September 21, 2008  Edgewood United Church UCC Rev. Karen E. Gale

Fair or Just?
Matthew 20:1-16

Have you ever been unemployed or looking for a job? Maybe that is your situation right now. Finding work, finding a job, is hard. You have to put yourself out there over and over again—“hire me! Hire me!”  There are long periods of waiting. There is a lot of self doubt. Often there are financial problems. With no job, there is no money. How do you pay the rent, the mortgage, the phone bill, the food bill? It can also be humiliating. People look at you, “oh you’re unemployed, what’s wrong with you?” And then there is the rejection.

Looking for work can be more work than having a job, and certainly more stress. And some folks have to do it day after day after day. Like day laborers, the folks that get hired here and in other cities and towns to pick grapes or do construction or landscaping. Like the folks in Jesus day in today’s parable who stand at the market place and wait, hoeing that someone will pick them today, someone will hire them, someone will allow them to work so they can feed their families at least for one day.

In the parable, the landowner comes to the market at dawn looking for workers. He’ll pay a denarius, a silver Roman coin that was enough money for subsistence living for one day. Let me repeat that: a denarius was enough money for one day for food and maybe shelter.

The folks waiting around for work were one step up from destitute or having to beg. They may have been homeless; they were certainly landless. They were definitely hungry. This is their only option: a chance at making enough money today to be fed today.

The owner comes back and hires more folks telling them he would pay them “whatever is right.” And then more people later and then more later, and finally more at almost the tail end of the day. But when it is pay time, he pays them all the same—those who worked eight hours and those who worked one hour. All get a denarius.

The workers cry out “Unfair!”

They are right. It isn’t fair to pay everyone the same no matter how much they work, is it?  If the person sitting in the cubicle next to you only stumbled in at four and left at five with the rest of you and yet got paid the same…unfair.

It is unfair, yes. But is it just?

The landowner tells every worker that he will pay them what is “right”, or more properly translated, what is “just.” What does that mean? The workers who start the day assume it means prorated pay—you work more, you get paid more. You work less, you get paid less. But the owner gives all a denarius, enough so that each worker would be able to feed their family that day, for that is what he feels is just.

Is it just? What is the difference between what is fair and what is just?

We wrestled with this a few years back during our last big election. On the ballot was a proposition asking Michigan voters about affirmative action, the practice of looking at two identical applicants and, if one is a person of color, and one is Caucasian, offering the position, or the college admission to the person of color.

Is affirmative action fair? No, it is not. Fair means everyone gets the same. Fair is when my brother and I both got two cookies after dinner. Fair is sharing the coffee time hospitality work among many Edgewood members. Fair is charging everyone the same amount in sales tax.

Affirmative action is not fair. But, I believe it is just. Just is different than fair. Being just means working to bring about the kingdom of God and it is not based and proportional allotment; it is based on need and generosity and inclusion. Justice is ensuring everyone gets what they need which is different from person to person.

Affirmative action was created to address the pervasive and often ignored force of racism in this country. A child of color is this country will not be offered the same opportunities, advancement possibilities, or education quality because racism exists. It is institutionalized. Thus, affirmative action seeks to bring justice to the situation.

Critics say it is not fair. Supporters say in return that it is just.

The owner of the vineyard pays what he feels is just, a denarius, to everyone who worked. We need to remember that if he had paid less than a denarius, all those who worked part of a day would go home hungry, would not have enough to make it that day. Clearly the owner felt that it was only just that the workers who came and worked for him had enough for their needs for that day. Though he claims to be generous it is certainly not extravagance.

“No one was paid poorly.  No one was paid with a wage that would leave their family hungry.  The only ones who were unhappy about receiving their wages were the ones who were worried about the world’s concept of fairness.” (Jerry Goebel, ONE Family Outreach)

So why are the workers who came early so angry? The others are only getting enough for the day, or “their daily bread” as we often pray.

Why are they so angry? Well, deep in our hearts we know we would be angry, too.  It’s not fair. But as we pray “give us this day our daily bread,” what do we mean in light of this parable. We include all in this prayer, that all might have daily bread. We do not pray, “Give daily bread to those who work today, and work a full day, who have earned it.”

