Marketocracy

Today it was baptism. Bishop Biyela
baptised one of his grand nieces, here
with the baptismal candle!

Bishop Musawenkosi Dalindlela Biyela preached at the Lutheran Theological Institute (LTI) today. It was a powerful sermon. On Jesus’ parable about the labourers in the vineyard! (Matthew 20:1-16) When the landowner comes to the marketplace and finds people standing idle, he says:

You also go into the vineyard ...

This became the theme of the sermon. What the bishop focused on was the grace that the owner of the vineyard showed to those that only had worked one hour. They got the same wage as those who had worked a full day. The grace is not only for some. It is for everyone:

You also!

But, isn’t it unjust? In a way, yes! I think the bishop agreed to this, when he said that the grace is disgusting!!

I have heard sermons about ’amazing grace’ but never about ’disgusting grace’. Of course he is right. Any labour union should be provoked by such an employer.

In the first scripture reading, from the Hebrew Scriptures, we heard of Jonah, who becomes furious when God was concerned about the people (and animals, too) of Nineveh! Jonah wanted God to punish the city. God refused!

We understood, of course, that the bishop preached about our relationship with God. And that none of us deserve God’s grace. But the bishop didn’t stop there. He went further and quite clearly he wanted to apply the text on our present situation in society. He spoke about the difference between the marketplace and the vineyard. How much better it is to be sent by God to carry out good work in the vineyard, than to stand idle in the marketplace. At one stage he said:

Maybe I am inventing a new English word.

Beautiful rhetoric! Of course everyone is listening for the rest.

We don’t live in a democracy. We live in a marketocracy!

This is in line with much of the material we study at the university in our module on Ecumenical Perspectives. The ecumenical movement today is outspoken about the role that the market is playing in the world. For example the WCC document

Together Towards Life

which I have mentioned earlier. It says in paragraph 108:

We affirm that the economy of God is based on values of love and justice for all and that transformative mission resists idolatry in the free-market economy.

This means, that God’s grace becomes something more than just a spiritual reality. It is a holistic concept. I like that!