May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 21
PROPER: 25C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 25,1998
TEXT: Luke 18:9-14 - The Pharisee & The Tax Collector
"But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you this man went down to his home justified rather than the other . . . ."
ISSUE: The issue of this parable is that we are justified by our faith, our complete trust in God, and not by any of our works of righteousness. It has little to do with humility. There is no health in us. The story of the Tax Collector & Pharisee is very similar to the Prodigal Son & the Righteous Brother. It is God who justifies and save us and seeks to save them from their ways, not themselves. We can only turn to God in trust. Here is another one of the great reversals in Luke and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Today's gospel reading from Luke is another one of those Great Reversals. Jesus tells the story of two men who go to the Temple to say their prayers. It must have really created a sense of rage among many of the people who first heard this story that challenged the very heart of their very basic religious concepts. Jesus says that there were tow men who went to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.
Now first a little background on Pharisees. Usually in the New Testament, the Pharisees get a bad rap. Pharisaism began as a group of religious men who in the face of evil persecutors who stood up for their faith. When conquerors tried desperately to destroy the faith of Israel, the Pharisees stood firm in the face of great danger and put their lives on the line declaring to be faithful and stringently committed to keeping God's law in the face of evil and danger. Apparently some of Jesus' friends were Pharisees. Nicodemus was reportedly close to Jesus, and Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus himself was thought to have possibly been a Pharisee himself. He was invited into the homes of Pharisees for dinner, and that in itself is indicative that he was considered a Pharisee. While Pharasaism began with the best of intentions as the movement aged, there were those who were more external in terms of their adherence to the law, than they were internally religious. Jesus attempted to reform that aspect and challenged some of them, and for that reason came to be seen as an enemy of the pharisees which is not completely true. Jesus was a reformer in this sense, and people don't usually like reformers, especially if you are the one to be reformed.
In any event, Jesus tells of a good Pharisee who goes to the Temple to pray. He stands in the Temple which was the prayerful stance and custom of the time. He thanks God that he is not like some others. He is not a thief and has not participated in embezzlement. He is not a rogue: not mischievous, a scoundrel, a wandering vagabond like the shepherds were, and other disenfranchised lost characters., and didn't cheat like the poorer tax collecting agents did. He is not like the tax collector standing over there in the corner. He fasted twice a week, which was more than was required. Once a week was sufficient. And, he did in fact give a tenth or tithe of his income, which was quite generous and a requirement of the law.
Over in the other corner stands the tax collector. Tax collectors were the guys who pretty much sold out to the Romans. They could not find work so they resorted to being tax collectors. Most of these agents did not make much money. They were in constant argument with the merchants over the cost of the tax. They were inclined, but not always, to try to collect more than the actual cost of the tax to survive. They were also considered ritually, ceremonially, unclean. They touched unclean things as they examined cargo, and were thereby unwelcomed guests in Jewish homes, and were thought to be highly resented by earlier wealthy Christians in Luke's time. The tax collector in question comes into the Temple to pray. The difference is that he does not look up to heaven, and makes no claim of righteousness or thanksgiving. He beats his breast, which was sign when men beat their breast of great desperation. He says only and with great pathos, "God, be merciful to me a Sinner!" He is likely the rogue, the cheat, the thief, and maybe even an adulterer.
Now my good friends, which one of these persons do you want to serve on the Vestry of your church? Be honest. Of course we want the righteous good man and/or woman to serve on the Vestry, most especially if they are tithers. Which one of these persons do you think would clear the examining board, and the Vestry for that matter to be the priest of your congregation? Which one would get selected for ordination, and who would be most likely eliminated. Which one of these guys would you want your daughter to marry? Which one would most of us desire to associate with? Which one in our sight would be the more acceptable in our society?
Well of course, since this is another one of Jesus' parables of Great Reversal, Jesus says that it is the tax collector the sinner that goes home more justified than rather than the upright abiding by the rules Pharisee. This conclusion on Jesus' part made his listeners likely to have been mad as hell. It makes many of us mad too. We want and expect a reward for being good and righteous. Jesus says, "No way . . . . . for all who exalt themselves will be humbled but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
This parable of the Pharisee and the Publican is very similar to the Parable of the Prodigal Son and the Loving Father. It's wonderful that the prodigal son who abandons his father, squanders his life, ending up in the pig sty, and comes to his father for forgiveness. He gets it before he asks: ring, shoes, and fatted calf. We are however very sympathetic with the older son who stayed at home and behaved himself. We like the forgiveness idea, but we can't quite get over having to earn rewards by being good and following all the rules. The Pharisees hated what Jesus said, and many of us do too. The good guys should win.
What is Jesus up to when he told these parable, especially this one of the good pharisee and the tax collector? Both of them had a relationship with God, both went to the Temple to pray. To help answer this question we have to keep in mind what the very heart of the Gospel is about. Essentially it is about death and resurrection, isn't it? The larger part of the Gospels, the part that takes up most of the room is the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. We believe and trust and are to be loyal that the God of Love will raise up that which is fallen. In the story the two men have a relationship with God. The tax collector sees himself as totally fallen in need of being raised up, made righteous, which he cannot do by himself. He's dead. the Pharisee is dead too, but he refuses to accept it. He spends his time telling God how great he is and thanks God he is not a sinner, and the more he runs at the mouth the more we see that in all of his moralism and good deeds, he is a discompassionate unloving contemptuous bastard. As good as he is, he cannot see that he too is in need of redemption and being raised up.
People like to glory in their achievements. We are pleased that we worked real hard and got our educations and come to land in Kingsville. We glory in being the self-made people and with that goes our sense of blessing and righteousness. On thanksgiving we thank God for all the good stuff we have. But is it all a result of our being good and great achievers? Some of it is luck. We were luck to be born where we were and have the background into which we were born. Many of us are the products and have the status of life we are in by having had an inheritance, not by our own achievements. Some of us who are weathy achieved it through scandalouls family backgrounds that robbed the poor and had slaves. Many of us who claim to be righteous and such do gooders are sometimes miserably unhappy people who hate their lives. There is such enormous pressure in having to be winners, good guy, achievers, and hot shots. We feel we have to please and be pleasing to retain the reward. We cling to the accumulated junk of our lives like it was our hope, security, and salvation.
What of the children who grow up in the projects who all they have ever known is lousy diets, poor health, violence, unstable family life, that has been an ongoing cycle in their families and in their communities from generation to generation. We are often inclined to look down on that and say, "They just don't work hard enough. If they just worked harder then they wouldn't be like that. We thank you God that we are not like that."
Another one of the things we sometimes are inclined to latch on to is moralism. We like to think, and pray, I suppose, and to offer to God, and to others our satisfaction with our great moral principals. One dear soul I once knew was so adamant about declaring that all you have to do is keep the Ten Commandments. No lust, no dishonesty, no bearing false witness. He was hard on those fags. Moral as he was he died a miserable dreadful alcoholic who had ruined his health and his family creating a generation or two of hate and guilt. When we become moralistic without recognizing that all any of us can really say is, "God be merciful to me a sinner." We a no more really than bags of wind. It's alot like being a man who works and works and works and works. He's intent upon building his home, having a big bank account, and wants his children to have music lessons, and horseback riding, learn gymnasitics and go to college. Only to find he wears himself out and dies the victim of a wife who hates him, and father of children who never know who he really is, and he never gets to know them. He's a lost winner, and is too dumb to see it.
