devotions

Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost: God’s Grace in Forgiveness

Sun, 27 Oct 2013 22:05:17 -0400

Readings

Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
Psalm 84:1-7
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14

Devotion

Are we too proud to admit our helplessness before God?

Today in our Gospel reading, Jesus tells a story about a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisees were the really religious people of their day. They were very careful to make sure they kept God’s Law perfectly right. They gave themselves to study of the Old Testament and to a rigorous practice of faith. But oftentimes, even though they knew the truth in their head, they forgot about the most important thing: their heart. They were sometimes known for showy religious actions, hypocrisy, and looking down on others. All too often, we religious people are apt to be the same way today.

The tax collector in Jesus’ story is meant to be a contrast to the Pharisee. Tax collectors collected money for the Roman occupiers and often cheated people so as to increase their own wealth. They were not looked at positively in the society of Israel. We could compare their standing in society to perhaps Bernard Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme cheated people out of billions of dollars. The last person that people would expect to be the hero of Jesus’ story would be the tax collector. But there he is: humble, contrite, confessing his sin to God. Jesus points out that we are justified when we humble ourselves and cast ourselves on God’s mercy, not when we proclaim our own goodness.

There’s no coincidence that the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector is followed by the story of the little children and Jesus. Both are stories about the humility of recognizing our unworthiness of what God does for us. That attitude of humility is the trust and faith in which we place ourselves wholly at the mercy of God. And yet we also trust Him and His heart toward us, like a little child trusts their parent.

In the sacrament of baptism, God gives us an object lesson of what it means to be cast wholly on His mercy. The picture of infant baptism is a humble one. We believe that God saves a little baby who can do nothing for herself. She is completely at the mercy of her parents for food, drink, clothing, shelter, and diaper changes. And she is completely at the mercy of God’s grace spiritually.

There is no humbler picture than that of a helpless baby. But there is also no better picture for all of us spiritually. All too often—like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable—we take pride in our spiritual or moral accomplishments, but we should not do that because Scripture tells us that, apart from Christ, we are dead in our trespasses. If there is any more helpless person than a baby, it is a dead person! Through baptism, God buries our sinful nature and as we come out of the water, He brings us a new nature. We are now simultaneously saint and sinner. We are given new life in Christ Jesus.

That is what anyone who is baptized—child or adult—is promised. What we could not do for ourselves, Jesus has done for us on the cross and through the empty tomb. We have been given new life in Him and made a part of His family.

After we have been given new life, we can’t boast about it, like “I thank God that I am so holy and righteous that I had faith as a baby...or as a person dead in sin!” Rather, as we grow in faith, hopefully we will be humble and realize that everything that was given to us was God’s gift. And the same goes for each of us—whether we were baptized as a baby, as a child, or as an adult. When we are awed by the unmerited grace of God on our behalf, our heart is in the best possible place to express that faith in action. Instead of being show-boaters, we become people who are so grateful God reached out to them that they try to do everything they can to say “thank you,” always knowing their thanks can never equal all God has done for them.

When I was serving as a pastor, I remember exhorting the parents of baptized babies. I remember telling them how humbling it is to teach your kids about faith. I have discovered since becoming a Mom myself that it is a daunting task to be faced with teaching your child about faith—even if you are a pastor! Nothing exposes our own sinful nature like becoming a parent. Suddenly, there is a little one watching us all the time, and coming to imitate our every move. How will we ever pass on the faith when we know we fall so short of the faith? The answer is that God calls us to point first and foremost to Jesus Christ, not to ourselves.

Unfortunately, as sinners ourselves, we will make mistakes. We will have regrets. We should be honest about that with our kids, and emphasize the forgiveness of God. We can imitate the humble heart of the tax collector by confessing our mistakes when we mess up and by being in awe of God’s grace to us.

What does it mean, for example, to yell at your kid, but then to model asking their forgiveness and reminding them that God forgives us when we confess our sin? What does it mean to admit mistakes you have made in your life and how God helped you learn something from them? What does it mean to admit we don’t know everything about the Bible but that we want to keep learning?

God doesn’t call us to be perfect, but He does get upset when we don’t even try. So often, as a young pastor, I baptized babies whose families I rarely saw again. I confirmed students who assured me their faith was real, but then stopped coming to church. I married couples who rarely showed up again. And I sometimes witnessed in my heart and the heart of other regular churchgoers a stubborn refusal to change and grow and humble ourselves. God’s grace is a free gift, but like any gift, you have to use it to get the full benefit of it. Are we too proud to humble ourselves before God like the tax collector? Are we so self-assured that we feel we don’t need God?

