He got up early in the morning to go to the Town Square to look for work. Many of his days were spent waiting, waiting for someone to offer him any kind of job. Several years ago he had lost the land that he had inherited from his father who had inherited from his father before him. He lost the land because a debt he had got out of control. Now he had nothing. Now, he was the lowest of the lowest. Because he had lost the family farm, he had lost contact with his family and so he had no way of supporting himself other than to be hired out as a labourer. If he didn't work, he didn't eat. And so he got up early that morning to see if anyone would take him.

Owners came by throughout the day, but he wasn't the biggest looking or the strongest looking and so others were picked. And so he waited and waited. He waited in the street until the day had nearly ended. By that point he knew that whatever work he might get would not be enough to feed him that evening, for it took more than a few hours of work to earn enough to feed oneself. Finally, a gentleman, who was hiring, stopped and the man was hired. Desperate and hungry he went into the field to work. He even forgot to ask how much he was to be paid. At this point it didn't matter as long as he was doing something. An hour later the sun was down and people were lining up to get their wage.

Then, a funny thing happened. The vineyard owner's foreman called all the workers together. He paid the people who were hired last, first. And, he paid them the usual daily wage. This was a great and wonderful surprise. This was more than he had expected since he only worked in the vineyard for a couple of hours. He couldn't believe his fortune. He would be eating that evening.

Oh, how the others, who had worked all day, grumped and complained when they too were paid the same wage as he. But they knew that they would be eating tonight. And all day, he was not sure he would be. Don't we all deserve to eat?

Because this parable begins by comparing the kingdom of heaven and the landowner, we suspect initially that this is in some way a story about God. But as we listen to the story, we wonder what kind of God is lurking in the words of Jesus. The owner of the vineyard deals fairly with one group, paying them exactly what they bargained for after twelve, hard, hot hours in the fields, but then he turns around and gives exactly the same pay to those who put in only one cool evening hour's effort. All the logic or rationalization in the world does not remove the offense of this parable.

Perhaps what bothers us most about his parable is the bizarre combination of fairness and generosity -a combination that seems unfair. It is the inconsistency that troubles us, and if we are honest, we understand the complaints of the all-day workers better than the actions of the owner.

The parable begins, "The Kingdom of God is like this...." Like what? A confused old businessman who pays everyone the same regardless of how much they work? The next day no one would want to start work at daybreak. Ok, ok so Jesus is talking theology not economics, but the story is still offensive. In this parable we seem to be looking at both bad business and, at best, peculiar religion.

Why is this parable offensive? Everyone in this story is rewarded and we are offended! No one gets hurt, everyone is paid. Everyone gets to eat.

This parable is traditionally interpreted to be a lesson about who gets into heaven. Traditionally the parable is understood to tell us that if one comes to the Lord in the final hour of their life they still reap all the benefits of salvation. Those who come to the Lord late in life are treated equal to those who work their lives in the church and for the church. This is the traditional understanding of this parable. Today, I am going to introduce a completely new understanding of this parable. For this parable is not about going to heaven, it is not about the after life. This parable is about God's love for us. This parable is about God's unconditional love for us. Actually, this story has the same point as the prodigal son. This is the prodigal son in the work place.

We could retell the parable of the vineyard owner as a parent.

The Kingdom of God is like this. It is a like a father who gave each of his teenage children the same amount of allowance each week. He gave them all the same allowances, even though the oldest consistently brought home marks that were in the 90s. The middle child competed in track and field and often won metals. But the youngest was neither good in academics nor sports. He was just an average student and an average guy. Yet, they all received the same allowance.

Are we offended at this retelling of the parable? Or now, is it easier to understand because the unwise business dealings of the landowner do not get in the way of our hearing its original message.

You see, the ancient listeners of this parable were peasants who lived in a client/patron society. Without going into too much detail about this system, basically a client was someone who was of lower status and wealth than the patron. The patron was wealthy and of higher status. The patron protected and provided for the client and his family. In return the client would do any service that was required by the patron. The client would relate to the patron as a superior and the patron would understand the client to be a dependent. The more clients a patron had, the more status. The client/ patron relationship was an ongoing relationship and could last generations.

