For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. (Matthew 20:1-7, KJV)
We turn this week to one of Christ's more challenging Gospel narratives, The Parable of the Vineyard Workers, pitting our sense of fair play and good business practice against a vision of an extravagantly generous God who breaks all the rules, represented in the story by the owner of a vineyard who pays his day laborers the same amount, regardless of the number of hours they work .Japanese Master Printmaker Sadao Watanabe takes up the theme in this week's featured artwork from the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection, a hand-colored stencil print on crushed momigami paper in an idiosyncratic style combining imagery from traditional Japanese folk art prints with motifs from European medieval art. In the upper tier, the vineyard workers come in lockstep to tend the grapes, only taking on the individual features of a youth and bearded elderly man, when they come with outstretched hands to the paymaster. As usual, attentive birds also have a place in Watanabe's visual world, eager to share in the bountiful harvest! (John Kohan)