Luke 17:3-17 & 2 Timothy 18-14
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Children’s Sermon - play "Simon Says" and discuss what happens if you do something that Simon didn’t say to do. Are you "out" of the game forever? How is this like life in Christ? How is repentance and forgiveness like getting a second chance?
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So, until the children’s sermon today, had you ever thought of life as being one big game of “Simon Says”? Although rather than Simon Says, life is really a game of “God Says.” God tells us to do something and we are supposed to do it - without question or hesitation.
However, if given the option, most people would choose to be the “Simon” - the one telling others what to do. The one who is in control. The one who makes the rules of the game. Be honest, even though we don’t always admit it and even though we may not want all the responsibility, deep down inside, each of us wants to be #1. We all like to be the master of others. But what the scripture readings this morning remind us is that we are NOT now nor will we ever be the master of our life or of the lives of others. We are not the ones to be served, rather we are the ones called to do the serving. And as servants of the Lord, there are certain duties that we must do, whether we like it or not.
In the opening verses of Luke 17, Jesus tells his disciples, If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times a day, and seven times he comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.
To this idea of abundant forgiveness, the disciples reply – Lord, increase our faith!
Jesus then reminds the disciples that forgiveness and faith are not options, but they are duties of a servant of the Lord. We can’t pick and choose who and when we forgive. Whenever someone repents (even if they repent seven times a day or with their very last earthly breath) we are to forgive them. Faith in our Master is trusting his ways – and if that means forgiving and forgiving and forgiving, then that is what we must do!
This past week marked a horrific anniversary for an Amish community in Southeast Pennsylvania. Last year on October 2nd, a man walked into a one-room school house and shot eleven girls, killing five of them and then himself. Just days after the shooting, while the community was still grieving, and while the world was reaching out to the Amish and to the families of the girls, the Amish community was reaching out to the gunman’s widow and young children. Many of them attended his funeral the day after attending their daughters’ and just last month they set up a fund to provide financial support for his family.
As some reporters have covered this story, they have asked the question why? Why would the Amish community – who is still grieving this tragedy – reach out to the family of the one whom inflicted this wound? The reason? – because the Amish are living according to the way God would want them to live. They have collectively as a community made the choice to do their duty as servants of the Lord and act out their forgiveness. Does it mean they don’t still grieve and hurt? Absolutely not. The reality is that the families are still living daily with reminders of the world gone crazy. But, the witness to Christ that the Amish community has made is truly a witness that this world needs.
The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy - Do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord…for I know [in] whom I believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
Too many Christians in today’s world are ashamed to stand up for their faith. Too many of us are ashamed to live our faith. Too many of us have been jaded by the world and by the ideas of the world. Too many of us are not listening to God’s command to be servants and witnesses in the way we live.
The Amish didn’t need the school shooting to live the way God has called them to live as witnesses in the world. Having lived close to an Amish community in Central Pennsylvania, I can tell you that they daily they live their servanthood – serving God and others without complaint or question. And for those of us English (or outsiders) around them, the witness of faith that the Amish community provides is very evident. However, through this tragedy, the world was able to see faith, hope, forgiveness and the love of Christ at work in the world through a very private people.
If a tragedy struck, I wonder if our community would have the same compassion, forgiveness and witness to Christ? Right after the events of September 11, 2001, my youth group was concluding their weekly fellowship with our traditional “circle” prayer, where each was given the opportunity to voice the prayers of their life. As you may expect, many of them prayed for those families who lost loved ones and for the people of NYC and Shanksville and Washington. But, one of our special needs teens (he was in 6th grade at the time) prayed for compassion and forgiveness to be upon the terrorists and their families. There was an audible murmur when he said this. Some of the youth were upset that he had prayed for them (while I was very proud that he did – for in that prayer for our “enemies” he witnessed to the resurrected savior and embodied what it means to be a servant of the master).
We shouldn’t need a tragedy, to make us stand up and do what God commands. Lives shouldn’t have to be lost before we become witnesses to the salvation and forgiveness of our Lord. Each day we should be living out the commands that God has given us. And indeed, there are simple ways each day to live a faithful servant’s life – an unashamed life that is based on the duty that God has given us.