Part of the trouble with this parable is that is runs counter to all that our society tells us. We are told to work, to be productive, to accumulate wealth, to make our place in the world. We are valuable in terms of what we produce, what we earn, what we can buy.
And so we get stuck when looking at situations where people aren’t earning, aren’t producing, the way society expects. We grumble about giving these people their daily bread.

Like folks who have to live on disability. We grudgingly provide money in our federal budget for folks on disability to live on about $600 a month. For everything. Rent, food, transportation, medicines, barely (often not) their daily bread.

Or food stamps. Some of you took the food stamp challenge last spring. It worked out to be three dollars a day. Did that cover your daily bread?

But to raise taxes to pay for programs like disability or food stamps or Medicare or unemployment benefits shouts rise up, “but its not fair! I work so hard, all these hours, and then “those people” get all my money and they don’t work at all.” Really. What is fair and what is just?

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist tradition, was talking one day with a local teacher who was a member of his church. The teacher said to Wesley, “I am troubled. I work at the school and have a decent salary to provide for my wife and my child. But the man who comes to clean the school is paid almost nothing and he has eight children to provide for. It is not right and I want to do something about it.” Wesley replied, “so trade salaries with him.”

Ah, what is just is not what is easy, is it?

Matthew included this parable in his gospel as a message to his readers who were mostly Jewish. They felt they had lived their whole lives in accordance with the law and following God and now received the blessing of Jesus, the awaited Messiah. But now these Gentiles, those who were pagans or followed the Roman mystery religions, they now wanted in. They wanted to follow Jesus, these last minute joiners. It was not fair. Just like if a visitor to Edgewood comes and sits in your seat, the seat you’ve had with your family for decades. It’s not fair!

Fair or just? Who is welcome in the kingdom of God, who is invited, and do they have to earn their way?

Is it fair that some folks in this church contribute far more money to the church than others? Wouldn’t it be fairer if we took the church budget divided it by our members and everyone paid the same amount? Yes, it would be fairer.

But would it be just? Some folks have more resources, some folks come into a great inheritance, some folks can’t work, some are on a fixed income.  So we ask folks to give as they can give, and to stretch to give a bit more, increase their giving, knowing that each of us is able to do that in different ways, in different amounts. It is not fair but I believe it is more just.

Jesus is saying that God’s realm is not a meritocracy.  You don’t earn your way in. You don’t get in because you worked eight hours versus one hour. You are invited in because you show up. You are loved not by what you earn, not by your work, not by how much you are paid, but because you are. Because you are a child of God. Because you exist. The kingdom of God works on the principle of justice not fairness and we are called to apply that principle as well.

It’s just that sometimes we get too focused on our own rights, our own perspective, that we forget others, forget what is just? When faced with what we see as an unfair situation we can ask ourselves:

“Am I more angered that someone earns the same as me or that someone goes hungry? 
What if my belief in what’s fair leads to someone else’s family being hungry? 
Am I more concerned about my rights or the world’s injustice? 

Rights and justice don’t necessarily mix in our culture.  It may be legal to pay someone a wage that is below a living standard—but is it just to do so?  This story tells us; “No!”
(Jerry Goebel, ONE Family Outreach)

As we enter this election season we are asked to think in terms of justice, not in terms of fairness. There is a CATA millage on the ballot asking voters if they will pay for our local bus transit system.

Is it fair that all of us have to pay for a bus service that only some of us use?

But on the other hand, is it fair that most of can afford cars and can drive wherever we want polluting however we want while others wait on the bus?

It is not a matter of fairness. What is just? If this millage means folks with disabilities can continue to have transportation, and those who work on the weekends can still get a ride home, is that just?

When we decide what candidates to vote for the question is our minds should not be who is going to give me the most fair deal. Who will look out for me? What will I get? The question is, who will be the most just? Who will look out for all needs? Who will make sure everyone gets their daily bread?  I know there aren’t too many political TV ads that make that point, but it’s what our faith asks of us.

Life is not fair. And God is not fair. Thanks be to God. For all of us have at some point in our lives been loved more than we deserved, been paid more than we earned, been given gifts of presence and time and hope far beyond what we could pay for, been held by God all through a long, dark night.

A just world looks different than a fair world. A just world is everyone going home at the end of the day with enough for that day. Ours is a just God. And we are called to seek justice too. Not fairness, justice. Thanks be to God.

Amen.