All any of us can really say is, inspite of all the good stuff we think we've acheived, is "God be merciful to me a sinner. . . . God raise up in me that which is fallen." And that is all pretty much what we can ever say. I know we would like to think that the Tax collector in the story should be improved. This week he is in the Temple and confesses to being a sinner: "God have mercy." By next week we think he should return to the Temple having given up tax collecting or at least be a little more honest. Then he would be a good achiever and start being a winner, like us. Oh that that were possible, but again that is not even what God wants. He does not want our goodness and our morality. He wants our loyalty, trust, and faith, complete devotion that without God we cannot survive. We are losers in need of redemption; we can only die, lose our lives to be lifted up, resurrected by God's grace.
Now I know we all ask then, is being good unimportant? Do we just give up on morality? Of course not. Jesus did not come to throw out the law. But he did say that it is not our salvation. We break the law and we are sinners. We need God's grace to be raised up, to be resurrected. In the case of the older good son of the Loving Father, the Father says please come in and join the party. It is not your works that are all that important, it is your love of me and my love of you. Please come to the party.
Next week we are going to celebrate All Saints' Day, and there will be three baptisms. What's going to happen. Well if we understand the theology and the ritual, we are going to bear witness to three drownings and by the grace of God three resurrections. Three children who have absolutely no merit of their own will die to separation from God and be lifeted up as God's children in brotherhood and sisterhood with Jesus Christ. Likewise all of us who were baptized were not baptized because we were good, because we knew all the Bible stories, but because God's love embraces us inspite of ourselves. That's the Good News that is sometimes it seems too good to be true. Sometimes it even makes us mad.
Sunday, October 25, 1998
Sunday, October 18, 1998
Pentecost 20
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 20
PROPER: 24 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 18, 1998
TEXT: Luke18:1-8a - The Parable of the Unjust Judge
"And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them."
ISSUE: The parable argues from the lesser to the greater. If a scandalous shameless judge can ultimately be persuaded to give just, how much more will a sensitive, caring, and compassionate God respond to his people's cries for help? Luke leads us to believe that we must be persistent in prayer, i.e. relationship with God. It may well mean to be continuously loyal in our belief. Still another point to be made is that God will reclaim the lost and dying, which the old widow lady represents, in the same way the lost prodigal son, the lost sheep and coin are all reclaimed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Gospel of Luke tells us that that Jesus told a parable about an old widow lady and a very unjust or shameless judge. Luke says that the parable is about the need to pray, and not to lose heart. As Luke was addressing a very new and probably pretty shabby early church in a time when this feeble movement did not have much strength or respect in the powerful Roman world, the call for persistent prayer and faithfulness was quite relevant and needed. It would have been easy for early followers of the way, new Christians, to give up, and return to old ways and lesser pagan religions. Hold on in the face of seeming injustice, Luke is saying, be persistent in prayer and the people of faith will survive. It was no doubt a needed sermon for that time, and in the face of the encroaching secular world upon our time, it has its relevance for the church and its people today.
The parable itself uses some interesting images, that are best understood in the context of the period. In the parable, Jesus says that an old widow woman who comes before a judge demanding justice. The Hebrew word for "widow" actually means "the silent ones" or "one unable to speak." A widow in this period, having no husband, or son, would be quite vulnerable to injustice, exploitation, and being oppressed. In Judaism there were many laws and teachings in the prophets that were meant to protect helpless (i.e. silenced) widows and orphans. But human nature being what it is, the widows were still often quite susceptible to being taken advantage of. In the early church, the Epistle of James makes reference to the fact that "true religion of God is to care for widows and orphans. In this story the widow comes before a judge with considerable desperation, having no one to speak for her.
She comes before a very difficult magistrate. He is said to be a judge who has no shame, and cares for neither God or other people. He was shameless. He does not give her the justice that she thinks she deserves. She cannot win the case. Insistent for justice and the need to win, the woman keeps returning for a proper judgment. Eventually the judge gives in and awards her a winning judgment. He says that she is wearing him out. The literal translation of "wearing him out" comes from a Greek boxing term, which means she will blacken his face, or give him a black eye. While he may have no shame, and no respect of God and man, trials were public. The very idea that an old widow lady (a woman!) would blacken the eye of the judge would be met with such shame and humiliation before the whole community that the judge gives in to the widow. He could not live that down in a million years.
The parable then argues from the lesser to the greater. If a shameless and corrupt judge can be ultimately convinced to give justice, then how much more will a God who cares respond to the needs of his people in a world where they often meet with injustice. So the parable calls for persistence and loyal trust that God will provide the jultimate justice for human need. Be persistent in prayer. This prayerfulness is a matter keeping up and in a close relationship with God. Inspite of the powerlessness that the early Christians may have felt in their world, there was the belief and trust that God would prevail. Persistent prayer is that steady conversational relationship with God that his will and justice will prevail. Considering the history of the time, we might say that the persistence of the saints through persecutions, and the faith of men like St. Paul, the church of God continued to prevail and comes to us even today.
In our own time we see ourselves living in what appears to be a shameless world. Monica and Bill seem to have no shame and seem to be vivid symbols of a culture that really doesn't seem to care. The conduct of so many these days indicate a loss of shamefulness. Yet we struggle as a church and as Christians to prevail in such prayerful way that appropriate morality and justice may continue to prevail. One profound example is that of Rosa Parks, who some years ago, simply refused to give up her seat on a bus in a southern state. She like a "silent one" persisted in justice, and was the cause of a revolution that rocked and changed the most powerful nation in the world. In subsequent protests a whole community took to walking to work instead of riding on busses. Rosa Parks and a community of poor powerless people shamed a shameless nation into respecting the dignity of every human being. Through that prayerful and persistent action, the powerless released the justice of God. Our persistent prayer in our on going relationship with God must be that we can remain persistent in the face of our enemies, our opponents.
Today a community of Christians must stand firm in their opposition to hate crimes. We must stand persistently in our resistance to terrorisms and acts of revenge, to crime in our streets, and be persistently involved in our fights against cancer, AIDs, poverty, homelessness. It's appropriate that we worship with a regularity that conveys our persistence in prayer to the world and the community that we in relationship with God desire to be the channels and servants of grace through which the justice of God may flow.
It is not easy to be persistent in faith in a culture that often challenges the premises of our faith. Shamefulness in our time is not a significant problem. The judge in the parable in our time is pretty much what we expect of a judge that he be totally impartial and have no respect of God or of religion. He's a self-made man with power and success. The old lady who persists with her case in our culture is seen as merely a trouble maker and an aggressive old bitch challenging the status-quo. Challenging the culture and the powers of our time in community, it's government and even in a heirarchical church is not easy. We can be impatient, becaust that is also one of the aspects of our culture. We like things to happen right now, and we like "instant" lotteries. The message in the parable is continuing loyalty, faithfulness, persistence in being the people of God.
