Daily Reading for September 27

The first time I read this parable [of the vineyard owner and his workers], I must admit it struck me as being rampantly unfair. I found myself saying, “But that is not just!” After some reflection, it dawned on me that I was starting at the wrong place. If you and I had earned our way into this world or had received our existence as some sort of entitlement, then there might be validity to such a complaint. But the beginning point of this parable is grace, not entitlement, and the same is true of life as well. Birth is windfall, and life is gift. We were called out of nothing into being in an astonishing act of generosity for which we can claim no right. Once that gift becomes our central focus, it changes forever how we interpret things. If entitlement is our vantage point, we evaluate the particulars of our lives from that perspective. On the other hand, if grace is our starting point, everything begins to appear in a very different light.

From Stories Jesus Still Tells by John Claypool, revised second edition (Cowley Publications, 2000).