My thoughts on Jesus's story of the Labourers in the Vineyard

Early in the day, a landowner went to the marketplace to hire some men to work in his vineyard for one denarius a day. He chose some, they agreed the wage and went off to start work. He went back during the day and chose some more from those who were still waiting.

At the end of the day, he told his foreman to pay the men, starting with those who'd been chosen last. When they realised they were all being paid the same, those who'd worked all day began, rather naturally we might think, to complain.

The owner reminded them that they'd agreed to his promised wage which would have been a fair price. ''If I choose to pay those who came last the same as you, don't I have the right to do what I waant with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?!''

My thoughts are that he was a wise and compassionate man who knew that each man would need at least one denarius each day in order to live. Those who were unhired would go hungry. 

We might wonder why they weren't hired. Were they too old or did they look unfit? Were they foreigners? Was their skin the wrong colour? Were they overweight, underweight? If so, it might be understandable that most employers wouldn't hire them first.

Also, the fact that the men who weren't hired didn't give up must count for something. They carried on waitting and hoping for some work.

This is such a comfort for us. Jesus is telling us that he doesn't measure by earthly standards but by our needs, our backgrounds, our strengths and our weeknesses, our failings and failures, but also our desires, our efforts to try. 

It must surely help us to hang on in there, to never give up trying to do our best and not to despair over our failings and failures. 

Well I find it very comforting myself.

About the most important sentence in the bible, in my view

''Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do "

Jesus said this just before he died, having suffered more cruelty than most of us could ever comprehend.

We might say to ourselves, ''Well, I didn't do it, did I! I wasn't there! 

I believe that in his agony in the garden, rather than his own agony to come, he felt the pain, the suffering and struggles, the cruelty and wickedness that ever had been, was then being and always would be perpetrated, many against many, the inhumanity that exists within the nature of mankind.

All of us, given our imperfect nature, will have often, even if unintentionally, wounded others, so are a part of the pain that Jesus suffered, 

By having gone through the most unimaginable agony, yet still able to gasp out, in his dying breaths, those amazing words of forgiveness, we are assured that nothing can separate us from the love of God, Our Father, demonstrated by Jesus, the Son of God and sent by God to show us that.

We will never be rejected by God. It is only we who can separate ourselves from God. We can only receive the forgiveness of God by knowing we need it.

About the two most important words in the whole of the bible, in my view, of course

 As I constantly say to friends and family, I've probably written this before:

the two words are ''Our Father''

How so? Well, Our is all of us folk on earth, past, present, and to come, so that's good.

And as to Father, bearing in mind that we're talking about the infinitely best father we could ever imagine, this Father is warm, protective, loving, caring, forgiving. Everything, in fact, we could ever wish for in a father.

This is a father who knows everything about us but also understands, even when we don't understand ourselves. He knows and loves the good in us and forgives our failings and failures.

We, of course, can only receive that forgiveness when we know we need it and make amends for whatever caused it.

How consoling is that!

An open prayer for Bill Clinton

Dear God,

Please inspire Bill to tell the truth, whatever it is, however damaging personally it may be, 

and astound the world. He would be remembered forever if he did so.

Amen

I am praying for him.

God's love is the power which fires the engine of the universe

The soul is the well-spring of creativity

About what we and others do

 It doesn't matter what others do.

What matters is what we do.