This Sunday we'll look at one of the most enigmatic teachings of Jesus, The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.
 
In the story, a vineyard owner hires one set of day-laborers at sunrise, more at lunch, and still more at sunset. The point of the parable comes at the end, when the boss throws away the timesheets and pays everyone the same. 
 
It's a particularly challenging passage for Dallasites, oriented as we are to achievement, competition, and fairness. In his paradigm-shifting book Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus, Fr. Robert Capon gives the upshot of the parable:

“The householder in the parable is not running a commercial vineyard; he is running a charity ward. He is not rewarding people for their work; he is giving them life out of his own pocket. And that, of course, is the supreme scandal of grace: it treats everyone alike, regardless of merit. It doesn’t reward achievement; it forgives death. Grace cannot be measured, weighed, or earned; it can only be given and received. And the moment we try to turn the kingdom into a meritocracy, we find ourselves standing outside the vineyard with the grumblers, angry that God is good.”

If the radical, counter-cultural, unfair truth of grace doesn't scandalize us, we probably don't understand just how revolutionary it is. God is the vineyard owner, yes, but He isn't a businessman. Jesus is orienting us away from striving and earning and toward grace, a gift to be received. You are not loved because of how valuable you are to the God franchise. He isn't after profit, He is after you. 
 
Please join us Sunday to receive more of His love, more of His Spirit, and more of His grace!