This week BibleWorm reads Matthew 20:1–16, often called the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, in which the kingdom of heaven is said to be like a landowner who pays the laborers a full day’s wage no matter how long they’ve worked. We wrestle with the abject unfairness of this wage system and empathize with the workers who have labored a long day in the hot sun. Yet we also marvel at the generosity of the vineyard owner, who gives everyone what they need for the day no matter how much work they’ve done. Maybe, we think, in the kingdom of heaven people are not rewarded for the labor they provide but rather receive what they need to live a full and abundant life. If we read ourselves as the landowners, this becomes a lesson on how we should conduct our own economic practices, not only paying fair wages but giving generously until everyone has enough. And if we read God as the landowner, then this becomes a parable about God’s radical and endless generosity that welcomes more and more people into the kingdom and treats us all as people of dignity and worth.
Episode 557 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Resisting Ethnic Nationalism (Esther 3:1-11 and 7:1-10) REPLAY
Episode 556 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Resisting the Patriarchy (Esther 1:1-22) REPLAY
Episode 555 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Reading Ruth Against the Grain (Ruth 1:14-18 and 3:1-15) REPLAY
Episode 554 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Making Ancient Israel Great Again (Ruth 2:1-20 and 4:9-17) REPLAY
Episode 553 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Solidarity and Allegory (Song of Songs 5:2-9 and 8:5-10) REPLAY
Episode 552 FORGOTTEN BOOKS The Joy of Sex (Song of Songs 1:1-12-2:6 and 7:1-13) REPLAY
Episode 551 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Trauma Has Many Voices (Lamentations 3 and 5) REPLAY
Episode 550 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Trauma and Protests (Lamentations 1:8-22 and 2:10-22) REPLAY
Episode 549 FORGOTTEN BOOKS For Everything There Is a Time (Ecclesiastes 1:4-11 and 3:1-11) REPLAY
Episode 548 FORGOTTEN BOOKS Everything is Mere Breath (Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 and 8:16-9:10) REPLAY
Episode 547 CREATION CARE Re-Creating the World (Ezekiel 47:1-12)
Episode 546 CREATION CARE Covenant and Creation (Leviticus 26:3-32, 34-35, 40-45)
Episode 545 CREATION CARE Bless the Lord, O My Soul (Psalm 104)
Episode 544 CREATION CARE God's Stream Full of Water (Psalm 65)
Episode 543 CREATION CARE From the Whirlwind (Job 38:1-38)
Episode 542 CREATION CARE In the Beginning (Genesis 1:1-2:4a)
Episode 541 The Gifts of the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4 & 1 Corinthians 12:1-13)
Episode 540 The Resurrection of the Body (1 Corinthians 15:1-26 & 41-47)
Episode 539 The Greatest of These Is Love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
Episode 538 Unity in the Cross (Acts 18:1-14 & 1 Corinthians 1:10-18)
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