A friend was telling me about her son's first work experience as a stock boy in a supermarket. He complained that he has to work hard while others sit around. When he confronts them about it they tell him to wait until he's part of the union. Then he can sit around too. "It just isn't fair, mom!" he says.

If you are a parent you have heard many times how unfair everything is. "He got more than I got. It isn't fair!" "She gets to stay up and watch my favourite program on TV. I have to go to bed. It isn't fair!" "How come she gets to go out on a date? She's only fourteen. I had to be fifteen. It isn't fair!"

Sharing was very important in our rather large family. Strawberries were carefully counted out into the bowls so that everyone got their fair share. One person got to do the cutting of the piece of cake or whatever into two pieces; the other person got to choose first. We became experts at cutting evenly. Everything had to be fair!

We know that our human nature makes it difficult to be really fair. When it comes to God, we think, God is just. God is perfect. Everything will be fair! That is certainly not the message of the readings.

"Life isn't fair!" the Israelites are complaining. The wilderness is not everything it is cracked up to be. The security of slavery in Egypt looks attractive when viewed from the insecurity of hunger. The past begins to look rosy. They lay blame on God and on their leadership. They do not have enough, not enough food, not enough strength, not enough courage or hope or grace. It isn't fair!

I wonder if any of you listening to that gospel reading about the workers in the vineyard came away saying, "That was so fair! What a great person that landowner is!" I suspect that, no matter who we look at in that story we come to the same conclusion. It simply isn't fair! But remember we're talking about God here. So the conclusion we are coming to is that God is not just. God is not fair!

Can't you hear the story being told by the workers? 'I am a peasant in a village in Galilee. I got up first thing this morning and headed down to the market place. I knew that if I got there bright and early I would have a chance at earning a decent day's wage. And I was lucky enough, along with a few other people, to be hired by the richest landowner around. We agreed on the usual denarius. We worked hard all day in the hot sun. We knew that the landowner hired some more workers at noon and then later in the day. Harvest time is important. He needs to get these grapes picked while they are ripe. He knew that no matter how hard we worked we couldn't get it all done.

At the end of the day, we lined up for our pay packet. Imagine our surprise when he paid off the last people that he had hired. Even more surprising, he paid them a denarius. They looked pleased but quite guilty as they walked past us. No wonder! They got more than they ever bargained for. And what's more, they got it first.

Then he paid the ones who had worked since noon. If he didn't pay them exactly the same amount! They seemed a little uncertain about how they should be feeling. I mean, let's face it! They got more than they deserved too. They were lucky. They had the nerve to grumble! As if they had anything to complain about really!

The guys who had been working all day talked about it a bit in the line. "I wonder what he'll pay us since he paid them a denarius," we said to one another. Surely he'll give us more than he said. What a great person!" we all thought. Imagine our anger when he gave us a denarius like everyone else. It wasn't fair. I know he explained that we had made an agreement with him. I know he said that we all got what we needed. But you just don't do that to people! It isn't fair!'

Indeed it does seem to be a story about injustice. Why does the master of the house give the unusual order that all are to receive the same wage? Why does he allow the last to receive a full day's pay for only an hour's work? Is it injustice? Caprice? A generous whim? Everyone received what was needed to sustain life, a subsistence wage. No one got rich. All of the workers touched the owner's heart. He knew that if he paid what they earned there would be some children going hungry that night. The pay for an hour's work – or even a half a day's work – would not keep a family. In pity for their poverty they were paid a full day's wage.

"That," Jesus says, "is what God is like." God is merciful even to sinners. God provides what we need. That is the measure of God's goodness. Those who criticize that great goodness and mercy are unjustified.

This is a kingdom turned upside down. Individuality, self-worth and deals don't work. What we do does not get us into the kingdom of Heaven. That happens by sheer grace, the generosity of a loving God. Justice is love expressed in terms of the sheer human needs that we all share. It is the old, sick, handicapped, poor, disadvantaged – those who fall through the cracks in the community – who are the privileged ones in God's community. They come first.

What does that mean in terms of the third world nations of our world? Whole nations bankrupted by colossal debt that has been paid many times over! The people of Africa ravaged by AIDS unable to begin to pay for costly drugs that could save countless lives! Refugees from China willing to risk everything to come to Canada in leaky overcrowded boats!

What does it mean in our own country? Many working people don't take home enough to feed and house their families. There are children in our city who go to bed hungry. There are homeless people living on the streets of Mississauga. There are families who depend on food banks to make it through the month.

What must we do to participate in the kingdom? We need to leave behind the world's assumptions and live in solidarity, in shared hope and need. Which of us would like to be treated by God according to strict justice? Our work ethic places high value on productivity. We value people for the use we can make of them. What we need to consider, is 'who is this person'. For our real value lies, not in what we do, but in who we are.

Thank God for the kind of merciful treatment that views each one of us as a precious gift. That sees each one for what we are, for who we are. May we be the best we can be! May we be grateful that God loves even sinners like us!