And so our original listeners would have understood this story to be about God, the great patron who took very good care of his clients, better care than could be expected. This parable presents God as the great and generous patron who loves, protects and provides for all in need.

God loves us unconditionally. God provides for us and protects us, unconditionally. This story asks to see everyone around us as brothers and sisters, who get the same unconditional love and protection from God the father.

A wise mother of several children was once asked how she had raised them. "Do you love each one equally? Do you treat each one the same as all the others?"

"I loved all of them, loved them greatly," she said, "but I never wanted to love them equally. I loved the one that was down until he got up. I loved the one who was weak until she was strong. I loved the one that was hurt until he was healed. I loved the one who was lost until she was found."

We need not be jealous of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are loved unconditionally by God regardless of their work or achievements. Praise God who is the great provider of unconditional love. Praise God who cares for us and protects us all. Amen.

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The central event of the Old Testament is the freeing of the Israelites from slavery under the Egyptians. This event is the most important event to ancient and modern Jews. For in this liberating story, God is revealed to be a liberating God who saves people. Throughout the Old Testament this story is mentioned again and again to remind the people of who God is.

At this point in the Israelite's journey, Moses and the tribe have escaped slavery by walking through the parted waters of the Red Sea and have been wandering in the desert. God has feed them by sending quails, bread from heaven and has turned contaminated water into potable water. Now they have stopped wandering in the desert to stay awhile at the base of mount Sinai. Here at the base of the mountain, the children of Israel receive revelation through laws that are meant to direct their worship and their communal life.

The Ten Commandments is the first of many legal codes that will be unveiled at Mount Sinai.

After warning the people not to climb the mountain to see God, Moses ascends to the top of Mount Sinai and receives the Ten Commandments from God. God dictated them.

This passage is one place where God's saving action is again retold (as it is often throughout the Old Testament.)

"Then God spoke these words, 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me."

And the next 9 laws are revealed.

In the book, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FROM THE BACKSIDE author Ellsworth Kalas's rewrites these Ten Commandments. He restates them and moves them from the negative to the positive. (Please follow along in your Bible.

1. God shall have all of you.
2. You shall adore the mystery that is beyond comprehension.
3. You shall enter into God's name.
4. The Sabbath will keep you.
5. You shall accept the blessing of the past so that you can have a future.
6. You shall embrace life.
7. You shall cherish the sacredness in you and your mate.
8. You shall become a larger person.
9. You shall bless and be blessed by the truth.
10. You shall rejoice in your neighbor's having.

I hate rules. Jesus came to tell us that rules were not the way to Heaven. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus often argued with the Pharisees and Sadducees. These religious and political leaders taught the people to follow the Jewish religious law. Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees with passages from the Old Testament. Jesus did not see the Old Testament as a rulebook. Jesus came to fulfill the law, not to do away with it. Rather Jesus came to make the law complete and to help us understand the freedom in it rather than be slaves to it. The Ten Commandments are not rules meant to restrict and constrict us, but rather they provide a structure in which we find freedom and richness of life. The rules are for our benefit and help us to live rich and fulfilling lives. We are not slaves to the rules.

In her book, Marks of the Maker, Jan Bush writes about the rules that everyone in her family had to adhere to while at the family cottage. She writes that the number one rules around her summer place when she was a child was "Never, never, never go into the woods alone. You can get lost in the bush, her parents explained.

Though she, like myself, does not have a lot of patience for rules generally, she still respected the rules of the cottage as if they were law.

Jan's family developed the Ten Bush Commandments out of sheer necessity. And they went something like this:
1. Thou shalt not go into the bush alone.
2. Thou shalt not go anywhere off the trail without a compass and a whistle.
3. Thou shalt not use the canoe without a life jacket.
4. Thou shalt not canoe with only one paddle, lest thou should lose the first.