In closing, are we humbly in awe of the fact that God has saved us when we were most helpless, when we were dead in our sins?

And secondly, out of a heart of thankfulness and not superiority, what are we doing with this free gift of God? Are we letting it get musty and moldy? Or are we using it with excitement and joy?

What an opportunity! What a blessing! May God bless each of you as you fulfill your calling to pass on the faith!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for understanding we are not prefect. Remind us to humble ourselves by confessing our sins to one another and by forgiving others who sin against us. Lead us to share your grace with others. Thank you for your grace and forgiveness. Amen.
Reflective Questions
Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant located here.) You can answer as many questions as you What sin is God calling you to repent of and turn from? would like.
1. What habits will you set up in your lives to regularly use the amazing gift of God’s grace? What sin is God calling you to repent of and turn from?
2. What devotional habits can you use with your family? What prayer can you pray for your child? How can you ensure that you get your child to church on a regular basis?

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost: Keep On

Sun, 20 Oct 2013 21:18:05 -0400

Readings
Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 121
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8
Devotion

In the documentary My Run, Terry Hitchcock tells a remarkable story. As a 57 year old man, he suffered the loss of his wife to breast cancer and was left with three children to raise. Terry had a strong faith, but he was shaken by this loss. He spent a lot of time at his church in the evenings pouring out his heart—and even his anger—to God. Terry felt utterly lost until one radical idea brought him out of his grief: he would run 75 consecutive marathons, traveling from Minnesota to Atlanta in order to bring attention to the plight of single parents. Terry realized it was time to get out of his own pain and identify with and care for the pain of others. His feat was made even more remarkable because Terry had not done long-distance training of any kind. He had also just suffered a heart attack. During his run, he endured chest pains and bone fractures. He ran through both the bone-chilling cold of Minnesota and the heat advisories of the South. His 75 day journey tested him to his very core, but like the fabled tortoise, he just kept going. And he met his goal, defying all odds and breaking by far the previous record consecutive marathons (three).

In My Run, we see Terry’s quiet, simple faith and his tenacious spirit. He wasn’t a remarkable person by the world’s standards. Ordinary looking, with ordinary abilities and experiences, surely no one would put money on soft-spoken Terry being able to accomplish such an incredible feat. But Terry proved that you just need to be faithful and tenacious, one day at a time. It is that kind of simple faith, daily putting one foot in front of the other that God calls us to today.

In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus tells a parable about another person with very simple faith. She wasn’t someone who was looked at as remarkable by human standards. She isn’t even given a name, in fact. She is simply called “a widow.” Because widows during the time of the Bible lived without the financial security of male support, she probably was impoverished. We know that she had suffered some kind of injustice and we know that she had been dealing with a crooked judge. We don’t know what this injustice was, but we do know that this was a woman who was relentlessly pursuing justice.

Recently in Montana, there was a court case that troubled the entire state and nation. Male teacher Stacey Rambold admitted to raping a teenage girl in 2008. This teenage girl committed suicide a couple of years after the rape. Although Rambold had been offered a chance to have charges dropped if he fulfilled certain conditions, he failed to keep up his end of the bargain. Prosecutors asked Judge G. Todd Baugh to sentence Rambold to 20 years in prison. Instead, the Judge cited his belief that mere technicalities were not followed in the agreement and that, after all, the teenage girl seemed “older than her chronological age.” He sentenced Rambold to only a month in prison, along with extended parole. An outcry rose up from the family of the teenage girl, from the community, and from the whole country! This was an unjust judge. He seemed not to understand that a teenage girl cannot enter into a consensual sexual relationship with an adult. The imbalance of power is too great. And so, we all cried out, “Get me justice from my adversary!”

The woman in Jesus’ story wanted things set right too. She wants to ensure that her needs are cared for and that right will prevail over evil. She feels her very survival depends on justice from the town judge. She pesters him over and over again. Everywhere he goes, there she is. She pickets and heckles and bothers. She doesn’t care if people are annoyed by her. Like Terry Hitchcock in his goal, she is single-minded. She gives herself fully to her objective. There is nothing on earth for her until the unjust judge in her town gives her what she begs for.

