The 20th Sunday after Pentecost - Having Faith and Doing One's Duty

How do you think of God?  The writer of today's collect sees God as ready to hear and to give, to be abundantly merciful and to be forgiving. The writer identifies Jesus as someone who intercedes for us.  The theology behind this collect shows God as both the source of blessing and the means by which we are blessed.

          On the other hand, the writer of the collect describes humanity as unaware of what we should desire, undeserving of God's gifts, having a fearful conscience, and unworthy of God's good generosity.  Is that how we think of ourselves?  Probably not, although we may see others in our society and our world as unworthy because of their lifestyles or the choices they have made.

About 700 years before Jesus came, Habakkuk, a Judean prophet, lamented God's lack of action in the face of much wicked behavior by unrighteous people: "O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Or cry to you 'Violence!' and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble?"  He reports God's answer as calling for patience for now.  God tells him of a vision that he must "write" large enough, so even runners can read it. And the vision is of a time "appointed" by God when God will deal with the unrighteous.  Until then righteous people will "live by their faith."  

For Habakkuk the unrighteous are people who have chosen to abandon the way God has taught the in the Torah or the books of the Law.  He sees justice as not prevailing.  As we have heard in previous weeks, for the Jewish prophets, justice means carrying for the poor and those in need--not trampling on them by corrupt business practices or ignoring them as the rich man did Lazarus.

This week a recipient of one of our bags of food from our food pantry left a phone message.  She had lost her job and had run out of resources, but she was able to eat due to the food we provided to the Hudson State Service Center. She thanked us for our generosity that helped her in a very difficult time, before her new job started.

However, we as a society have a tough time understanding how widespread "food insecurity" really is.  Just recently I read some statistics about the Meals-on-Wheels program's declining ability in many locations to assist the elderly poor with food.  In wealthier areas private donations have made the difference between decreasing government funds for this entitlement program, but in poorer areas long waiting lists now exist.  The need for this program often outstrips its resources.

Recently some other clergy and I toured the food prep area and the Meals-On-Wheels program area of the Newark Senior Center. Impressed by its size and efficient organization, I had no idea that I should ask about its funding and whether or not it had a waiting list. I will be making that call.

The Newark Area Welfare Committee, to which we give a yearly grant and which some of our parishioners support with their time and talent, also fights food insecurity here in our community.  The Welfare Committee operates a food pantry too, and it has given our food pantry cans of food when it lacks room to store them.

So where does our faith come into all this activity to care for those who are hungry?  In today's Gospel reading from Luke we hear the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith.  The scriptural context in which they make this request is Jesus’ teaching about forgiving those who sin against you.  If people say they are sorry and will change, but you hold a grudge against them, you will be displeasing God.

Evidently the disciples expect to have trouble living this way and ask for greater faith.  Jesus responds by telling a parable about a rather hapless slave working all day in the fields and then having to serve at table in the evening.  I think point Jesus wanted them to see is this:  You may think you have done a very fine job of serving (or an excellent job at practicing forgiveness), but God (as the master) expects nothing less.  A new translation of verse ten in the Common English Bible says it very clearly, without the sense of worthlessness regarding the servant or slave: "In the same way, when you have done everything required of you, you should say, 'We servants deserve no special praise, we have only done our duty.'"  Yes, our faith leads us to serve.  And, yes, it is simply our duty to do so!

As part of this faith community of St. Nicholas, all of us are encouraged to find ways to serve both in our church community and in the larger community of Newark, our country and even the world.  Service comes on many forms.  We often call them "time, talent and treasure."  All three are essential to do the work of service God offers to us.  And in addition to the three T's of service we should include one more, intercessory prayer.

Using these four ways to serve--our time, our talent, our treasure and our intercessory prayers--we can do exactly what God would do in the situations where we are now.  For remember, as our collect tells us, God is ready to hear and to give, to be abundantly merciful and to be forgiving.  We trust in Jesus as intercessor, someone who mediates between God’s judgment and us.  Yes, as we have faith that God is both the source of blessing and the means by which we are blessed, so we can serve others as both the source and means by which they experience God's blessing.  And we will have done our duty!