Year C. Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost October 7th, 2001 Luke 17: 5-10
Heavenly Father, thank you for genuine faith, which can accomplish what experience, reason, and probability would disallow. Amen.
Title: “Genuine faith”
Jesus teaches about faith as a quality and the quality of a disciple’s response to faith as a gift.
Jesus has just told his disciples that they are to forgive a limitless number of times chapter seventeen, verses three and four. In reaction to this startling teaching they ask for an “increase” in faith chapter seventeen verse five. Jesus uses the occasion to teach that faith is not so much a quantity as a quality that empowers a disciple to do the seemingly impossible. The same point was made in Matthew chapter seventeen verse twenty, when Jesus told the disciples that the reason they could not exorcise the demon in an epileptic boy, the seemingly impossible, was because of their, “little,” faith, meaning not lack of amount, but lack of authenticity. There he uses the analogy of the mustard seed, the smallest in size, and states that faith barely visible could “move mountains,” that is, obstacles impossible to deny. Here he uses another metaphor, “uprooting a mulberry tree,” meaning a seemingly impossible deed. Faith, a gift from God, can “move mountains” and “uproot trees” and empower a disciple to forgive a seemingly impossible amount of times, even on the same day.
In verses six to ten, Jesus uses still another metaphor, which earlier in chapter twelve verse thirty-seven, he used in a different context to make the opposite point he is making here. There he said the master, on finding his servant faithful in his absence, would sit him down at table and serve dinner to him, the servant. Here he states that the master would require his servant to wait on him, after working all day long in the fields, even before he eats. He does so to make the point that even though God will reward fidelity, he has no obligation to do so. Just as there is no “amount” of faith that can be stored up, neither is their an “amount,” of good deeds that can be presented to God, like a debt to be repaid. Just as faith is a quality, so faithfulness is also. The attitude of the servant should be one of gratitude for a gift given, not expectation of gratitude from the gift giver, God.
In verse five the disciples ask Jesus to “Increase our faith,” the meaning of the request here is, “Add more faith to what we already have.”
In Luke this request seems to be prompted by Jesus’ teaching on unlimited forgiveness. The disciples apparently reason that if they are to be able to forgive limitlessly, they will need limitless faith.
In verse six, mustard seed, the mustard seed was thought to be the smallest seed. It is not the size, amount or quantity of faith that is important or that makes faith more or less effective. It is the quality, reality, genuineness, authenticity of it that matters. Faith, a grace, is not a commodity, something that can be quantified, an extra, apart from God. Faith involves a special quality in a relationship. As such it is improper to conceive of it as something to be stored up and shored up by accumulation of either prayers or good works.
In verse six, “mulberry tree,” the Greek has “sycamine” tree, a species of mulberry. But the “sycamore” tree, is regarded as a particularly deep-rooted tree. Thus, there is the double impossibility of uprooting not only a tree, but a sycamore. Faith takes these things in stride and accomplishes the seemingly impossible with little or no effort, just with faith. Genuine faith has wondrous, otherworldly power because it is faith, a trusting relationship, in and with the great God.
“It would obey you,” the person with faith has great power, able to effect change beyond imagining. Not too many people would want to move a tree and that is not Jesus’ point, only an exaggerated way of making his point. Jesus loved hyperbole, that is, a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect.
The saying is not to be taken literally. Christians are to be neither conjurers nor magicians. Jesus wants his disciples to approach challenges with a can-do attitude- can-do, that is, with, the grace of, God. He recognizes that forgiving may seem as daunting as moving a mighty oak. One really does not possess such power. It must be given as a gift, and, therefore, asked for, accepted and used responsibly. Faith brings responsibility to be faithful. It is, after all, faith in a great God, not great faith in self. Genuine faith can accomplish what experience, reason, and probability would disallow.
In verse seven, “take your place at the table,” if what Jesus commands is accomplished through the divine gift of faith, then the disciple has no claim on him, is not deserving of reward or even recompense. The proper attitude is of a duty owed, not a favor done or returned, and certainly not a personal achievement for which thanks are due.
