The God Of Equality

Speaker: Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines

September 21, 2026

in Spritual Growth

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September 20, 2026

Readings:
Jonah 3:10-4:11
Philippians 1:21-27
Matthew 20:1-6

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2026 Homily – Abp. Hines

In the Collect today, it says that as God’s people who are living in the world, we should be living according to God’s Word, and as though we are with Christ. But a lot of us do not live out this life. Psalm 145:8 “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” We need to begin to believe in God’s character and not have doubts, just like Jonah who did not want to go to Nineveh to preach to the people about repentance, so that when God forgave the people, Jonah even got angry, because he wanted punishment for the people, not forgiveness. Phillipians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

The Gospel today teaches us that the Master needs workers to fulfill His Word. There needs to be laborers. The story goes on to say that there was a landowner who goes out at different times during the day (early morning, noon, mid-afternoon, and even one hour before sunset) to hire day laborers for his vineyard. He agrees to pay the first group the standard daily wage of one denarius. To the later groups, he promises to pay whatever is right. At the end of the day, the owner pays everyone the exact same amount—one full denarius—regardless of whether they worked all twelve hours or just the final hour. The workers who labored all day complained that it is unfair to give latecomers the same pay.The landowner reminds them that they received the agreed-upon wage and asks, “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous? The parable highlights that God’s grace cannot be earned or measured by human standards. He is lavishly generous to whomever He chooses. The harvest was grapes. The people who do the planting know this. They know when harvest time is nigh. In the story the workers all agreed to be paid a certain price. God is fair. He gives to people equally. Revelation 14:12 “Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” We have allowed ourselves to take upon the things of the world to be what are acceptable. God deals with men in equality. If we think Noah, Moses, Daniel, David received more, we will find out that we will be receiving the same rewards if we lived the life of Christ. Revelation talks about the holy city with 12 gates and 3 entrances. This means it doesn’t matter where you enter from, God treats everyone equally.

We are as important as the head. We are not the tail. If things are looking bad around us with all the evil, the crimes and corruption, we still choose to live according to God’s system. God will not change. We should not lose our confidence and trust in Him. We should not be lacking in faith. We need to put these principles as our life’s attitude. It doesn’t matter if we are “the last ones hired.” God treats everyone equally. Genesis 1 and 2 stresses the fact that everything was created for man to enjoy and to be blessed. It is not enough to just know but we really have to believe. We’ve been given holiness and righteousness. God blessed us to be fruitful and to multiply. We need to stand firm and not be deceived by the enemy.