This widow is an unlikely victor. Everything is stacked against her. But there is something to simple stick-to-itiveness that makes a difference. The widow finds justice, despite the attitude of the judge.

Jesus specifically applies this parable to faithfulness and persistence in prayer. He reminds us that, in contrast with the unjust judge, God is our loving Father who desires our good and is responsive to us in prayer.

There is nothing sexy about just praying simply and persistently day after day after day. Jesus doesn’t tell us to find some perfect formula for prayer. He doesn’t encourage you to write a runaway bestseller on prayer. He just says to keep at it. Keep crying out to God for justice. Keep crying out to God for His Kingdom to come and His Will to be done. Just pray those prayers over and over and over. Don’t give up. You won’t get any medals for doing this. You won’t be voted “most likely to succeed” by your peers. But God will see. God calls you to faithfulness, day in and day out. Will you heed the call? Will you keep up those prayers?

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the will to keep going. Push us when we think about slowing down and giving up. Guide us to be persistence about social justice for all people. Remind us you are listening when we pray. Thank you for using our ordinary acts for your will. Amen.
Reflective Questions
Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant located here.) You can answer as many questions as you would like.
1. What do you find most challenging about persisting in prayer?
2. What is a time when you persisted in prayer and saw something unexpected happen?

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost: Wrestling with God

Sun, 20 Oct 2013 21:13:19 -0400

Readings
Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 121
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8
Devotion

Have you ever wrestled with God? Have you really struggled with your faith or some situation in your life so much that you railed at God? Have you ever been in such a tight spot that you demanded that God step in and act? After my fiancé called off our relationship I was so hurt that I closed out the world from getting in to me. I spent years living in my safe little bubble where nobody could touch me, and nobody could hurt me ever again. I was so tired of being bullied for my Cerebral Palsy. The nasty ending to my engagement was just the final straw that pushed me inside. I was tired of feeling hurt and pain. I guess subconsciously I thought that if nobody really got in to me, if nobody got to really know me, then they couldn’t hurt me. I lived in this self-imposed bubble for about three years. I left college with no intention to keep in touch with anybody. I went off to seminary and had a very hard time making friends. Soon the weight of the bubble was becoming too much for me. I started to realize just how lonely I was and it hurt. I was in pain again, and this time I had nobody to blame but myself. I was the one who closed myself off, but in my deep frustration and pain I lashed out at God. I blamed God for allowing me to have Cerebral Palsy in the first place. I asked God how He could just sit by and allow me to get a disability and then get beaten up so much for it. I was going through a time of deep emotional wrestling and I was doing my wrestling with the God of the universe.

I am not the first person to wrestle with the almighty. Jacob in our Old Testament story is not the first person to wrestle with God either, but his story is so compelling. Jacob was a scoundrel and a cheat. Jacob was the son of Isaac and Rebekah. He was a twin. His older brother was Esau. Being the second born was not a pleasant place in that day and age. The oldest son would get control of the property when his father died. Until the time that Jacob married and started his own household he would have been under the control of his older brother. I am sure the idea of serving Esau was not too pleasing to Jacob. If you read Jacob’s story in the Bible you will see that Jacob becomes a conniving and deceptive man. He uses his talent not to serve God, but to take things from others. When the time of his father’s death drew near, Jacob pretended to be Esau so that he could trick his then blind father into giving him the blessing that rightfully belonged to Esau. Jacob is made the head of the household, and when Esau finds out he is so angry he plots to murder Jacob. Jacob runs away to his Uncle Laban’s house. Laban is just as conniving and cunning as Jacob. For the next twenty-one years Jacob and Laban match wits. Laban tricks Jacob into marrying his older daughter Leah, even though Jacob wants the younger daughter Rachel. After marrying both daughters Jacob plots and schemes to increase his share of the herds. When Laban sees how Jacob’s share of the herd has grown much stronger and bigger than his Laban attempts to alter the agreement he had with Jacob. Jacob is fed up with Laban and he once again runs away, this time heading back towards the land of Canaan where he grew up.

It seems that all of his life Jacob was wrestling with someone. He wrestled with his brother Esau over the birth right. He wrestled with his uncle over his pay and over his wives. Jacob burns down so many bridges through his fighting that he finally has nowhere left to turn. While running away from Laban Jacob learns that his brother Esau is coming right towards him with four hundred men. Jacob is certain that a war is about to break out between his camp and Esau’s camp. Jacob sends gifts to his brother Esau to appease his wrath. Jacob sent everything over the Jabok River, but he stayed on the other side. Then a man came and wrestled with Jacob all night long. When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob he struck him on his hip putting his hip out of its’ socket. The man asked Jacob for his name and Jacob had to give his name, Jacob, which means cheater.

