When I was sixteen years old I had a job at a greeting card company. The cards were printed and cut on one floor of the building, folded and boxed on another, and then taken to the shipping docks. My job was to wheel a hand car with the printed sheets, cut cards and filled boxes to the various floors during the process of production. Another sixteen-year-old and myself worked as a team. We were a good team. Together we soon discovered that when the old freight elevator was between floors we could push the up and down buttons and cause the elevator to be stuck. We were in heaven, above the working crowd, reading comic books, waiting for someone to rescue us, and all the time getting paid. That was heavenly. And, I also remember spending thirteen hours one day planting new grass for the Hawkes family. That night I went home with open blisters on my hands, a reluctantly received ten dollars, and a great feeling that I was able to give something through my labor to someone who had been kind to me. It seems like work can be a word with four letters or it can be an expression of love. And work can be a source of life.

In the reading today, Jesus declares, "For the kingdom of heaven is like …" Is this what the kingdom of heaven is like? Workers in a vineyard? Working? Labor? Hard work? I mean, it doesn't matter if you work from dawn to dusk, from the noon whistle to the close of the day, or sneak in just as the sun is setting and pick up a paycheck, it's still a work environment. Isn't this parable supposed to be about what the kingdom of heaven is like? I don't know that I really want to hear or face the fact that work is a part of the kingdom of heaven. What about you? Oh, now praise, worship, heavenly choirs with angelic voices and a whole lot of eternal comfort. Ah, yes. Now there is a picture of the kingdom of heaven. I guess I don't want to face what appears to be a down to earth reality in this parable-work.

There still are several ways to interpret this text. One way is to give a spiritualized historical interpretation to the text. It isn't really about work as we know it, it is about the Jews being the laborers in the vineyard and Christians being invited into the covenantal relationship with God at a much later time. The Jews have been working in the vineyard a long time. They have "born the burden of the day and the scorching heat." Then, all of a sudden, at the last moment, Christians are invited in as a Johnny-come-lately and get to claim equality. Not bad. There is enough truth to this interpretation that it might help redirect our attention from having to face the centrality of work staring us down.

How about the sweet by and by interpretation? You know, work in the present is of little consequence when one considers the benefits of a futuristic kingdom that will come to pass. This doesn't let us fully avoid the work issue, but it helps us to minimize the present reality and the effects of hard labor in the vineyard. It helps us to deny that work is labor and that sometimes labor can be laborious.
Another strategy may be to focus on the rewards; the real and equal pay for an unequal amount of work. This strategy might offer enough grist for the mill of contention and controversy that we are blinded to the reality that work is a very real part of both the vineyard and the kingdom of heaven.
In this parable work and workers in the vineyard are placed alongside the workers and the idle ones in the marketplace. What is the relationship between work in the vineyard kingdom and work in the marketplace?
In the marketplace workers better be informed about the rules of the game. Don't commit to the job until all the particulars are worked out. Bargain, negotiate, get the best deal you can and then get that deal in writing. Verbal contracts will probably hold up in court but get that written contract. It is the only way to have a guarantee that you will get both what you earn and what you deserve. One would be a fool not to operate this way in the marketplace.

In this parable the landowner goes into that labor marketplace early in the morning to get laborers. Actually, the word landowner is better translated as either the head of a family or the head of a household. Well, the early laborers make sure that an agreement is reached before there is any dirt turned, vines pruned or grapes picked. With the agreement in place, they begin their long day with the full assurance that they will get what is due them. At the end of the day they do receive what is due them. They get just what they earn and deserve. It works. But the problem for these laborers of the bargaining table comes clear when at the end of the day others did not get what they earned or deserved. They got more. Other workers got more than they earned, more than they deserved and more than they could have possibly imagined. The contract that ensures one's pay in the marketplace can serve as a vehicle that only limits the possibility of unexpected rewards available in the vineyard kingdom. In the vineyard, there are benefits available to laborers that go beyond reason and the imagination of the most gifted negotiator. Maybe the rules governing work and rewards in the vineyard, the kingdom of heaven, are different than those in the market place. In the kingdom, bargaining is acceptable, it just isn't preferable.

"God, if I can only make it through this storm and land safely at DFW, I'll show up in the vineyard ready for work. I'll show up early and I'll stay late. I promise."
And all you got was one safe landing? That's it? One singular gift of grace for how much work after that? The limits of such bargaining are as certain as any glass ceiling, while the generosity of God remains available, limitless, yet stymied.

"I'll agree for the long days of work in the kingdom if I can only get this job, this mate, this something." Can anyone relate to this bargaining behavior? Settling for what we want when we want it may serve as an obstacle to many other good gifts God has in store for us.

