The Grace Of God In My Neighbor

Jesus said to his disciples,

The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard.

He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day and sent them to his vineyard.

Going out at about the third hour,

He saw others idle in the marketplace and said to them,

You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage.

So they went at about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour he went out and did the same.

Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing around and he said to them,

Why have you been standing here idle all day?

Because no one has hired us,

They answered.

He said to them,

You go into my vineyard too.

In the evening,

The owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff,

Call the workers and pay them their wages,

Starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first.

So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each.

When the first came,

They expected to get more,

But they too received one denarius each.

They took it,

But grumbled at the landowner.

The men who came last,

They said,

Have only done one hour and you have treated them the same as us,

Though we have done a heavy day's work in all the heat.

He answered one of them and said,

My friend,

I am not being unjust to you.

Did we not agree on one denarius?

Take your earnings and go.

I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you.

Have I no right to do what I like with my own?

Why be envious because I am generous?

Thus the last will be first and the first last.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you,

Lord Jesus Christ.

What a fragile thing our ego is.

Always wanting to survive,

Sometimes,

Oftentimes at the cost of others.

Natural.

Human.

We are always,

Always looking around us.

Who's doing better than I am?

Who's happier than I am?

Who has more than I have?

Who is more at peace?

Who is doing better meditations?

Who gets to sit in meditation for longer than I do before their mind starts moving?

And who does this?

Who does that?

Who does that?

And it never stops looking for the competition that it needs to be better than.

So how fragile do you think this ego or the egos of the workers were not when they were paid the same?

The first workers,

When they were paid the same as those who came last.

How dare you?

How dare you?

God,

How dare my neighbor be happy and I am sad?

How dare they have fortune and I struggle?

How dare you do this?

I listen to you.

I am your child.

I am the one who lives perfectly and piously.

And yet they get what I deserve.

They get what I want and what I yearn for.

How dare you,

God?

We get so stuck on looking beside us and looking around us at what other people get and what they do and what they have and how they are blessed that we don't spend our time with what is important.

That is our unity with God.

There's no rule book that says if you do this,

Then that will happen.

If you prayed this prayer,

Then you will have so much money in the bank.

If you say this to me and if you offer this offering,

Then that person will love you.

It doesn't work that way.

God has other plans.

Let me read again.

The whole first reading.

Isaiah 55 verse 6 to 9 says,

Seek the Lord while he is still to be found.

Call him when he is still near.

Let the wicked man abandon his way,

The evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn back to the Lord who will take pity on him,

To our God who is rich and forgiving.

Then,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts.

My ways are not your ways.

It is the Lord who speaks.

Yes,

The heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways.

My thoughts above your thoughts.

Yes,

The ego is fragile.

Yes,

The ego has quite a bit of power over us.

Remember,

Ego is there to keep this alive,

To keep the mirage alive that we are separate.

This body that we are in is driven by the ego because the ego is there to keep you alive.

And what am I?

I am here in a body remembering or forgetting that I'm part of the whole.

I am part of something that I cannot truly connect to because that is my lesson.

And so when we look at each other,

Why can't we just take a moment and say,

Good for you.

And it's going to sound very facetious now,

But good for you,

God.

Thank you for blessing my neighbor.

Thank you for blessing my enemy.

Because it means that you bless.

Thank you for blessing me.

Make me see your way.

Rather than going around with this mopey face,

Like woe is me.

Woe is me.

Then at least be like Eeyore and say,

I'm fine.

Because that's all we can be sometimes is just be fine.

But if we take a moment to stop looking around and we take a moment to enter the silence,

That part where the ego doesn't go into,

That part where we connect with divinity,

The space between breaths,

We see that all our worries,

All our fears,

All of our joys are part of a much bigger story.

It's part of a journey of love and a destination that we cannot fathom.

But it is beautiful and it is good.

And each of us deserves that.

And each of us get there one day through grace.

Because no matter how hard we work and no matter how hard we try,

We cannot.

And this guys as human beings ever deserve our wages.

I,

No matter how hard I work,

Do not deserve the grace of God.

So who am I then to judge God's grace on other people?

And when we can reach that point and we can start living in joy and just this quiet Thanksgiving,

I can look at my friend,

I can look at my neighbor and I can say,

Bless you for the grace of God in you.

Amen.