essential message: Tis isn’t fair! Te early workers’ problem is
not that they were cheated out of the amount they negotiated. Teir protest is that latecomers should have received less.
Everyone belongs In the context of the first century when Jesus told this parable, mention of a vine or vineyard was understood to be a reference to God’s people. When Jesus invites the “last” to enter the vineyard, he is welcoming every- one to enter the kingdom, including poor people excluded from partici- pating in the life of the community. Because everyone belongs. Te parable challenges our
assumptions that human dignity and worth are based on a system of merit or what we do. While we may assume that what we earn is owed to us, that it’s ours because we did it, the larger truth is that God did it—on the cross. Just so, Jesus’ message is quite clear: “I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” (Matthew 20:14-15). God decides who is included. God invites all into the kingdom and treats all equally. U.S. labor laws don’t protect
migrant agricultural workers, whether they are children or adults. If we purchase our blueberries at Wal-Mart, Kroger, Meijer or other grocery corporations, we support— perhaps inadvertently—a food sys- tem subsidized through immigrant labor. Our grocery chains are doing what we ask them to do: deliver the best products at the lowest prices. Terefore, the question is not
the role that our corporations play, but the role we play. How do we balance the resources of all the institutions and all the people involved in economic transactions
such as food purchases? Inexpensive fresh fruit is but one
instance of the benefits we home- grown Americans—those born in the U.S. into a circumstance of privilege—enjoy at relatively low cost because of reduced wages paid to migrant workers. Tese workers not only harvest farm produce such as blueberries and other fruits and vegetables, they also work for major agribusinesses, among them, meat- packing plants, and grain and milling operations. Much of the food in our grocery
carts and on our dinner tables would be more expensive if we were to pay wages to migrant workers commen- surate with earnings we assume for our own labor. Some people argue that migrant
workers take our jobs. Some worry that they present a cultural threat to the traditional American way of life and reduce social cohesion. Others go so far as to use language
that migrant workers experience as demeaning, such as foreigners, illegal aliens, interlopers, welfare scroungers and worse. We know such language is meant to diminish the dignity of people who accept employment opportunities that U.S. citizens decline. How can we quietly listen to it if we believe that migrant workers are people created in the image of God whom we worship every Sunday morning? As we celebrate the Lord’s Sup-
per and share the body and blood of Christ, our prayers can include a commitment to support the good of the people whose hands harvest the bread and the wine we receive. For Jesus’ parable calls us through our baptisms to participate in the inbreaking of the kingdom: to ponder, to imagine, to invite in, to stand up for, to vote, and to advo- cate on behalf of our neighbors in
real and radical ways. Let’s all sit down at the table
together.
Author bio: Lee is director of adult educa- tion at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Bainbridge, Ohio. She is a former affiliated faculty member of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio,
and currently teaches at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio.
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