Proper 21 :: Habakkuk 1: 1 – 4; 2: 1 – 4 / Psalm 37: 1 – 10 / II Timothy 1: 1 – 14 / Luke 17: 5 – 10
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, October 2, 2022.
“DIVINE BROWNIE POINTS?”
(Homily
text: Luke 17: 5 – 10)
Let’s
begin our consideration of this morning’s Gospel text by asking ourselves this
question: Is it possible to earn brownie points with God?
The
question is prompted by our Lord’s comment about slaves (or servants), which
goes like this: “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded,
say ‘We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty’.”[1] [2]
One
of the mysteries of our faith is that God seems to offer rewards for certain
things. For example, consider that the Lord rewards the faithful servant who
took his five talents, and the other servant who got two talents, and went out
and doubled their master’s stewardship of his wealth.[3] But on the other hand, today’s teaching tells
us that we are not to expect to be rewarded, for we are called to be faithful
in doing the things that God has commanded. How can this be? How can these two
realities of our faith exist side-by-side?
Let’s attempt a look at all of this.
What follows are some random observations, in no particular order.
I once asked the Bishop who ordained
me, when I was looking at my ordination certificate, why does it say, “in the
____ year of our [4] consecration”? His answer was that using the word our keeps it from
being about me. Keeping the focus off of me makes it more about
what God is doing, and about what the Church is doing in the process of
ordination. Makes sense.
There’s a downside to being created in
the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26), and the problem is that,
being gifted with memory, reason and skill, we can easily think everything is
all about us and about our abilities to do this or that. We can easily get on
our high horse and proclaim what great things we’ve done.
In that vein, consider Jesus’ Parable
of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector,[5] which we will hear in a couple of weeks. Notice, when we hear this parable, how
often Jesus uses the word “I” in describing the Pharisees’ description of
himself and his accomplishments. “I” is a frequently used word.
Today’s teaching forces us to widen our
vision, and to see God at work in our lives and in the world. Notice that Jesus
says, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed.” Faith in what, or in whom?
Well, God, to be precise about it. Jesus is telling us that, if we have even a
little faith, the things that God can do will come to pass. In the same way,
when we are faithful in doing what God is telling us to do, we will have
listened to God’s voice and have faithfully followed it.
Which brings us to the matter of
faithfulness.
Consider what would happen if an
employee of a company was told to do a certain task. The employee does that
task, then comes to the boss and says that, in addition to what they were told
to do, they went ahead and did a bunch of other things they weren’t told to do.
That employee wouldn’t get extra credit, most likely, for their extra efforts,
perhaps because the things they’d done, those extra things, didn’t fit into the
company’s priorities and plans. Seeing Jesus’ teaching in this way might help
us to see the wisdom of Jesus’ statement, which seems harsh on its face.
The point of the scenario just
described is that faithfulness to the plan is the minimum standard that is
expected of us, whether that standard applies to a secular work situation or to
the things of God.
A little while ago in this homily, we
alluded to an aspect of our human nature, that business about being created in
the image and likeness of God. The downside of that aspect of God’s gifts to us
as human beings is that, because we think we know a thing or two, we can easily
think we know it all, and can do it all.
The Church has had to deal with this
problem in its history: Back in the late fourth century and early fifth
century, a British monk named Pelagius maintained that, because God had gifted
us in certain ways, we are able to save ourselves without God’s help. The
Church wisely condemned this line of thinking, for to believe that we can build
a platform mad out of blocks of our own making in order to exalt ourselves is
folly, pure and simple. It’s kind of like the story of the building of the
tower of Babel in Genesis….those ancient people thought that they could reach
heaven by building a tower. Not gonna work!
The ugly face of Pelagianism (the
heresy that was named for Pelagius) manifests itself today in the temptation to
think that, if we just do this or that, we’ll find favor with God, because
we’ve done whatever we’ve done on our own merits and on our own steam. To fall
into that trap is to forget God’s role in whatever we do. To fall into that way
of thinking sets God aside and puts ourselves in His place. The word for that
is idolatry.
One final thought seems worthy of
mention: God rewards faithfulness, not things done without God’s help.
AMEN.
[1] The word “slave” can also be translated as “servant”.
[2] Luke 17:10
[3] See Mathew 25:14 – 30, Jesus’ Parable of the Talents.
[4] Italics mine
[5] Luke 18:9 - 14
