Year A

Jan 12 2025

Expectations Turned Upside Down

In a tight job market, ideal candidates may be handpicked—those with the best grade point average or the most personable smile, those who carry themselves as though they came from money, those with perfect teeth. The others don’t even get called for an interview, as if implicitly sending the message, “Don’t bother; we’re not hiring your kind.”

Who got picked early in the morning in Jesus’ vineyard story? A savvy winegrower would probably have told his foreman to choose the younger men first: the tall, the sturdy, and the strong—that is who we want to work in our fields. Who waited all day and got picked last? Maybe it was the old. Maybe it was the one-armed or the crippled. Property owners who sought for success might suggest to these workers, “Don’t bother; we don’t need your kind.”

This parable reminds me of gym class. We used to pick teams. (Do schools still do that?) I hate to admit it, but as a super-athletic kid, it was a buzz to be selected first. Maybe these guys who had worked all day in the vineyard carried that same swagger: “I’m good, I’m tough, I was picked first to work. And who are these losers? And why are you paying them the same wage as me?”

Jesus flips our expectations of success upside down in this parable. When the Lord rewards his team, he values more than outer appearance. He prizes the heart. He is open-handed with the late-bloomers. Certainly God’s ways are not our ways. Imagine God saying, “You, you, and you—you are wanted. You, you, and you—you are chosen.” Can you hear it? “Who, me? You want me?” God says, “Yes, yes, and yes! Good salary. Great benefits. I do want your kind. Come!”

Consider/Discuss

When have you been picked last (or first) for something? What did that feel like? How did that affect how you saw yourself? How does that influence the way that you feel about the marginalized?
“God wants you. God has chosen you.” Does that statement land differently depending on the successes that life has dealt you? Do the privileges that have come your way or the hardships you have endured affect how you see God’s innermost desire for you?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you continually chose surprising friends. The broken, the outcast, the unwanted—they all found a home in you. Your way of seeing people turns our imagination upside down, for your ways of measuring are not what we are used to. When we are stuck in certain patterns of thinking about the values of success and power, change our hearts. Help us to be merciful as you are merciful.

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Isaiah suggests that even after the Babylonian exile had ended, Israel (or some of it) still struggled to be faithful to God. While there are no limits to the mercy of God, who is generous in forgiving, that forgiveness must be sought through repentance. God does respond to evil and one must not delay in repenting. Thus the insistence that one must “seek the Lord while he may be found” (Isaiah 55:6). Yet hope lies in the fact that God does not calculate forgiveness as we do. As merciful as sinful human beings are capable of being, God is more merciful. And in situations that human beings would find completely unforgivable, God’s forgiveness for those who repent is unbounded.

Paul is writing to the Philippians from prison, stating that his imprisonment and suffering have “turned out rather to advance the gospel” (1:12). His fervent hope is that no matter what happens, Christ will continue to be glorified in him. He would like to die, so that he can be with Christ (and end his suffering). On the other hand, if he lives he will be able to spread the gospel, teach, and support other Christians. He has learned to be content either way. The exhortation to conduct themselves in a way worthy of the gospel leads into the next section of the letter, in which he will address some divisions within the community.

Contemporary audiences of the parable of the workers sometimes fail to notice that those who did not work until the end of the day had not deliberately avoided labor; no one had hired them. All of the workers in this parable lead a precarious existence, not knowing from day to day if they will make any money to feed their families. The owner of the vineyard, in paying all of the workers a day’s wage, is paying them not according to how much they have worked, but according to how much they need. The parable emphasizes the generosity of God’s kingdom, in which everyone’s needs are met, regardless of their ability or good fortune. God cares more about mercy than fairness.

Jan 12 2025

Reflecting God’s Abundance

There is a creek behind the house where my daughter Maria used to live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. In spring, water generously cascades down from the mountaintops; the river sparkles and crashes and seems almost alive. Huge cedar logs float downstream upon that rush of water. You could hear the bubbling of flowing water when her kitchen window was open.

The mercy of God flows upon us like that river of generosity. The psalmist sings of that bounty: The Lord “redeems your life from destruction, and crowns you with kindness and compassion.” Jesus tells of the lavishness of a king who forgives his servant a huge debt. You can hear the bubbling of flowing water.

But today’s Gospel story doesn’t stay with abundance. It devolves rapidly to the servant’s forgetfulness of generosity, which leads him to such meanness and malice that he chokes his fellow servant, demanding immediate repayment. Instead of passing on that generosity, he nourishes anger and holds onto wrath. That is an abomination to the Giver of the river of life!

I was surprised when I’d visit Maria again in September. Her creek had shrunk to a silent trickle. Big logs were stuck in the rocks. Sticks and leaves were trapped behind the logs. Masses of gunk choked off the water. What had flowed in such a lively way in the spring was clogged in the fall.