Now we may think that this is no big deal. Jacob is asked his name and he gives it, so what? In the Old Testament names had meaning, and people’s names gave you a window into their character. For Jacob his name was more than just a name as we think of it, but his name described who he was. He was the cheater. He was the conniving cunning cheater who had stolen from his brother and his uncle. Some commentators here say that Jacob is not identifying himself as you and I do when we tell each other our names, but Jacob is making a confession. Jacob is confessing who he is at the core; that he is nothing more than a no-good scoundrel who cheats people out of what belongs to them. The man who is wrestling with Jacob says, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and man and have prevailed.” The man who is wrestling with Jacob changes his identity. No longer is Jacob the cheat, but now he is the one who strives with God and prevails. The Bible leaves the identity of this strange man somewhat obscure, but Jacob does say that he has seen God face to face and lived. Did Jacob literally wrestle with almighty God? At the end of the day that seems to be the only option left open. Jacob wrestled with the almighty… and prevailed!

Is it surprising for you that Jacob engaged in hand to hand combat with God? I think the idea of Jacob doing battle with God is hard for many people to accept. Many artists depict Jacob wrestling with an angelic figure, though the Bible never mentions an angel here. I think that we have a hard time with this story because we have been trained to see God as so high up in the heavens that God becomes unapproachable. We think that God’s holiness it so great that we can’t even question the almighty. I don’t know about you, but I was told when I was young that you just have to believe and you can’t question anything. When I was struggling in the deep anguish of my soul about my disability and my loneliness I would rail at God, and then turn around and take it all back out of some fear that a bolt of lightning was about to strike me. I feared that doing real deep spiritual wrestling with God was somehow unholy, or even spiritually dangerous. The truth is that it is indeed dangerous, but it won’t change our standing as children of God.

Wrestling with God is dangerous. God strikes Jacob on the hip and Jacob spends the rest of his life limping, yet this wrestling did not change Jacob’s status as God’s chosen. If we are to wrestle with the almighty we have to expect there to be a bit of pain and anguish in the fight, but don’t give up. At the end of the night Jacob was blessed, but even more importantly Jacob is changed. The man who relied all his life on his wit now is forced to live the rest of his life relying on God. Jacob is changed in this exchange. He doesn’t cheat anyone after this event. Jacob’s life is forever changed in this wrestling. Jacob goes from being a scoundrel who cheats people to the father of a new nation. Jacob’s children and grandchildren are the twelve tribes of Israel.

Wrestling with the almighty is indeed dangerous. It could leave you with a limp, but it could also leave you with a completely new identity. I told you that I wrestled with God over my disability. I felt like a victim. I felt that so much had been heaped on me that just wasn’t fair. At that point in my life I couldn’t see any good that would come out of being disabled. I railed at God for how unfair God was to allow so many negative things to happen to me. Now I have been changed. I don’t see myself as just a tragic victim of a cruel world, but as an advocate and leader for the disabled. I no longer see my pain as unfortunate circumstances, but as tools that enhance my ministry. God can use the things I have gone through to make me a better minister of the gospel. My suffering and pain can make me more compassionate and even empathetic to others who are also suffering.

If you are wrestling with God about the pains and struggles of your life, do not lose heart. Wrestling with the Almighty is not futile. The God who loves you dearly will not let go of you, so do not let go of God. Persist like Jacob through the long night of anguish and grief, for daybreak will come. Persist and like Jacob you too will receive a blessing. Persist and find that in the midst of the fight that you are being forever changed. God is not looking for followers who cower in God’s presence, but for those who will persist in the fight of faith. So put your hands in the nail marked hands of Christ. Do battle with the Almighty. Throw your questions, your doubts, your fears, and your anguish at Almighty God and persist until God gives an answer. Do not fear! Grapple with the almighty with your hands in Christ’s hands and there find the God who through thick and thin will never let you go! Amen

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the many blessings you bestow onto us. Guide us to use the blessings you give us for your will. Help us to learn from Jacob. Thank you for giving us the identity as your children. Amen.
Reflective Questions
Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant located here.) You can answer as many questions as you would like.
1. Have you ever wrestled we God? How were you suffering?
2. How has God changed your identity

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost: Despite Our Leprosy

Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:05:29 -0400

Readings
2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c
Psalm 111
1 Timothy 2:8-15
Luke 17:11-19
Devotion

Peace be with you!