Now that we think we know what is at the heart of this parable and think that we are responsible for helping out poor old God, lets approach it from another point of view. Presumably we see this parable as one about being prayerful. And that is, in fact, what Luke says the parable is about. Being prayerful and diligent in prayer is one of the Luke's themes. Remember as well that Luke tells us that Jesus tells the parable of the man who awakens his neighbor in the middle of the night to provide bread for a visitor. "Ask, seek, knock," the parable concludes: the door will be opened. You don't give your son a scorpion when he asks for an egg, or a snake when he asks for a fish. "How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" God inevitably responds to those who seek the Spirit in prayers.
Yet if we remove the moralizing from the parable and the idea that it is about prayer, which may have been more the emphasis of the early church than of Jesus and deal with the parable all by itself and alone you may come up with another understanding that reveals a profound Good News.
There is a scandalous shameless judge and an old widow. The old widow is is powerless, and without a husband and adult son she is all but dead. The future for a widow in this period was pretty grim. She is as bad off as the lost prodigal son in the pig pen, and the lost sheep in the wilderness surrounded by a pack of wolves, and as hidden in the darkness as a lost coin. She's dead. As a result of and in her dying she confronts a scandalous judge and demands to be saved, reconciled, put right. She implores him for her life. Ultimately the scandalous judge gives in to her demands. One might well wonder if the the old widow lady is something of a symbol or representation of a dying humanity that by itself is totally week and alone. It stands as an image of the weak, the lost, the least, and the dead appealing desperately. They are appealing desperately to a scandalous Judge, a scandalous judge. And for Jesus God was in fact scandalous, and Jesus' presentation of God in his time was very scandalous. For the righteous and for the hard hearted, for the pharisees in Jesus' time it was scandalous to think that God would bend to the longings of the outcast, the poor, and the dying. But he does! It was scandalous to think that the Father of the prodigal son would put a robe on his back, a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet even before the son asks for forgiveness. The father acts shamelessly in his time. The shepherd, a man of little honor, goes looking for one stray sheep in a flock of 100 has lost his mind. But he does. The woman goes searching for her lost coin and searches until she finds it. It is scandalous to think of God in Jesus' time as a woman! If however, a crazy old man will forgive an ungrateful selfish brat son, . . . . if a shepherd with a exhorbitantly large flock will search for one lost sheep, . . . . . if a an old lady will search diligently for a lost coin, if a lost dying old lady goes searching for new hope, . . . . . then How much more will a God scandalously extravagant in this love, scandalously extravagant in his forgiveness, scandalously loving the lost, the last, the least, the dying, reach out to all who pursue him in faith! For Jesus God is scandalous and his teaching about God was scandalous in his time, but then Jesus was intending to reclaim the real and genuine honor of God as the God who ultimately lifts up the fallen, the dying, the least, the outcast, the powerless who turn to him in faith. God will rule in favor of his sinful and fallen and shameless people and have mercy on them, and raise them up. Scandalously God pronounces acquital upon an entire race of unrepentant people, people who are terrible nuisances, pitiful jerks and nerds.
Are we supposed to be diligent in our prayerfulness? Of course we are. Are we supposed to be loyal to God? But of course. Are we supposed to be channels of grace and servants of the Lord? Most certainly. Are we supposed to be diligent in our worship, our generous and abundant giving. Yes, of course. Are we supposed to seek perfection? Indeed. Are we? Are we any of these things on any regular basis? Of course we are not. Yet a scandalous God comes to wrestle with us as the divine figure wrestles with the deceiving Jacob in the Old Testament lesson today. Jesus gives a scandalous God a whole new kind of honor. He loves the unloveable, the least, the last, the lost, and the dying, and that is the good news.
Note: The concluding parts of this sermon are taken from and inspired by Robert Capon's book, The Parables of Grace, 1995 reprinted, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
SEASON: Pentecost 20
PROPER: 24 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 18, 1998
TEXT: Luke18:1-8a - The Parable of the Unjust Judge
"And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them."
ISSUE: The parable argues from the lesser to the greater. If a scandalous shameless judge can ultimately be persuaded to give just, how much more will a sensitive, caring, and compassionate God respond to his people's cries for help? Luke leads us to believe that we must be persistent in prayer, i.e. relationship with God. It may well mean to be continuously loyal in our belief. Still another point to be made is that God will reclaim the lost and dying, which the old widow lady represents, in the same way the lost prodigal son, the lost sheep and coin are all reclaimed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Gospel of Luke tells us that that Jesus told a parable about an old widow lady and a very unjust or shameless judge. Luke says that the parable is about the need to pray, and not to lose heart. As Luke was addressing a very new and probably pretty shabby early church in a time when this feeble movement did not have much strength or respect in the powerful Roman world, the call for persistent prayer and faithfulness was quite relevant and needed. It would have been easy for early followers of the way, new Christians, to give up, and return to old ways and lesser pagan religions. Hold on in the face of seeming injustice, Luke is saying, be persistent in prayer and the people of faith will survive. It was no doubt a needed sermon for that time, and in the face of the encroaching secular world upon our time, it has its relevance for the church and its people today.
The parable itself uses some interesting images, that are best understood in the context of the period. In the parable, Jesus says that an old widow woman who comes before a judge demanding justice. The Hebrew word for "widow" actually means "the silent ones" or "one unable to speak." A widow in this period, having no husband, or son, would be quite vulnerable to injustice, exploitation, and being oppressed. In Judaism there were many laws and teachings in the prophets that were meant to protect helpless (i.e. silenced) widows and orphans. But human nature being what it is, the widows were still often quite susceptible to being taken advantage of. In the early church, the Epistle of James makes reference to the fact that "true religion of God is to care for widows and orphans. In this story the widow comes before a judge with considerable desperation, having no one to speak for her.
She comes before a very difficult magistrate. He is said to be a judge who has no shame, and cares for neither God or other people. He was shameless. He does not give her the justice that she thinks she deserves. She cannot win the case. Insistent for justice and the need to win, the woman keeps returning for a proper judgment. Eventually the judge gives in and awards her a winning judgment. He says that she is wearing him out. The literal translation of "wearing him out" comes from a Greek boxing term, which means she will blacken his face, or give him a black eye. While he may have no shame, and no respect of God and man, trials were public. The very idea that an old widow lady (a woman!) would blacken the eye of the judge would be met with such shame and humiliation before the whole community that the judge gives in to the widow. He could not live that down in a million years.
The parable then argues from the lesser to the greater. If a shameless and corrupt judge can be ultimately convinced to give justice, then how much more will a God who cares respond to the needs of his people in a world where they often meet with injustice. So the parable calls for persistence and loyal trust that God will provide the jultimate justice for human need. Be persistent in prayer. This prayerfulness is a matter keeping up and in a close relationship with God. Inspite of the powerlessness that the early Christians may have felt in their world, there was the belief and trust that God would prevail. Persistent prayer is that steady conversational relationship with God that his will and justice will prevail. Considering the history of the time, we might say that the persistence of the saints through persecutions, and the faith of men like St. Paul, the church of God continued to prevail and comes to us even today.
