In our highly individualist, consumer-driven culture, we often (hopefully unintentionally) bring our customer mentality to spirituality, as though God should be happy for our business and trip over Godself to ensure we have a positive experience and ‘meet our needs’. But of course, we’re dealing with the infinite creator of the universe here, and so such attitudes are ridiculous and ultimately doomed to set us up for failure. Shockingly, the universe is not about me, or you. Today’s Gospel reading offers us a good reminder of this, and of our proper standing before God.
Coming from the Gospel according to St. Luke, the story goes like this:
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!'” (Luke 17:5-10)
At first glance, the two halves of Jesus’ response don’t seem to connect. Moreover, this section also appears not to follow from 17.1-4, in which Jesus warns this followers not to cause others to stumble and encourages them to forgive those who cause them to stumble. But I think that’s because of the long reach of our culture’s intellectualizing of the idea of faith, that is, our tendency to equate faith with belief. But as we’ve seen over and over again over the years here, while belief is certainly a necessary condition for faith, it’s far from central to what it is. Rather, faith and faithfulness are two halves of the same coin, or like two subatomic particles of the same atom which we might separate only with great difficulty and greater risk! Faith, at its core, is about showing up well in our relationships with God and each other (and I would add ourselves and the rest of the created world). And with this understanding in mind, suddenly, the whole section that initially feels like a collection of disparate teachings comes together to form a beautiful and challenging whole.
In this reading, the disciples’ request is a direct response to his challenging exhortations. Forgive even those who sin against us seven times a day? Lord, increase our faith indeed! But this has nothing to do with ‘believing harder’ (which is a strange idea when you think about it, but is a kind of magical thinking that’s actually pretty pervasive in a lot of contemporary Christianity), but with making them more faithful, better able to live up to those very high relational standards Jesus has set out for them.
He parries the request, though, telling them that even the smallest amount of faithfulness on their part can work wonders. Then, to add insult to injury, he reminds them of their place by comparing them to slaves: This kind of faithfulness is no great achievement as far as God is concerned, but is simply a matter of living into the most basic expectations of their duty. This sounds harsh, but if we zoom out and remind ourselves that humanity was created to be God’s representatives before one another and to the rest of creation (for more on this theme, see here and here). So, to live faithfully into our relationships is nothing other than fulfilling our created purpose. While in our broken and bruised world that is a rare and beautiful thing, from a creation-centric perspective, it’s just our duty.
I’m reminded in this a bit of the technology situation at my workplace. Being public sector and therefore subject to strictures of policy and funding priorities, we don’t get close to the best or latest computers, and often we’re in a position of just left feeling grateful when they actually do what they’re supposed to do. It’s ridiculous and shouldn’t be but is the reality of our circumstances. This is sort of the analogy Jesus is using here in his talk about not doing servants’ work for them. Just as I shouldn’t be in a position where I’m grateful Powerpoint will actually open, so too should God not be in a position to feel grateful for our attention or basic faithfulness. It’s literally what we were made to do. Congrats to us, then, for doing the bare minimum.
That said, the analogy goes to show just how far off course humanity has gone that even this basic duty feels impossible enough for us to ask God to help us out!
The Good News, of course, is that God has helped us out through the example of and our relationship with Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, whose power working in us can do more than we can ask or imagine (as they say). Trusting in ourselves, doing our duty may seem impossible, but with God anything and everything is possible.
Matthew Root 