First and Last

Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.
Matthew 20:16

When all our ranks and rites are past,
the first go not before the last.
When all who go, go there as dust.
the last go not before the first.

The fruit is from the selfsame vine:
Adorned in gold and jewels fine
or dressed in rags, or starved or dined,
alike the selfsame shroud shall wind.

The rich have not a rarer breath;
their grasping cannot beggar death,
and paupers, too, new wine will press:
the resurrection of this flesh.

No gold or rags, but blood and bone,
no jewels but the eyes alone:
So poor and rich shall rise as one
to bow before th'incarnate son.

Then all we've hidden shall be seen,
all we have failed to be or been,
all cut and mended, stitched and seamed—
each ragged edge shall be redeemed.

And all the gilded and adorned,
the battered, broken, bent, and torn
shall stand alike before the Lord
and drink the selfsame wine outpoured.

The Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut, from the Nuremberg Chronicle of Hartmann Schedel Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=490534

Something Bigger

So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Matthew 20:1-16a

You called us from the market
and from our own affairs
to labor for your harvest,
and we have done our share.
But you pay us as others
whose work cannot compare.
Shall mercy be unjust, then?
Should mercy not be fair?

We labor for forgiveness,
for working off our debt,
as if our sins were figures,
writ on a balance sheet.
Such hope is all too little—
a crumb instead of bread.
You offer something bigger:
You offer us yourself.

Of heaven's feast you tell us:
You sowed, and we shall reap
beyond all we can reckon,
beyond the count we keep.
Your mercy keeps no record,
though what you paid was steep.
Instead, you make us welcome
and bid us take and eat.

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard: Workers on the field (down) and pay time (up), Byzantine Gospel of 11th century, BnF, Cod. gr. 74 By Unknown author – Byzantine gospel. Paris, National Library., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9472307

Come All You

Based on this Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom: https://mci.archpitt.org/readings/Paschal_Homily_John_Chrysostom.pdf?fbclid=IwAR28LBkRqoQM_mWMvb7wYTMlip_3lWHAruXIakR8nb-nnTzlXNuiDxx_oWE

Come all who served him in the dawn,
(But fear not, you who turned away.)
and you who joined as time went on.
Come all who served him at midday,

who labored while the sun was high.
(Fear not, though you in shadows stayed.)
Come in, and hear his welcome cry.
Come still, though long you have delayed.

Come now: The sun begins to sink.
(But do not fear, all you who wait.)
A feast is spread with meat and drink:
Come all who joined when it was late.

Come all you first into the field
(But, oh, fear not, who you came last.)
for day to night must always yield.
Come now! The hour is not yet past!

Come all you harvesters and feast.
(Fear not, for he will welcome you.)
The greatest come beside the least.
Come! Come! The day is almost through!

Come now in this eleventh hour
(Fear not—this moment is enough!)
for Christ the bread and Christ the sower
calls you into eternal love!