The scene in today’s reading from Matthew becomes more and more familiar. People are waiting for work. Waiting to be hired. Waiting to earn a day’s wage – which in those days was just enough to feed one’s family. The issue, then, is one of daily bread. Just like manna in the Exodus narrative. Just…

The scene in Matthew is becoming more and more familiar. People are waiting for work, waiting to be hired, waiting to earn a day’s wage – which in those days was just enough to feed one’s family. The issue then is one of daily bread. Just like manna in the Exodus narrative. Just as in…

About ten years ago, in The Good Book: Reading The Bible With Mind And Heart, Peter Gomes wrote that what makes the Bible so compelling is the company of characters who, like ourselves, are so often both confused and confusing and yet play their part in the drama of human relationship to God. The stories…

A grandmother tells about growing up the oldest of four children. “My mother was always very fair,” she said. “She didn’t play favorites. We always knew that we could count on her to be fair. But my father — well, that was another story. The truth is, I grew up secure in the knowledge that…

This Gospel lesson is hard for those of us who are concerned about fairness. It seems to tell us that God is not fair. The story is simple: Jesus describes a hiring process. Some workers are hired early, some at mid-day, some in the afternoon, and some just before quitting time. At the end of…

The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard The Scripture today resonates with the challenge, “Come, labor on.” It has been said that we are what we do all day so that’s probably why we so often ask people we have just met, “What is it that you do?” In fact, our labor has such…