St. John’s Lutheran Church, Toluca, IL – 17th Sunday after Pentecost
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Psalm 37:1-9, 2; Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:1-10
GOSPEL: Luke 17:1-10
1Jesus said to his disciples, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! 2It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. 4And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”
5The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6The Lord replied, “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.
7Who 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’? 8Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? 9Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'”
NRSV
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Falls and Faith abound
Grace and peace to you, beloved of God, from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
When I was about 7 or 8, my parents enrolled me in Judo classes. I still don’t know why for the life of me. I have always been stubby. So I suspect it had something to do with that. I was in swimming classes until then. I remember that I was a good swimmer and I liked to swim. Nonetheless, one day I was in a Judo dojo. Go figure.
If you are unfamiliar with martial arts, your belt changes colors as you progress. In judo, one starts with a white belt, and all you do while wearing a white belt is Fall. I kid you not, for about an hour, 2 or 3 times a week, all I did was be thrown to the ground in myriad ways by older kids. I hated it. I wanted to quit after a week. I think my parents talked with the sensei or something. Next class, he comes to me with his heavy Japanese accent and tells me, Mauricio, you have to learn how to fall before you learn how to fight.
So I stayed. My ability to fall without ever hitting my head on the ground, always on my sides, without using my hands for support, still impresses me until this day. I kid you not again. That muscle memory lasts forever. In one of the drills, we had two cooked eggs, one on each hand, and were blindfolded. Sensei would randomly lift us by the legs and drop us to the ground. We had to manage to hit the floor, always with the chin locked in our chests, on our shoulders, holding the eggs without breaking. If you did that consistently, you got a mark on your belt. If you could do the next level consistently, which was doing the same thing but then rolling and finishing by standing up in a fighting position all in one motion without dropping or breaking the eggs, you get a second mark on your belt. That was as far as I went. I did not have the desire to fight anyone at that age, so my parents moved me to basketball. I was never good at it. Maybe I should have stayed with judo. Anyway.
The reason we added the first 4 verses of the 17th chapter of Luke to our gospel reading today is because of what Jesus says to the disciples in the first verse. Opportunities to stumble, or to fall, are bound to come. We can’t escape them. You live long enough to look back, and you can’t help but agree.
Luke places this warning of Jesus right after he tells the parable of Lazarus and the Rich man. Therefore, for us who look too comfortable or too proud, like the prophet Habakkuk says, it is a double whammy. Not only will we stumble and fall on our own, but we will often ignore the vulnerable, the powerless, and the little ones like Lazarus. Not always, if ever, we will welcome the lame, the poor, and the blind to our table instead of inviting only the ones who can repay us or look like us. We miss opportunity after opportunity to give them life and improve their chance to stand up on their feet. Chances are we will secure our good quality food first, and the ones underneath us can have whatever is left. Sometimes what is left is in a dumpster. Beloved, we often lack the faith, even in the smallest amounts, not to fall.
We are very good at pointing out the falls and stumbles of others. That part is easy to do. The hard part is to say I am sorry to God when we stumble. Even harder is to say I am sorry to our siblings when we cause them to stumble.
And we don’t know how to fall well. It hurts. We injure one another. Then out of frustration and anger, we do manage to get up on our feet. We use that guttural desire for vindication as motivation to lift ourselves up by the bootstraps and engage in the wrong kind of fight. The kind of fight that breeds self-righteousness, isolation, false bravado, intolerance, and resentment. The fight that prevents us from seeing the need to empty ourselves for the sake of each other and our community. The fight that prevents us from emptying ourselves for Christ. The kind of fight that takes life away and brings tears to others and to God. Not long ago, we fought all these wrong kinds of fights, and how often we cried how long, oh Lord?
All these times when we don’t seem to have none of the symptoms of a transformed and loving heart or mind are evidence of how much we need the faith of our Savior, his power, love, courage, and mercy. The things he has abound.
Jesus has enough faith and power to pluck up mulberry trees and throw them into the sea. We will never have.
He has enough faith and courage to sit and eat with sinners and empty himself to the point of death at the cross.
Jesus has enough faith, courage, and love to fight for all of us, the living and the dead.
Jesus has enough faith, power, and love to manifest here today in bread and wine and share with all his table of mercy.
Jesus has enough power, courage, and love to lift us up when we fall face to the ground if we so stretch our hands
Without him, we are worthless. By his faith, we are made righteous and able to fight all kinds of good fights. May we celebrate this most precious gift and teach it for generations to come. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Bridging Faith 