Sermons from
Mission Hills UCC
San Diego, California
Rev. Dr. David Bahr
david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org
September 6, 2026
“He Kept Going Back”
Matthew 20: 1-16 – Common English Bible
“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 After he agreed with the workers to pay them a denarion,[a] he sent them into his vineyard.
3 “Then he went out around nine in the morning and saw others standing around the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I’ll pay you whatever is right.’ 5 And they went.
“Again around noon and then at three in the afternoon, he did the same thing. 6 Around five in the afternoon he went and found others standing around, and he said to them, ‘Why are you just standing around here doing nothing all day long?’
7 “‘Because nobody has hired us,’ they replied.
“He responded, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and moving on finally to the first.’ 9 When those who were hired at five in the afternoon came, each one received a denarion. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarion. 11 When they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 ‘These who were hired last worked one hour, and they received the same pay as we did even though we had to work the whole day in the hot sun.’
13 “But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn’t I agree to pay you a denarion? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I want to give to this one who was hired last the same as I give to you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you resentful because I’m generous?’ 16 So those who are last will be first. And those who are first will be last.”
In my last sermon, a man came to Jesus wanting to know what good thing he must do to have eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments. “I’m already doing that. What am I still missing?”
“Then go, sell what you own, give the money to the poor and come follow me.” But the man walked away sad.
Peter watched this unfold, “Look, Jesus, we’ve left behind everything to follow you. What will we have?” He replied, “Many who are first will be last. And many who are last will be first.”
Peter left unsaid what most of us would have probably thought: “but if I gave more, shouldn't I get more?” Jesus then told this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who hired workers for his vineyard.”
Here’s the story: The landowner goes to the marketplace early in the morning. Then he goes back at 9 o'clock and hires some more. He goes back at Noon. Then again, at 3 o'clock. And at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, with hardly any working day left, he goes back to the marketplace one more time.
Each time there are still people waiting to be hired. He asks them, “Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?”
Preachers have offered all kinds of explanations for why nobody hired them. Maybe they were known as the lazy, shiftless type. Maybe they were older or disabled. Maybe it’s like being chosen last in gym class – something I was quite familiar with growing up.
But Jesus never says the others were better, younger, more efficient workers. He lets them answer for themselves: “Because nobody has hired us.” That's all we know. But as we all know, it’s often not that simple.
Elizabeth Cotten was born in rural North Carolina sometime around 1893 – no one really knows. Everyone called her Libba. She started working for a nearby family at 9, cooking, cleaning, caring for their children. By 12 she was a live-in domestic worker in Chapel Hill. But in the midst of all that hard work, Libba had a passion.
When she was about 7 years old, she snuck her older brother’s banjo down from the wall. She was left-handed, so teaching herself as she went, she turned it upside down, playing the bass strings with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. She took her earnings of 75 cents a month to buy her own guitar.
She liked playing ragtime, folk songs, and the blues. But the Baptist deacons in the church considered her music “worldly.” Because Libba took her faith seriously, she put her guitar aside and rarely touched another for decades.
When she was in her sixties, Libba took a job at a department store selling dolls. One day she helped reunite a little girl who had become separated from her mother. The mother was so taken with Libba’s kindness that she offered her a job. And so Libba went back to the work she had done for much of her life: cooking, cleaning, and caring for children.
But this was no ordinary household. Call it extraordinary good fortune. Call it providence. Somehow Libba found herself working in this house of Ruth and Charles Seeger. Their home was filled with joy and music. There were instruments everywhere, and their children grew up surrounded by some of the best folk musicians of the day.
One day by herself she picked up a guitar, just for a minute, and began to play a song she had written when she was only 12 years old called “Freight Train.” The Seegers heard music coming from another room and went to investigate. They found Libba playing a guitar upside down and marveled at her talent. Eventually Mike Seeger began recording her, calling her distinctive method “Cotten-picking.”
I thought you’d like to hear it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2DCWfBkMSI&list=RDR2DCWfBkMSI&start_radio=1
In the meantime, while touring in England, Peggy Seeger taught it to some musicians. They recorded it and it became a hit. Soon it was being performed by all kinds of people – even by John Lennon before he was a Beatle.
A lot of people were making money, except Libba. Others had claimed authorship of her song. Pete Seeger helped challenge that, and eventually the dispute was settled out of court. Libba finally received some credit for the song she had written as a child. But only one-third of the songwriting royalties.
