NOTES:
1] This is not about workplace practices, but God's Rule: topsy-turvy standards of generosity, & that the time to set to work for God is always now.

WARMING UP: How strongly do we really feel about fairness & unfairness?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

1-7       Have we ever thought of our discipleship as entering into an agreement with God to work for him in any way, specified or unspecified? Has Faith ever been presented to us in those kinds of terms? How early in our life did we begin 'working for God', or become conscious that God was calling us to work for him?

How do we feel about others coming on board later than us yet enjoying the same reward from God that we've had to work longer for? Or doesn't that bother us at all? What would be a fair reward for what we do for God?
            Have we ever had cause to complain that God hasn't treated us fairly, justly, as one of his loyal workers? Is there a difference between 'fair' & 'just'? If there is, how would we explain it? If the story (& it is a story, remember) is about the way God's Rule applies, how do we see it operating to our advantage? What about to our disadvantage? Do we think of ourself as having taken the initiative in 'going to work for God' as distinct from God taking the initiative & calling us to work?

8-16    Do we ever think of ourself as 'at God's mercy' for: i) our daily needs? ii) how we 'fill in our time' all day? iii) how fairly or unfairly we're treated during the course of a day, at work or anywhere else? Do we ever feel others are being treated better or worse than us? Should they be? Who or what determines that? Is it fair that God should treat all of us who 'work for him' as equals? Or should some be more equal than others? How do we feel about others in the church who seem to be treated as 'more equal' than us? Or doesn't that happen? If it does, whose responsibility is that? What about the reward for us & them at the 'end of the working day'? Will the parable apply? How?

How generous is God to us? If we made a list of God's characteristics, what would they be, & where would generosity rank on the list so far as we're concerned? If the last shall be first, & the first last, is there any point in doing anything at all about anything? For God or anyone else? Is this principle just some kind of divine joke or trick? Does it even apply in our case?

How much does time matter to God? Is time simply something we humans have invented to keep ourselves (or others!) busy? Is God 'bound' by time in any sense? If God isn't 'bound' by time, does that make more sense of the parable about workers being called at different times of day yet all still being paid the same wage at the end? Are we encouraged by that principle & what it might mean in our case, or a bit apprehensive? How much do we gain or lose by it?