The text of the cantata is based on the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. Mr. Throb of the Theology faculty offers today's inspirational message. He begins by reading aloud the pertinent passage from the Bible:
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. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.Mr. Throb finishes reading and looks up at the congregation. "Okay," he says. "I have several thoughts about this parable.
"First, these laborers are pretty stupid, working all day for a penny. I mean, what can you buy with a penny? Pretty much nothing. You might as well collect welfare or unemployment or whatever.
"Also, this householder is a piece of work. I mean, he pays his workers peanuts and on top of that he pays the same amount to the workers who start early and those who start late, which is almost certainly violates labor laws in most states. Then, when the workers complain he quotes contract law and says, like, 'hey, this is my property and if you don't like what I pay you go fuck yourself'.
"Which reminds me of that passage in Marx where the factory owner shows the worker the great army of the unemployed standing outside to justify paying starvation wages.
"So if the householder is a metaphor for God or something, I'd say we need a union.
"Other than that, I have no idea what this parable is about, so let's cut this short."
With that, Mr. Pipes cranks up the organ with a triumphal recessional and the service is over.
Lily Chang awaits outside. She invites Roderick to lunch with suggestions of possible sex. Roderick is tempted -- the sight of her decolletage reminds him, once again, that she is buxom for an Asian girl (even one from Minneapolis) -- but he declines. "I have to read John Locke for Mr. Parvelescu's seminar," he says.
Back in his room, Roderick stretches out on the bed with Locke's Two Treatises and begins to read Book One:
Slavery is so vile and miserable an estate of man, and so directly opposite to the generous temper and courage of our nation; that it is hardly to be conceived, that an Englishman, much less a gentleman, should plead for it. And truly I should have taken Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, as any other treatise, which would persuade all men, that they are slaves, and ought to be so, for such another exercise of wit, as was his who writ the encomium of Nero; rather than for a serious discourse meant in earnest, had not the gravity of the title and epistle, the picture in the front of the book, and the applause that followed it, required me to believe, that the author and publisher were both in earnest. I therefore took it into my hands with all the expectation, and read it through with all the attention due to a treatise that made such a noise at its coming abroad, and cannot but confess my self mightily surprised, that in a book, which was to provide chains for all mankind, I should find nothing but a rope of sand, useful perhaps to such, whose skill and business it is to raise a dust, and would blind the people, the better to mislead them; but in truth not of any force to draw those into bondage, who have their eyes open, and so much sense about them, as to consider, that chains are but an ill wearing, how much care soever hath been taken to file and polish them.He pauses. Wow, he thinks, that paragraph is a doozy. And who the bleepity-bleep is Sir Robert Filmer?
He continues to read:
If any one think I take too much liberty in speaking so freely of a man, who is the great champion of absolute power, and the idol of those who worship it; I beseech him to make this small allowance for once, to one, who, even after the reading of Sir Robert’s book, cannot but think himself, as the laws allow him, a freeman: and I know no fault it is to do so, unless any one better skilled in the fate of it, than I, should have it revealed to him, that this treatise, which has lain dormant so long, was, when it appeared in the world, to carry, by strength of its arguments, all liberty out of it; and that from thenceforth our author’s short model was to be the pattern in the mount, and the perfect standard of politics for the future.Roderick pauses again. Jeez, he thinks. This guy Locke never read The Elements of Style, it seems, especially the part about omitting needless words. Boil those grafs down, dude, to something like 'Slavery sucks, Filmer's an idiot and I'm going to flatten him.'
He starts reading again, but there is a knock on the door. It's Megan, dressed in her Regency gown. She pushes in.
"Mr. Darcy, I came by to tell you that I couldn't possibly submit to your salacious lust unless, of course, you force me to do so."
Okay, perhaps Locke can wait awhile.
