It's a good thing that today's text did not fall earlier in September--say Labor Day weekend. The moral of the story goes against most of the things you and I believe about the relationship between capital and labor.

You know the story well. A landowner went out about six in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed to pay them $20 for the day. That should tell you right off that the workers were not unionized--though some of you can remember when $20 was good pay for a day's work. About nine the landowner returned to the marketplace and saw some other men standing around. He told them, "You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right." At noon he repeated this same ritual, then about three in the afternoon he did the same thing. About five o'clo…