Proper 22 C +To receive or to serve + 10.2.22

 

Melissa Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Lamentations 1:1–6; Lamentations 3:19–2; 2 Timothy 1:1–14; St. Luke 17:5–10)

 

“I am grateful to God-- whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did-- when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.”

What faith is described here in the second letter to Timothy! It is a joy to hear of. It reminds us of the faith we hear about in so many of the saints, of blessed memory and every day, who have accompanied us on our journey of faith over the years.

And yet, interestingly this is a hard thing to do. Have this kind of faith. We often want God to be faithful to us rather than to be faithful to God.

In my DMin course last week I learned about something called Christian Abandonment. Victor Ezigbo described this process in Nigeria and at first, I had a funny image in my head. He is talking about people abandoning Jesus, I thought, and I imagined Jesus feeling forlorn and left alone!

But no, what he was really describing was first that Nigeria is a center in the world for the Christian faith, with many, many believers. However, many believers in Nigeria are Christian nominally. But then some Nigerian Christians “abandon” their faith (his words, not mine) to go to traditional religious sources to provide them with amulets and charms, etc. just in case their faith is not enough. Ezigbo’s response, in part, was to encourage Nigerians not to see Jesus as someone who can give them things but instead to see him as a model to follow, and thus to reframe Christianity as a way of discipleship rather than a faith that will produce tangible goods in this life. He also calls “Nigerians to rediscover their oneness as a people belonging to one community.”[1]

And this week we hear this from Jesus: “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!" And it made me think- do we have faith because of what we receive, or because we are here to serve? Sometimes it is both.

Well, this made me think. We may not operate the same exact way here in the US, but in some ways, we are not that different. Many of us seek a result from God if we are faithful Christians. And if we experience a calamity, it is hard not to wonder what it is that has made God mad at us, rather than remembering a simple truth. God always wants the best for us, not because we are faithful or worthy, but because God is faithful. However, we live in a broken world. And sometimes bad things happen, horrible things that are not our fault. They may be in part caused by human sin or error, but sometimes they are just terrible events that we cannot reason our way out of. And these remind us that some mysteries will only be understood when we see God face to face.
And then, we might lament, just like the book of Lamentations does. We might wail and yell at God. Why did this happen? And that is not being faithless, it just means we have a heart and it was broken by something. Something that likely broke God’s heart too.

And that is what the faith of the grandmothers and sisters and aunts and all the saints means. But how can we get there? We can find our oneness in community and also remember what this gospel passage, even with all of its problematic language about slavery, might have to say to us. I want to name that in post-slavery America, all language about slaves in the bible is super loaded. But ultimately, this passage reminds us that we are simply to be about doing good, not worrying about the rest. And oddly, that is a load off.

But remember, even if Jesus implies that we wouldn’t be kind to a worker in our household (rude!), indeed God is good! And in truth Jesus is always inviting us to the table. We are not just to be out working and serving, but we come here to church to be fed. Fed spiritually, fed in community, and to feel God’s love.

We come knowing that we are worthy. Not because we have served faithfully, but we serve faithfully because Jesus already made us worthy in his worthiness. We are faithful because God is faithful. And we see this not because we are blessed materially, although we give thanks when that happens, but we see this in the spiritual riches that come from serving God.

Many of you are master servants of God. You know what it is to feel joy, just in serving. But the more I live, the more I realize something else. When you are truly serving, you empty yourself. You aren’t overthinking. You just serve and know that you will be taken care of. But you also don’t overdo it because you aren’t striving with all your force- that is a burnout path. Instead, you are just humbly serving. I don’t always do this right. But when I do, I trust God to guide me and I don’t stress in the same way. I am less likely to abandon Jesus in my overthinking and worries.

I take such comfort from the last verses from our second reading from Lamentations today.

“Let me share them anew: But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,
"therefore I will hope in him."

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him.

It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.”

This is why I have hope. Not because God will make me rich in this world, but because I have the hope that I will have enough and will eventually live peaceably with all if I follow my Lord. And that is all that matters.

Amen.

 

 

 

---

[1] Ezigbo, Victor I. The Art of Contextual Theology: Doing Theology in the Era of World Christianity. Cascade Books. Kindle Edition. Location 5175.