Sunday Music: Bach Cantata BWV 144
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.
Thank you for continuing to do these posts, Patterico! I appreciate every opportunity to spend more time with the Lord.
felipe (023cc9) — 9/20/2020 @ 4:32 amAlas! Our pastor, who is a Jesuit, turned today’s Gospel reading into a political speech, arguing that capitalism holds that the men who worked longer should have been paid more, but that today’s reading is a lesson on a “living wage,” that the government should be the ultimate employer, that everyone should be given a job and that living wage.
I have contemplated complaining to the Bishop, but he’s as leftist as our pastor.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/20/2020 @ 10:38 amA true capitalist, such as Thomas Sowell, would say that labor is a commodity, and as it became scarcer as the day went on, due to increased employment (the irony, eh?), its price went up like any other commodity’s, so that where your dinar could buy a day’s worth in the morning, it could only buy an hour of it in late afternoon.
I suspect that The Good Thief could tell us the real meaning, but what do I know?
nk (1d9030) — 9/20/2020 @ 11:57 am“The early bird gets the same number of worms”
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 9/20/2020 @ 2:49 pmDana in Kentucky:
Yikes.
Patterico (115b1f) — 9/20/2020 @ 3:04 pmDana in Kentucky,
It’s much easier to parrot propaganda of popular politics than to do the hard word of trying to glean an understanding of the mysteries of Christ and lead the flock to a deeper, more transformative relationship with a risen Savior. In light of the Divine, politics is little more than child’s play of the earthly kind.
Dana (292df6) — 9/20/2020 @ 3:11 pmAlas! Our pastor, who is a Jesuit, turned today’s Gospel reading into a political speech, arguing that capitalism holds that the men who worked longer should have been paid more, but that today’s reading is a lesson on a “living wage,” that the government should be the ultimate employer, that everyone should be given a job and that living wage.
Oh for (quite literally) Heaven’s sake! I would still complain to your Bishop, and I might also even find out your pastor’s seminary and (quite unliterally) raise Hell with them. Did no one ever teach your pastor to render unto Ceasar that which is Caesar’s, and render unto God that which is God’s?
Your Bishop is John Stowe, isn’t it? Ugh.
JVW (ee64e4) — 9/20/2020 @ 3:18 pmI am so sorry, Dana in KY, for the soul of that poor Priest. That poor Priest profaned the Gospel by making it about worldly matters instead of spiritual matters. This is the sermon he could have given if he were properly conformed to Christ.
Click the bar below the picture to listen to the Homily.
felipe (023cc9) — 9/20/2020 @ 3:40 pmThe much, much nicer Dana wrote:
Part of his homily was a reference to the first reading, Isaiah 55:6-9:
Our pastor used verse 9 was a ‘suggestion’ that our ways, on earth, being capitalism, are inferior to the Lord’s ways, and that the parable in the Gospel ought to mean that all should be paid the same, regardless of productivity, would be the Lord’s way. It was an interesting argument, but I disagree.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/20/2020 @ 3:57 pmJVW wrote:
Yup, sure is. I have previously written about His Excellency, the Most Reverend John Stowe.
However, our pastor — and you’ll note that I have chosen not to identify him publicly — is 80 years old, and serves two parishes. He has noted that he is the last of his seminary class still active, the rest being retired or having gone to their eternal rewards, and he serves despite having difficulty walking. No one in his seminary who would have held a position of authority when he was ordained would still be there.
Our pastor hasn’t come right out and said it, but I’m certain that he wants us all to vote for Democrats. He’s thoroughly into the ‘Green New Deal,’ on which I have challenged him. But our small county gave 76.39% of its votes to Donald Trump in 2016, so I would guess that includes many of the parishioners. (I was still in the Keystone State in 2016.)
The Democrats have often complained about churches pushing conservative politics, but somehow, some way, they’ve missed the fact that a lot of priests advocate liberal ones.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/20/2020 @ 4:10 pmYour pastor takes the same salary as the associate pastor, I take it.
JVW (ee64e4) — 9/20/2020 @ 4:11 pmWe had a newly-ordained priest a few years back whose homilies were pretty much straight out of the Occupy manual. You know the story: corporate greed is the reason that people are homeless, those who provide for their families first are being selfish, everybody would have enough if the successful among us would just be willing to accept less (i.e., give more). Considering that our town has a median family income about 33% higher than the state average and 50% higher than the county average, and considering that we rank among the top 10% of parishes in terms of giving to archdiocesan initiatives, his message wasn’t particularly appreciated. So we complained to the pastor and to the archdiocese and he was quietly sent to a different parish. So yeah, there are always going to be those types.
JVW (ee64e4) — 9/20/2020 @ 4:18 pmI have no doubt the opposite holds true in Evangelical churches: pastors subtlety implying that a vote for Biden is a vote ungodliness, so….vote Trump.
Dana (292df6) — 9/20/2020 @ 6:05 pmJVW wrote:
He has no assistant pastor or parochial vicar. My parish is very small, maybe 40 people on normal Sundays before the virus hit, and the second parish he serves is smaller still.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/20/2020 @ 6:11 pmThe significantly nicer Dana wrote:
Well, I’d agree with that sentiment! 🙂
But we do not tax churches, and churches are supposed to stay out of politics.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/20/2020 @ 6:13 pmJVW wrote:
Of course, your pastor knew how he was preaching all along, but waited until parishioners started to complain.
I could not tell you the political leanings of the various priests at my previous parishes; I sure can here.
The Dana in Kentucky (9f30da) — 9/20/2020 @ 6:16 pmI would not be able to remain seated if a pastor used the misappropriated the pulpit to push a political position/candidate. When they do that, they have revealed that their priority is not to glorify God. And I think that annoys Him too. No mercy for these clowns. Their callings carry far too much influences, gravitas and weight in people’s lives to monkey around with something like politics.
Dana (292df6) — 9/20/2020 @ 6:32 pmI did a little browsing on the internet. The subsistence wage, which assumes that one denarius is what those workers needed to feed their families, interpretation of the Parable dates back to at least the 18th century.
It’s a social reformer’s interpretation. You could probably find an Einsteinian to interpret it as time being relative. 😉
nk (1d9030) — 9/20/2020 @ 6:34 pmTacky
https://youtu.be/koy3rI894mc
Bolivar di griz (7404b5) — 9/20/2020 @ 6:53 pmOf course, your pastor knew how he was preaching all along, but waited until parishioners started to complain.
No, it wasn’t his fault. This leftist priest was newly-ordained and just recently assigned to our parish. I don’t think he lasted more than two months, maybe three at tops, before we sent him away. I think our pastor helped facilitate that process, and from what I am told he was as appalled by the young priest’s homilies as the rest of us were.
The other big political no-no we had at my parish was back in 2004 over Labor Day Weekend. A parishioner who had ties to organized labor asked if he could say a word about the importance of labor right after regular announcements and just before the final prayer and dismissal. It turned out that instead of the parishioner giving the talk, it was a labor official who launched into a tirade about how Republicans were trying to put the working people into slavery and the only way to stop them would be a vote for John Kerry. I always sit on the aisle, so I got up and walked out. Next week, our pastor (a different one than we have now) had a letter placed into our weekly bulletin and read aloud at every mass apologizing for that and agreeing that it had been highly inappropriate. That was the last time a layperson got to make that sort of address during mass.
JVW (ee64e4) — 9/20/2020 @ 8:09 pm