Why Is Life Not Fair? (Sermon Sept 21, 2014)

Workers in the Vineyard

Why Is Life Not Fair?

by the Rev. Laura Adelia

Scripture Readings:   Pent. 15 Proper 20

• Why do bad things happen to good people?

• Why is life not fair?

• Why do the righteous suffer?

Rabbi Harold Kushner, the writer of the book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" says virtually every meaningful conversation he has ever had with people on the subject of G-d or religion has started with these questions.   

We want to believe in a just and fair world...and that God is fair…and just.  

But the fact remains, as we all know, life is not fair.  

The scriptures for today seem to illustrate this.  In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells a story of a vineyard owner who hires people at various times thru out the day, and yet at the end of the day, pays them all the same amount.  The workers who labored in the hot sun for a longer length of time, yet were paid the same as another who worked only an hour, grumbled.

And I would might grumble too.  Wouldn’t you?   All of us want to be paid fairly.  Equal pay for equal work.  All of us want to be treated fairly. 

Hmm…

Our sense of wanting things to be fair and equal is the basis for social justice, equity law, distributive justice, ethics and basically, our sense of justice!

Everyone should get what they deserve, right?  We all want to be treated equally before the law. 

It is an interesting thing.  For many of our concepts & laws about fairness and equity has its roots in Judaism.   According to Judaism, which in turn majorly influenced Christian thought, justice is present, real, right, and is a governing concept along with mercy.    And justice and mercy are ultimately derived from God. 

The need for fairness is among the deepest needs of the human soul. The yearning for fairness is something that seems to be implanted in us at birth. 

There have even been psychological studies about our sense of fairness and wanting to be treated fairly.  One study at UCLA in 2008 found that reactions to fairness are “hard wired” in our brains!  Being treated fairly satisfies a basic need in all of us!

From the time we are small children, we are very aware when others have not been fair to us, when preferential treatment is given to others, or when we receive less than our rightful share.  And this powerful desire that the world and those in it be fair remains with us for the rest of our lives.

Who has not heard a child say, “No fair!”  How many of us have said this? 

But, as we know, life is not fair.   

As the writer of The Ethical Culture Society reflects, “By shear accident, some of us are born at a specific time and place.  We who are born in the rich and relatively safe countries partake of the opportunities to develop our human potentials, which people in past ages could scarcely imagine, and in ways which are foreclosed to billions of fellow human beings.”

The writer went on a trip to India, “Two weeks in Bombay, a bustling cosmopolitan city of 15 million, seven million of whom live out their lives on the street, in utter destitution, hordes condemned to a life of begging in order to survive. These experiences, especially as I am ready to board the plane and leave, bring into stark relief the realization that “there but for fortune go I.” It is simply an accident of birth, thoroughly undeserved, that I am here enjoying three meals a day, looking forward to a relatively long life, while billions of my fellows are there, toiling every day to overcome the pangs of hunger and the indignities of destitution.”

But it is the unfairness closer to home that really grabs our attention...
 
How many good people do their best to live morally upright lives and play by the rules, only to find that those with weaker moral scruples, become lavishly wealthy, while they, the decent and honest ones, struggle oh so hard just to make ends meet? 

Rabbi Harold Kushner struggles with these dilemmas, as his congregants at his synagogue ask, “why is life not fair?”  God gives us what we deserve, right?   Or in tragedy, “How could God have let this happen?”

Are there any answers? 

Just about every religion has various explanations as to why “life is not fair”:

For example, in Hinduism and Buddhism, there is the law of “karma”. 

And what is karma?

According to the law of karma, the law of cause and effect, no bad deed goes unpunished; no good deed goes unrewarded.  In other words, ‘what comes around goes around’.  And karma may or may not work itself out in a single lifetime.  Hinduism and Buddhism as you know, believe in reincarnation, that we live many lives.  One may not receive one’s just reward in this life, and may receive it in a future life. 

So in other words, if you have a good life now, you are living and reaping good karma from past lives.  If you have a difficult life now, it is because you are reaping the negative karma you have accumulated from past lives. 

In Buddhist thought, there is the reality of suffering.  One of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism is “All life is suffering”.   And this suffering is the result of our wants and desires. 

It goes kind of like this; we want "stuff", things".  We think these things will make us happy.  And when we don’t get these things, we are set up for all kinds of negative emotions; frustration, jealousy, envy.   Even when we do get what we want and desire, many times we just want even more.  Which leads to more suffering and desire…

As for Western religions, Judaism and Christianity & Islam, how do the monotheistic religions square with the existence of God who is supposed to be all knowing, loving, just, powerful and good, and yet allows for the most gripping forms of injustice?   

As one writer asks and reflects, “How could God, all powerful and all good, permit little children to die agonizing deaths, or allow good, kind, loving people to contract cancer and die young, while morally obtuse, selfish SOB’s die in old age?”

It does make one wonder.  

In theology, this phenomenon, or problem is known as the “problem of evil”.   Why do the righteous suffer?  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why is life not fair?  How could God, who is supposed to be good and all powerful let all these unfair and bad things happen in the world?

And there are no good answers.  That is unless one wants to hear platitudes and shallow attempts at answers.   But the plain fact is, there are no answers. 

Even Rabbi Kushner in his book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” wrestles with this, and how to answer these questions when asked by his congregants. 

In fact, all clergy do.  People don’t come in to talk about theology and eschatology and all the other “ologies” and “isms” we learned in seminary and graduate school.  People want to know why this bad thing happened to them, or their family…

And some people wind up leaving religion altogether because religion does not answer these “problems” in any satisfying way.  The writer of The Ethical Culture Society confesses to this.  He became a humanist.

So what are we to do?  What are we to think?  Even the story in our Gospel for today seems to teach that, well, some people just get more than others!  And that is that! 

Is that, just that?

The parable of the vineyard owner is not saying it’s OK to pay people unfairly, or treat people unjustly.  The parable is essentially about the generosity of God.  It is not about equity or proper disbursement of wages, but about a gracious and undeserved gift. 

God bestows grace and mercy to all, no matter what time they have put in, or how deserving or undeserving we may think them to be.

Jesus leaves us with the question,  “Can we learn to see thru the eyes of God?”    Our ideas of right and wrong, what is just and unjust are not necessarily God’s ideas. 

And I ask you, ‘Where do you see yourselves in this parable?’ 

The parable calls for us to look at ourselves honestly & lovingly, as God looks at us.  It invites us to turn from holding grudges because things did not go our way or as we “expected”. 

It invites us to let go of the stuff in our lives that keep us from being a joy filled and grateful people.

We can dwell on the things that are “not fair” in our lives, or we can dwell on the many gifts God has blessed us with.    It is up to us.

Let us think and pray on these things….  

Amen.

[Sermon given at St. Peter's Episcopal Church Sept 21, 2014 by The Rev. Laura Adelia]