Envious Or Generous?… Hello weekend readers. In this last month in our country, we have seen envy in spades, and little for generosity. How sad that is. Here in New Mexico, there is a deep envy for Chaco Canyon. The Greater Chaco region has already suffered from significant damage to air, water, and public health due to oil and gas extraction, and unrestrained oil and gas development will jeopardize the longevity of invaluable traditions and cultures. Now the President wants more, dig-dig-dig with no care of these people who have been here thousands of years.

Obviously, we know that this is all about money-envy for money-but not one cared for the people who live there. Instead, generosity is kicked to the ground and their homes will be coming down. Where will they go? One Senator said, “their Indians-who cares?” This envy and loss of generosity reminded me of the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard…  [Matthew 20:1-16 ERV]

“God’s kingdom is like a man who owned some land. One morning, the man went out very early to hire some people to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay the workers one silver coin for working that day. Then he sent them into the vineyard to work. About nine o’clock the man went to the marketplace and saw some other people standing there. They were doing nothing. So he said to them, ‘If you go and work in my field, I will pay you what your work is worth.’ So they went to work in the vineyard. The man went out again at twelve o’clock and at three o’clock. Both times he hired some others to work in his vineyard. About five o’clock the man went to the marketplace again. He saw some other people standing there. He asked them, ‘Why did you stand here all day doing nothing?’ “They said, ‘No one gave us a job.’ “The man said to them, ‘Then you can go and work in my vineyard.’ “At the end of the day, the owner of the field said to the boss of all the workers, ‘Call the workers and pay them all. Start by paying the last people I hired. 

Then pay all of them, ending with the ones I hired first.’ “The workers who were hired at five o’clock came to get their pay. Each worker got one silver coin. Then the workers who were hired first came to get their pay. They thought they would be paid more than the others. But each one of them also received one silver coin. When they got their silver coin, they complained to the man who owned the land. They said, ‘Those people were hired last and worked only one hour. But you paid them the same as us. And we worked hard all day in the hot sun.’ “But the man who owned the field said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am being fair with you. You agreed to work for one silver coin. Right? So take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same pay I gave you. I can do what I want with my own money. Why would you be jealous because I am generous?’ “So those who are last now will be first in the future. And those who are first now will be last in the future.”

Think about this: the landowner insists, in a mild rebuke, that he is not cheating anyone. He has paid the agreed wage. Should he want to pay others more, that is his business. Provided he has been just in all his dealings, does he not have the right to do what he wants with his money? These rhetorical questions show that God’s great gifts, simply because they are God’s, are distributed, not because they are earned, but because God is gracious. In the kingdom of God, the driving force is not merit and ability like our world is, but it’s God’s grace and grace alone!

The workers who started at dawn weren’t shortchanged. They received everything they were promised. What they couldn’t bear was grace given freely to someone else. How sad that is. So, ask yourself: When do I struggle to rejoice in God’s generosity toward someone else? How might this parable invite me to receive grace as a gift rather than a reward?