The first is to share your faith with each other. This starts at home with our families and friends. When I was a children’s and youth pastor, I was always amazed at how many families never talked with each other about God outside of church. The number one question I was usually asked by parents was how to talk to their children about God. I don’t know why for many of us mainline denominational-type people sharing our faith is so difficult – even within our own families!
I am certain God has done remarkable things in your life! But I don’t know why we’re ashamed to share God’s activity. But then I thought, maybe it’s not that we’re ashamed but that we’re just not tuned-in to seeing God at work in our daily lives. For the past few years, Josh and I took the youth on mission trips with Group Workcamps. One of the disciplines that the Workcamps helps with is seeing God at work in our daily lives and then sharing these “God Sightings” with each other. Each evening in our church group devotional time we were encouraged to go around the group and each share one way that person saw God at work that day. Sometimes these God Sightings were as simple as the offer of one person to get drinks for everyone else, and sometimes they would move you to tears. But that is indeed how our Master is at work in our lives – in the simple and in the extraordinary. And when we begin to focus on seeing God in our lives, then it will be easier to share what God has done and is doing.
Imagine if in your family you began a tradition of sharing God Sightings at dinner or before bedtime? The truth is that God is indeed active everyday in YOUR life, but sometimes we don’t see it or think about it. By incorporating these “God Sightings” into your devotional time will help you tune-in to God at work. It will also help you remember that you are not in control – that all that is good and right in your life is a gift from God. It will also help you see how God is at work in and through others. For when we recognize God at work in our lives, it becomes easier to see God at work in others. And it also helps us open the door to conversations about what God is doing and what God is calling us to do.
The second way we can live a servants’ life each day is to learn to call on God sooner, rather than later! As servants, we do not have the opportunity, nor the right, to do our own thing or go our own way; rather we must faithfully and dutifully follow the directions of God. We need to let go of trying to control our lives and the lives of those around us and just do our Godly work - following God’s commands before we’ve gotten ourselves into a jam! How many times have you struggled to solve your own problems? How many times have to tried to run from Ninevah and found yourself in the belly of a whale? It is tempting in life to allow God to become a “last resort” instead of a “first defense.” When a servant doesn’t know what to do, the servant goes to the master for direction. When we call upon the name of the Lord, seeking guidance - God will tell us and show us the way
And thirdly, servants do not strike deals with their masters. A servant doesn’t say, “I’ll do this, if you do that.” And yet for many Christians this is precisely how we live our lives. We think that if we do what God wants, then God should do what we want. But we are NOT on an equal playing field with God. And God is not someone with whom we strike bargains.
Who of you would say to your boss, “I’ll do my job for which I was hired, only if you promise to do what I ask you?” You wouldn’t have a job for every long! Yet, we do say to God, “God if you answer my prayer, then I promise I will be in church every Sunday, or I will give more to the church, or I will read my Bible more.” Or any number of other “bargains with God.” But in truth, God will do what God will do – which is care for us, provide for our needs and bless us. God will work in our lives to fulfill God’s great and master plan.
A servant may not always understand why the master asks her to do a certain task. But, regardless, the servant is to perform the task to the best of her ability.
God may be calling you into a new adventure. God may be placing a new mission or ministry in your path. God may want you to share his Good News with your co-workers or a member of your family. God may want you to ask the same person to church that you’ve asked twenty times before. Why? It doesn’t really matter. When our Lord and Master gives us a task, then we should unashamedly and unquestioningly complete it.
Today is World Wide Communion. It is a day when many church families celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a sign of our unity as the body of Christ. It is also our opportunity to remember our co-servants around the world. There are people in every nation doing God’s work – sometimes these servants are very overt and sometimes these servants are underground; sometimes we know their names and sometimes they remain anonymous; some of them are doing great and magnificent tasks, and some are doing mundane duties. But nonetheless, God has called each into ministry and service, just as God has called each of us into ministry and service in this place and in this time.
As we prepare ourselves to gather around this feast, proclaiming Christ’s salvation until he comes again, let us be thankful for the gifts and blessings our Master has given us, let us be mindful of the tasks the Master has assigned us, and let us be energized and encouraged to continue to do our duty in the household of our God.