Just as the bargaining laborers from the early hours were sent to work in the vineyard so are we. So are you. So am I. In the text, "being sent" carries with it the idea of being set apart, to be sent on a mission, or to be set at liberty. There is a difference in working in the kingdom's work (where ever we find our vineyards), it is being on a mission (wherever we are), and there is a freedom of spirit in this work that neither toil nor tears can hinder. Where are you at work in the kingdom's vineyard at this time? Where do you see yourself beginning a new labor of love in the kingdom?

Another rule in the marketplace is that the last hired is the first fired. Everyone knows that. I suspect that rule of the marketplace has been around a long time and our full day employees knew it well. The full day laborers were incensed when the head of the family dared to be so generous to the last group sent into the vineyard. The contract workers refused to believe or accept that someone should receive such gracious, unearned and undeserved rewards. A full day's pay for showing up late and working such a short time? But, how do you think the ones found idle in the marketplace late in the day felt when employment became a reality and a full day's pay was in their hands?

Recently a fire destroyed a turkey processing plant in Fredricksburg. One of the workers from the damaged plant was interviewed on the news. He is leaning against a wooden post. His wife and two children can be seen in the background. In broken English and with great emotion he tells the reporter his plight. "I don't know what I will do. I want to work, but I don't know if anybody will hire me. Will they give me a job? I have to support my family." That night I prayed that someone in Fredricksburg would send this man into a vineyard as he stood there idle, wondering how employment opportunities could become a reality for him.

The word idle in this parable is translated best as "the unemployed or inactive with nothing to do." This idle is not the lazy or the useless. The idle ones who got the opportunity to work in the vineyard for a short time understood what the contract laborers missed: there is surprise, delight, grace, and unexpected blessings in service in the kingdom. And it doesn't take much really to have your life gifted with surprise, delight, grace and blessings. It takes an openness to be sent, a willingness to be sent, and involvement in the labor at hand. But, it does take work.

Work in the vineyard is as varied as it is valuable. Some turn the soil, some choose the choicest roots to start the vines, some put fences around the vineyard, some prune vines, some carry heavy baskets full of grapes, while some gently pluck the grapes from the vine, and some get their feet stained. Some do flood relief work, some plan new classes and mission experiences, some care for the building and grounds, some do detail administrative work in support of others, some go to Honduras, some visit those in prison, and some go to New Mexico to consider planting new vineyards of labor. It may well be that some others have borne the burden of the day and you are being sent just in the nick of time to join them. Along the way many will put their foot in it. And the labor, all the labor it takes to be like the kingdom of heaven, finds its reward in some of the most surprising, gracious, and life-giving ways. The rewards are often unpredictable, and in the lives of many laborers they are unprecedented. Are you currently at work in the vineyard? Where do you desire to contribute to the production of some choice fruit for the world? If you are feeling like you are being sent at the last minute, don't worry. Join in the labor of love anyway and be pleasantly surprised by the response to your effort.
But, it is the labor force found and sent in the middle of the day that both receives the generous reward and seems to avoid the wrath of the early shift. And what did these laborers in the vineyard do? These laborers trusted. There was no negotiated contract and they still put in a significant day of work. Their labor was offered in the full trust that the head of the family, the landowner, would honor the commitment that he made when he said, "You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right." Can you imagine this? The laborers trusted the landowner to "do them right." Their theme song must have been taken from one of the old spirituals sung while working in the fields, "Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey."

It is also true that many in the marketplace did not enter the vineyard. Many simply were not invited or sent. But, the landowner tried to collect all who were willing right up to the last hour. I wonder if some in the marketplace were standing watching all the commotion saying, "I'll go if he invites or sends me, but if he doesn't, I'm sitting on the dock of the bay wasting time." Could it be that you are one who has not been invited or sent? Are you involved in some idle time waiting for an invitation or waiting to be sent? You are invited! Jesus said, "go into the vineyard." Pick a vineyard, any vineyard. Don't tell me what vineyard it is or even where it is. Just hold onto it, place yourself within the vineyard, and experience the surprise and joy of an unexpected outcome.
But, make no mistake about it, there is work involved. Grace, yes. But, work. No one in the parable works his or her way into the vineyard. But, after being sent and invited in, they all pull their weight. No mention is made of idle folks in the vineyard like there is in the marketplace. We are all invited to work while we can. You have a full day? Half of a day? Just a little time left to contribute? It doesn't matter in the kingdom rules of employment. The time is at hand, give it your all, the rewards will take care of themselves and then some. This work in the kingdom's vineyard is a special kind of work. It is the kind of work that has focus, intention, and tenacity. Let me see if I can describe kingdom-type labor.

Mark 10:15 "Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."

Lord, give us a heart-felt desire to be participants in your labor of love. Amen.