Is This All There Is For Me?

"Is this all there is for me?" is the question we ask when what we receive is less than what we think we should receive. Perhaps a compliment, or a word of praise, or a pat on the back, or an applause, or a bonus. The frustration is greater and the grumbling louder when we look over the shoulder of our neighbor and discover that this guy next to us who spent less hours and energy and talent (of which we think we have more, hmm, perhaps we do!) received the same, and worse, more praise or appreciation or bonus than we did. In effect, what should have been a happy occasion of receiving from the bounty of the Master becomes a recitation of a litany of complaints and gripings against, not the injustice of the Master, but His generosity.

This is the drama of this Sunday's Parable of the Hired Tenants. The question addressed to those who complained is for us, too, "Are you jealous that I am generous?" May this Sunday be truly the Lord's Day, a day of resting in and counting of (if we can) the blessings of the all-generous Lord, whose ways may be strange, but never unjust.