So, back to Jesus’ story. Evening comes, the workday is over, and it's time to get paid. In Deuteronomy, a poor laborer is required to be paid before sundown because the family depends on those wages to eat.
But the landowner adds an unusual instruction. “Begin with the last ones hired.” So, the 5 o’clock people step forward. They had worked for maybe an hour and each of them receives a denarion. A full day’s wage. More than they would have ever expected.
Now imagine that you’ve been working since early morning and you’re standing at the back of the line watching. What are you thinking? Jesus tells us: “They expected to receive more.” Of course they did. And they were furious when they didn’t. But perhaps there's more to their complaint than we first realize.
The Common English Bible says, the early morning people complained that those who worked only one hour “received the same pay as we did, even though we had to work the whole day in the hot sun.” That’s a fair point.
But the original Greek says something that our translation doesn't quite capture. They say to the landowner, literally: “You have made them equal to us.”
Equal. And suddenly Jesus’ story is more than worker pay. The question becomes, “Why does it bother you that they have been made equal to you?”
Heather Cox Richardson is a brilliant historian who traces a struggle that runs through the whole of American history: two fundamentally different visions of what this country is meant to be. One begins with the conviction that all people are created equal and have a right to determine their own lives. The other, as Richardson puts it, says that “some people are better than others and [believe they] have a right to rule.”
From slavery through Jim Crow, that hierarchy was written into our laws and institutions. But when laws began to change, the old assumptions didn’t disappear. Today, when a Black woman with a PhD and twenty more years of experience gets the job instead of a white man, some insist it must be DEI.
The language is “merit” and “fairness,” but the claim underneath is much older: white Christian men belong on top. And if you believe that is your rightful place, equality feels like persecution.
We hear language that if immigrants succeed, we’re being “replaced.” Well, once equality threatens the status someone believes they deserve, then keeping others beneath you can feel righteous and the means become increasingly dangerous and even violent.
“You have made them equal to us” is the scandal Jesus exposes because the kingdom of heaven refuses the logic that some insist is deserved, perhaps even natural.
And the landowner replies: “Friend, I did you no wrong. Didn’t I agree to pay you a denarion?”
He hasn't broken his promise. Their wages haven't been reduced. Nothing has been taken away from them. What they no longer have is more than the people who came after them.
Just like today:
- If someone else gains the right to vote, I haven't lost my vote.
- If someone else gains the right to marry the person they love, my marriage hasn't been diminished.
- If a woman has the same power and authority I have, mine hasn't been taken away.
What I've “lost” is the guarantee that I will always have an advantage. And that it was meant to be that way.
This week we remember the icon Gloria Steinem. She put it this way: “Our society needs to be linked, not ranked.”
“You have made them equal to us.” Jesus says this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. Now this is not some heavenly afterlife, but what we pray for every day: “on earth as it is in heaven.” Where being hired first doesn't put you above anyone else. And where being left standing until 5 o'clock doesn't put you beneath them.
For most of Libba Cotton’s life, people were perfectly willing to hire her – to clean their houses and care for their children.
No one was going to hire a woman like her to play the guitar until the Seegers discovered a gift that had been there all along. And even then, someone thought they had a right to take it.
But at 90 years old, she won a Grammy. Not because she had suddenly become talented. She just wasn’t hired until 5 o’clock.
But there’s still something bizarre about this story that isn’t yet explained. Why does the landowner keep going back?
At 6 in the morning, he needs workers for his vineyard. At 9 and maybe even at Noon it makes sense that he goes back again.
But by 3 and certainly by 5 o'clock, the question has changed. It’s no longer simply, “Does my vineyard need another worker?” It’s become, “Does another worker need a denarion?”
When we first wrestle with this passage, it doesn’t feel quite fair. It doesn’t feel quite right. Until you see the motivation. “I want to give the same to the one who was hired last as I give to you.” And then he asks, “Are you resentful because I’m generous?”
Think about it. Has his generosity to somebody else really changed what he gave you? Did it become insufficient because you saw that person receive one too? No. What changed was your place in relation to somebody else.
And this is how it is in the Kingdom of Heaven. “Those who are last will be first. And those who are first will be last.”
With that line on a recruiting poster it’s hard to believe anyone would sign up to follow Jesus. Except when we know deep down, he’s right.
Because the question of fairness isn't, “Did everybody get exactly what they earned?”
The question he asks of his followers is: “Did everybody go home that night with enough to feed their family?”