In our own time we see ourselves living in what appears to be a shameless world. Monica and Bill seem to have no shame and seem to be vivid symbols of a culture that really doesn't seem to care. The conduct of so many these days indicate a loss of shamefulness. Yet we struggle as a church and as Christians to prevail in such prayerful way that appropriate morality and justice may continue to prevail. One profound example is that of Rosa Parks, who some years ago, simply refused to give up her seat on a bus in a southern state. She like a "silent one" persisted in justice, and was the cause of a revolution that rocked and changed the most powerful nation in the world. In subsequent protests a whole community took to walking to work instead of riding on busses. Rosa Parks and a community of poor powerless people shamed a shameless nation into respecting the dignity of every human being. Through that prayerful and persistent action, the powerless released the justice of God. Our persistent prayer in our on going relationship with God must be that we can remain persistent in the face of our enemies, our opponents.
Today a community of Christians must stand firm in their opposition to hate crimes. We must stand persistently in our resistance to terrorisms and acts of revenge, to crime in our streets, and be persistently involved in our fights against cancer, AIDs, poverty, homelessness. It's appropriate that we worship with a regularity that conveys our persistence in prayer to the world and the community that we in relationship with God desire to be the channels and servants of grace through which the justice of God may flow.
It is not easy to be persistent in faith in a culture that often challenges the premises of our faith. Shamefulness in our time is not a significant problem. The judge in the parable in our time is pretty much what we expect of a judge that he be totally impartial and have no respect of God or of religion. He's a self-made man with power and success. The old lady who persists with her case in our culture is seen as merely a trouble maker and an aggressive old bitch challenging the status-quo. Challenging the culture and the powers of our time in community, it's government and even in a heirarchical church is not easy. We can be impatient, becaust that is also one of the aspects of our culture. We like things to happen right now, and we like "instant" lotteries. The message in the parable is continuing loyalty, faithfulness, persistence in being the people of God.
Now that we think we know what is at the heart of this parable and think that we are responsible for helping out poor old God, lets approach it from another point of view. Presumably we see this parable as one about being prayerful. And that is, in fact, what Luke says the parable is about. Being prayerful and diligent in prayer is one of the Luke's themes. Remember as well that Luke tells us that Jesus tells the parable of the man who awakens his neighbor in the middle of the night to provide bread for a visitor. "Ask, seek, knock," the parable concludes: the door will be opened. You don't give your son a scorpion when he asks for an egg, or a snake when he asks for a fish. "How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" God inevitably responds to those who seek the Spirit in prayers.
Yet if we remove the moralizing from the parable and the idea that it is about prayer, which may have been more the emphasis of the early church than of Jesus and deal with the parable all by itself and alone you may come up with another understanding that reveals a profound Good News.
There is a scandalous shameless judge and an old widow. The old widow is is powerless, and without a husband and adult son she is all but dead. The future for a widow in this period was pretty grim. She is as bad off as the lost prodigal son in the pig pen, and the lost sheep in the wilderness surrounded by a pack of wolves, and as hidden in the darkness as a lost coin. She's dead. As a result of and in her dying she confronts a scandalous judge and demands to be saved, reconciled, put right. She implores him for her life. Ultimately the scandalous judge gives in to her demands. One might well wonder if the the old widow lady is something of a symbol or representation of a dying humanity that by itself is totally week and alone. It stands as an image of the weak, the lost, the least, and the dead appealing desperately. They are appealing desperately to a scandalous Judge, a scandalous judge. And for Jesus God was in fact scandalous, and Jesus' presentation of God in his time was very scandalous. For the righteous and for the hard hearted, for the pharisees in Jesus' time it was scandalous to think that God would bend to the longings of the outcast, the poor, and the dying. But he does! It was scandalous to think that the Father of the prodigal son would put a robe on his back, a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet even before the son asks for forgiveness. The father acts shamelessly in his time. The shepherd, a man of little honor, goes looking for one stray sheep in a flock of 100 has lost his mind. But he does. The woman goes searching for her lost coin and searches until she finds it. It is scandalous to think of God in Jesus' time as a woman! If however, a crazy old man will forgive an ungrateful selfish brat son, . . . . if a shepherd with a exhorbitantly large flock will search for one lost sheep, . . . . . if a an old lady will search diligently for a lost coin, if a lost dying old lady goes searching for new hope, . . . . . then How much more will a God scandalously extravagant in this love, scandalously extravagant in his forgiveness, scandalously loving the lost, the last, the least, the dying, reach out to all who pursue him in faith! For Jesus God is scandalous and his teaching about God was scandalous in his time, but then Jesus was intending to reclaim the real and genuine honor of God as the God who ultimately lifts up the fallen, the dying, the least, the outcast, the powerless who turn to him in faith. God will rule in favor of his sinful and fallen and shameless people and have mercy on them, and raise them up. Scandalously God pronounces acquital upon an entire race of unrepentant people, people who are terrible nuisances, pitiful jerks and nerds.
Are we supposed to be diligent in our prayerfulness? Of course we are. Are we supposed to be loyal to God? But of course. Are we supposed to be channels of grace and servants of the Lord? Most certainly. Are we supposed to be diligent in our worship, our generous and abundant giving. Yes, of course. Are we supposed to seek perfection? Indeed. Are we? Are we any of these things on any regular basis? Of course we are not. Yet a scandalous God comes to wrestle with us as the divine figure wrestles with the deceiving Jacob in the Old Testament lesson today. Jesus gives a scandalous God a whole new kind of honor. He loves the unloveable, the least, the last, the lost, and the dying, and that is the good news.
Note: The concluding parts of this sermon are taken from and inspired by Robert Capon's book, The Parables of Grace, 1995 reprinted, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Sunday, October 11, 1998
Pentecost 19
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 19
PROPER: 23C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 11, 1998
TEXT: Luke 17:11-19 - The Ten Lepers & Jesus
The he said to hom, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
ISSUE: Several different approaches can be taken with this story. Yet, it seems to be essentially about how Jesus expands boundaries to include those who are often excluded. This is the a significant part of the Good News. The leprous Samaritan outcast is included into God's Kingdom through the healing Christ Jesus as this man comes to him in faith. The story is also one in which a man in great gratitude for his acceptance gives thanks and praises God. The story is insightful for the church today, and for the love expressed by the inclusiveness of Jesus. Through him we are healed for service.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ten lepers come to Jesus asking for mercy and healing. He sends them to the priest and Temple to show themselves, and they find that on the way they are cured. Of the ten lepers only one returns, and he is a Samaritan, to give thanks prostrating himself on the ground as a sign of his great humility. Many of us have learned and deduced, perhaps, that this story is one about the appropriateness of giving thanks, especially to God his his blessings. Truly, I think that that is one of the issues important to this story. We may assume that more often than not, like the nine healed lepers, we and others forget to express our deep gratitude to God for many of his blessing. Being thankful expresses our deep gratitude for being alive and expieriencing all the wonders of the world and the universe. What a gift it is to be aware of this marvelous creation. Without gratitude and wonder we can become a very uninteresting, and even grumpy lot of people. So indeed the story reminds us to be grateful to God for his many blessings.
