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Proper 22 RCL
Lamentations 1:1-6 A Thankless Job Luke 17:5-10 The disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, and he told them a story about the slave who comes in from plowing or tending sheep and then has to wait on his master hand and foot. Does the slave receive any thanks? No, and he or she cannot expect to receive any thanks for just doing the job. How is that related to an increase of faith? Have you ever asked God to increase your faith? I hope you will do that because it takes a lot of faith to keep doing what you are doing. There has to be some secret reward from God that keeps you going week after week. Maybe it’s the fact that when you come to church God shows up and you really don’t go to church to carry a torch in the processional. You are already carrying a torch for God every day in your heart, and your Sunday torch-carrying is just one manifestation of your relationship with Jesus Christ. The tradition in which you worship somehow makes sense to you and you want to keep the tradition going, so you are faithful in your commitments. You simply do your job. For all of you who have been at this Connections Conference this weekend – I hope that you love what you are doing. I hope that you derive great satisfaction from serving as an acolyte, or a chalice bearer, or a vestry member or serving in another role because there will be times when the priest, or the bishop, or someone who should think of it will fail to say “Thank you.” So, I want to be sure that I say “Thank you” to all of you for being here this weekend. Thank you for all the future times you will suit up and show up for meetings or worship services, or to arrange flowers, or prepare the sacred vessels for use at the altar. Thank you for being there for endless processionals regardless of whether you feel like being there. You help create a space in which God will transform lives. Thank you for doing your job. In her book Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass talks about mainline historical churches such as the Episcopal Church. She says that we are serving our communities as an alternative to the mega churches that are springing up all around us. Bass says that as a mainline church we are finding pockets of renewal and that as such it is not “rocket science.” She says that churches like ours which are growing are simply doing their jobs as Christians. They are preaching the gospel, offering hospitality, paying attention to worship and paying attention to the spiritual lives of the people who walk through their doors. They are not trying to do anything spectacular to gain attention, but the Holy Spirit of God is drawing people to those churches. God is doing God’s job. In her research Bass found that the vital churches among us “have rediscovered the riches of the Christian past and practice simple, but profound, things like discernment . . . contemplation, and justice. They reach back to ancient wisdom and reach out through a life sustained by Christian devotional and moral practices. They know the biblical story and their own story. They focus more on God’s grace in the world than on the eternal state of their own souls.” Does that sound like your church? When you participate in worship services at the Episcopal Church, you are keeping alive ancient traditions, many of which can be traced back to the very earliest days of Christianity. The best example is Holy Eucharist. We can’t get any more ancient Christian tradition than that. I believe that people in the world around us are deeply hungry for the mystery of God. Perhaps they are unaware of it and may remain so for years, but then one day they will wander into an Episcopal Church – or better yet the Holy Spirit will draw them into an Episcopal Church, and suddenly they will feel right at home. They will feel that they always belonged there and wonder how they could have lived so long without that knowledge. In order to offer hospitality to such people, it is very important that we keep our doors open and maintain vibrant worship with sparkling liturgy. And because you are prepared for it, it will happen in your church. Remember – the longer the line of preparation, the more likely it is to intersect the line of opportunity. Just do your job. In my own experience of open church doors I once found myself needing a place to pray. I still need places to pray, but in 1983 I needed to find a new place to pray. On advice from a friend I found an Episcopal Church where Morning Prayer was going on five days a week. I boldly began attending. The priest suspected that I did not know what I was doing, and he was right. He generously called out the page numbers. There was also a weekday Eucharist. When I discovered (by calling the church office) that all baptized Christians were welcome to take communion at the altar I was permanently bonded with the Episcopal Church. This would never have happened without the faithful people who showed up every day for Morning Prayer. They kept open the doors of the church and had no idea how important their hospitality was to me. The priest was Tom Ward, and I still see him at Centering Prayer Retreats. We chuckle about what happens when you open your doors and simply do your job. You never know who the Holy Spirit might bring in. Did you ever notice that in almost every church there is a group of people whose primary focus is prayer and Holy Eucharist? You might think of them as your resident monastics. These are the people who would lead Morning Prayer during the week and then would come together in Centering Prayer groups – or they might invite your to walk the labyrinth. For the most part they lead quiet and peaceable lives and you might not be aware of the contribution they make to the spirituality of the church. However, their prayer lives are foundational. They lead the way in our disenchanted world by providing an example of the basic coping mechanism God has given us – prayer. These people might not be able to solve your problems, but they can show you how to open your heart to God. My advice is – go hang out with these people. They are just doing their jobs. Our Gospel passage for this morning would lead us to believe that if we are faithful, and if we do the jobs that God has assigned to us, God will increase our faith. It is very much like being a good steward of what God has entrusted to us with the end result that God will give us more. Then if at some point we have a mulberry tree that needs to be uprooted and planted in the sea, we will have the resources at hand to get the job done. Amen.
On the grounds of Honey Creek
The Rev. Linda McCloud, Pastor |
