“It’s not fair”

When you grow up in a family of eight children, you hear the words “it’s not fair” quite a lot. I certainly did. We were not a well-off family, so treats and gifts did not come around very often. And when they did, they usually had to be shared, or you had to wait your turn, sometimes for years before something similar came your way. At the time, as a child, all I could see was what another sibling had, or what I had missed out on. But looking back, I can see that those experiences taught us something important: patience (still a work in progress for me), sharing, and gratitude for what we had. These are values that, even today as adults, we still try to live out. So the characters in this Sunday’s Gospel feel very familiar to me, as I am sure they do for many of you.

There is another aspect of the Gospel that is quite telling. The landowner, who represents God, goes out again and again during the day to invite more people into the vineyard. He never stops looking for workers. In the same way, God is continually inviting us into his Kingdom; all we have to do is say “yes”. In recent weeks, we have seen many people in our own Parish respond with their own “yes” by taking up a ministry. For some of us who have been around for a long time, our comfortable world may feel as though it has changed — we may now even have to wear our name tags, because guess what, not everyone knows who we are! Unintentionally we can begin to act as if the “vineyard” belongs to us — whether that vineyard is our Parish, our workplace, or even our family. But in truth, we are all called to welcome others, along with the gifts and talents they bring. And if they are blessed or rewarded in ways that surprise us, then we should rejoice.

So perhaps the next time we are tempted to say, “It’s not fair,” we might pause and remember that God’s idea of fairness is very different from ours — and far more generous. There is always room in God’s vineyard for one more worker, no matter what time of day they arrive. We are called to rejoice when others are invited in and blessed, in the knowledge that God has not forgotten any of us. And if that means waiting a little longer for that watch, then perhaps we can wait with a bigger heart — just saying.

Clint Ramoo – Parish Finance Committee Chair