This story is also one which attempts to say who Jesus is so far as Luke and the early chruch is concerned. Elisha who had been one of Israel's great prophets had healed Naaman, a foreigner Syrian general, of leprosy. Naaman returns to Elisha to offer him a gift, which Naaman will not accept. But Naaman declares there is no other God by the God of Israel, and he takes earth from Israel back to his homeland. (It was believed that God could only be worshipped on his own homeland. See 2 Kings 5 f) So the story is one which associates Jesus with one of the great prophets of Israel as the early church attempted to proclaim Jesus as a unique new prophet and messianic figure who is of the true God of Israel.
What really seems to be at the heart of this story of Jesus healing the Ten Lepers is the issue of expanding the borders of acceptance. The first clue is given when Luke writes: On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going though the region between Samaria and Galilee." He is skirting along strange boundaries, an unsusual way to Jerusalem. Some background is important to the deepest appreciation of the story. First of all the leprosy here was proably not Hansen's Disease. Leprosy of this type was not common to this area at the time. Leprosy in this area was any time of skin diseases, like psoriasis. Any skin irritation that was flaky, scaly, oozing was considered to be a form of leprosy. The fear of it was not that it was something to be caught, but rather it was considered an impurity, dirty, a pollution. Even a house could get leprosy, if there was mildew or some kind of deteriorating fungus on its wall. The skin, the wall of a house was a barrior or a border between the person and the outside world. Without a proper boundary, the person was subject to the pollution of the world or could pollute other by excretions. Women have their menses were considered unclean. A person who crossed the border from a foreign land when entering Israel would shake the dust off his feet. Israel was holy, was to be kept holy. Boundaries were very important. The marriage of Israelites to foreign women as various time in their history was forbidden. In the books of Ezra 10 and Nehemiah 9, Israelites who had married foreign women were called upon to divorce them and send them back to their home land back across the borders, for they were polluting and unclean. (Note that the Book of Ruth disputes, read today, disputes the exclusion of foreigners, as Ruth becomes a devoted Israelite, and the great grandmother of King David.)
The Book of Leviticus contains many purity laws. Marriage laws protected the boundaries of society; purity laws protected the homan body boundardes. All these laws were designed to ensure that Israel would remain "holy as the Lord is holy," and is a recurring theme in Leviticus (11:44). Lepers were not allowed to enter the Jerusalem Temple, for they were unclean. They were required to cry out whenever near other people, "Unclean, I am unclean." They had to keep themselves separated, placing a boundary between themselves and others so as not to pollute or spread their uncleaness.
Ten lepers come to Jesus begging for mercy, healing, so that they could be restored to the community. The requirement was that if their skin disease healed or went into a remission, they would show themselves to the priest to be declared clean, and then would enter the Temple to offer the appropriate sacrifices. Jesus sends the Ten to the priest. By the time them arrive they are healed. Since one of the Ten is a Samaritan, because he is a Samaritan he cannot go to a Judean priest, and neither can he enter the Temple. He is an outsider and Jews and Samaritans did not mix. He can only return to Jesus who he is declaring to be his new priest and Temple. He returns in great thanksgiving. Do you see what Jesus has done? He has enlarged the boundaries of acceptance. The leper, that is the unclean and impure polluted one becomes embraced and included. He is also accepting of the hated and alienated Samaritans.
The other nine lepers were a part of the Judean "in-group." They could show themselves to the priest and go into the Temple. There is no reason real for them to return to Jesus to give thanks. They simply saw Jesus as an equal, just another healer. You didn't thank your equals in these days you simply repaid them. They could do that anytime. The Samaritan's thanks meant he could not repay Jesus, and all he can do is give thanks and praise God. Jesus in turn praises him for his faithfulness, for his loyalty in returning to adore the Lord of his life. In this story, the Samaritan leper is not just cleansed, cured, and restored. He is made whole and fully, totally well in his faithfulness. He is not merely cured of his disease but has become fully aware of who is the Lord of his life.
What do we see in all of this? Well certainly the appropriateness of being thankful to God. We also see once again how Jesus is always pushing back, and pushing away the boundaries that separate and exclude people from God and from one another. The Samaritan, an hated alien becomes acceptable and included into the compassion of God expressed in Jesus Christ. Incidentally, it is believed that a very large population of the Samaritan Jews became Christians in the early church. The story tells just that Jesus is the truly great healyer, high priest and prophet of God. It calls for faithful turning to him to be true, genuine, faithful, loyal compatriots with him pushing back the boundaries that separate us from one another, and which makes us uniquely aware of his lordship in our lives.
It is sufficient for us at times just to continue do the same old things that are expected of us, as the nine lepers do in the story. Churches often surround themselves with fences, and in several instances that I know with barbed wire. Others set up less conspicuous barriers by subtle forms of exclusion that are not welcoming and all encompassing. Sometimes just being or trying to be invisible and unobtrusive in the community is a form of exclusion and non-welcoming behavior. But the Samaritan leper is acutely aware of his alienation, and his sickness. He makes the loyal and concerted effort to return to the Lord of his life in thanksgiving and we would assume servanthood. He is healed for service. All around us are broken lives and alienated people. There are people isolated from us for a variety of reasons. There are those separated by race and a culture and world steeped in racisim. There are handicapped, physically challenged people who are separated from one another because physical boundaries that keep us apart, not to mention that we are sometimes strangely threatened by people who are different from us. There are people who are allowed to be separated and forgotten because of the age and failing abilities. They become forgotten and separated. There are those who feel alienated and left out by being divorced, or by having some sense of failure among the so called "better" or more righteous people. We struggle as well in the church with the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in our society that are often ostracized and condemned rather than being met with the hope of finding ways to remove barriers that separate us, and ways that open dialogue and understanding. The Gospel of Jesus, the Good News is a matter of the constant expression of God's gracious outpouring of his love that goes beyond and through the barriers of sin and alienation that have separated people from him and one another.
No one of us is perfect; all have had their various forms of spiritual leprosy. It is likely that each of us have that part of ourselves hidden away that we would never want others to know. There are aspects of us that we perceive as unworthy and untouchable, and from which we would have others keep their distance. Yet through the greatest separations and boundaries comes the forgiving love of God. For that we can be and must be truly grateful. Returning to Christ Jesus in thanksgiving and healing in devoted loyalty makes us truly his compatriots, disciples, and friends. People who seek the healing are worthy of it.
Now a concluding note. Jesus reportedly says to the healed tenth leper, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." There may well be people who having had serious illness who have prayed for a cure that has not come. They may wonder if their faith is not great enough. We all know that not every disease is cured, inspite of our best efforts at prayer and trying to be loyal to God in and through Christ. The point of so many of the healings of Jesus does not lie in the curing of a person, but in that all people in their brokeness are restored always to the grace, mercy, love and compassion of God. Many folk with serious diseases and disabilities express a profound faith and good spirit just in being at one with God in Christ. They are often a real witness in terms of the way in which they accept their illness and maintain a beautifully warm and good spirit. Lazurus who is raised from the dead eventually dies. For all we know the tenth leper's leprosy may have returned. All we know is that in loyalty and gratitude he comes to Christ and finds a wholeness and acceptance. We all have those moments of needing to look to Christ for healing, and knowing full well he accepts, loves and restores us, for all the barriers that separate us from the love of God have been pushed back, and we may enter and know we belong in the Kingdom of God.