And so on, you get the basic idea. These rules that Jan's parents had developed for the family were basically safety rules. Her parents were aware of the dangers of the woods and the lake and concerned with the well being of their family and so they developed the Ten Bush Commandments.

In addition to Thou shalt not go into the bush alone, were supplemental rules. They went like this:
1. Thou shalt not go into the bush alone. But if thou does, thou shalt stay within shouting distance of the house, or one of the two log cabins, if occupied.
2. If thou should get beyond shouting distance of the house, thou shalt stay on the trails. They all come out somewhere and they all lead home.
3. But if thou should go off the trail and get disoriented, thou shalt check by the compass where thou art and head back to the house.
4. If thou hast not thy compass, then thou shalt use the sun to determine north, south, east, west, to figure out where thou art and head back to the house.
5. If it be too dull to locate precisely where the sun is, thou shalt listen for trucks. Sooner or later one will go by and if thou should walk in that direction, thou shall surely find the road, to follow it home.

One day Jan had occasion to test all these rules at once. She admits, now, her stupidity. She walked into the woods alone, gathering firewood, and went off the well-marked trail, without a whistle or a compass or a watch on a cloudy day. And she got lost. For the longest time she walked, thinking she knew where she was going but just getting more and more disoriented. When Jan realized she had no idea where she was, she sat down on a fallen log and panicked. No one else was on the property. There were no neighbors anywhere near where she was walking, so hollering was useless. She couldn't tell where the sun was, and without her watch she had no idea whether it was morning or afternoon.

To calm herself, Jan went through the Bush supplemental rules. She figured that the best she could do now, having gotten into this mess, was to wait and listen for a truck on the road, and curse her stupidity. What seemed like hours later, a truck lumbered by at a distance. She visually plotted a course in that direction and walked carefully out toward the road - right through thorn bushes and raspberry cane so as not to lose her way again. And probably in penance. Finally, thankfully, she found the road, but because she could hear another truck coming, she resisted the urge to get down on her knees and kiss the gravel. Jan had gotten onto the next property and still had a fair distance to get home. But she did get home.

She realized then that perhaps the purpose of all rules or laws is to get us safely home. And perhaps the reason why there are 613 laws in the Hebrew Scriptures is to help the poor disoriented soul who has broken any of the original ten, get home again. That day in the bush Jan Bush had her first real lesson in law as a means of grace.

Praise God, who like a good parent, cares about our safety and security. Praise God, who life a good parent gives us structure and guidance so that we may live safe and rich lives. Praise God who gives us the grace of the Ten Commandments. Amen.

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When I was 16 years old, my sister left home to work for a summer at the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Beddeck, Nova Scotia. I grew up in New Glasgow which is on the mainland, Beddeck is in Cape Breton and because it is on that island, the culture of that town is different from my hometown. My sister was 19 and up until the point had only been to one wedding. But, the week she arrive in Beddeck she was invited to a wedding. She was sitting in a coffee shop by herself when a truck full of young men and women burst into the restaurant to invite everyone to the dance. She didn't know the couple, she didn't know anyone in town, but she was invited. Come, everyone in town is invited to the dance and to celebrate this wedding.

Every community has its own culture around weddings. Here in St. Paul and Ashmont it is common for people to come to the dinner and dance but not come to the actual wedding ceremony. This would be unheard of in my hometown, where it is common for many people to come to the church but not be invited to the dinner and dance. And in Beddeck, Cape Breton the whole town is invited to the dance.

In ancient Palestine, meals were more complicated than anything we know today.

In our gospel lesson this morning, the King plans a wedding banquet for his son. He sends out invitations for people to come. But they do not come so he invites them again. This time the people give lame excuses. They do not want to come. Some people even kill the messengers that brought the invitation. What is going on in this passage?

First, meals in ancient times were ceremonies. Ceremonies were regular, predictable events in which roles and status in a community were affirmed or legitimated. This means that the status that one held in the community was affirmed during the ceremony of the meal. An example of this is someone who would be at the top of the social ladder would have a special place to sit at the table, which would reflect his/her place in society.

