It’s not fair. That’s how the workers feel in the parable Jesus tells about laborers in a vineyard.  The ones who worked all day were paid fairly for their work, but they were upset that others’ who worked less than a full day received more than fair payment. And the landowner doesn’t even try to hide what he’s done. He pays the ones who got there last – first! So those who came early and worked all day can see what everyone else – who worked less – earns, too. Whether they showed up at 5am or 5pm, whether they worked for 10 hours or 10 minutes, they were paid the same wage. That’s not how the world is supposed to work.  It’s not fair.

The laborers are right: this isn’t how the world works. But Jesus doesn’t tell us this parable about the world; he tells us this parable to describe the kingdom of heaven. God does not play by our rules of fairness. God is not worried about categories like “deserving” and “merit.”  Instead, out of deep and abiding love for each and every one of us, God makes sure we have what we need, regardless of what we’ve done – or left undone – to earn it.

God is God and we are not. We are human beings, obsessed with fairness just like our evolutionary ancestors. God, on the other hand, could care less about fairness. God is obsessed with showering love and grace and mercy upon us and this whole wide world, so that we might fulfill our purpose of loving God and one another as fully as God intended.

This sounds like good news until we realize who else receives God’s grace and mercy and love, too.

Like Jonah, who was angry at God for saving the Ninevites, we might be angry about who else is on the receiving end of God’s grace and mercy. But God is God and we are not. And God is going to be God, regardless of how we happen to feel about it.

And that is very good news. Because we humans don’t have a good track record of taking good care of one another or this world. But by the grace of and with the help of God, life and love will persist, no matter how we try to thwart it.