David Bahn – Reflections

Will it ever be put right? Will justice ever be served? Sometimes those questions loom large. Perhaps it is in the heat of the day, and payday seems too far away, and too
little reward. Sometimes it is in the idle moments of waiting, and the opportunity for productivity is nowhere in sight. Seldom does one go a whole lifetime without struggling with these discouragements.

In the face of those realities God calls us to work in his vineyard. And if you will hear him, he is calling you right now. Will we stand idly in the waiting room of
life, wishing for something more exciting and jazzy? Or will we heed his call and serve him as we have the opportunity? The only way such service becomes the rich and full experience our souls desire is for us to realize that God’s call is God’s call.

God calls us to work in his kingdom by means of a life of humility, compassion, and faithfulness. Whether that call comes early or late; whether it seems simply better than standing idly by; or whether it stretches you beyond your comfort zone, service in God’s kingdom is more rich and fulfilling than any life of ease or luxury. It simply takes faith to understand that. Such faith in the goodness of God, and the loving mercy of Jesus Christ will lead us to live as God requires.

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Matthew 20:1-16

[Jesus says,] “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ²After agreeing with the laborers for a
denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ ⁵So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ⁶And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ ⁷They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ ⁸And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’

⁹And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. ¹⁰Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, ¹²saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ ¹³But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?  ¹⁴Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my
generosity?’ ¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first last.”