What does labouring in the vineyard really mean?

I don’t know about you, but today’s Gospel used always to induce guilt in me. As a lay person, sitting in the pews, I heard it and thought, “Oh gosh. Am I supposed to be a missionary, am I failing miserably as a Christian because I am not converting people around me? I am singularly failing to raise the dead and cast out demons?”

And I don’t think I am the only one who thinks like this. But I have come to realise that I was misinterpreting the passage because of my false ideas about what it means to labour in the vineyard.

To labour at something generally means to work very hard and uncomfortably. And ‘doing mission’, for many, conjures up images of converting by argument, of overcoming  people by one’s own vast biblical knowledge, of bible bashing.

But when we look at Scripture that is not what Jesus or the disciples did. They did, sometimes, teach people about the true nature of God to those who came to listen. They didn’t impose anything. They were told to bring peace to whichever household they encountered and if their peace was not accepted or wanted, to move on without guilt (Luke 10.5-6)

What did they teach? That God is good news. And good news is not a thing of burden, guilt or shame. Yes, some forms of Christianity preach this, but let’s look at what Scripture actually says about God.

Abraham is visited by three angels who affirm him for his hospitality, and who tell him that God is a God of blessing and will bring to this aged couple a longed-for child. It seems impossible – but nothing is impossible with God and God is a God of life.

Our secular culture mocks this concept – as did Sarah, because it goes against a materialist sense that only the physical and visible is real. But the God of life, that ever-pulsing life force that seeks to create something good and noble out of any situation, which brings new growth after fires, which works with the changing situations of life to make new life in different ways, this God of goodness will bring about generations and generations of people.

Paul also talks about the goodness of God. This is not a God who stands back and condemns humans as worthless, but comes to them in their suffering and weakness and inability to make good in our own lives. Into this world of injustice and wrongness, Jesus came, to take into himself all this sin and so redeem, or make good, what is broken by the forces of darkness.

Paul says; ¹⁰For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. ¹¹But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

This utter goodness of God is clear in that he takes the initiative and comes to humanity in its flawed sinfulness, in order to bring us over the gap created by our own weakness, to himself. So, what Scripture seems to be saying to me is that God is not waiting for me to be perfect for him to approve me, that this love is totally free and unconditional.

If this utter goodness is the heart of God, and he wants us to live in utter peace with him, then what he is calling us to do can’t be all that bad and scary, can it? So why do we baulk at being his helpers in the harvest? Why don’t we want other people to have joy, peace, grace  and wholeness of life?

Sometimes it is because we think we are not holy enough to be an example to others. But what we are sharing is not our own worthiness or our wonderful achievements, but the presence of God. And that presence is not something we make, or conjure up – it is actually something that we receive, as a gift, when we are open to God’s appearing in a situation. God alone has the power. Shyness is often a self-focus on our own limitations, rather than turning to God in faith and trust in his loving power.

So, let me suggest that the call to work in God’s vineyards is not just a pile of work being dumped on us, but is itself the means and the way to finding new joy in God, in life and in the world?

The harvest is ready. The harvest is the presence of God in our human life. That is when we taste the sweetness of the Word, that is sweeter than honey, even than honey on the comb (Ps 19.10, Ps  119.103; Jeremiah 15.16; Ps 34.8).

So what if we think, not of converting people, but of simply trying to see, in every interaction and relationship of our days, this presence of God? Where and how do we see this presence?

Let me tell you two different labourers in a congregation far, far away from anywhere near you. Both are Christians attending church. But one labours in her own vineyard only, not in God’s. How so? She sees herself as under threat from the world and from the parish. You can’t trust anyone, she says. If she is in the process of buying something for the house things go wrong, the shop keeper is ripping her off, the delivery people are incompetent and lazy. At church she is the only one who really works. She won’t ask for help because people never turn up, she says, so she is burdened by the weight of doing the cleaning herself. And everyone else is too terrified of her to offer. And she is very fearful of the future because no-one has brought people into the church and so she believes that the church will be dead when she dies.

Where is God in this attitude to life? What is she harvesting? She seems to harvest only  sorrow and victimhood. She ploughs her anger and disappointment into the ground and thorns grow.

On the other hand, there is this other person in the congregation who is busy harvesting God’s kingdom. He is an older man, now a bit rickety on his legs, and the guttering needed cleaning. The priest had told him not to go up the ladder, and he knew he shouldn’t. What to do? Suddenly, there came into his mind (hmm.. that wouldn’t be divine inspiration, would it?) the young man who lived two doors down from him. He was currently unemployed. Maybe he could use a few dollars and would be able to do the job with him. So, he asked him to come and help. And the young man did, and worked well, but refused any money. “This is for the church, he said. I want to do something for someone else”. What a blessing! The gutters cleared for nothing, a new relationship of trust and support, and the isolated young man enabled to exercise grace, is now on the journey to being a member of God’s community.

Over a cuppa afterwards the older man heard about the life of the younger man and realised what a treasure he was. God’s utter goodness was working through the young man, into the life of the older man. He was blessed and his heart sang with the goodness of it all. God is present, God is at work, God cares even in old age and limitations.

The harvest is all around us but we have to be open to see it. We have to be prepared that God’s goodness is actually going ahead of us and have the courage to go outside our comfort zone to ask sometimes. But the rewards are fabulous: friendship, community, the lack of fear as we grow in support of one another.  And if we can grow the kingdom in one place, in one moment of relationship, then we are already in eternal life.

The kingdom is not over there somewhere; it is right here. Other people are the means of connecting into the Kingdom. The sickness of the world and of lives is dissolved in the work of Christians exercising compassion with one another but, more importantly, trusting that God’s kingdom is indeed growing around them.

The grumpy lady isn’t actually looking for God, she sees only her own needs and the crushing burden of having to do everything herself. The old man is looking for God in his everyday life. And sees him. And is reassured and grows more deeply into his relationship with God. And grows more secure because he realises, through every interaction with God’s work in this world, that he does not have to do much, but be open, have a compassionate heart, and love God, neighbour and self.

The harvest really is here. Can you see it this week?