Labourers in the Compound

When i sit at the computer reading emails, blogging, or (currently) searching for the best place to stay next weekend when we want to go to Lake Naivasha with friends from Madagascar, I look out the window beside me to see the labourers in the compound next to us. As i've learned since coming to Nairobi, many of the men who work building the many new apartments springing up all over the city are casual labourers. Some of them have come to the compound gate early in the morning to wait for the bosses to select workers to work for the day on the building projects. These are not men used to salaries or a steady income. They work for the day in order that they might have the means to buy food for their families that day. No work equals no food. Knowing this made us less wont to complain Easter weekend, for example, when the workers are working on Good Friday, Saturday and Easter Sunday! To be sure, while i enjoyed a sumptuous ham lunch at the Plett's these men are working for the day in order to put at least something on the table. When i gaze out on the building site or when i pass the people waiting at the corner gate i am reminded of the parable Jesus told about the Labourers in the Vineyard, and how the landlord, although he may have seemed unfair at the end of the story, did all of his workers a huge favour by giving them all work for the day... I included this parable, perhaps surprisingly, in my paper on Sabbath (to which i refer ad nauseum, i know). Allow me to include an excerpt that speaks to my thoughts on the labourers next door:

Sabbath keeping provides us with a foundation for equality among people and for social action. In our activities humans are separated as bosses and employees, strong and weak, rated differently depending on the level of our giftedness, but in resting we find ourselves the same, all children of God resting in his sovereignty. In this way, Janzen suggests, the Sabbath anticipates the Kingdom of God.[1] George Shillington speaks to this in his discussion of the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matt 20:1-16). He suggests that the Landowner of the parable is indeed doing the workers a good service by giving them work so that they not only have the financial means to celebrate Sabbath, but also the self esteem that comes from putting in an honest day of work.

How can [a destitute Israelite] observe the law of the Sabbath if he has neither work nor livelihood to celebrate on the seventh day of the week? These are the kinds of teasing questions the parable of the Jewish Jesus poses. …The meaning of the Jewish Sabbath, while not explicit in the texture of the parable of the workers and the non-workers, hovers in the background. …the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees over Sabbath observance [should not] be taken to mean that Jesus abandoned the notion of rest from work on the seventh day. …What does the Decalogue (Exod. 20:8-11; Deut. 5:12-15), mean apart from work? How can one observe the Sabbath rest of God apart from the product of work that sustains life? From what does a destitute non-worker rest if not from the labour of his hands? …In both commands to keep the Sabbath, the assumption is that the meaning of Sabbath is found in working gainfully from the gift of the land that the Lord God gave to Israel. On the seventh day, work stops so that God can be honored. When some have no work to do during the six days, and therefore are without sustenance from the land, God is dishonoured on the sacred seventh day of rest, and the human family is divided. The Sabbath equalizes the participants in Israelite society. …The manservant and maidservant become one with the master on the seventh day of rest.[2]

As many Christian Aid organizations strive to bring quality of life to peoples in difficult living situations, how much thought is put into providing work for those who are able, thus giving the people something to rest from and celebrate on the seventh day? Food for the hungry is important, to be sure, but so too is the opportunity to work so that the people are able to keep the Sabbath. We may ask ourselves as the parable challenges, “What are we doing to provide work-and-life for the communities we seek to help?” Furthermore, we must ask of ourselves if we do not fall into the group of complainers in the parable who, tragically, are excluded “from the source of grace (‘take what belongs to you and go,’ v.14) by their own legalistic understanding of existence, grounded in the effort to effect their own security.”[3]

This morning I attended the weekly Friday morning MAF ladies meeting. In it the hostess shared with us a re-mixed version of the 1Corinthians 13 passage, written with words speaking directly to the foreign missionary/worker. It was a provocative piece, one which i'd like to get a copy of, that pointed out many of our foibles in the wrong motives behind the service/giving that we do. Further to that point, we spoke of the wrong motives we have for the things we strive for when we serve the church or the Lord either here in our fields of service, or when we return to our home countries. If our service is motivated by gaining self-worth from what others think of us (that is, i serve the church and the poor around me so that others will think i am a good Christian, or, I will think of myself as a good Christian!) it is, as Paul declares in 1Cor13, as nothing! Are we truly honest with ourselves in what lies beneath our outward good works? For if we do everything out of love we should not need to receive praise, or thanks, or appreciation, or recognition at all. Our reward will be in honouring God one small, "insignificant" moment at a time.

It is liberating indeed, to be surrounded by so many academic or biblically studious people in this place. I dont think i have really recognized that salve to my soul until just now. I feel as though i have found a place to drink deeper at the Well because of the people i have met who have recommended to me inspiring literature, thoughtful insights and different perspectives. Although i am still homesick for Madagascar, i recognize this stopover in a new place to be a Divinely inspired detour for Divinely inspired reasons that will, i'm sure, continue to unfold themselves to me in time. I am so looking forward to our weekends out of the city to the parks where we hope to see the real "African" animals and simply to relax and enjoy the company of new people. I am also still very thankful for the opportunity for this marriage course that we attend on Wednesdays and the key it has offered us for more in depth conversations and a mirror in which we can see more clearly the things we could work on to make our marriage richer. It is truly a shame, however, that our camera is totally kaput and therefore we cant show you how neat it is to see Judah eating (and enjoying) Ethiopian food with his hands at the Habesha restaurant just across the road. Hopefully on our weekends out we can borrow a camera and get at least some shots of our new adventures.

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[1] Waldemar Janzen, “The Theology of Work from an Old Testament Perspective,” Conrad Grebel Review: A Journal of Christian Inquiry, (Spring 1992), 124; quoted in V. George Shillington, “Saving Life and Keeping Sabbath, (Matthew 20:1b-15): The Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard,” in Jesus and His Parables: Interpreting the Parables of Jesus Today, ed. V. George Shillington (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1997), 99-100.

[2] V. George Shillington, “Saving Life and Keeping Sabbath, (Matthew 20:1b-15): The Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard,” in Jesus and His Parables: Interpreting the Parables of Jesus Today, ed. V. George Shillington (Edinburgh, Scotland: T&T Clark, 1997), 98-99.

[3] Ibid., 92.