Picked Last

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
Proper 20, Year A
September 20, 2020
 
Of course, you remember the line-up.  It happened at recess, in P.E. classes, or in neighborhood pick-up games. Someone, usually the alpha big kid, declares two captains, and each takes turns choosing who they want on their team.  The gifted athletes go in the first rounds, then the middling ones, then they are down to the last ones: the youngest, the slowest, the shortest, and less inclined to be in the line in the first place.
 
The ritual of such sorting has been around forever, and early on, at least in my growing up, it established a pecking order that hung around even through high school.  The captains tended to be the quarterbacks, the guys with flashy Nike or Adidas tennis shoes; the guys who had weight rooms in their basements, and knew every Atlanta Brave’s batting average.
 
There was potential for movement in this social order.  One summer, a kid in my carpool went through a phenomenal growth spurt.  He went from the middle to the top of the picking order, especially in basketball.  When that happened, his social popularity soared, even though we knew he was a lunkhead like the rest of us.
 
Those picked last rarely, if ever, moved up, though.  Some of them quit coming out to play, or go out for sports, choosing instead to do their homework, to read, draw, paint, practice music, or act in plays. These are the ones who moved on to find their people in a less Darwinian fashion, and became well-adjusted owing to the fact that they didn’t always win early or often.  Failure can be a great teacher.  There are always exceptions, but many of the alpha kids from the playground are stuck on past glory, and still hanging around together.  Their children are now competing against each other.  It may not be best to peak in middle or high school. 
 
As a teacher and chaplain of hundreds of kids through the years, I have observed that many of last picked kids grew up to be great citizens: creative, entrepreneurial, reasonably happy, and successful by most measures.  One such student of mine won a Tony Award a few years back for writing a smash Broadway musical.  He struggled through adolescence, but boy, did he find his people.
 
Humans do this whole sorting thing in all kinds of ways.  The playground pick-up game is where it starts, but we have developed all kinds of other ways to sort through gender, politics, race, religion, education, and familial heritage, not to mention standards of beauty or physical fitness.  What we seek is to be comfortable in our own skin and too often, we look to outside measures to cover for an inside desire.  Belonging is a critical need, but as the old country songs says that too often: “we’re looking for love in all the wrong places.”
 
This is the baggage and template we bring to Jesus gospel parable today.  The disciples have been angling for a place of privilege, and assurance that they will be made great in the vast economy of God, so he tells them a story.  It doesn’t seem fair or smart.  The landowner sends his manager out early and hires a few day laborers to pick his grapes.  He sends the guy out three more times as there is plenty of work still to be done.  And finally, he sends him out near the end of a long work day to hire even more people.  But when it comes time to settle up, he pays every single laborer a full day’s wage.  The ones who went out early grumble, complain, and resent those who were hired later, but the landowner reminds them that he can do what he wants with what he has.  It is a gut punching reminder that God’s generosity and grace are not limited quantities, and God wants all to be made whole.
 
Remember, these are day laborers, meaning they live hand to mouth.  A day’s wage was enough to feed yourself and your family.  With no mechanized food production or storage, if the laborer did not work, the laborer did not eat.  And think about the line-up.  When the manager goes out to get workers – if he is a competent manager -- he is going to pick the most able, likely, the young and strong looking ones.  Later, he takes the middling able bodies, leaving the older, weaker ones in a difficult place.  Finally, he takes the last ones who may not be able to work a full day anyway.  And in the end, nobody gets a better wage than anyone else.
 
It is a message of leveling.  It is a message of care.  It is a warning to those who think themselves better, stronger, faster, or more entitled for any categorical favor.  If we look at the whole world and consider our relative privilege, it is astonishing.  We did not do anything wrong, being born into a class, society, geography, or race.  But what this says is that we didn’t do anything right either.  Our stance in the face of God’s grace and generosity should be stunned, awed, grateful, and compassionate.
 
Aside from a national pandemic, we now have wildfires and hurricanes ravaging whole regions of our nation.  Those things do not discriminate between who or what deserves destruction.  I have lived through hurricanes hitting two of my homes and communities, and I remember their amazing power to fling stuff everywhere.  Trees, cars, boats, power lines and poles, roofs, street signs, everything – even the stuff that is nailed down.  I also know that without power safe water, and decent shelter, people are pretty fragile, no matter where they fall in the pecking order.
 
Nevertheless, I have seen some pretty amazing things in those situations.  I have seen people wandering around with chainsaws getting trees off of other people’s houses.  I have seen people feeding each other with whatever they had to throw on the grill.  When I think about sharing the gifts of God for the people of God, I have seen the Eucharist happen in some pretty devastated places.
 
The rhetoric of the world seeks to sort, separate, and stratify as much as possible. We start that young and play it out to our own detriment.  That rhetoric is based on the great fear that somebody else may get or have a better gig that we do.  That rhetoric is founded in the fear of scarcity.  But the Word of God defies the rhetoric of the world.  When it is heard and practiced, it is inspiring.
 
 
Today, we are able at long last, to break the bread and share a small but great sign of God’s abundance.  What we hear and practice today is that there is no shortage of grace, forgiveness, or love.  Those are renewed resources meant for us to see, feel, and know we are all picked to belong in this wild and wacky family.  And while we are at it, we hold your brother and sister humans close, especially now.  And especially, look out for the more vulnerable, the lost, the lonely, and the devastated.
 
Remember that people thought Jesus was a big loser.  He came a nowhere place with staggering poverty, disease, and despair.  Many of his followers would have been the last picked   They arrested him, tried him, and crucified him.  But look what happened.  Jesus rose through all of that, and it he that we remember and glorify.  Love won.  In God’s economy, it always will.   Amen.