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The Living Wage and the Parable of the Vineyard Workers by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
"When evening fell, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, "call the laborers and given them their pay..." Those who had started work an hour before sunset came forward, and were paid the full day's wage. When it was the turn of the men who had come first, they expected something extra, but were paid the same amount as the others. As they took it, they grumbled..."
The story of the vineyard workers is a story about day laborers who waited in the market place in hope of being hired in order to have money to feed their families. Those hired at dawn to work the typical 12 hour day, were contracted with for a full days' pay, a denarius. The Torah provided that workers be paid at the end of the day:
"The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning."
"You shall give him his hire on the day he earns it, before the sun goes down (for he is poor, and sets his heart upon it); lest he cry against you to the Lord, and it be sin in you."
Other workers were hired at 9 a.m. and at noon, and finally at 5 p.m. These workers were simply told: "Go and join the others in the vineyard and I will pay you a fair wage."
Perhaps in gratitude that his vintage was saved from the threatening autumn rains that day, the vineyard owner gave each worker a full days' wages. Each worker would, that night, go home able to buy food in the marketplace to feed his family.
The purpose of the parable as Jesus told it was to make a point about the expansive nature of God's justice compared to our own. It was spoken in response to the criticism the religious elite had raised about Jesus' controversial tendency to break bread (and thus to make a part of his extended family) prostitutes, tax collectors (seen as racial traitors), Gentiles, the ill and outcasts. That "sinners" would be made equal inheritors of the Kingdom of God with the righteous was inexplicable and scandalous. But God's mercy and compassion is not ours. The contrast is between the lovelessness of the day long workers and the love of God.
Two assumptions about this story can be made: First, in these small towns and villages, all the workers would know one another. Although there is always competition for work, in very truth there is a sense of community among workers as well. Second, those who would have been hired at the end of the day would be those whom no one hired earlier.
"Why are you standing about like this all day with nothing to do?" "Because no one has hired us."
No one had hired them because they were most likely less vigorous, less able bodied, older and perhaps sickly. Hired at the last hour, they would have been grateful for any work and for any pay given.
We would prefer it if the able bodied, young and vigorous workers would rejoice in that their neighbors, weak and dependent; would be able to care for their wives and children that night and the next day. The pettiness of the strong in envy of the weak is pathetic and shameful.
The parable teaches us two things about the economic world of the first century and our own.
All people who are able to work, deserve work. That most everybody wants to work is shown in the story in that workers, who had been counted as expendable, nonetheless waited in the sun all day hoping against hope for work. Those who suggest that a capitalist economy can only function well with acceptable levels of unemployment condemn capitalism for its structural weaknesses and corruption. Full employment was once the goal of politicians in a society which would call itself "Great." It must be the goal again of a society that would be "moral." Jesus, a village carpenter much of his life, understood the need of each person to have meaningful work which sustains self and community.
Secondly, workers deserve a "living wage." The owner could have sent those who worked part of the day home with a partial pay, but he knew that those men would go home to hungry children that night and the next day. How could he rejoice in the fullness of his barns when there would be empty pots in the village that night? In a moral society, the rich would be restless until the poor are fed. Owners would be distraught when their workers lives are filled with desperation and hopelessness borne of subsistence wages.
The Santa Monica Living Wage Initiative and the Gospel of Christ.
Are there connections between our Gospel values and the present struggle to provide a living wage to low paid hotel workers (and others) in our city?
In November 2000, Santa Monica voters defeated America's first anti-living wage ballot initiative. The Santa Monica City Council passed a living wage ordinance on July 24, 2001. A petition, sponsored by and for the benefit of the largest and most expensive hotels in the city, suspended the ordinance, placing it on the November 5, 2002 ballot. The Santa Monica Living Wage Ordinance (Measure JJ) will go into effect when supported by a majority of voters in this upcoming election.
Disciples of Christ are asked to prayerfully consider the values of the Gospel when they vote. The weak and powerless need not be voiceless. When we operate out of values of scarcity and competition rather than abundance and community, we live into the values of this world and not those of the Kingdom of God we profess.
(For more information, visit: www.laane.org.)
Copyright © 2002 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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