Thanks to everyone who donated on behalf of our friend Dustin’s baby boy. Today I am settling up. In the interest of being transparent, here is what has been collected:

DRJ $100
Simon Jester $100
Colonel Klink $100
Leviticus $100
Patterico $100
Dave $50
whembly $50
Dana $25
JVW $25
felipe $25
Time123 $20
Paul Montagu $20
Kevin M $20

Total: $735

I have sent that amount to Dustin. Please let me know if I missed anyone or got anything wrong.

Thanks again. It’s great to feel like a community that can come together and help give a nice start for the life of someone close to us.

UPDATE: We have an anonymous donor who has pitched in an extra $20, bringing the total to $755. Thanks! Your message will be passed along, together with the moolah.

It is the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Today’s Bach cantata is “Nimm, was dein ist, und gehe hin” (Take what is yours and go away):

Today’s Gospel reading is Matthew 20:1-16:

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains these words:

Take what is yours and go away.

Do not grumble,
dear Christian,
when something you didn’t wish for happens;
rather be at peace with it,
with what your God has determined for you;
He knows what is good for you.

. . . .

Where contentment rules
and holds the tiller everywhere,
there a person is satisfied
with that which God brings about.
On the other hand, where discontent speaks its mind,
there grief and trouble appear,
one’s heart will not
content itself,
and this is not kept in mind:
what God does is well done.

. . . .

What my God wills always occurs,
His will is the best,
He is ready to help those
who believe firmly in Him.
He gives aid in need, this righteous God,
and punishes with measure.
Who trusts in God, relies upon Him firmly,
God will never abandon.

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.