The Gracious Vineyard
“You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
For some reason, Dutch artists of the mid-17th C seem to have had a special fascination with the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, which we read in this week's Scripture lessons (Proper 20A). This painting of Salomon Koninck (~1648) is after a similar image by Rembrandt (~1637). Equally iconic is Jacob Willemszoon de Wet's depiction from around the same timeframe which -- while it is clearly different in its approach -- is similar in terms of how it arranges the scene.
Any visual representation of the parable has to reckon with the challenge of compressing a lot of narrative and characterological data into a single image. The parable features three main characters (the master of the vineyard, his foreman, and the plural character of "workers"), and -- insofar as multiple workers are hired early in the morning, and then at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours -- this makes for a total of not less than twelve characters in all. Every painting of this story is thus necessarily quite "busy" -- from the 11th C Codex Aureus Epternacensis (folio 76F) to James Janknegt's contemporary triptych.
Striking about the Dutch images like Koninck's is the particular moment in the narrative it chooses to portray. What we see is the moment when the laborers who worked the full day confront the master of the vineyard about their feelings of being slighted. The Master sits at the head of the table, wearing a fancy white hat and fully illuminated by the ample windows at his back. His foreman and noble friends sit with him, bemused at the interaction unfolding before them. Meanwhile, a couple of the latecomers exit the scene with an extraordinary joy: clearly they are scarcely able to believe their good fortune. Another figure bows low to the ground: too humble to observe what is unfolding around him.
It is fascinating how both the Master and his accusers stand in the center of this action, fully illuminated by the light streaming in from outside. This illumination becomes a metaphor for the divine light of grace that shines upon all, regardless of their merits. The spectacle on display here is that of God's seemingly unjust generosity: His startling willingness to reward slackers and latecomers according to the riches of His grace, and not according to the extent of their deserving. Paradoxically, the glory is the grace, which is illuminated by the controversy, rather than suppressed by it. Contemplating this image, we are challenged to reorient our sense of justice around this extraordinary magnanimity of God, which breaks our sense of human fairness and opens us to new ways of seeing and thinking.
The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
— Psalm 145:9
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
O Lord, you have taught us that without love, all our deeds are worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you; grant this for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Servant Song
Fr. Cyprian and Br. James of the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, CA sing this classic anthem of Richard Gillard of 1970s renewal in Anglican and Catholic circles. The hymn opens by expressing desire to be God's servant to comfort and support fellow believers. This echoes the landowner's plea in the Gospel parable, "Why do you stand here idle all day?" We are invited to work in service of the Lord who Himself served.
The chorus captures both the effort and reward of this service: "We are travellers on a journey, fellow pilgrims on the road / We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load." This reminds us we all labor together in God's vineyard, regardless of when we began our journey of faith. This
Yet the hymn recognizes the servitude is not drudgery but rather an act of love: "I will hold the Christ-light for you in the nighttime of your fear / I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear." We minister to one another as God has comforted us, in a spirit of care an mutuality.
And though we are many voices and various faces, God calls all to work in His vineyard, making us one as the Body of Christ. As another hymn prays, “Bind us together, Lord, bind us together with cords that cannot be broken.”
Like the psalmist, the hymn writer praises God for being good and merciful to all. We rest in His grace, which allows us to serve freely and generously. In this, the hymn beautifully complements the biblical themes for this week.
From a Homily of John Chrysostom
Oh, the spirit of Paul! There was never anything like it, nor will there ever be! You fear the future. You are surrounded by countless terrors. Yet will you not be with Christ? No, Paul answers. It is for Christ's sake that I remain here - so I may make those I have won for Him into more loving servants. So I may make the plot I have planted bear much fruit (1 Cor 3:9). Did you not hear me say I do not seek my own good (1 Cor 10:33) but my neighbor's? Did you not hear these words: "I could wish to be cut off from Christ if it would save others" (Rom 9:3)? I who chose that path, will I not gladly choose this too? Will I not gladly harm myself a little longer if it means more may be saved?
Who can utter all your mighty acts, O Lord (Ps 106:2)? You did not let Paul remain hidden but revealed such a man to the world. All the angels praised you as one when you made the stars (Job 38:7). So too when you made the sun. But even more so when you revealed Paul to the whole earth! By this, the earth was made brighter than the heavens. For Paul shines brighter than the sun. He has cast more brilliant rays of light. He has poured out more joyful beams.
What fruit has this man born for us - not by making grain grow or nurturing our vineyards. But by producing and perfecting the fruit of holiness. When people fell into sin, he called them back - people decayed in every way. The sun itself can't restore decayed fruit. But Paul called people out of their sins no matter how deep. Nothing ever conquered Paul. Nothing mastered him. The sun sinks down but Paul rose up from earth and filled heaven and earth with light. The angels rejoiced exceedingly at his every word.
If there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7), imagine the joy when Paul brought multitudes to God at his first preaching! The heavenly powers must have leapt for joy. To just hear Paul's name is to make the heavens exult. When Israel left Egypt, the mountains danced like rams (Ps 114:4). So how great was the joy when Paul brought people from earth to heaven!
