After Thoughts: Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 17:5-10

Each week, our lectionary gives us four readings, but for the sake of brevity when I began this blog, I intended to stick to the Gospel lesson. Then my dear friend Jill reminded me of the beauty of studying more closely the thread that ties the writings together. Shortly after that conversation, along comes the 19th Sunday after Pentecost with this great passage from Habakkuk, maybe the only time we get a reading from this short three-chapter book. And I can’t resist starting there.

The assigned reading is chapters 1 and 2, verses 1-4 from each. Habakkuk is upset – why doesn’t God fix things? Violence, destruction, strife, and contention everywhere. The law has lost its integrity. There is no justice. The Babylonian Empire looms large. Habakkuk wants answers and he wants them now. He is going to take a stand and not move until God replies.

God’s answer? Wait for it. No, really. Wait for it. God promises that there is a vision coming. It may seem like a really long wait, but keep waiting. The reading ends with the words “The righteous live by their faith.”

So what does that look like when the righteous live by their faith? Habakkuk explains in 3:17-19. Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.

Even when the basics of life are missing, faith rejoices. And it waits.

Habakkuk was written around 6 B.C.E. Now let’s fast forward to the first century C.E. and the verses from Luke. Six, seven hundred years on, and the story is still the same. Violence, destruction, strife, and contention everywhere. The law has lost its integrity. There is no justice. The Roman Empire looms large.

And then everything changes. Immanuel. God with us. Jesus steps right into the middle of the mess, walking, talking, eating with the good, the bad, the powerful, the outcasts, the wealthy, the poor, the healthy, the infirm. He turns worldly social, economic, and political systems upside down. He condemns the perversion of the law that further penalizes the most vulnerable in society and thwarts justice. He warns of the danger of wealth and power, mighty forces which can become our masters, and yet are temporal and vain.

This wealth thing is drilled home in the verses of chapter 16 of Luke. It is blatantly obvious that God’s ways are not our ways, and that wealth and social status are anathema to God’s ways. Then we come to today’s reading. At this point, the disciples have given up a lot. And it’s now pretty clear that worldly riches and power are not their reward for doing so. The road ahead looks ever more challenging, especially without those little perks of money and status. So what could they ask for that would be helpful? Faith. Yes, faith. How could Jesus refuse that? They’d be loaded.

So they tell Jesus to give it to them. Faith, that is. Notice that they don’t ask – hey, could we get some more faith? Or what would we have to do to get more faith? No, they tell Jesus to give it to them like it’s a spare five dollar bill he has folded into the hem of his robe. How does Jesus answer? Yes? No? Maybe? That would be way too easy. Way too worldly. Way too devoid of the good news that changes the world.

Instead Jesus tells them that if they had even a teeny, tiny amount of faith, they could do ridiculously outrageous miracles. And then tells them this strange story about a master and a slave. After a hard day in the field, the slave comes in for the evening to prepare his master’s dinner, clean the kitchen, close up the house, and get a few hours of sleep before starting all over again – what master would expect or accept anything less? Doing all that comes with the job is what one does, especially when one is a slave. It’s the “met expectations” or “average performer” on the annual performance review.

Did you notice that Jesus doesn’t start doling out faith - two ounces for John, a pound for Peter? Faith isn’t something we have in a measurable quantity. It’s something we live by the grace of God. Martin Luther says this:

Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion…They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says “I believe.” That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing…Instead, faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures.

Faith isn’t about the job we do or the role we have in the world – it’s about our identity as children of God saved by grace and how we take on that servant role. Fixing dinner and washing up the dishes at the end of a long day. Reading a book to a little one. Sitting by the bed of a dying one. Doing the work, whatever that may be, that is in front of us today with a joyful heart. Even a teeny tiny bit of faith moves that mulberry tree of despair, anger, frustration, resentment, regret, or hatred, out of our hearts and into the depths of the sea. Even a teeny tiny bit of faith can turn our work into a blessing, can turn our suffering and loss into hopeful anticipation, and can transform our lives into melodies of praise. We can pray with enthusiasm – “Thy will be done.”

When we demand: “Increase our faith” God says, “I am faithful.” I’m pretty certain we’d all agree that we would prefer God get this rather than rely on the quantity of faith we are able to muster at any given time.

When we cry: “God, why don’t you just fix things?, God says, “Get busy and do your work.” Faith is God’s work in us, with a joyful heart, even when things are hard. Faith is holding on and knowing that God has promised good to us. As Paul writes “I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.”

Despite what today may look like, ‘that day’ of which Paul writes is coming and God is guarding everything until then. So let us be good servants. And wait for it. There is a vision to come. And that’s a promise.