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 330 SPECIAL EPISODE The Gate and the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-18)
Episode 329 The Light of the World (John 9:1-41)
Episode 328 Living Water (John7:35-52)
Episode 327 The Bread of Life (John 6:35-69)
Episode 326 Two Healing Stories (John 4:46-5:18)
Episode 325 SPECIAL EPISODE Exodus and Interest Free Loans (Laura Kahn, JIFLA)
Episode 324 The Woman at the Well (John 4:1-42)
Episode 323 For God So Loved the World (John 3:1-21)
Episode 322 Disruption at the Temple (John2:13-25)
Episode 321 Water Into Wine (John 2:1-11)
Episode 320 Come and See! (John 1:35-51)
Episode 319 The Testimony of John the Baptist (John 1:19-34)
Episode 318 (REPLAY) Christmas Eve SPECIAL EPISODE (Luke 2:1-20)
Episode 317 In the Beginning Was the Word (John 1:1-18)
Episode 316 Come to the Waters (Isaiah 55:1-13)
Episode 315 The Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14)
Episode 314 Seek the Peace of the City (Jeremiah 29:1-14)
Episode 313 SPECIAL EPISODE The Old Testament for a Complex World (Dr. Cameron Howard)
Episode 312 Unto You A Child Is Born (Isaiah 9:1-7)
Episode 311 Let Justice Roll Down (Amos 1:1-2 and 5:14-24)
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