The Need for Personal Lawncare

The classic 1954 movie “On the Waterfront” with Marlon Brando has a scene that is very similar to today’s gospel. All the longshoremen show up at the docks in the morning hoping to get work. The foreman comes out and picks from all those present. Some are chosen for work that day and others have to go home perhaps with no food with which to feed their families, hoping to try again tomorrow. The landowner in the gospel does something strange though. He keeps going back to get more workers. It doesn’t seem that he needs them, but he just can’t bear the thought of them going home with nothing. This is a great image for God. He keeps calling us. It doesn’t matter how early or late we get called; we just need to go.

Notice also the fiasco at the end of the day. The workers that were chosen first should be happy that they had work that day. Instead they start to look around at what others get and they become angry. The lesson here is that we need to stop comparing ourselves with others. How often do we find ourselves content with life and then we get distracted by trying to “keep up with the Jones’?” We often lose the happiness we should have from our unique call from God by comparing ourselves with others. If you find yourself thinking that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, maybe it’s time to start watering your own lawn.