What does it mean to really see someone? Not just the parts you want to see, but the parts of the another person that make you uncomfortable and downright scared. It is unnerving to get to know another person’s darkness, and it is even more unnerving to let someone else to see your darkness. Getting to know someone and letting him or her get to know you is scary business.

Jesus is travelling between Samaria and Galilee when ten lepers approach him while still keeping their distance and call out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:11-13). The ten lepers are suffering from skin sores, nerve damage, and muscle weakness that only progresses over time with no cure or real relief. The lepers are segregated from society in Biblical times because of their unpleasant, deformed appearance.

Today our lepers are the homeless, the child molesters, the drug addicts, the alcoholics, the physically disabled, the mentally challenged, or [whoever “it” is] that make you uncomfortable or scared. These are the people we label as dangerous and cast away as unproductive members of society. At some point in our lives, we probably have all been treated as lepers. Perhaps we had a different opinion than society as a whole or perhaps we suffered ostracism of a popular clique in junior high. Whatever the case, we all know what it is like to be excluded.

The ten lepers call out and plead with Jesus to heal them (Luke 17:13). They are seeking someone to really see them for who they are – who God planned them to be, not just deformed individuals who are unable to tend to their own needs. Many of the individuals who are physically disabled that I meet (and even myself) are frustrated with how society as a whole treats them – as individuals unaware of the world around them. Individuals tend to think the wheelchairs, walkers, and other adaptive devices mean the person using them needs extra care and is less intelligent. When people tell my friends how saintly they are for helping me get out of the house, my friends usually exclaim, “Erin is the one getting me out the house!”

Jesus tells the ten lepers to go and show themselves to a priest. They all go and are made clean (Luke 17:14). Jesus recognizes the ten lepers as individuals in need of being made clean and healed. They are individuals who are suffering unnecessarily; they came to Jesus out of faith that he will make them whole. The ten lepers listen and put their trust in Jesus when they follow his command to go and see a priest. Today we see Jesus in others when we make pleas for healing, forgiveness, and grace. Doctors tell us to take medicine when we are sick; personal trainers push us to exercise when we want to sit down; friends and family members catch us when we fall after a mistake. Jesus uses individuals to see our darkness and to show us the light.

Out of the ten lepers, only one leper, a foreigner, comes back to see and worship Jesus (Luke 17:15-18). All ten lepers were made clean and healed, but only one realizes Jesus has made him whole. Jesus says to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has made you well.” (Luke 17:19). Jesus sees and recognizes the healed individual as the one who has leprosy; the individual who was previously a leper sees and recognizes Jesus as the Lord who has made whole. The individual who is now clean experiences a change in his life’s direction. He is no longer the unpleasant, disabled person shunned by society, but he is an active member of society. Not only that, but his own sense of worth has increased and has made him whole.

We do not need to experience a physical healing to be made whole. A battered woman who finds the courage to end an abusive relationship experiences being made whole when she reclaims her life. She stops allowing someone else to controls her every decision and movement, and she decides what she needs and wants and who she is as an individual. The power of making decisions and claiming your voice and personality gives a person a sense of worth to live in the world.

In reality, we are all lepers with no business entering the Kingdom of God. We all have dark places and secrets that we dare not share with others, because they are outright damning. These places and secrets are things we ourselves would like to forget, and they hold us back from feeling whole and having relationships with others. Thankfully God comes into the world through Jesus Christ, dies on the cross, and conquers death in order to restore our relationship with him. We are made whole through Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for seeing us as individuals able to carry out your plan despite our “leprosy.” Help us to feel whole and give us a sense of worth to be in healthy relationship with others and you. Allow us to see each one another as we really are without passing judgment. Remind us to have faith that you will care for us, despite our darkness. Thank you for making us whole through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Works Cited
Thanks to the Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Reflective Questions
Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant located here.) You can answer as many questions as you would like.
1. How are you a leper?
2. How has your faith you whole?

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost: Faith Exploited

Sun, 6 Oct 2013 16:42:58 -0400

Readings
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-9
2 Timothy 1:1-9
Luke 17:5-10
Devotion

Peace be with you!

