not the only time Jesus says something like this. Remember the parable we call the “Prodigal Son” which is really a parable about the love of a father for a lost son? Well have you ever considered that parable from the point of view of the older brother? He stays behind, he works day and night for his father, he gives up the better part of his life for the family farm – and his father has never so much as given him a goat to party it up with his friends. How does he feel about the whole return of the prodigal? And isn’t he right to feel that way? Doesn’t he deserve more love, more credit, more money than the upstart younger brother who squandered it all away on wine women and song?

But remember, God is not like that.

Where we often get off track in Jesus parables is by choosing the wrong people to relate to – we think of ourselves as the younger brother, or the older brother, or the indebted servant, or the workers who were there in the morning or the workers who were hired last – the only person we never see ourselves as is the person we are meant to understand ourselves to be... The owner... the father... the king... God.
Jesus came on the scene with a message about who God was, what God was like, and then told us, his followers, that we should conform ourselves to God. A fancy way of saying – God wants you to act in the exact same way. So God is like a loving father, a forgiving king, a gracious landowner; and so should we be.

Once upon a time there was a rich young man, do you remember him? He came up to Jesus and said, hey, I want to follow you too. I want to live the perfect, godly life... what do I have to do. And Jesus said, “Go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor...” and he said hmmm...

But clearly Jesus wasn’t kidding. Here he is, telling a story in which the owner of the vineyard does go out and give all his money to the poor. This is the secret to happiness, the secret to eternal life, the secret to doing what God wants you to do – give... share... treat everyone, from the first to the last the same regardless of how much you think they do or don’t deserve it. I know it sounds ridiculous and impossible at times; but I think we really do need to come to grips with the fact that this is what Jesus expected of his followers.

You see, here is where the rubber meets the road. Faith requires us to change our way of seeing the world. And for you and me what this means is that we have to understand that anyone, anywhere... the person who cuts us off, the person who makes fun of us, the person who gets welfare, the person addicted to drugs, the person who cheats us out of our money, the person who votes differently, the person who has a different sexuality from us, the person who is exactly the same as us, the person from a different country, the person who is disabled... God loves each and every one of them equally, and so should we.

Grace doesn't come in sizes. I don't get more for wearing a collar or going to church ever since I was born. I don't get less for all the times I have doubted or decided to rely on me rather than God. God calls everyone and gives us all God's g
grace.

Don’t get me wrong, I am no better at this than anyone else. But that does not mean that it is not what we are supposed to do. It is ultimately our responsibility to take care of each other, and this world – and even though we fall far short from the ideal of what God expects – Because we are created in God’s image, because we are meant to try and reflect God’s values in our living, because ultimately it is God’s way and not ours that should win out... God still expects more.

Good thing there is grace eh? Those of us who come late to the game, those of us who spend most of our lives taking care of ourselves and finally realize we have to share, well, God still loves us too.