Standing together without fear

Paul’s reading today has some powerful phrases.  “Conduct yourselves in a way that is worthy of the Gospels.”  Wow.  Strong language.  Or how about “the privilege of believing in and suffering for Christ.”  Who would have thought belief and suffering were privileges?  Or “I will persevere with you all, for the sake of your joy”.  Or Jesus saying, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last”. Each one of these phrases could be the core of any sermon. 

The phrase that shone for this week, though was “Standing together without fear”.  We saw this happen on last Wednesday across the country.  Many people turned out to stand for what they saw was an important cause, the welfare and education of children and how important it is to ensure that they are safe and protected from abuse.  We can all agree that children’s well-being is of the utmost importance, and it is one reason why we have child labor laws and public schools.  Back in the time of Jesus and Paul, that was not the case.  There was no form of birth control other than abstinence or infertility.  In the Greek and Roman world, it was common for families to abandon their babies in the wilderness if they had too many mouths to feed.  Rich people could come along and collect these babies to raise as slaves, as concubines or even as heirs.  It was their choice, their right to collect or dispose of these children as they saw fit.  Which makes the parable of the Land owner a real puzzle.

So where do you sit on this story?  Is the landowner an exploitive boss short-changing the hard-working laborers, or is the land owner a compassionate employer who wants to take care of as many people as possible?  Parables can be uncomfortably ambiguous that way.  Jesus doesn’t spell it out or explain it, he just dumps a story on us and lets it percolate.  How would we feel if we were the first laborers hired?  Or the last?  And how nasty of the landowner to line the laborers up in reverse chronological order, deliberately fueling the expectations of the first laborers, then in a surprising reversal, tells them they don’t deserve fair wages for their work.  Sure, the pay was following the letter of their contracts, but the outrage was deliberately cultivated by the landowner.  Mind you, the fact that the landowner took the time to talk to the workers about why the pay was not based on time and effort is interesting.  Landowners back then didn’t have to explain anything to their employees.  There were no labor laws or unions or workers compensation programs.  Nothing.

There were no pension plans, neither federal ones or provincial ones.  Only what a person could earn by the sweat of their brow, or what their children could provide when they could no longer work themselves.  Laborers like these had no retirement age to look forward to.  They were often the bottom of the barrel, with no skills that they could use for long term employment, no way to get a job that was more stable, a career working for some rich foreigner, or something steady with a town or city.  So again, the fact that the landowner even wanted to talk to the workers is a very bizarre twist and unlike most bosses that the disciples and followers had ever met.  This boss hired people in person, kept going to the market and hiring more.  This boss said, “why are you not working?” and put them to work.  This boss included everyone in the important job of bringing in the harvest.  And this boss then went and personally handed the money over to each of the employees.  Enough money, a living wage in fact, that would put bread on the table for their families so their little ones wouldn’t cry themselves to sleep because of an empty belly. A living wage so they would not try to cram their families into a leaky boat and cross a sea to a different land.  A living wage that treated them with dignity and respect.

It was more than feeding their bodies but treating them as equals, fellow humans, worthy of a boss looking them in the eye, giving them a firm handshake and a pat on the back.  That was the secret that helped Jesus turn his followers from fearful fishermen who knew their place or shy shepherds or fatalistic farmers, into passionate leaders.    That dignity was the daily bread that restored the self-worth of his followers.  That dignity helped them love their neighbors so calmly, so peacefully and with such surety that it changed the world.  They stood together without fear.

It's easy to wonder how people can stand together without fear in the face of the kind of hatred we saw expressed this week.  How can we stand without fear? Partly by learning our rich stories of people using solidarity to change the world.  We no longer have children working in mines because of people standing together.  We no longer have education only for the rich elite who can afford it.  We no longer have legal rights only for those who have power or the ear of a judge.  We no longer have rampant starvation of children and the elderly in this country because they don’t have anyone to support them.  We do have a public health care system open to all and a pension plan, fair labor practices and freedom of speech because people stood together without fear.  Often those standing together without fear were Christians like us, empowered by the examples of Jesus and Paul, who didn’t let death threats stop their messages of love.  May we find the faith, intelligence, courage and compassion to also stand together for the dignity and rights of all humans in this beautiful creation.  May we stand together in daring justice.  Amen.

Based on Scripture readings:

Philippians 1:21–30 For me, to live is Christ.

Matthew 20:1–16 Daily wages for the labourers; what’s fair?