This week BibleWorm reads Matthew 20:1–16, often called the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, in which the kingdom of heaven is said to be like a landowner who pays the laborers a full day’s wage no matter how long they’ve worked. We wrestle with the abject unfairness of this wage system and empathize with the workers who have labored a long day in the hot sun. Yet we also marvel at the generosity of the vineyard owner, who gives everyone what they need for the day no matter how much work they’ve done. Maybe, we think, in the kingdom of heaven people are not rewarded for the labor they provide but rather receive what they need to live a full and abundant life. If we read ourselves as the landowners, this becomes a lesson on how we should conduct our own economic practices, not only paying fair wages but giving generously until everyone has enough. And if we read God as the landowner, then this becomes a parable about God’s radical and endless generosity that welcomes more and more people into the kingdom and treats us all as people of dignity and worth.
Episode 419 Christmas Eve Special Episode (Luke 2:1-20) REPLAY
Episode 418 Joseph’s Christmas Dream (Matthew 1:18-25)
Episode 417 SPECIAL EPISODE Biblical Women: Bathsheba (1 Kings 1)
Episode 416 Gentle Justice (Isaiah 42:1-9)
Episode 415 For a Time Such as This (Esther 4:1-17)
Episode 414 Wait for It Still (Habakkuk 1:1-7; 2:1-4; 3:3b-6, 17-19)
Episode 413 Swords into Plowshares (Isaiah 36:1-3, 13-20; 37:1-7; 2:1-4)
Episode 412 Micah’s Ideal Ruler (Micah 1:1-5; 5:2-5a; 6:6-8)
Episode 411 The Healing of Naaman (1 Kings 5:1-15)
Episode 410 SPECIAL EPISODE Biblical Women: Rahab (Joshua 2)
Episode 409 Solomon’s Wisdom (1 Kings 3:4-28)
Episode 408 Confronting David (2 Samuel 11:1-5, 26-27; 12:1-9; and Psalm 51:1-9)
Episode 407 Retelling the Story (Joshua 24:1-18)
Episode 406 SPECIAL EPISODE Biblical Women: Tamar (Genesis 38:1-26)
Episode 405 Living the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:1-8 and 21:1-21)
Episode 404 Crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 14:5-14, 21-29)
Episode 403 Joseph in Potiphar’s House (Genesis 39:1-23)
Episode 402 Go to Be a Blessing (Genesis 12:1-9)
Episode 401 From Destruction to Covenant (Genesis 6:5-22; 8:6-14; 9:8-17)
Episode 351The Poor Will Always Be with You (John 12:1-8)
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