SEASON: Pentecost 19
PROPER: 23C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 11, 1998
TEXT: Luke 17:11-19 - The Ten Lepers & Jesus
The he said to hom, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."
ISSUE: Several different approaches can be taken with this story. Yet, it seems to be essentially about how Jesus expands boundaries to include those who are often excluded. This is the a significant part of the Good News. The leprous Samaritan outcast is included into God's Kingdom through the healing Christ Jesus as this man comes to him in faith. The story is also one in which a man in great gratitude for his acceptance gives thanks and praises God. The story is insightful for the church today, and for the love expressed by the inclusiveness of Jesus. Through him we are healed for service.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ten lepers come to Jesus asking for mercy and healing. He sends them to the priest and Temple to show themselves, and they find that on the way they are cured. Of the ten lepers only one returns, and he is a Samaritan, to give thanks prostrating himself on the ground as a sign of his great humility. Many of us have learned and deduced, perhaps, that this story is one about the appropriateness of giving thanks, especially to God his his blessings. Truly, I think that that is one of the issues important to this story. We may assume that more often than not, like the nine healed lepers, we and others forget to express our deep gratitude to God for many of his blessing. Being thankful expresses our deep gratitude for being alive and expieriencing all the wonders of the world and the universe. What a gift it is to be aware of this marvelous creation. Without gratitude and wonder we can become a very uninteresting, and even grumpy lot of people. So indeed the story reminds us to be grateful to God for his many blessings.
This story is also one which attempts to say who Jesus is so far as Luke and the early chruch is concerned. Elisha who had been one of Israel's great prophets had healed Naaman, a foreigner Syrian general, of leprosy. Naaman returns to Elisha to offer him a gift, which Naaman will not accept. But Naaman declares there is no other God by the God of Israel, and he takes earth from Israel back to his homeland. (It was believed that God could only be worshipped on his own homeland. See 2 Kings 5 f) So the story is one which associates Jesus with one of the great prophets of Israel as the early church attempted to proclaim Jesus as a unique new prophet and messianic figure who is of the true God of Israel.
What really seems to be at the heart of this story of Jesus healing the Ten Lepers is the issue of expanding the borders of acceptance. The first clue is given when Luke writes: On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going though the region between Samaria and Galilee." He is skirting along strange boundaries, an unsusual way to Jerusalem. Some background is important to the deepest appreciation of the story. First of all the leprosy here was proably not Hansen's Disease. Leprosy of this type was not common to this area at the time. Leprosy in this area was any time of skin diseases, like psoriasis. Any skin irritation that was flaky, scaly, oozing was considered to be a form of leprosy. The fear of it was not that it was something to be caught, but rather it was considered an impurity, dirty, a pollution. Even a house could get leprosy, if there was mildew or some kind of deteriorating fungus on its wall. The skin, the wall of a house was a barrior or a border between the person and the outside world. Without a proper boundary, the person was subject to the pollution of the world or could pollute other by excretions. Women have their menses were considered unclean. A person who crossed the border from a foreign land when entering Israel would shake the dust off his feet. Israel was holy, was to be kept holy. Boundaries were very important. The marriage of Israelites to foreign women as various time in their history was forbidden. In the books of Ezra 10 and Nehemiah 9, Israelites who had married foreign women were called upon to divorce them and send them back to their home land back across the borders, for they were polluting and unclean. (Note that the Book of Ruth disputes, read today, disputes the exclusion of foreigners, as Ruth becomes a devoted Israelite, and the great grandmother of King David.)
The Book of Leviticus contains many purity laws. Marriage laws protected the boundaries of society; purity laws protected the homan body boundardes. All these laws were designed to ensure that Israel would remain "holy as the Lord is holy," and is a recurring theme in Leviticus (11:44). Lepers were not allowed to enter the Jerusalem Temple, for they were unclean. They were required to cry out whenever near other people, "Unclean, I am unclean." They had to keep themselves separated, placing a boundary between themselves and others so as not to pollute or spread their uncleaness.
Ten lepers come to Jesus begging for mercy, healing, so that they could be restored to the community. The requirement was that if their skin disease healed or went into a remission, they would show themselves to the priest to be declared clean, and then would enter the Temple to offer the appropriate sacrifices. Jesus sends the Ten to the priest. By the time them arrive they are healed. Since one of the Ten is a Samaritan, because he is a Samaritan he cannot go to a Judean priest, and neither can he enter the Temple. He is an outsider and Jews and Samaritans did not mix. He can only return to Jesus who he is declaring to be his new priest and Temple. He returns in great thanksgiving. Do you see what Jesus has done? He has enlarged the boundaries of acceptance. The leper, that is the unclean and impure polluted one becomes embraced and included. He is also accepting of the hated and alienated Samaritans.
The other nine lepers were a part of the Judean "in-group." They could show themselves to the priest and go into the Temple. There is no reason real for them to return to Jesus to give thanks. They simply saw Jesus as an equal, just another healer. You didn't thank your equals in these days you simply repaid them. They could do that anytime. The Samaritan's thanks meant he could not repay Jesus, and all he can do is give thanks and praise God. Jesus in turn praises him for his faithfulness, for his loyalty in returning to adore the Lord of his life. In this story, the Samaritan leper is not just cleansed, cured, and restored. He is made whole and fully, totally well in his faithfulness. He is not merely cured of his disease but has become fully aware of who is the Lord of his life.
What do we see in all of this? Well certainly the appropriateness of being thankful to God. We also see once again how Jesus is always pushing back, and pushing away the boundaries that separate and exclude people from God and from one another. The Samaritan, an hated alien becomes acceptable and included into the compassion of God expressed in Jesus Christ. Incidentally, it is believed that a very large population of the Samaritan Jews became Christians in the early church. The story tells just that Jesus is the truly great healyer, high priest and prophet of God. It calls for faithful turning to him to be true, genuine, faithful, loyal compatriots with him pushing back the boundaries that separate us from one another, and which makes us uniquely aware of his lordship in our lives.
It is sufficient for us at times just to continue do the same old things that are expected of us, as the nine lepers do in the story. Churches often surround themselves with fences, and in several instances that I know with barbed wire. Others set up less conspicuous barriers by subtle forms of exclusion that are not welcoming and all encompassing. Sometimes just being or trying to be invisible and unobtrusive in the community is a form of exclusion and non-welcoming behavior. But the Samaritan leper is acutely aware of his alienation, and his sickness. He makes the loyal and concerted effort to return to the Lord of his life in thanksgiving and we would assume servanthood. He is healed for service. All around us are broken lives and alienated people. There are people isolated from us for a variety of reasons. There are those separated by race and a culture and world steeped in racisim. There are handicapped, physically challenged people who are separated from one another because physical boundaries that keep us apart, not to mention that we are sometimes strangely threatened by people who are different from us. There are people who are allowed to be separated and forgotten because of the age and failing abilities. They become forgotten and separated. There are those who feel alienated and left out by being divorced, or by having some sense of failure among the so called "better" or more righteous people. We struggle as well in the church with the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in our society that are often ostracized and condemned rather than being met with the hope of finding ways to remove barriers that separate us, and ways that open dialogue and understanding. The Gospel of Jesus, the Good News is a matter of the constant expression of God's gracious outpouring of his love that goes beyond and through the barriers of sin and alienation that have separated people from him and one another.
