“Are you envious because I am generous?” says the landowner in this weekend’s Gospel reading. That cuts pretty close to home for me. I am the firstborn in my family and the only daughter. I can tell you that I spent a lot of time growing up thinking and sometimes saying, “That’s not fair!”
Developmentally, around three years of age is when children notice that another child got more of something than they did. Around eight years old is when children start making sure that everyone is getting the same thing; it isn’t just about making sure they got what was fair, but that it was fair for everyone. Often, studies show that while people develop the understanding of fairness for all, we don’t all choose to act in fair ways. We value fairness, but it’s much harder to put that fairness in practice.
The landowner in the Gospel gives everyone a day’s worth of wages whether or not they worked “a full day.” Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like this. God isn’t fair. Eight-year-old me hates this. 48-year-old me is so very thankful for God’s steadfast love and mercy, for me and for all of humanity. God gives to all of us, not because we deserve it or worked especially hard, but because we are beloved of God and made in God’s image.
Luther tells us that God gives daily bread, even to the wicked. God gives to us all the same, not because we are good, but because God is good. When God’s goodness is the ruler we use to measure fairness, a lot of how we think and act changes. God is very abundant, more than we can fully comprehend. Thanks be to God.
Shalom,
Pastor Melissa