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Homily Pentecost 17, Year A
20 September 2026
Matthew 20. 1-16

This Sunday could easily be called ‘Grumble Sunday.’

In our first reading, we heard of how the Israelites began to grumble in the desert that they were hungry shortly after they were delivered by God out of slavery in Egypt. Although God hears their grumbling and provides for their needs, this would not be the last time they grumbled.

In our Gospel, we encounter another set of grumblers. Jesus tells his disciples that the kingdom of heaven is like a landlord who hires help at various times through the day - so that some work twelve hours, some nine, some six, and some - the last ones hired - work for only one hour.

At the end of the day when the boss pays off his workers, those he hired last receive not one hour's pay but a whole day's pay. The workers hired first expect to be paid more—after all they had laboured all day under the heat of the sun—and so they grumble amongst themselves and then complain to the landlord.

Has something like this ever happened to you? Has it ever happened that you have had to work hard to get something - and then some ‘Johnny-come- lately’ breezes in and gets the same thing without all the effort? If it has, then you can understand where the labourers who worked all day long are coming from. If it has then you can understand why the answer of the Landlord doesn't sit too well with some people—the answer that says, “don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?"

It is an upsetting parable.

Especially if you look at it from the point of view of someone who believes that those who work harder and longer deserve more than those who work for less time and without as much difficulty.

The problem that these people have however is precisely that — they look at the parable - in fact, they look at life - from a point of view that is simply not God's point of view.

Before going on, let us remember that the workers who were hired in the morning received everything that was due to them for their labour.

They contracted to do a day's work for a day's wage and that is what they received. That is the primary fact we need to remember. But we might also remember that those workers who were hired first had a great privilege. They knew — from the very beginning of the day — that they had work. And they knew that they would be paid fairly for it.

Now, let us look at the parable from the point of view of those hired last.

All day they stood around in the unemployment line. Landlords came and went, but they were not hired. Perhaps, they were older and deemed to be less productive. Perhaps they were injured or disabled. Perhaps, they belonged to a different ethnic or racial group than the landlord. Whatever the reason, they had the same basic needs as those workers hired first. They had families to feed, homes to maintain, and bills to pay. And you can imagine their anguish as the sun cut its course across the sky and their hope of work disappeared. They longed to be in the fields under that hot sun working for someone and at the end of the day being paid a wage which would feed and cloth their family.

And finally, just as their last hope is about to set with the sun, someone comes and hires them and tells them that they will receive whatever is fair. And they go, and they work with the hope of bringing home something, a small portion of a day's wage, enough - maybe - to survive another day. Maybe not.

And so, you can imagine just how those hired last felt when the time to be paid came.

They didn't feel very good at all. They knew they were going to get something, but would it go around? Would it really help them all that much? Would it be enough to feed their wives and their children? Who might have to go without? Who could afford to eat less?

But then - the landlord does something completely unexpected, completely, and totally generous--something beyond their wildest dreams. He gives them a full day's wage! He gives them a full day's wage even though they haven't earned it. He gives them enough to live on! He gives them their families, their homes, their very lives. And Jesus says that is what the kingdom of heaven is like.

So, what is really the problem with the parable? Why are some people so unhappy with it? Why do the workers who worked all day grumble and complain?

I think it is because they have forgotten just how lucky they are. They are so used to the certainty of their salvation, so used to being part of God's work and being guaranteed their reward that they can no longer remember or imagine what being outside is like — what being without God is like.

They forget, and they begin to complain. And their complaints are based on the worst of all things--they are based on comparisons, and selfish ones at that. ‘I've worked harder. I've been here longer. I've done more. I had to go through this: so, should you.’

Any sense of their own blessedness disappears.

How sad it is. But thanks be to God, the kingdom of God does not work that way. The kingdom of God works on the basis of God's love — not on the basis of what we deserve.

And a good thing too. Those who laboured all day could have been those who were not hired until the very end. They could have been those who, as in so many of this world's markets, never get hired.

I believe that if the people who are now working in the vineyard would only remember how blessed they are, they would stop grumbling and complaining about other people and refresh their thinking about life and about God.

We may be the workers who have worked all day in the heat, but we will be paid what the agreed amount. We are secure and safe. We know what is coming to us - and that should be enough It is not for us to grumble and complain because God reaches out to others and treats them well.

The landlord looks at his labourers and sees their needs and he meets those needs. God looks at us and does the same. And the question in God's mind is not 'how much do these people deserve?' but rather, 'how can I help them? how can I save them before they perish?' And that is God's right - and God's pleasure, just as it is a landlord's right and pleasure to be generous with his help, to give them more than they deserve, to make their hearts glad if he or she so choses.

It is all grace and blessings.

It is grace to be hired in the morning. It is grace to be hired at noon time. It is grace to be hired near the end of the day. We do well to remember it. Jesus said, "The last will be first, and the first last” not to tell us how things are in the world, but to warn those who are first about the dangers of forgetting how we got to be first, the danger of being so comfortable in our position of being first that we dare to question God's love for others who happen along after us.

The parable of the Generous Landlord is only offensive if you believe that God's love is something you earn.

It is offensive if you weigh and measure other people rather than really try to love them as God loves them.

It is offensive only if you do not cry over the hunger of the unemployed and weep over those who are wasting their lives away on things that do not benefit them.

It is offensive only if you are the kind of trade unionist who believes that seniority is the only important thing. It is offensive only if you are the kind of businessperson who thinks that generosity only counts if it is ‘tax deductible.’

But for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear the parable is glorious news about God's love for us all.

Indeed, it is a source of hope and strength for everyone who is called to labour in God's field rather than left to perish in the marketplace with those who have not been chosen.

May our prayer to God be this:

“O Thou who hast given so much to me, give me one thing more: a grateful heart. Help me, Lord, remember that while it is possible to give without loving, it is impossible to love without giving. AMEN