Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Because no one has hired us.”

Parables are written or told with the intention of drawing us into the story. Parables also provoke our thinking. My thinking was both provoked and challenged. In no time at all, I was thinking of the people in San Antonio who have no work to do and no money to earn. COVID-19 has left many of our brothers and sisters who work in hospitality and tourism without work, work that often did not even pay a living wage. No work! No money to earn! No money to live! Do you know anyone like that?

Most of us will remember that vineyard workers in this parable are hired at different times of the day. The first negotiate for their rate of pay. Others join them as the employer visits the marketplace to find others to work. Late in the day, some are still present, still there, apparently waiting for whatever work they can get. When the employer asks them why they are standing there idle, their reply is “because no one has hired us.”

My curiosity makes me wonder why they were not hired. Were they not hirable for some reason? Were they some of the people we would list as ones who “need not apply”? Was it their appearance? Their gender?

Nevertheless, hired they were! And although they had worked only a short period of time, they were the first to be paid, and they were paid as much as everyone else. Can you hear the grumbling by those who had labored all day, in the hot sun? They assumed that because they had worked longer, they would be paid more than they originally bargained for. They received payment and they grumbled. They protested. This wasn’t right or just! Seeing that those hired last got what they needed to survive another day wasn’t all that angered them. What really guiled them was their observation about the employer: “You have made them equal to us.”

This parable does provoke and challenge. Right to work? A living wage? Rights to safe workplaces? Non-discrimination? The dignity of work? Ready to work but no one is hiring?

When we reflect on scripture, we are challenged to see differently, to open our hearts to recognize that when someone in our community is suffering, we all suffer. Think of the waiter at your favorite restaurant, hotel workers, and workers at our entertainment venues, small business owners, and countless others who are without work.

Parables often call us to action. During this 2020 election, we all have the opportunity to do something for displaced workers. Ready to Work SA is Proposition B on the ballot. It provides for workforce development, for job training that will give low wage workers the new skills they need to be gainfully employed in jobs that pay a living wage ($15 per hour or more), to support their families, and to break out of generational poverty. Developing a more skilled workforce will change the image of San Antonio. This is an opportunity for 40,000 of our brothers and sisters to be trained and hired in the next four years, without any new taxes.

In addition, we can pray for the dignity of work and the rights of workers.

Lord God, Master of the Vineyard,

How wonderful that you have invited us
who labor by the sweat of our brow
to be workers in the vineyard
and assist your work
to shape the world around us.

As we seek to respond to this call,
make us attentive to those who seek work
but cannot find it.

Help us listen to the struggles of those
who work hard to provide for their families
but still have trouble making ends meet.

Open our eyes to the struggles of those exploited
and help us speak for just wages and safe conditions,
the freedom to organize, and time for renewal.
For work was made for humankind
and not humankind for work.
Let it not be a vehicle for exploitation
but a radiant expression of our human dignity.

Give all who labor listening hearts
that we may pause from our work
to receive your gift of rest.

Fill us with your Holy Spirit
that you might work through us to let your justice reign.
Amen.

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