All is Fair with God's Grace

Homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Note: The times in this homily were changed based on the time of the Mass. The times included below are for the 11:00 am Sunday Mass.

Six days, twenty-one hours, and 50 minutes.

That’s how long it’s been since my house, and many of the houses in my neighborhood, last had power. Six days, twenty-one hours, and 50 minutes – and we’re still waiting. And yet there are other houses, not to far away, that got their power back on Monday on Tuesday this past week. And some places never lost power – this church building and our parish school and offices never lost power, even in the midst of last Sunday’s wind storms. But for many of my neighbors and I, it’s been Six days, twenty-one hours, and about 51 minutes and we’re still waiting. It’s not fair.

I, for one, can certainly empathize with the vineyard workers in today’s parable; the ones who got their early in the morning and worked all day, only to receive the same pay as others who had only worked for an hour. It’s not fair – it’s not fair that someone else gets paid the same as me for doing a lot less work; it’s not fair for people right down the road to have electricity and not me; it’s not fair. But from God’s perspective, fairness is not the be-all and end-all virtue. Seeing everything played out fairly is not what leads to happiness, either for us or for the people around us. The point of the parable of the vineyard workers is that God’s generosity extends to everyone. It may not be fair in our eyes, but God’s goodness goes beyond what is fair. If we hope to receive God’s grace, then we have to be ready to accept the fact that the same grace will be offered to everyone else. If we’re ready to acknowledge God’s forgiveness, then we have to be able to recognize God’s forgiveness for everyone, even the people we don’t think deserve to be forgiven.

It might not be fair, it might not make sense – to our minds, at least. But as Isaiah reminds us, “my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord” (Isaiah 55.8). God doesn’t operate by looking around to see who most deserves his love, who has fairly won his gift of grace. No, God blindly bestows his grace on everyone out of unbounded generosity. But in order to see God’s grace, we do have to work – remember, everyone in the vineyard who received pay did work. We do have to work with the grace that is given to us, we do have to “conduct ourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ,” (Philippians 1.27a), as St. Paul tells us. God’s gifts are freely given, but we have to do something with them.

Six days, twenty-one hours, and now about 55 minutes. It may not be fair, but I’m just thankful that there is electricity to be restored, and I'm thankful that there is always God’s grace to be received.