The great preacher Ray Stedman used to tell a wonderful story of a faithful missionary couple returning from Africa back in the days of Teddy Roosevelt. After years of service they came back on the same ship as President Roosevelt, who was returning from a big game hunting expedition in Africa. When they pulled into New York harbor there was a band playing Roosevelt’s favorite songs, and all the high officials of the city were there to meet him. But the missionaries slipped off the ship unnoticed and unmet, and rented a run down flat on the East Side of New York. The man was really depressed about this contrast, and said to his wife, “It isn’t fair, it just isn’t fair! Here we are after years of hard work and heartache, we haven’t any money, we don’t have anyone to take care of us, we don’t even know where we are going next. God has promised great things, but nothing’s happened. We’ve given him everything we’ve got, and now we’ve come home to nothing. But just look at what happens when the president comes back from a big game hunt! It isn’t fair!”
His wife said, “Dear, I know it isn’t fair, but this isn’t the right attitude. You mustn’t think this way. Why don’t you go into the bedroom and talk to the Lord about it, and see what he has to say?” So he did. He went in and knelt by the bed, alone. He was there a long time, but when he came out his face was alight, and his wife saw that something had happened. She said, “What happened?” And he said, “I got down on my knees and poured out the whole story to the Lord. I told him that I thought it was so unfair and especially that when we came home the president got this big welcome but no one cared about us. I told him that he was really letting us down. But you know what the Lord said to me? It was almost as though I could hear the voice. He leaned down and said, ‘But you’re not home yet.’”
Today is Communion Sunday. In fact, it’s more than just any old Communion Sunday, it’s World Communion Sunday. It’s a time when we anticipate the day when Christ comes in final victory, when all the saints will feast in the joy of his eternal realm. But even though it is only a foreshadowing of that day, not the great celebration itself, on this day each month, we are, in fact, served by the Lord himself. He is present in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup, we receive the spiritual nourishment which we need to continue in his service. But guess what? It doesn't always feel like anything has happened. You may look surreptitiously at your neighbor and wonder if there is something is wrong with you that you still feel spiritually empty, flat, stale. I'll Let you in on a secret. Everyone that I know sometimes feels like that.
Because you don’t stock up on faith like filling up the gas tank in your car. We do receive spiritual nurture and encouragement and strength from worship and the sacraments, whether our emotions have caught up with the act or not. Quite often we are blind to what God is doing in us until we turn around and look backward.
Jesus warned his disciples against thinking of faith as something that he could just pour into them like wine out of a jar. And church isn’t like a gas station or a grocery store, a place you come to stock your spiritual shelves. It's more like a gym, or a fitness center.
In order to understand today’s passage, it’s helpful to look at the context. We’ve been looking at what it means to be a disciple. We’re supposed to be ready, we’re supposed to put Jesus ahead of family and friends, we’re supposed to be good stewards of God’s gifts, we’re supposed to listen carefully to God’s word, recognize and repent of our sins, and have compassion for one another. And right at the beginning of today’s chapter Jesus adds two more very stringent requirements.
“Occasions for stumbling are bound to come,” he says, “but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” And then he adds, “Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.” [Lk 17:1-4]
There’s an awful lot that goes into being a good disciple. If you think about it as a list of dos and don’ts it can be pretty intimidating. And the disciples think, well, if only I had more faith maybe I could be a better disciple. And so they ask Jesus for more faith. And this is where the passage starts to get a little tricky. This is where we come in. “The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Wow. MY plants don’t obey me. Is it because I don’t have even that tiny amount of faith? What is Jesus trying to say here? Is he telling us that if things don’t go our way that it’s because we don’t have enough faith?
I don’t think so. I think that what Jesus telling us is that if we have just enough faith to take one tiny step in his direction that it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. If we just have the very beginnings of faith, just barely enough to believe that there’s something up ahead that’s worth having, if start moving in that direction a whole new world will open up in front of us. Jesus is not saying that if things don’t go our way it proves we don’t have enough faith. What he is saying is that if we have even a little bit of faith, we’ll start doing things his way. And his way is the way of service. Mark tells us that “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.” [Mk 10:45] And later on, John tells us, Jesus said “I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.” [Jn 13:15-16]
Too many Christians have a sort of entitlement attitude. They expect God to serve them, to smooth their path and make their lives easy. And they feel cheated or betrayed somehow if God doesn’t organize a ticker-tape parade just for showing up for roll-call.
The story that Jesus tells to illustrate his point is introduced by three rhetorical questions.
“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’?” [v. 7]
Jesus first of all appeals to our common sense. If we had a slave and he was working in the field all day and came in at dinnertime we would not tell him to sit down so that we could prepare him something to eat. Or to put it in contemporary terms, suppose you had hired a housekeeper. After she’s finished with the grocery shopping and laundry, do you have her sit down in the dining room while you serve her dinner? Of course not! She’s just been doing her job.
Having determined what any reasonable employer would NOT do, the second question asks what the customary treatment would be. Jesus asks, “Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’?” [v. 8] The obvious answer is, “Well, of course! That’s what I pay her for!”
The final question that Jesus asks is, “Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.” [v. 9] And the answer to this question is also no. In fact, it is a very strong negative in the Greek. It simply wasn’t done, to give special recognition to someone just for doing what he was supposed to do. The performance review would read, “Meets expectations.”
We need to remember that no matter how much we do it will never match up to the example Jesus set us, because we can’t. We can’t even meet our own expectations. It’s a good thing that God’s expectations of us are not the same as God’s standards. He expects us to spill the soup in his lap on a fairly regular basis. Should we start getting all puffed up when the day comes that we can hand around the plates without an accident?
Jesus ends by warning the disciples - and us - against making the huge mistake of starting to think that God owes us. “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, “We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.”
We are God’s servants, or to make it even more politically incorrect, the Greek word is 'doulos' and it literally means “slave.” Although we are consumed in this country with our “rights,” slaves have no rights. God doesn’t owe us, he owns us. In fact, he owns us twice over: first through the right of creation, and second through the right of purchase.
Think of it like this. American citizens are expected to pay taxes. Most of you have taxes withheld from your paycheck; I just sent in my quarterly estimate last month. By April 15th of next year you will fill out an income tax form and send in a check for whatever additional money you owe. The question Jesus might ask is, “Should the person who has completed his tax form and sent it in expect to get a thank you card from the IRS or a phone call from the President?” We don’t expect an expression of gratitude for doing our duty; on the contrary: we can expect punishment if we fail to perform.
God doesn’t owe us a thing. What is surprising is that God has promised to reward us not because he has to but because he wants to. Jesus himself has already prepared a table for us, around which we gather today to be fed. And today’s feast is only a dim reflection, an appetizer at best, when compared to what we receive when we are called home at last.