In verse eight, “prepare supper for me,” Jesus describes how a slave, having finished his outside work, must still serve dinner to his master before himself eating. The master does not wait on him. He is not entitled to special treatment simply for doing his duties. If this is true in the earthly master-slave relationship, it is true in the heavenly one.
In verse nine, “Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?” The parable is aimed at the Pharisaic attitude that God should be grateful that his servant is good, keeps the commandments and maybe does even a bit more than that. Jesus makes the point that all such behavior is merely doing what one is supposed to do. One can never really go “above and beyond the call of duty” when it comes to a relationship with God. God may be grateful, or something divinely akin to human gratitude, but he is not obliged to be so.
In verse ten, “we are worthless slaves,” Christians who do what they are appointed to do should not think they are guaranteed salvation. That is still an awaited grace. Nor is there any room for boasting of one’s good deeds. Disciples are still inadequate, the meaning of “unprofitable” as translated here, having done only his due with nothing left over to “save,” no accrual of profit or interest.
Sermon
Jesus is not really talking about moving physical mountains or uprooting physical trees. Who would want to do such things anyway? Maybe a magician or a charlatan might want to do such things in order to get notoriety or money. No, Jesus is speaking metaphorically, that is, a figure of speech in which one word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making a comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or “All the world’s a stage,” “Shakespeare.” Jesus does this in order to tersely make a serious point. He is talking about the power to do what humans would normally consider impossible, and yes, even marvelous. He is telling us that faith empowers us to love and that forgiveness, limitless forgiveness, is simply a form of that faith-filled loved.
Just as there is no “amount” of forgiveness that is “enough” or “too much,” so it is with the faith that engenders it. Neither forgiveness or love nor the faith that makes it possible comes in amount form. Faith is not like a commodity that comes in two, four, or six oz bottles. Faith is more like pure air or pure energy. It is more an atmosphere we breathe or in which we breathe. In eternity, it really will be the earthly counterpart of air or energy, “and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians
13: 13. Faith is the surrounding, permeating, penetrating presence of God. Without that presence or here, since we are speaking of God’s presence under the aspect of faith, we would say without that “faith,” we simply do not have the power to behave in ways consistent with eternity. Time is so heavy, that it weighs us down and slows us down. Eternal faith, on the other hand, in its “pure,” form travels even faster than the speed of light. It must be slowed down, if we are to “grasp” it. That happens not when it enters earth’s atmosphere, but when it enters into a human body, a human person. When Christ, the eternal, enters a human person, he slows down, so to speak, speaking metaphorically ourselves, slows down enough that we can benefit from his presence and breathe his air or energy and love. From this perspective we would say that God almost had to enter into Jesus of Nazareth, his human body, human person, human being, if we humans were to have any chance of living in the abiding presence of God and have any hope of benefiting from the power he thereby makes available to us.
So far, all of this is rather theoretical and somewhat “rarefied” or “air-ified.” Jesus did not speak in such theoretical ways. He remained down-to-earth. While it is all right to think about him and what he did and does in theoretical, even metaphysical ways, Jesus himself prefers not to explain himself so philosophically. So, he does not so much tell us what “faith” is as what faith does. Faith empowers us to do what he tells us is possible, even though non-faith tells us it is impossible. He tells us that we can love as God loves, forgive as God forgives and live and God lives, live the quality of life that God himself enjoys. He does not really explain it in detail. He just promises it. Then, if we trust in him, he delivers it.
Trusting in the Lord and in his words, promises really, means obeying him, even before we know the reasons for doing so. Obedience includes “delaying gratification,” as M. Scott Peck puts it in his best-selling book, “The Road Less Traveled.” It means a willingness to forego the “pleasure” of accomplishment, to undergo the pain of growth necessary to reach a goal. In following Jesus, it means not even knowing the details of the goal, but trusting him that they will be good, good beyond measure or limit. In fact, in this gospel periscope, Jesus tells us to be “good” even when it does not “feel” good, like when one is tired being good, expecting some instant gratification for being good, yet commanded to do more good before resting or even catching one’s, own, breath. Indeed, with the “breath” of God, God’s Spirit, we can keep going when our physical, earthly energies are spent.
