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 116 Luke 1 The Birth of John the Baptist
Episode 115 Ezra 1 and 3 Rebuilding the Temple
Episode 114 Isaiah 40 Comfort My People
Episode 113 Jeremiah 33 Hope in a Time of Despair
Episode 112: 2 Kings 22-23 Josiah's Reform
Episode 111 Isaiah 5 and 11 How Does Your Vineyard Grow?
Episode 110 Hosea 11 God as Parent
Episode 109 1 Kings 18 Elijah and the Prophets of Baal
Episode 108 1 Kings 12 The Division of the Kingdom
Episode 107 2 Samuel 5-6 David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem
Episode 106: Ruth 1:1-17 Ruth and Naomi
Episode 105: Deuteronomy 5 and 6 The 10 Commandments and the Shema
Episode 104: Exodus 3-5
Episode 103: Genesis 32
Episode 102: Genesis 18 and 21
Episode 101: Genesis 2:4-25
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