No one of us is perfect; all have had their various forms of spiritual leprosy. It is likely that each of us have that part of ourselves hidden away that we would never want others to know. There are aspects of us that we perceive as unworthy and untouchable, and from which we would have others keep their distance. Yet through the greatest separations and boundaries comes the forgiving love of God. For that we can be and must be truly grateful. Returning to Christ Jesus in thanksgiving and healing in devoted loyalty makes us truly his compatriots, disciples, and friends. People who seek the healing are worthy of it.
Now a concluding note. Jesus reportedly says to the healed tenth leper, "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well." There may well be people who having had serious illness who have prayed for a cure that has not come. They may wonder if their faith is not great enough. We all know that not every disease is cured, inspite of our best efforts at prayer and trying to be loyal to God in and through Christ. The point of so many of the healings of Jesus does not lie in the curing of a person, but in that all people in their brokeness are restored always to the grace, mercy, love and compassion of God. Many folk with serious diseases and disabilities express a profound faith and good spirit just in being at one with God in Christ. They are often a real witness in terms of the way in which they accept their illness and maintain a beautifully warm and good spirit. Lazurus who is raised from the dead eventually dies. For all we know the tenth leper's leprosy may have returned. All we know is that in loyalty and gratitude he comes to Christ and finds a wholeness and acceptance. We all have those moments of needing to look to Christ for healing, and knowing full well he accepts, loves and restores us, for all the barriers that separate us from the love of God have been pushed back, and we may enter and know we belong in the Kingdom of God.
Sunday, October 4, 1998
Pentecost 18
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost 18
PROPER: 22C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 4, 1998
TEXT: Luke 17:5-10 - The Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Parable of the Dutiful Slave
ISSUE: The disciples request that Jesus will help them to increase their faith, their loyalty. Jesus did demand of them a close association beyond family. Simple loyalty is translated into their being like servants who do their duty. In the face of so much distraction in our world claiming our loyalty to Christ and being dutiful servants has a profound effect on allowing the Gospel of Christ to flow through us.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jesus' ministry was devoted to the renewal of Israel. His ministry challenged the old rules and the class distinctions, and all the things that often in the name of religion prevented a person's genuine relationship with the God of love and compassion. Jesus attempted to renew the access to God,a nd for his people to feel the availability of God in their lives so that through God's strength they could live themselves to their fullness. In the first part of Luke's chapter 17, Jesus recgonizes that there are things that get in the way of people's relationships with God. But, it would be better for a person to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea than for a man to cause a person, or child of God, to fall into sin or alienation from God. There is also the command to be forgiving of those who repent in order that people may feel renewed in their relationship with God.
Now, to these teachings of Jesus the disciples want to know how they are to increase their faith, in terms of being facilitators of bringing people to God, or at the least not causing people to fall from grace. They are asking how are they to be truly good disciples. And what is required of them is their faith. A better translation of faith in this context is loyalty, or even reliability. They are called upon to be loyal to the ministry of Jesus. That loyalty has been a matter of even giving up family to be reliable followers of the Lord.
Loyalty and reliabilty are seens as simple and basic to the mission of Jesus. It's as simple as a mustard seed. It doesn't seem very profound, but a a community of loyal, reliable folk, has within them the mighty power of God to do profound things. Just as a mulberry tree is a deeply rooted plant that with faithfulness and loyalty could be uprooted and planted in the sea, which incidentally is not to be taken literally, a reliable community of faith can be a significant and profound channel through which God may work.
Jesus also uses, which was his usual custom and way of teaching, a parable about a dutiful slave. Reliability, loyalty, faithfulness is like a dutiful slave. In Jesus' time, slaves were quite common. Even poor families often had a slave. This was common imagery for the disciples of this time. Poor people and there were so many who could not afford to feed all of their children or various family members would give them up as slaves to other families. These slaves or servants were not treated badly, and it was not like the slave trades of which we are familiar in this country. These slaves or servants were saved from starvation or a life of miserie. While we may still not approve, it was the way things were in Jesus time. Jesus uses this situation as his illustration.
When the slave came home from working in the field and caring for the sheep, his master did not tell him to sit down and relax. The expectation is that the slave will continue his duties and prepare the master's dinner. It is a matter of complete devotion to the master without expectation for a reward. The passage concludes: "We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!" Incidentally, the word "worthless" is another bad translation. Slaves are in no sense worthless; they are, in fact, quite valuable. It really means "owed nothing," or "without need," or "not due anything." Jesus saw himself as a servant of the Lord God, who was not worthless, but who as a child of God was "without need." But the point is that the servant is dutiful, reliable, faithful, loyal, and has all he needs as a servant of God. Being the servants the disciples of Christ is not a matter of entitlement but a way of being. Jesus as servant of God made no claims but gave himself, emptied himself, even unto death.
The disciples want to know how to increase their faith. It is as simple as the tiny mustard seed, there must be a community of loyal folk. They must see themselves as devoted reliable, faithful servants with Christ without expecatation or entitlements. and together the power of God shall prevail in the world. According to the scriptures, Jesus' simple faithful reliability calmed storms, cast out demons, and healed the sick and raised the dead. Our loyalty to God is like a riverbed through which God's love and grace flows into his world.
For many of us today, being faithful, reliable, and loyal does not come easy. We do expect rewards. It is difficult for us to follow Jesus Christ in terms of loving our enemies, not being judgemental, blessing our persecutors, washing one another's feet, forgiving endlessly, giving to whoever asks. The ways of Jesus Christ are indeed challenging to our demands for things to be decent and in order, and to g et our just rewards.
It is also difficult for us to be faithful, when we see a world that offends us and our sensibilities. We settle on problem in our lives and something else occurs that challenges us. One nation struggles to find peace, while another faces famine and starvation of its people. We discover some grand cure for a disease, and then we face a rash of murders in our city and county streets. We have developed one of the most just systems of government, and yet we are faced with sleezy political scandal. Even in the church we hear of significant projects and accomplishments of young people and then of a dreadful law suit against a clergyman. In our own personal lives we are faced constantly with all kinds of ups and downs: good health and serious sickness, a good marriage then divorce, good children and then drug problems, a good job and then layoff. The stock market is up and then it's down. Our world and our lives are constantly challenged. Our best efforts can burn out, or we can throw up our hands in utter despair. The reading for Habbakkuk today (1:1-13l 2:1-4) tells of a dreadful time in the history of Judah. It was marked with violence and injustice, and the threat of being conquered by a powerful pagan, godless nation. It was tempting to feel abandoned by God. But Habakkuk's message is to remain faithful. For the disciples who feared, the message is to be loyal, reliable, faithful as God's people in the midst of difficulty and things they could not always understand. "The righteous live by their faith."