It was important to know who was sitting beside whom and who was eating at what table and because when people ate together that implied that they shared a common set of ideas and values, and frequently a common social position. And so it was important to know who was eating with whom, how the food would be prepared, and what conversation would be appropriate etc. Answering such questions would tell the guests which social relations the meal would affirm.

And so it was common to send out double invitations, which is what happens in this story. By the time the second invitation came, one who know who was attending the banquet. If the right people were coming, all would come. But if the right people stayed away, others would give trivial excuses not to come. And we see this happening in this parable.

The second time the slaves go out to invite the wedding guests they make light of the banquet and find lame excuses not to come.

So the King tries a third time to have people to come to the banquet but this time he sends his slaves out to the street. "Go into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet." He told his slaves. And they gathered all that they found, both the good and the bad. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

The fact that people off the street are invited, emphasizes the inclusive nature of the Kingdom of God and the church witnesses to the kingdom. In the church everyone is welcome. For the early Christian to have communion with people of different social status was a radical, radical thing to do. It was an act of tremendous faith because the elite risked being cut off by family and social networks if they were seen in public eating with people of a lower rank. Even if that person was a fellow Christian, they risked being cut off.

Two thousand years later, how inclusive are we?

A United church congregation in Ontario often organized potluck suppers. One gentleman always attended their dinners. He wasn't a member of the congregation. He just appeared, laughed, talked, ate and left. And every time they had a potluck, he would come. One evening, a small group of people from the congregation were sitting together at a table and were quite annoyed at this man for coming in and eating their food. One woman in the group, Linda was appalled with the attitude of the people around the table but she sat and said nothing. Finally, someone else got up and sat with the man. He was simply a lonely person. He wasn't poor. He didn't need the meal. He just needed to be with people.

"Go into the streets," the King ordered, "And invite everyone you find. Gather the good and the bad and fill the wedding hall." That is what we are called to do. Really, the church is the only cooperative society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members as much as for it members.

Many people within and without of the church view the church as a place where people of high moral standards come together to reaffirm their common values and morals. However, this passage tells us that the kingdom of God and the church as its witness, is a place where people with different values and morals can come together to worship the same God. Can come together to share a meal and break bread.

This parable was shocking to its original listeners 2000 years ago. This parable is still shocking today because even today we couldn't image only inviting street people to our wedding banquet. We certainly couldn't image Prince Charles and Diana only inviting street people to their wedding. Or Wayne and Janet Gretzky for that matter.

So, this parable is challenging us today to go out into the street and invite people to come in and break bread with us.

But this is not the end of the story. But, there is a BUT. The king spots a man without his wedding robe on and throws him out on to the street.

Perhaps some of you know about Old Testament regulations around food. There were many rules around eating. Ancient Jews would not eat with unclean people. But, if they were invited to a banquet such a person would be required to put on a ritually clean garment. The clean garment would be provided for the guest by the host.

And so in this parable the King would have proper garments ready for the unclean that were invited to the banquet. Yet the king spots a person who does not put on the garments provided. This action would shame the king and in an honour shame society, this would have been a great insult. The result is that the improperly dressed man is shamed himself, by being thrown out into the darkness by the attendants.

And so the church doors are open to anyone. Everyone is invited to come and share the meal, celebrate the kingdom of love and equality. But, there is a BUT. But, there are times when we would ask someone to leave this church. If someone came into the sanctuary and was disrespectful, if someone who was raging drunk we would ask them to leave. The second part of the parable points to the sincerity required in the kingdom of God. That wedding guest accepted the invitation, but he wasn't sincere and tried to shame the King. This is not acceptable.

The kingdom of God and the church is open and available to everyone - everyone regardless of social status or values or race. We just need to accept the invitation. Praise God who gives us the gift of the heavenly banquet, welcomes us and accepts us. Amen.

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