When we refuse mercy to another, how can we expect to be healed ourselves? We choke off God’s generosity. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” There are no limits to the cascading of God’s mercy. Jesus tells us that there should be no limits to our forgiveness as well. Flow, river, flow!

Consider/Discuss

In this season of harvest, take some time to look around and be grateful for God’s abundance. How does immersing ourselves in God’s generosity set us free to pour out mercy to others?
The resentments of earth may pull us down, but the Holy Spirit wants to bubble up and sparkle within you and me. What is blocking us? Where do we find pollution in our lives, the cedar logs of unforgiveness that dam(n) up our souls?

Living and Praying with the Word

Holy Spirit, we open our hearts to you. Fill us with your courage to love so that time after time, even when we’ve been hurt, we forgive. We pain you often. You have forgiven us so many times. Don’t let hard-heartedness choke us. We offer you those people and those issues that bother us. Please put them on a log and let them float down your river. Then bubble up within us and restore our joy.

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

In a passage that mentions “sin” six times, Sirach focuses on refusal to forgive. Here the sinner is not so much the one who causes wrath and anger, as the one who “hugs them tight,” like a security blanket; not the one who offends, but the one who avenges the offense. It is preposterous to hope to be forgiven for one’s own sins if one is not willing to forgive others. It is presumptuous to expect the sinless deity to forgive our sins when, as sinful human beings, we are unwilling to do the same thing. Refusal to forgive is a form of hate, which is antithetical to the ethical perspective of the covenant between God and Israel.

Paul’s insistence that Christians live and die for the Lord occurs within an exhortation against judging others. Those whose consciences lead them to abstain from certain foods must not be despised by those with different scruples, and vice versa. The point, Paul says, is that each should be eating (or not eating) for the Lord. If we are doing it for the Lord, and it is not evil, then it is good. In fact, everything, even up to one’s own death, should be done for the Lord. It is the Lord, he goes on to say, who will judge us. We will give an account to the one for whom we have done everything, and that is the Lord, not each other.

Immediately after Jesus gives instructions on the church’s proper response to obstinate sinners (Matthew 18:15–20), Peter inquires about the limits of forgiveness. Jesus’ answer—there are no limits— must have astounded those who thought that seven times was already quite generous. The parable gives a straightforward rationale for the demand that humans place no limits on their willingness to forgive: because God places no limits on the divine willingness to forgive. To act as if we have the right to limit forgiveness when we ourselves must ask for it repeatedly constitutes gross hypocrisy and ingratitude. We ourselves are the ones who place limits on God’s forgiveness of us when we insist on placing limits on our forgiveness of others.

Jan 12 2025

Go and Tell—Carefully!

A watchman’s duty is well-defined: if an enemy ship is seen in the harbor, sound the alarm; if you don’t disclose the danger, then you are the one responsible for your city’s destruction. Jesus’ mandate to call out “a brother” is also clear: when there is a shining love between you and a fellow child of God, by all means, go and talk to him or her about the misdeed and try to set things straight.

But what if the relationship involves power? As we strive toward a climate of transparency in our church and in our culture, how to enact this Gospel grows murkier. Should you surface management mistakes to your boss? Must you speak to a parent about dishonesty? Do you disclose a superior’s misdeeds? Power stays in power by fear. When do you speak up? If you reveal “wickedness,” because of the power imbalance you may have to put up with anger, retribution, and the loss of your good name. “Go and tell” is a tricky directive in an environment of dominance. Those on the underside of power have been silent for centuries.

How do we determine what the Lord is calling us to say and do? John the Baptist spoke truth to power and was beheaded. Jesus remained silent before Herod and was crucified anyway. How much risk can we take? How do we find clear direction when we feel as though we’re walking in a fog?

In prayer and discernment with others, we ask: What does God want me to do? What is my motive for opening this conversation? Will speaking up worsen the situation? Like Ezekiel, if God is unmistakably calling you to “be a sentinel,” then proceed carefully, but in courage do proceed. Jesus himself suggests that we have a back-up plan ready.

Consider/Discuss

Think of situations when you have said nothing about wrongs that you have endured. What was the reason for your silence? In hindsight, what could you have done differently? As you talk this through with others, how might that discussion help you to handle a sticky situation that you are in right now?
St. Paul says to “owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.” That is a real challenge. How can we grow into that inner freedom, that degree of boundlessness when we totally release our fear of others? How can we grow to be indebted only to God?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord Jesus, you found yourself in many sticky situations. You know how tangled human life can be. As we gather together in your name, be here in our midst and give us clarity. Over and over again, you said in the Gospels, “Do not be afraid.” But sometimes we are afraid to speak up. Sometimes it is right to be cautious about speaking up. Send us your Holy Spirit in abundance to reveal to us the best direction to take. Mother Mary, untangler of knots, pray for us!