Supersize this, mega
size that. We have been on this bigger is better kick for some time now. SUV’s,
homes, office buildings, cars, planes, boats. You name it and we have been able
to make it ginormous.
The major of New York City recently tried one
simple downsizing law taking ginormous away and was rebuffed. He tried to limit
the size of a carbonated drink for health reasons and the courts got involved.
Ginormous is alive and well in New York City.
We Americans often
equate ginormous with prosperity and success.
A Time magazine survey
taken last year found that a majority of the people asked agreed that God wants
us to be financially prosperous. This view is part of what is called the
“prosperity gospel” where more is good.
The prosperity gospel
is a religious belief found among “tens of thousands” of Christians centered on
the notion that God provides material prosperity for those God favors. It
teaches that Jesus blesses believers with material riches. But, it misses the
point that Jesus himself never lived in prosperity.
It seems from our
gospel reading this morning even the apostles were not immune to these notions
of more and bigger making us prosperous. An apostle said to Jesus, “Increase
our faith?”
Why not, we may ask.
We have mega sized everything else; we preach or desire to preach and live a
prosperity gospel. Why not supersize our faith? Is the apostle to think we can
simply ask Jesus to mega size our faith and he will?
Simply answered,
Jesus will not. Jesus is opposed to any increasing or mega sizing of faith this
way. As a matter of fact, he seems to say that the opposite of an increase is
what we should ask for. Instead Jesus says, smaller is better; even faith as
small as a mustard seed is better.
Bigger, it seems,
creates the desire for even bigger. The mustard seed, on the other hand, grows
from a small seed to a proportion larger than imaginable. Faith the size of
such a seed will therefore grow to a proportion out of this world. Isn’t that
the point?
Growth out of this
world is one promise of our Christian faith. It is partnered with an amazing
wonder at the mystery of God’s grace that will produce such abundance in the
first place. Asking for faith the size of a mustard seed is what we should be
praying for.
So Jesus offers his help and asks, “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?”
Jesus knew his
apostles would understand the economics of work. Be it with a hired hand, a
servant, or a slave. That person is doing what they are being paid or obligated
to do and they are not finished until they are finished.
For their labor they receive room and board, health
insurance, vacation time, sick leave, stuff like that. They are compensated for
their work. When the work is done, then feasting begins. The worker in this
parable is to do exactly what is expected, no less, no more. They do not expect
special treatment and none is given.
We also have in the
parable the image of a laborer who does only the minimum required. Actually, they
might even have an attitude thrown in. They may have resented having to do even
the minimum of work. The land owner seems to sense this attitude and says, ‘No
resting now. Prepare my supper, put on you apron, serve me. You will get no
special treatment from me.”
This may seem to be a
harsh answer to the apostle’s question. We may have liked the request, “Lord, increase
my faith.” Like them, we know Jesus has the power to do amazing things. We know
about his miracles, turning water into wine, feeding thousands from just a
little food, healing the sick, raising the dead. We have heard him say time and
time again “Your faith has made you well.” So, why not? Jesus, increase our
faith. Then we too will have miracles in our lives.
But, Jesus senses we
may be expecting special treatment. He senses we may expect a short cut. He
senses we may have an attitude. As one who himself serves, Jesus wants us to
remember, from the very beginning there were no short cuts. Our faith is about full
relationships and a full commitment.
The relationship part
may seem easy enough. To be in a relationship with Jesus is to know his story,
to know his teaching, to heed his call to come and follow him. It is to accept
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to spend time with him in prayer and study
and worship and service. It is to love him.
But what about the
commitment part? What might that mean and cost, and for how long. How long will
we be required to be of service to our Lord? How long are we to be committed?
Surely not forever! Surely there is a short cut. Let’s just ask.
Jesus tells us about
the servant to make sure we understand that asking for short cuts is not how we
increase our faith. No, we do not just show up on Sundays and wait to be
served. Hello my name is Jesus and I will be your server today. Can I start you
off with an appetizer, an increase in your faith?
No, no appetizers
here. Jesus does not wait on us. Jesus does not owe us faith, or grace, or
love, or anything. When we are in a relationship where we feel we are owed
something we are not really in a faithful relationship are we? A faithful
relationship requires a great degree of selflessness. We become smaller than
our largely ego driven selves in a successful relationship, not larger.
When we grudgingly go
through the motions in a relationship we become calculating and wonder how we
can get the upper hand. I believe Jesus wants us to know, this is not the sort
of relationship we will have in the Kingdom. To be sure, God’s children aim to
do God’ will. But they do it with a gladness of heart, in a spirit of love, and
gratitude.
Do not be confused,
Jesus is not advocating for a smaller faith, just a different faith, one not of
this world. He asks, “Who among you if he has a servant plowing or tending
sheep, will say to him when he comes in from the field, come at once and
recline at table. We will not say this to the one working for us. His reward
will be a wage, an earned wage. Will he not rather say to him, prepare my
supper, and dress up properly so you can wait on me until I finish eating and
drinking.” That is the way of this world.
But Jesus has a special invitation for us for a different world.
He invites us to his table, this table. He says, “Come to me you who are weary
and heavy laden. Come and recline with me at table.”
It is to this table,
this kingdom table that we are invited. Where we will find his body and his
blood shed for us for the remission of our sins. Our reward is no wage. Our
reward is to spend our time with Jesus in the heavenly kingdom. Both here and
there.
Oh, be sure, Jesus
will be the one tending to us at table. He will be the role model for us. He
will be the role model of faithful servant hood. He will be the role model that
teaches us how we are to be as servants to God and to one another. The model
for how we are to act, how we are to live, how we are to have our being in
relationship with Jesus.
But remember, there is
no shortcut to the Lord’s Table. Jesus is the servant whose example and
gracious relationship with his followers captures and upholds our service. Our
service is to him as Lord.
Following Christ,
therefore, gives us authority to serve as he served, not to lord over others.
Our truth this morning is as believers and followers of Jesus Christ there is
no need for desperate quests for increased faith.
But there will be a
journey of sorts. It will be a life long journey for a different faith. A faith
where God’s spirit works through us making all things possible. A faith
sustained right here in this church family. Here where we can be confident in
the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit and here where the kingdom of our Lord
is growing.
Kaye Gibbon is a
writer who tells the story of four generations of women who have learned the lessons
of life. The truth they all understand
is that life deals us a different hand than we had hope for. Less than we might
think we deserve. So by grace alone we must learn to live with diminished
expectations and compromised dreams.
Yet, we discover that
life is found in whatever gifts are given. In acts of kindness we had no right
to expect, in lasting friendships, in causes undertaken for no reason other
than they are right and good, or in helping another that was not undertaken for
reward. These are the places real joy
and real fullness and real satisfaction is grounded.
For in this life we
are grounded and blessed by the grace of God. Then as Christ Jesus walks with
us, strengthening each of us in our own ways with increased faith, we become
the salt for the earth, the light on the hill, the seed in the world for hope
and joy.
We become the mustard
seed, the mighty servant of the Lord, bringing shalom; peace and wholeness, the
increase that is beyond this world.
A ginormous increase
like no other. Supersize that!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.
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