This week’s scripture is Matthew 20:1-16

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.

Matthew 20:1-2

At Pilgrim Church we try to find the intersection of our lives and the scriptures

In my message last week I noted that it’s never hard to find something to connect with scripture. What’s hard is choosing! Each week there’s too many opportunities and directions available. Sometimes I’ll land on a message that might feel tailor-made for what you’ve been going through. Other times, it may feel more generalized.

But one universal that people all across the world are wrestling with is “What’s fair?” And who gets to decide?

Whenever someone brings up tuition forgiveness programs, or ANY sort of entitlements, there’s always someone asking: “Why should they get that when I didn’t?” It feels unjust to someone who paid (or who is paying) off their student loans to learn that someone else is not going to have to go through what they went through. Someone else “got off easy,” in their minds.

Jesus addressed this very feeling in The Parable of “The Laborers in the Vineyard”

You can check it out here, if you’d like, ahead of worship this Sunday.

As you read the scripture, how does it make you feel? Do you identify with one position over the other? As the passage goes along, new workers show up at various times of day, and the vineyard owner pays them each the same. And there is grumbling, and the vineyard owner confronts them, saying, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am so generous?”

Of course, this parable isn’t about student debt (which is a real issue for many). It’s about the kingdom of heaven. That’s how the whole parable begins, as Jesus says, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.”

We’ll discuss more about how we might interpret and understand this passage both at our Bible Conversations group in the parlor at 8:45 (drop-in any time, you’re always welcome) and in Worship at 10 am (drop-in any time, you’re always welcome) this Sunday, April 21st!

We hope to see you there!