A child’s faith is something special. Children do not question if the Biblical stories are true: Jesus loves me; the Bible says tells me so. Out of curiosity they question what God looks like, how God made the world in seven days, or why God sent Jesus to die for their sins. Their imaginations fill in the blanks where we cannot find the words to explain it.

Jesus has been talking about the costs of discipleship with the crowds: make your earthly family second and God first (Luke 14:26), carry the cross (Luke 14:27), give up all of your possessions (Luke 14:33), and no going back (Luke 19:57-62). To follow Jesus, you have to forgive those who sin and seek repentance (Luke 17:3-4), even if they sin again. When you sin, someone will rebuke you; when you choose to repent, the other person is to forgive you no matter how many times you have sinned. We live in a vicious cycle: sin, be rebuked, repent, be forgiven, and repent again. To be Jesus’ disciples is to be called to make daily sacrifices. We have to make the choice daily to follow Jesus Christ because we are constantly being tempted by the Devil and we constantly have to say no to temptation. There is nothing simple or easy about being Jesus’ disciples; we constantly have to make the choice to follow.

Most days, the choice seems simple (though perhaps not easy). We make it without thinking, because we are devoted disciples who realize the consequences are only temporary and the reward is eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Children talk about what they learn in Sunday School without worrying that their belief in God might offend someone; they are overcome by the joy in knowing Jesus and feel an overwhelming need to share the good news. But as we get older, the choice to follow gets more difficult: how can I abandon my dying mom, how can I live without my cell phone, how can I share the good news with people who always reject it, how can I not worry about my mortgage payment, and [whatever “the consequence” is] that you have difficulty handling. Some days we are lost in the wilderness, overwhelmed by fears, and drowning in the darkness.

The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith (Luke 17:5). The disciples are overwhelmed by the costs of discipleship because the costs seem unbearable. They have to put their trust in a man who claims to be the Son of God and give up everything to follow him. The task Jesus sets before them seems impossible.

Jesus is at his wit’s end with his disciples’ belief that faith can be measured. Jesus responds to the disciples, “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.” In the Greek, the word a‡n (an untranslatable particle “an”) indicates Jesus is criticizing the disciples for their lack of faith (Carey 2010). All you need is a little faith, and Jesus will take care of the rest. Even when we struggle in the darkness, Jesus is shining the light for us to find our way to the Kingdom of God. Ordinary faith is sufficient to express our devotion to the Triune God; Jesus exploits our faith by calling us out of the darkness and into the light.

After Jesus heals someone, he says, “Your faith has healed you.” (Luke 3:48; 7:50; 17:19; 18:42). Faith cannot be measured. You cannot measure whether it changes how you perceive and respond to the world by transforming you into a child of God.

Jesus tells the disciples a parable. A slave serves his master by plowing the field or tending the sheep and then he comes in to make the evening meal (Luke 17:7-8). In Biblical times, slaves were devoted to their masters by doing whatever they were asked. The slaves were a part of the household and respected by their masters. However, Jesus points out how masters hardly ever ask their slaves to enjoy a meal with them or thank them for simply doing their job (Luke 17:8-9). Therefore, the disciples need to repent, because they do not do what they should do (Luke 17:10). All Jesus asks of them is to do ordinary acts of kindness to act out their faith.

As God’s children, we are his slaves. We are to devote ourselves to the Triune God and to spreading the good news throughout the world. Just as children live to obey their parents, we live to obey God’s commandments. Though children are born into sin, they have a certain innocence which allows them to live Jesus’ light in the world until someone or something takes it away. However, God the Father sends his only begotten son into the world to overcome the darkness with his light and to restore our innocence through his forgiveness – just as parents forgive their children. God is devoted to his children by sending Jesus Christ to die for our sins in order to restore our relationship with him.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for exploiting our faith to serve you, even when we feel trapped in the darkness. Guide us to Jesus’ light in the darkness in order to lead others to your kingdom. Comfort us as we struggle in the wilderness, as we look towards heaven. Remind us that ordinary faith is sufficient for us to serve you. Thank you for devoting your message to us. Amen.
Works Cited
Carey, Greg. Commentary of Luke 17:5-10. September 24, 2010. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=680 (accessed October 4, 2013).
Triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit

Reflective Questions
Please answer the following reflective questions in the comments below. Please agree to disagree and be respectful to each other. (If you have not already done so, please also take a moment, to sign the comment covenant located here.) You can answer as many questions as you would like.
1. What is faith? How does it feel?
2. How has faith transformed you?