August 27, 2008 + A lesson for today's employers + Hayward Fong

Matthew 19:27-30; 20:1-16

In a few days, we will observe a national holiday set aside to honor our working people – Labor Day. I can recall when the day called for parades and speeches in behalf of the labor movement. Today, you can hardly find any evidence of the reason for the holiday. It has become another three day weekend with barbeques and trips to the beach or one of the major amusement parks. AAA believes that trips will be shorter this year because of the price of gasoline but the number of trips will be about normal for a three day holiday weekend. Labor Day marks the end of summer for the school age children, except for those on a year-round schedule. Though our society has essentially ignored the labor movement, when something like a major strike hits our community, we feel the impact both directly and indirectly.

It was only a couple a years ago that our community was hit with a rolling strike by Union Local 660 in support of hotel employees, adversely impacting the entire travel/tourist industry, a major source of our state’s economy. And there has been a major demonstration by a half-million people in support of the numerous employees in transportation, hotel, restaurant and other service industries, which literally brought the community to a halt.

Something else hit the headlines of our newspapers this past week. Los Angeles Times investigators reported that Tyrone Freeman, the president of the 160,000 member Local of the powerful Service Employees International Union, had been engaged in questionable financial practices involving payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms and charities owned or operated by his relatives, money paid to the Local by its membership in the form of dues. The president stepped down while the national office was investigating the charges and at the same time all the local officers were removed and the Local placed under a trusteeship. The Local, United Long Term Care Workers, is made up mostly of people who make about $9 an hour tending to patients in their residences and in nursing homes.

This type of alleged conduct by labor leaders tears down the best effort of people who are striving to improve working conditions for those least able to help themselves. Corruption has no class distinction. It has permeated all segments of our society like a cancer.

Mega corporate profits in the oil industry is creating a crisis of unimaginable proportions from the farm land to heavy industry. On a national basis, the airlines are facing a recession. They are increasing fares and eliminating “freebies”to offset the increase cost of fuel. This in turn has reduced dramatically passenger ridership, fewer flights, loss of jobs, corporate bankruptcy.

In the political arena, the two major political parties are facing budget deficits that seem to have no solution. They are playing a “shell game” with the public by hiding the cost of the war in the Middle East and borrowing from the Social Security fund with paper IOUs that may never be redeemed. Instead of facing the reality of the IOUs all the proposed solutions end up putting the liability on the backs of hourly wage earners. Low wages are at the heart of the illegal immigration issue, though corporate America with elected officials tied to their coattails refuse to acknowledge this.

Strikes hurt all segments of society. In government, social services, transportation, public works, public health, the judicial system, public safety to name but a few areas are affected when strikes take place, not only in the public sector but the private sector as well. Locally, we have been fortunate in not having any protracted periods of labor strife. This may be attributable in part to the decline in our economic situation, notwithstanding the glowing reports that have emanated from the White House even as inflation has poked its nose into the family budget.

This parable as told by Jesus reminds us that labor issues are not the product of an industrial revolution peculiar to our present day society, but has been with us for centuries.

Back in the days of the parable, hired hands were always engaged by the day and paid at day’s end. The Jewish law is very precise in this respect and is set forth in Leviticus 19:13 and Deuteronomy 24:15. Hired hands, or as we refer to them today, day laborers, lived on the edge of destitution and the Jewish law provided for the safeguarding of their rights.

In Palestine fig trees were often planted among the vines to hedge against a poor grape harvest brought about by September rains. There, as in other places where grapes are a major crop, all available men are pressed into service to harvest the crop. So, if there is a threat of rain, it is possible that an owner would employ someone as late as 5 o’clock in the evening to save a harvest. The denarius was a normal day’s pay for the working man. But why was the man who had worked all day paid the same amount as the man who only worked one hour? That doesn’t seem fair! If that happened today, there would be a union representative knocking at the door of management.

Different meanings have been attached to this parable. It has been suggested that quality and not quantity counts. That is true, but there is nothing in the parable to suggest that the last man employed was better than the first, though in Jewish teachings, the importance of quality is a common lesson. Whether it applies here or not, it is nevertheless an important lesson. A small piece of work done with care may indeed be worth more than a greater amount of work done in a haphazard manner. We measure literature and music by quality and not by the numbers written or composed.

It is possible that this parable carried a message of rebuke to the Jews, who had always regarded themselves as the chosen people of God and as such entitled to special privileges. Now we have this Jesus carrying the message that these privileges are open to Gentiles as well and that the Jewish precept of God as a Judge, a Task-master, a Law-giver, overlooks His most important role that of a loving Father. A father doesn’t love his oldest more than his youngest. All members of his family are loved equally because they are all his sons and daughter. So in like manner, all God’s children are equally dear in His sight. There is no distinction in the love of God.

Other truths, as modern as today’s economics, pop out of this parable. The first is the right of every person to gainful employment. In those days, it was the custom for men to come to the village square and stand there until someone hired him. In this parable, the master came at various hours of the day and made hires. At 5 o’clock he found men still standing there waiting for someone to hire them. No one had given them any work to do. If they didn’t get hired, they would have to go home to a hungry family. Doesn’t that paint a similar picture we find around Los Angeles? Go down to La Brea and Pico or the Home Depot on Sunset west of Western and you will see people standing on the sidewalk hailing passing autos hoping that someone is looking for a day laborer.

Perhaps it was the owner’s compassion that led him to make the hires, or it may have been a real last minute need to get the grapes harvested.

The second economic point is the right of every man to a living wage. The master might be justified to cut the wage of the late hires, but he knew full well that were he to do so, there would be some hungry homes that night. So, perhaps recognizing the plight of the late-comers, he paid them a full day’s wages.

This parable points out Jesus’ concern with the nitty-gritty of life. He did not bring a theology that had it head in the clouds. This is a most important message to our Christian society. We cannot stand by idly with too much when others have so little.

Everything aside, the key point of this parable is that it is in the spirit in which work is done which makes the difference. Let us look at the hiring episodes in their context. The details of the hirings take place right after Peter says to Jesus, “Master, we have left everything and followed you,” and then quite bluntly added, “What do we get out of it?”

We are told that the first hires came to an agreement with the master. I doubt that they had a union rep at the negotiations, but the spirit was pretty much, “We’ll work if you pay us so much.” In the case of the later hires, there were no such negotiations, merely that the master would pay as he deemed right. As to the last hires, there were no protests; they were happy to get the job. Their feelings would be characterized as, “I need work – pay me what you will.” I’m sure that all of us have experienced people whose attitudes characterize these three groups of hires.

There are two real motives for work. One is service of our fellow men. The other is service to God. God wants people to be happy and healthy. Any task which is useful to the world is done for God … the doctor, the nurse, the farmer, the baker, the tailor, the delivery man, the janitor, the gas station attendant, the homemaker, the school teacher. When we see it that way, a new thrill will enter the work; we will work not merely for pay, but for men and God; and the reward we will get in the end will be beyond price.