Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
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.
"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'?
Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'?
Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?
So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
One:
For the word of God in scripture,
for the word of God within us,
for the word of God among us.
All: Thanks be to God.
Sermon The Rev. Jill Mills
One of my strongest memories about Sunday School when I was a child growing up in Detroit and attending a Presbyterian Church in Highland Park, is getting gold stars as rewards. If I memorized a scripture verse, I got a gold star. If I could think of and tell about some way that I had helped or served someone over the past week, I got a gold star. Back then the stars were those “lick ‘em and stick ‘em” varieties, kind of like the S&H green stamps my mom let me lick and stick in the redemption books as we saved up, so we could eventually trade them in for plates or bedsheets or if we were really lucky, a transistor radio. They were a tangible marker of what we were earning over time, for spending money at the grocery store.
For me, the gold stars were a tangible marker of how I was increasing my faith, as well as a reward for doing so. I felt a sense of pride as I licked the star and stuck it to the middle of my forehead. I’d wear it for as long as possible, and I can still remember the feeling of having it there on my forehead, even as it began to dry out and the points of the star would begin to stick out from my forehead and look kind of weird. I’d keep it on as long as I possibly could. After all, I had earned it!
As I recalled this childhood memory, I went out and found a set of gold star stickers, and I’ve brought them today. I’m gonna put one here on my forehead…… and I’m sending them around for you to each take one and put it wherever you want. Consider it your reward for coming to church today!
In today’s gospel reading according to Luke, the disciples and Jesus are talking about earning favor and rewards. Jesus has just finished reminding them of the need to forgive one another continually, because we will hurt one another and sin against one another continually. The disciples appear to be intimidated by the magnitude of this duty, and so they implore Jesus to “increase their faith”, to better equip them to do this, because they are pretty sure they are not capable of doing what he’s asking them to do. “We don’t have enough faith to forgive over and over, Lord - you need to give us more if you are expecting this from us”.
Jesus replies with the mustard seed analogy for faith. This analogy is included in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke; each story is a bit different, but in each case, it describes faith the size of a mustard seed as being sufficient to accomplish great things.
I also picked up some mustard seeds this week, and I’m sending this dish of them around so you can take one or several - as many as you need - as a reminder of the measure of faith that you can trust to bear good fruit as you plant it, as you let it germinate and grow into something unexpected, something with greater impact than you can possibly imagine.
In today’s reading, we can hear Jesus telling the disciples that their quantity of faith is not what they need to be concerned with - that they have been given enough faith to be obedient servants, and that they are called to go out and exercise that faith so that it can bear much good fruit.
But then Jesus goes further, and reminds the disciples and us that we are not doing this for our own reward, that if we think we are earning favor by being faithful disciples, we don’t understand our relationship to God, the call that is placed on us to be obedient, to be servants, even as Christ served us. When Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, he called us all to be obedient servants. The reference to slaves in this passage is connecting the disciples at that time to something they understood, the relationship between Lord and Master and servant or slave. Our obedience to God is our grateful response to the grace and mercy we have been freely given. It is not to be done with an eye toward earning favor or deserving a reward. It is the life of a follower of Christ.
This is a hard passage for us in this time and age - we carry a lot of baggage around the terrible issue of slavery, and we also put a lot of importance on acknowledging our self-worth, on building up one another as beloved children of God. We want to get that gold star from Jesus for living lives worthy of it. We tend to think in terms of quid pro quo.
When we come upon someone on the street asking for money, we tend to wonder whether or not they deserve to be given money, or what they will do with it.
When we experience hard times in our lives or the lives of others, we ask ourselves and God what we or they did to deserve it. Same with blessings and good things that come to us or others - it must be because we are living good, obedient lives, right?
When we put ourselves out for others, it can be hard to set aside feelings and thoughts about “what’s in this for me?” And so we talk about upcoming mission and ministry opportunities from the perspective of how we will grow in our faith, how good we will feel to do this thing for other people. Quid pro quo.
And therein lies the paradox of faith for us - that God has blessed and rewarded us abundantly, and that it is not of our own doing. There is no quid pro quo with God - no conditions, no calculations of what we deserve. We are unworthy servants - and this is considered a more accurate translation than “worthless slaves”. There is nothing we can do to earn God’s grace, and there is nothing we can do to lose God’s mercy. We are unworthy, and still we are abundantly rewarded. We all have received God’s gold star on our forehead in the amazing, unmerited grace given to us. We all have enough faith to go out into the world and serve God by serving God’s people. We all have the duty and responsibility to do this as obedient servants of God. The gold star is not a reward but a call to discipleship. The mustard seed is a reminder that our faith is enough and that we are called to use it, to plant it and to let God work God’s purpose in and through us. The bread and the cup are reminders of the gifts of God for the people of God, in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who came not to be served but to serve.
But - grace is not cheap, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminded us in this excerpt from his book, “The Cost of Discipleship”.
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which one must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a person their life, and it is grace because it gives a person the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner… Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
With the mustard seed and the gold star as reminders, let us use the faith we have been given. Let us serve without expectation of tangible reward or increased worth or favor. Let us gratefully forgive one another because we have been forgiven by God, not because someone appears to deserve it. Let us humbly accept the cost of the grace that has been given to us. Let us come to the table and invite all God’s people to share with us in the gifts of our Lord and Savior - the faith, grace, mercy and love that equips us and invites us to obey and to serve.
Thanks be to God - Amen.
