Thanksgiving in the city, fifteen years ago. In our urban church, located in a volatile neighborhood, we tried to do a little something to ensure that every family had enough food to celebrate. So, we collaborated with a bigger congregation in the suburbs. That church had a food drive every year. They collected turkeys and Thanksgiving groceries, all the food staples for the All-American holiday. We distributed it to people in our community. Our partner church was quite generous, and we appreciated their kindness. So, every year, in the week of Thanksgiving, I called up a few of my youth, we drove to the Northeast and picked up bags and bags of food in the church van, until frozen turkeys started rolling around the seats. Then we distributed the bags to pre-selected homes. A few times people from the suburban church came down and dropped off items.
One time, a middle-aged man and his wife from that congregation rang the bell of the church office. They brought several boxes and bags filled with groceries. Just as I thanked them and we said good-bye, he looked at me and said, “I hope the people who receive it are – (and he searched for the right word) – deserving.” In the midst of my gratitude, that statement sat oddly with me, even though it wasn’t said with malice or bad intent. “Who is deserving?” I wondered, as I closed the door. And who – in God’s name – is not deserving of a meal on Thanksgiving? I just felt that this statement violated the spirit of that holiday and ran counter to the nature of God’s generosity, so provocatively illustrated in today’s parable and also beautifully demonstrated by this man’s own parish and their Social Ministry.
So, let me ask again: who is deserving? Accurate or not, I interpreted this person’s thinking in the following way: deserving is anyone who works hard but for some reason, perhaps because of illness, misfortune, or injustice, isn’t able to put food on the table. Deserving are people who may have started on the lowest step of the socio-economic ladder, but are slowly making their way up. They deserve a little help along the way. Deserving are even those whose life is a hot mess, but recognize that they need the help of God and fellow people. At least they are starting to turn around. But not deserving are those who are lazy and neglectful of their families and children. Not deserving are those who look for free-bees and handouts. Not deserving are people who play the system to get as much for free for as little effort as possible. Not deserving are people who don’t put in what it takes and who don’t bother or even try to change.
Now, you didn’t need to look around for very long in our neighborhood to figure out that not all people met those criteria of “deservedness.” And certainly, I had no illusions. I knew neighbors who dealt drugs instead of working a job. I knew parents who would not or could not take care of their own children or their houses or their properties. Everything was dilapidating under their watch. I knew people who were looking for handouts. Some of those same people received a Thanksgiving basket, big fat turkey and all. I always looked at it as a gesture of God’s grace, delivered through the church – no questions asked, no strings attached, no government survey to fill out, no attempt to make anyone feel like a loser, no patronizing, just a human gesture. It’s Thanksgiving and I wasn’t their Social Worker. I was administering the Sacrament of God’s grace in the form of food baskets, lovingly prepared by people who cared.
Because, who are we to determine and judge who is deserving of a Thanksgiving meal and who not? Isn’t everybody? Just like in this parable when the owner of the vineyard operation decided that all day laborers who had worked in the field deserved a day’s wage, no matter how much sweat equity they had put in. Even those that had barely broken a sweat received a day’s wage, which was quite generous and, from a pure business point of view, crazy. But Day laborers, harvest workers, migrant workers don’t earn that much do begin with. To this day they are probably underpaid anyway. They can use a little generosity.
Now, to some extent, I understand the question about whether people are “deserving.” In that line of thought you try to support those who have good, healthy attitudes and you try to not enable those who are on a destructive path. Doesn’t that make sense? Didn’t even Jesus compare people with a grapevine, saying that branches that don’t bear fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire, so that the plant will remain healthy and fruit-bearing? And isn’t there a book out there called “Toxic Charity,” that warns charitable people and organizations of creating systems of dependency, rather than encouraging communities to become self-sustaining? All these considerations have validity and there is a place for them to be pondered, and I don’t want to dismiss them at all. But perhaps the Social Ministry of a small parish or the Holiday of Thanksgiving are not the right places for those concerns. The God whom Jesus evoked in his parables and teachings has an amazing capacity for grace and generosity. Or, as someone else put it, “No one out-gives God.”
I once did a funeral for a business owner. One of the company executives spoke and praised the late owner. He recalled that the owner of the company was often not very happy with the wages his workers got paid. He felt they were too low. He thought so-and-so had done a good job and deserved a better raise. I am quite sure it was based on a merit system, because that’s what good business owners do. They recognize when someone is putting in the time and the effort and they reward it. Or you may remember the scene in the movie Erin Brokovich when the lawyer tells Brokovich that he had changed his mind about her pay. And she immediately assumes that he is now underpaying her, cheating her, and starts a tirade about crooked lawyers, until she sees the million-dollar check. And her boss looks at her and says, smiling, “I just thought you did a wonderful job and you deserved a little more.” And she is forced to apologize.
The parable we heard is not based on a merit system, but it is similar in the sense that a spirit of generosity guides the owner’s decisions and actions. Social Ministry often reaches out to those who underperform in the merit system of society, for whatever reason. And God is saying to us through this parable and through so many other words and acts of Jesus: Do not let the merit system entirely determine your kindness toward people, or your generosity in a time of need. There are times to not ask questions and to share what you have earned with people who might be or not be “deserving” by your standards, but who are God’s children just like you. No questions asked. No strings attached. It’s called grace. Amen.