The nice weather is pushing on into mid-September, and here is a path off the old railway.
As for next Sunday’s Lectionary, gospel reading, what is fair pay anyway? It seems there are different criteria one could choose;-
- Equal pay for everyone.
- Decide pay based on the worker’s needs.
- Decide based on the amount of effort that has been put in.
- Decide based on the economic value of someone’s work.
- etc.
There are variations on some of these, too. A note on type 3 – based on effort – many of the loudest advocates of this are quite happy with a situation in which well paid people have enough time to spend their lunchtimes in the pub, or afternoons on the golf course, and low paid cleaners for instance are run ragged, for ever rushing to different parts of town to do their itsy bitsy jobs. And a note on type 4 – the economic value of work also seems to include a factor for the worker’s power to cause damage by messing up – sometimes it’s almost like blackmail.
Our answers to the question of fair pay will reveal what we think is important. And so it proves when Jesus tells the parable – try looking at things from someone else’s point of view for a change.