Sunday Readings Commentary
Father Andrew Wadsworth offers a short commentary on this week's Sunday Lectionary readings.
To read the relevant Bible passage just click on the reference.
Before reading and reflecting on God's word you might like to use the following prayer:
O Lord,
who hast given us thy word
for a light to shine upon our path:
Grant us so to meditate upon that word
and follow its teaching,
that we may find in it the light that shineth
more and more unto the perfect day:
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (25th in Ordinary Time)
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
This is the triumphant conclusion of the second major section of the Book of Isaiah: God’s ways are utterly different from human thinking. In many ways it is comforting to think that God is not like ourselves. One reason why we cling to God is to be liberated from ourselves and to be brought into his marvellous light, living a life freed from the restrictions, frustrations and self-centeredness that surrounds and penetrates us. Obviously God does not have our faults of selfishness, laziness, malice, lust and greed. More than that, not being bodily or limited in any way, God does not plan or think like ourselves. God does not think things out, with ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, working in concepts or sentences. God does not laboriously plan what to do, weighing consequences, advantages and disadvantages! Even our love is always tinged with self-interest and concern for ourselves. God’s love is entirely generous and out-going, a limitless cascade of love, deluging and penetrating each of us.
Brothers and Sisters: Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
The Philippians were Paul’s favourite community, linked to him with a strong bond of affection and intimacy, the only community from which he would accept gifts of money. Paul writes this letter from prison, not sure whether he is to live or die, not sure either which is his stronger desire. For life is his bond with the Christian communities he has founded, and who still need his help. But the centre of his life is the total rootedness in Christ, of which death can only be the completion. As he writes elsewhere, the Christian has been baptised into Christ’s death, dipped into Christ’s death, and so is soaked in Christ’s death, waiting only for it to be completed in Christ’s resurrection. If we really believe this with the strength of Paul’s conviction, it gives a whole new centre to life, a whole new perspective on the life which is Christ’s. Death will then not be a matter of fear and dread, but only a slipping into the glory of the resurrection.
At that time: Jesus told his disciples this parable, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market-place, and to them he said, “You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.” So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, “Why do you stand here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You go into the vineyard too.”
‘And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.” And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” So the last will be first, and the first last.’
‘It is not fair! They have hardly had time to roll up their sleeves, and the late-comers get the same wage as I do, having sweated it out right through the heat of the day.’
– Yes, but God is unfair. What are you going to do about that?
‘But they didn’t deserve it, whereas I worked all day.’
– Yes, you worked. But how did you deserve even to exist?
‘Well, God gave me existence, but he might at least be fair.’
– And where would that leave you, if God was fair and gave you what you deserve? Do you want a God in your own image, vengeful, scheming, lazy, punishing (other people), complacent, selfish?
‘Hold on! Not completely like me, but at least I am fair.’
– No. God isn’t fair at all. That is why Jesus enjoyed having parties with sinners and scum with whom you wouldn’t be seen dead.
‘Well, they will be different then, when they and I are dead – they’ll be sort of cleaned up’
– Up to your standards, you mean? Are you sure God wants them ‘cleaned up’ like you? Perhaps God loves them just as much as you. Could Jesus ever have said “Blessed are the hungry and dirty and dishonest”?