In recent weeks, we’ve focused on the foundations of our life TOGETHER with Jesus . . . love and forgiveness. Through Jesus, we learn just how much God loves us, and in his death and resurrection, we see how far God’s desire to forgive us will go. Love and forgiveness serve as the sure foundation on which our faith and discipleship is built.

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus shares another parable that reveals the ways that we humans have a way of taking the love and forgiveness that we have received and building upon this solid foundation walls that divide and separate. When workers who labor all day for the expected and agreed upon wage complain, “you have made them equal to us” they are constructing a wall between themselves and the workers who labored for few hours. Their allegiance is to a story that they’ve bought into that says our worth is earned.

But Jesus isn’t telling a parable to explain how the world works. He’s telling us how God’s kingdom works. Jesus challenges our allegiance to human ways of beings and focuses instead of God’s generosity and goodness. In this, Jesus dismantles the walls we build to separate and divide, and builds a bridge between us that reminds us that we’re in this TOGETHER.

We are so often content to build walls of maintaining power and control and wealth. Prioritizing our own contributions and efforts while neglecting the needs of others. Creating a hierarchy where some are more important or more valuable than others and ultimately creating a division between “us” and “them.”

Jesus dismantles the walls we build with love and by challenging our assumptions with radical welcome of people we’ve deemed undeserving and with an expansive vision of a world shaped by grace and generosity!

With abundant grace and full measure of the Holy Spirit, God is Building Lasting Community that follows Jesus with us and through us. A sign to the world that we’re in this . . . TOGETHER!