Mingling on Level Terms

I have been reading through Matthew's Gospel with the help of John Proctor's contribution to the people's Bible commentary series published by the Bible Reading Fellowship. Today I read that surprising story of the workers in the vineyard, the one about them all working different lengths of time but getting paid the same at the end. What a wonderful story about generosity! And how annoyed we would have been if we had been there all day! We, too, would have been protesting: it's not fair. But I do like John Proctor's comment at the end of what he writes: happy is the church where people mingle on truly level terms; that is one way of preparing for heaven. What a great new Beatitude - and how challenging. We ought to be mingling on level terms in the church. It's one of the few places where everyone matters equally - but is that always played out? I fear that often in the church we are just as concerned about role and position and prestige as folk are in other spheres of society. We struggle with God's upside-down standards - but actually we need to learn to adopt them! If we could really mingle on level terms .......