Yesterday, as I stepped onto the 22 Fillmore on my way home, I ran into an old friend I met a number of years ago.  She is a devoted Roman Catholic with a New York accent. She attends a large Roman Catholic church in the city, and had just left an evening Mass.  My friend was on her way to bring communion to hospital patients.  We talked for quite a while about the parable we'd both reflected on that day, me at St. Cyprian's and she at St. Dominic's.     

Turns out that my friend and those of us at St. Cyprian's who discussed the parable earlier in the day shared a sense that this was a profound statement about God's love for all, and God's equality of mercy and grace. The message is provocative, and not easy to appreciate.  The message is especially difficult to hear if we identify with those who have worked all day long & get the same wage as those who show up later.

But what if we identify ourselves with the workers waiting on the side of the road all day for someone to hire us?  What if we had families at home whom we were anxious to provide for?  What if we wondered desperately about our own worth?  The persistent willingness to invite more workers to the vineyard, and the generosity and care shown by the landowner would be a tremendous comfort and relief.

Most commentators do not pay much attention to the economics of this story, preferring a "spiritual" reading (as if reading it spiritually meant it could have no economic implications).  Nevertheless, John Ruskin's interpretation of the parable had a tremendous influence on Mahatma Gandhi's economic ideas. In the midst of this global economic crisis, with the enormous inequality in this country (for an excellent story on this reality click here), what does this parable have to say to us? How are we being asked to respond? Here are a few thoughts:

Our worth ultimately is not about how much we make, or how long we've worked, or patiently waited for our piece of the pie. God's love is infinite and is for all of us --- we are valuable because "God doesn't make junk, period."
• Our economic structure is broken.  We have a responsibility to speak up for the least of these, and to ask questions about the distribution of resources.  The landowner in the parable gives the same amount to everyone, but this is obviously not happening at all in our society (not even close).  In fact, in our context metaphorically those who work all day in the hot sun often make far , far less than those that haven't even showed up on the corner looking for a job.
We should be weary of those who "speak Christian" in the public sphere as Marcus Borg says, but do not practice the politics of Jesus, that among other things favors the least of these, provides creative alternatives to violence, and invites the rich to give what they have away for the sake of the kingdom. For a recent article on Christianity and economics click here. 

These are challenging times, but our faith invites us to subversive confidence and hope. We seek to center ourselves in the eternal and infinitely generous Divine. Thomas Kelly, a Quaker, who would probably challenge us at St. Cyprian's to slow down a bit, writes beautifully about what this centering of ourselves looks and feels like:

"Out from a holy Center come the commissions of life. Our fellowship with God issues in world-concern. We cannot keep the love of God to ourselves. It spills over. It quickens us. It makes us see world needs anew. We love people and grieve to see them blind when they might be seeing, asleep with all the world's comforts when they ought to be awake and living sacrificially, accepting the world's goods as their right when they really only hold them in temporary trust. It is because of this holy Center that we relove people, relove our neighbors as ourselves, that we are bestirred to be means of their awakening."

From: A Testament of Devotion

See you soon at Turk & Lyon!

This Sunday, August 21st bring a pair of socks to church and St. Cyprian's will add them to those being collected by St. Paulus & The Free Farm. Here's SF CARE's invitation:    

We invite interfaith groups and individuals throughout the Bay Area to begin collecting sock for the ministries of SF Care (Welcome, The Night Ministry and St Paulus Lutheran) to distribute to the homeless, formerly homeless, severely mentally I'll - but more precisely to people without socks of any, shape or size.

Because people who cannot afford socks, tend to wear them more than one day in a row, we ask people to donate white athletic socks, particularly the kind with gray toes and heels, new or gently used. Socks that are dyed will poison the feet of individuals who wear them too long.

Music-loving, stay-up-late types who will help strike the set and lock up the building after performances at Cyprian's. Get two free tickets to any concert you cover. Hours: 10:30 to midnight, sometimes earlier.  

Contact: michael.helquist@gmail.com.