Our faith and reliability are gifts granted to us by God. Through being people who are prayerful in terms of seeking God's presence in our lives we keep in touch, woithin the reach of the Spirit of God. It is through Scriptures and the stories of great hope, the parables, the sayings of Jesus and the early church we remain linked with God's way. With the regular receiving of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we stay in community of believers and are a visible supportive community that feeds on the Spirit of God. These are the things that keep us loyal, faithful, reliable, and sustained in being the people of God, the servants of God, and the fellow servants with Christ. These are the things that keep us from burning out and falling away from the marvelous grace of God's compassionate love and hopefulness. It is in coming to know who we are as servants of God and living out out our faithfulness and reliability that God's grace and will works through us. The community of faith allows hope and healing to prevail. Forgiveness prevails. God's miraculous presence and justice continues to come forth. It is not in our doing any great works, nor is that even expected. Increased faith is our continuing loyalty and reliable availability to allow God to work in us and through us.
SEASON: Pentecost 18
PROPER: 22C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: October 4, 1998
TEXT: Luke 17:5-10 - The Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Parable of the Dutiful Slave
ISSUE: The disciples request that Jesus will help them to increase their faith, their loyalty. Jesus did demand of them a close association beyond family. Simple loyalty is translated into their being like servants who do their duty. In the face of so much distraction in our world claiming our loyalty to Christ and being dutiful servants has a profound effect on allowing the Gospel of Christ to flow through us.
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Jesus' ministry was devoted to the renewal of Israel. His ministry challenged the old rules and the class distinctions, and all the things that often in the name of religion prevented a person's genuine relationship with the God of love and compassion. Jesus attempted to renew the access to God,a nd for his people to feel the availability of God in their lives so that through God's strength they could live themselves to their fullness. In the first part of Luke's chapter 17, Jesus recgonizes that there are things that get in the way of people's relationships with God. But, it would be better for a person to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea than for a man to cause a person, or child of God, to fall into sin or alienation from God. There is also the command to be forgiving of those who repent in order that people may feel renewed in their relationship with God.
Now, to these teachings of Jesus the disciples want to know how they are to increase their faith, in terms of being facilitators of bringing people to God, or at the least not causing people to fall from grace. They are asking how are they to be truly good disciples. And what is required of them is their faith. A better translation of faith in this context is loyalty, or even reliability. They are called upon to be loyal to the ministry of Jesus. That loyalty has been a matter of even giving up family to be reliable followers of the Lord.
Loyalty and reliabilty are seens as simple and basic to the mission of Jesus. It's as simple as a mustard seed. It doesn't seem very profound, but a a community of loyal, reliable folk, has within them the mighty power of God to do profound things. Just as a mulberry tree is a deeply rooted plant that with faithfulness and loyalty could be uprooted and planted in the sea, which incidentally is not to be taken literally, a reliable community of faith can be a significant and profound channel through which God may work.
Jesus also uses, which was his usual custom and way of teaching, a parable about a dutiful slave. Reliability, loyalty, faithfulness is like a dutiful slave. In Jesus' time, slaves were quite common. Even poor families often had a slave. This was common imagery for the disciples of this time. Poor people and there were so many who could not afford to feed all of their children or various family members would give them up as slaves to other families. These slaves or servants were not treated badly, and it was not like the slave trades of which we are familiar in this country. These slaves or servants were saved from starvation or a life of miserie. While we may still not approve, it was the way things were in Jesus time. Jesus uses this situation as his illustration.
When the slave came home from working in the field and caring for the sheep, his master did not tell him to sit down and relax. The expectation is that the slave will continue his duties and prepare the master's dinner. It is a matter of complete devotion to the master without expectation for a reward. The passage concludes: "We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!" Incidentally, the word "worthless" is another bad translation. Slaves are in no sense worthless; they are, in fact, quite valuable. It really means "owed nothing," or "without need," or "not due anything." Jesus saw himself as a servant of the Lord God, who was not worthless, but who as a child of God was "without need." But the point is that the servant is dutiful, reliable, faithful, loyal, and has all he needs as a servant of God. Being the servants the disciples of Christ is not a matter of entitlement but a way of being. Jesus as servant of God made no claims but gave himself, emptied himself, even unto death.
The disciples want to know how to increase their faith. It is as simple as the tiny mustard seed, there must be a community of loyal folk. They must see themselves as devoted reliable, faithful servants with Christ without expecatation or entitlements. and together the power of God shall prevail in the world. According to the scriptures, Jesus' simple faithful reliability calmed storms, cast out demons, and healed the sick and raised the dead. Our loyalty to God is like a riverbed through which God's love and grace flows into his world.
For many of us today, being faithful, reliable, and loyal does not come easy. We do expect rewards. It is difficult for us to follow Jesus Christ in terms of loving our enemies, not being judgemental, blessing our persecutors, washing one another's feet, forgiving endlessly, giving to whoever asks. The ways of Jesus Christ are indeed challenging to our demands for things to be decent and in order, and to g et our just rewards.
It is also difficult for us to be faithful, when we see a world that offends us and our sensibilities. We settle on problem in our lives and something else occurs that challenges us. One nation struggles to find peace, while another faces famine and starvation of its people. We discover some grand cure for a disease, and then we face a rash of murders in our city and county streets. We have developed one of the most just systems of government, and yet we are faced with sleezy political scandal. Even in the church we hear of significant projects and accomplishments of young people and then of a dreadful law suit against a clergyman. In our own personal lives we are faced constantly with all kinds of ups and downs: good health and serious sickness, a good marriage then divorce, good children and then drug problems, a good job and then layoff. The stock market is up and then it's down. Our world and our lives are constantly challenged. Our best efforts can burn out, or we can throw up our hands in utter despair. The reading for Habbakkuk today (1:1-13l 2:1-4) tells of a dreadful time in the history of Judah. It was marked with violence and injustice, and the threat of being conquered by a powerful pagan, godless nation. It was tempting to feel abandoned by God. But Habakkuk's message is to remain faithful. For the disciples who feared, the message is to be loyal, reliable, faithful as God's people in the midst of difficulty and things they could not always understand. "The righteous live by their faith."
Our faith and reliability are gifts granted to us by God. Through being people who are prayerful in terms of seeking God's presence in our lives we keep in touch, woithin the reach of the Spirit of God. It is through Scriptures and the stories of great hope, the parables, the sayings of Jesus and the early church we remain linked with God's way. With the regular receiving of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we stay in community of believers and are a visible supportive community that feeds on the Spirit of God. These are the things that keep us loyal, faithful, reliable, and sustained in being the people of God, the servants of God, and the fellow servants with Christ. These are the things that keep us from burning out and falling away from the marvelous grace of God's compassionate love and hopefulness. It is in coming to know who we are as servants of God and living out out our faithfulness and reliability that God's grace and will works through us. The community of faith allows hope and healing to prevail. Forgiveness prevails. God's miraculous presence and justice continues to come forth. It is not in our doing any great works, nor is that even expected. Increased faith is our continuing loyalty and reliable availability to allow God to work in us and through us.
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