| First
Reading | Psalm | Epistle | Gospel |
| Habakkuk
1:1-4 2:1-4 | 137:1-6 | 2
Timothy 1:1-14 | Luke
17:5-10 |
It
is so easy
to forget that Jesus' ministry with the original disciples likely lasted no more
than three years and was mostly spent in a rural area among very modest-sized
communities. The Sea of Galilee is shaped much more like a melon than the elongated
shape of Cayuga. Yet while there is greater distance between opposite shores,
the Sea of Galilee is only about two-thirds the area of Cayuga, hence the actual
shoreline of Cayuga is considerably larger. Trumansburg is twice as large as most
of the towns Jesus taught in. Going from places like Jacksonville, Covert, Sheldrake,
and crossing over to King Ferry probably would have been a typical itinerary for
him and the first disciples.
Yet Jesus had full confidence that the Gospel would be
spread and that his mission would change the world. I suspect today's Gospel reveals
a little of Jesus’ frustration with his original disciples. Like us, they
complained, “We who are so poor in resources, who are so small, who are
so harried and can offer so little, how can we possibly do what God expects of
us?” Jesus replied, “Even if you had a tenth of the inner resources
that I know you have, you would still be able to do significant things that would
seem as if you were moving mountains. Even if your faith community were the smallest
in the entire region of Galilee, you still could spread good news and challenge
the powers of the world that degrade and destroy humanity. The grace of God is
as strong here in this place where you live as it is in the palaces of power in
Jerusalem.”
Jesus went on to offer an analogy that the people of that
day and place would understand. He told of a slave, or what we might term an indentured
servant, who needed to do double duty, first in the fields in the day and then
in the house at night. Some townspeople undoubtedly were working for a large landowner
in this way or certainly knew of a relative or neighbor who had. Everyone who
heard Jesus knew firsthand that life was hard, and in some way always involved
never ending toil. At the end of the day in the fields, there were chores in their
modest house, or in a small garden. After a long stretch fishing, there were nets
to mend and boats to repair. The work never stopped. There were no long holiday
weekends for the common people in Galilee. Everyone there did double duty in some
way.
In our day, Jesus may have phrased it this way. You have
had a difficult day at the office and a splitting headache. Yet you come home
and rush to prepare dinner for your children and walk the dog. Afterwards you
wash the dishes and pack lunches for the next day. Then you have to help your
children with their homework. One is especially cranky because of a math test
the next day. At last you get them to bed and you shortly turn in yourself, but
in the middle of the night one of your children gets sick. Which one of you would
say, “Hey, I’ve worked hard to put bread on the table, cooked your
dinner, helped with your homework, and now I am off duty. I won’t be your
parent now until breakfast?” Rather will you not get up and help the child
wash up and change the sheets, not expecting the child to thank you profusely
and promise to wash the dishes for the next month.
Like
parents, disciples are always doing double duty. They are always on call. Discipleship
is not put on like an overcoat or taken off depending on the weather. We
live in a culture that scares us into thinking that the more we give, the less
we have. It likes to control us in a perpetual fear of inadequacy. Hence we are
urged to gather and hoard as many nuts as we can. The one with the most toys wins.
The
Gospel, the good news proclaimed by Jesus, says something completely different.
Indeed it is subversive to a consumer society based on fear of inadequacy and
perpetual scarcity. The Gospel holds that even if we have half of what we think
we have, God will work with us. When we share what we have, when we are open and
generous, we are apt to discover, to our amazement, that God is changing our lives.
Fresh resources and energy is revealed to us, and we find that our spirits have
been enhanced, not depleted.
That is why it usually seems that generous people tend
to recognize and give thanks for what they have. They tend to be more content
and happy. It doesn’t mean that they do not experience tragedy or heartbreak
and they may still have to work very, very hard. Yet in whatever they have, however
limited, their faith helps them to survive and to rejoice and live in hope. In
doing double duty, it almost seems to others as if they actually are able to move
mighty mountains.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Living and Loving God, Amen.