His hearers would have easily grasped the down-to-earth example Jesus uses. They knew about slaves working outside all day long and coming in at night only to have to get supper ready for their master, a master who had been rather idle all day while they slaved. While the slaves would do it, they would resent it, the injustice of it all. Jesus is telling them, and of course us, that sometimes we may resent, in our lower brain, what God commands and expects of us and think we do not have the power to do it, yet that mustard seed-sized faith is more than enough to accomplish it. It is not a pill. It is not a commodity. It is a free will choice to switch perspectives and breathe the air of God, his Spirit. Then, we are grateful to God for providing that air, rather than expecting him to be grateful to us for absorbing it. A matter of perspective, faith.
Faith is God’s perspective on reality, offered, given, to humans by God, empowering them, us, to live in his atmosphere.
Living in faith and by the power of faith, humans can accomplish what would otherwise be impossible.
No matter how much we do under the power of faith we should not expect God to be grateful to us; rather we should be grateful to him for making it possible.
The gift of faith is God’s unconditional love for us, but it is given with the condition that we live according to its standards.
Language: Reading the Lord’s words, indeed reading any of Scripture, literalistically can get us into trouble. We always need to know the literary form being used. For instance, if a piece of Scripture is poetry, it should not be read as if it were prose. We would miss the nuances that only poetry, poetic license if you will, can express. If we are reading prose but encounter a metaphor, like “the size of a mustard seed,” we need to compare what is being said with what is being intended, what is denoted, example, the physical size of an entity, with what is connoted, what it is said for. Here Jesus is talking about trees and pea-sized seeds, but only to make a larger point. From a human point of view we would say that Jesus is a master at tersely expressing himself, a master of metaphor. He could say a lot in a few words. Witness all the commentary, including this one, on the words of Jesus, indeed the words of all Scripture. Metaphor packs a lot of meaning into a small package, a few words. That is why Jesus could say that faith, a lot of meaning, can come in small packages and that its real size cannot be measured by the size of the container. Later on, some human being would express this same truth, though with much less punch, and say, “Good things come in small packages.” Human language is well suited to express human experience. However, when it is put into service to express divine experience it needs to be stretched to do so and even then only with difficulty and with limits. Jesus was especially good at this. People who read their Bible literalistically are especially bad at getting his point. They get lost in the details and neglect to recognize metaphor as well as other oratorical literary techniques such as hyperbole. Because Jesus had both perspectives- human and divine- simultaneously, we can trust his use of language, his “stretching,” language, to express how the two perspectives converge in earthly life. He does not use language to prove his point, only to express it. It is up to us to bow to his vastly superior ability and vision and to follow his lead even without understanding. He calls that ‘faith.”
Frustration: What Jesus says about working all day and coming home to find even more work to do certainly rings true in the lives of many workingwomen. Woman and men who stay at home to run the household also work, though not for pay, also get tired, also are unappreciated, but they are not the topic here. They might even be put off at first by what Jesus is saying. What he says is true for all of us who believe in him, but especially true for women who work all day and then come home to housekeeping chores, like dinner. And the working single mother or father, can identify even more so. Now, Jesus could have said that the “master” of the house the ‘husband,’ if indeed there is one, should chip in and help or even have dinner ready. Had he done so, Jesus would have been consistent with his teaching about loving others by helping them out. That teaching is still valid. The “master,” should help. However, Jesus is down-to-earth, realistic, and knows that does not always happen. Indeed, it is rare. So, he provides insight for the frustrated and over-worked person, whether or not anyone else helps. He says that we need to keep our perspective. If we do everything for the Lord, no matter what others do or do not do, we really should expect no gratitude or even help from others. We are, after all, only doing our duty. That awareness will not change others and get them to chip in, but it will change the frustration, relieve it, and empower the tired one to continue on, knowing God appreciates it and will show his appreciation at a later date- in eternity. Amen.
