Working the graveyard shift of grace

 

Matthew 20: 1-16
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
September 20, 2026

Photo of a woman standing behind the takeout window of a food stand. A bright light with a yellow glow illuminates an otherwise dark night.

You know a parable is doing its job when it arouses strong emotions in its audience. This one is no exception. We all like to think we are fair-minded, open-hearted people, and then Jesus confronts us with that upside down kindom of his and our true colors are revealed. Funny thing is, as usual, we’re not who we think we are in the story.



Naturally, we like to think that we’re one of the early birds, or at least that we were hired and started working before noon. The capitalist, Protestant work ethic—which wasn’t around when Jesus told this story—worms its way into our interpretation, in an effort to place ourselves respectably in the story. Those who were hired last are often thought of as lazy, shiftless, indigent, because we equate idleness with apathy and sloth, so says the thesaurus. The text tells us only that no one had yet hired these ones without work.



In our culture we have to earn the right to be without work—either because after working most of our lives, we can afford to be retired, we are entitled to our rest, or because we’re wealthy enough to have people working for us who increase our wealth for us. If we are disabled we must earn our place in society but also be paid less than a livable wage, teetering on the edge of poverty as many slide off the cliff. No sponging off social welfare unless you’re a bank or an oil company that needs bailing out or a billionaire who needs a tax cut. And yet in the chapter before this one, Jesus utters his famous quote that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kindom of God.



So, is Jesus talking about economics or fairness and righteousness? Is he talking about the here and now or the kindom to come? Or is he talking about what he’s always talking about which is right relationship with each other and with God, which includes all of the above? As poet Reginald Dwayne Betts in his book Felon puts it, we’re all standing on the wrong side of choices. We like to think we’re the ones in good standing when in truth we’re all late to the table of grace.



I see this parable as Matthew’s version of the Prodigal Son. In Luke’s gospel, the forgiving father says to the oldest son, “You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” We humans have not yet evolved beyond our self-interest; we still get jealous not only when someone else we view as less-than is treated equally, but when we are not treated better than they are.



I think one of the things Jesus is getting at here is the ability to be happy for someone else’s fulfillment and good fortune without respect to how it affects us. The Greek words used for envious or jealous in this passage are more accurately translated as “evil eye”, as in “Is your eye evil because I am generous?” I recently saw a poster that read “Maybe empathy feels radical because suffering became profitable.” But then suffering has always been profitable, since there has been agriculture, famines, slavery, and prisons. Perhaps empathy feels radical because our suffering has become profitable with exorbitant costs for groceries, fuel, electricity, education, housing, for-profit healthcare and the high price of prescriptions, and we say that’s just the way it is.



In such a wealthy nation, why wouldn’t we want to be generous with what we have and ensure that everyone has healthcare regardless of whether they work or not? Why wouldn’t we want everyone to have access to a top-notch education? Why wouldn’t we want every child to have what they need to flourish? Why wouldn’t we want everyone to have the gender-affirming healthcare that they need? Why wouldn’t we want everyone, including immigrants, to be paid a fair wage? Why do we resent those who have less than we do receiving what we have rather than hold billionaires and corporations accountable for their share? Why do we insist on having an economy and a society that is fixated on the individual at the expense of the well-being of the whole community?



What this parable teaches us is that we all need each other. Those who were hired last profit from the agreement made with those who were hired first. Those who were hired first profit from the landowner who agreed to a fair wage. All the laborers profit from a boss who is generous. The landowner has plenty of laborers. Everyone has what they need in order to live well, including a sense of belonging and worthiness.



Some people call Jesus a socialist or a capitalist, but in truth he is being more practical and idealist, thus, he invites us to act as God acts. To be merciful as God is merciful. To be loving as God is loving. To be generous as God is generous. Not just to some or to those who have earned it but to continually seek out those who have need. Jesus lived by Deuteronomy 15: 11, “Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”



It’s not easy working the graveyard shift of grace. So, I want to lift up a couple of ways this church is generous with what we have. We recently started a fund called Change for Change. In the past few years there have been times when people in this church have needed more help than what my discretionary fund can do. We’ve been able to help those who need assistance through the generosity of a few others. Now with seed money from our memorial funds, we are invited to bring our spare change, paper or coin, to help church kindred with a one-time emergency need.



And then there’s our affordable housing project, an opportunity for us to be generous like the landowner, with our building and the land beneath it. It’s another example of how we all need each other. By sharing what we have with a nonprofit developer, we live into our mission statement, “to use all of our resources for God’s work, seeking justice and peace in the world” and “to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God”. The nonprofit developer fulfills its mission to provide affordable and supportive housing. Those who will live in this new building will benefit from a safe, affordable place to live. Business owners will benefit from workers who aren’t living in poverty or unsafe housing. The city of Newark will benefit from residents who are happy to live here.



It’s not easy working the graveyard shift of grace, but it’s always worth it. As poet Brian Lewis reminds us:



“…the future
will not ultimately be decided
by those who accumulated the most power
but by those
who learned
how to carry immense complexity
without surrendering
their capacity
for love”


“…there are still people
quietly rebuilding
the interior world
Still people
teaching children wonder
Still people
protecting beauty
Still people
who understand
that compassion
is not sentiment
It is infrastructure
And perhaps
the task before us now
is not merely
to save the world
but to become
the kind of people
capable
of inhabiting it together”



May it be so. Amen.

Benediction – enfleshed.com


May we leave here with a renewed sense of love for the world that holds us. Practicing gratitude for the plants. For the stars. For the water and the soil.
May we remember our place in the whole of things.
That we might protect life. And be in service to love.
May we nurture a world where thriving is the common goal.
In body, in soul, in community - may the Spirit of Flourishing be our guide.