Christians are funny people.
In one of his books, Chuck Swindoll tells about a lady who wanted desperately to go on a tour to Israel. But she wanted a sign to confirm that it was God’s will. The morning after she began planning the trip, she woke up at 7:47 a. m. The tour group to Israel was planning on flying over on a 747 jet. That was her “sign” that confirmed God was going to bless this trip.
Another young man needed to buy a car. But he wanted to know that whatever car he bought was in God’s will for him. One night he had a dream in which everything he saw was yellow. The next day he went to a car dealership and bought the “yellowest” car he could find. True to form, the car was a real lemon.
And there was the deacon who wanted to be a pastor, but he didn’t want to spend a few years at seminary. Would God approve of him buying a fake seminary degree from an online degree mill? The deacon concluded this was certainly God’s will after he read First Timothy 3:13 from the King James Version. It reads like this: “For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree.”
These well-meaning people looking for a sign remind me of Jesus’ disciples asking him for more faith in our lesson for today. Already, in Luke 9, the Master had given them the power and authority to heal and to cast out demons. You would think this would be enough. They were with Jesus daily. They saw miracles that would make our hearts stand still. And they wanted more faith? What more could Jesus possibly give them? The answer is, he doesn’t give them anything more. Notice how Jesus answers their request.
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
I believe he is saying to them and to us, “Your problem really isn’t a lack of faith. It doesn’t take much faith to do sensational things. What it takes is commitment. What it takes is determination, and persistence and a will to see it through to the end.”
Back in the late 1940s there was a football player at Ohio State named Bucky Wertz. Wertz was a “walk‑on” linebacker who stood only 5‑feet, 6‑inches tall.
When he showed up for the first practice the coach was shocked. Bucky was too small to play linebacker. They would kill him. At the end of practice, the coach told Bucky he couldn’t play. The next day, Bucky was back in uniform. Coach called him over and said, “I told you I had cut you from the squad. You are too small; these guys will kill you.”
With a firm, committed voice, Bucky said, “Coach, with due respect, you nor no one else can prevent me from playing football for my school.” The coach was shocked. He allowed Bucky to stay on the squad.
Bucky turned out to be the best tackler on the squad. Fast as lightning, sure on his feet, he would burst through the line and hit the ball carrier before he could get started. Still, he was too small, the coaches agreed. They didn’t want him to get hurt.
In the third game of the season, after the game was “in the bag,” the coach sent Bucky in. He made every tackle the rest of the game. He started every game for the rest of the season and led the team in tackles.
The next season Bucky grew to 5‑feet, 8‑inches, weighed in at 168 pounds, and again led the team in tackles. Every season, junior and senior years, was the same.
On January 1,1950, Ohio State played USC in the Rose Bowl. USC had an all‑American fullback, weighing 240 pounds, who was the finest running back in the nation. Bucky was assigned to “rover” this fullback. The fullback never gained a yard. Bucky hit him behind the line every time he had the ball. Ohio State won in a shocking upset. (1)
A little faith and a lot of hard work made Bucky Wertz a champion. The problem, Jesus was saying to his disciples, is not that you have too little faith. The problem is that you are not applying the faith you have.
Then Jesus tells them a strange little parable. He says, “Suppose one of you has a servant who’s been plowing or looking after sheep. When that servant comes in from work would you say to the servant, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’?
Not likely. You would probably say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink.’ Then, after dinner would you thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?” Then Jesus adds these interesting words, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Here is a teaching that is so out of step with our times that it will take some interpretation. Jesus lived in a world in which slavery was a fact of life. In such a world, if the master of the house saw a servant in the field, he would not say to him, “Come on in and get cleaned up, while I fix you some dinner.” No, he would say, “When you finish your work, come in a prepare my meal. I’m getting hungry.” Then, after he had eaten the meal he would not have gone out of his way to thank the servant, nor would the servant expect to be thanked. After all, he had simply done his duty.
You and I would not fare well in such a culture. We like to be appreciated for our work. We like to be patted on the back, rewarded. We would not like being a faceless servant.
Actor Anthony Hopkins once spent some time with a professional butler in preparing for a role in a movie. This butler measured his success by how well he could be of service while not drawing any attention to himself. The real test of a butler’s excellence, he said, is that, “the room seems emptier when he’s in it.”
That is a concept that is alien to us. We don’t want to disappear into the woodwork. We like people to recognize us when we’ve done a good job, to say, “well done,” or even, on occasion, to give us extravagant praise. In fact there was an article in a leading magazine a few months back about the challenge many companies have today giving their younger workers constant positive reinforcement. Because of the high self-esteem movement, that is what many of today’s young adults have gotten at home and in school from the day they were born. “You are the greatest! There’s never been anyone like you before!” It’s getting hard for people in our society to imagine doing anything simply and solely because it’s our duty.
To set Jesus’ words in a more contemporary setting, we might imagine paying our light bill. When you send that small fortune off to pay for your utilities, you don’t expect a letter back from the president of the power company saying, “Well, done! You paid on time! Super job! Keep up the good work! We’re proud of you!”
No, we pay our bill because that is our responsibility, particularly if we don’t want our lights turned off.
Or, when we pay our taxes, we don’t expect a letter from the commissioner of the I.R.S. saying, “You are one super citizen. I wish we had ten million more like you.”
No, we pay our taxes because that is our duty as citizens.
So, also, says Jesus, when we serve God, we are only doing our duty. We don’t deserve any special reward. Neither do we need any special gifts to carry out our work. We don’t need any special spiritual insights. We don’t even need an abundance of faith. What we need is to show up willing to do our part.
Pastor Douglas Meyer tells about a telephone call he received recently from a teenager. She called to tell him she wanted to do something to help people, BUT, she said, “she could only help on Saturday after 2 and before 5 because she had sports and studies and a busy social schedule and she really didn’t want to do anything outside with bugs. But her mother said to be sure it was with people because that looks best on your college resume and she liked the idea of working with the hungry but she really didn’t want to cook anything and she definitely did not do dishes but helping people was something she really wanted to do . . .” (2)
The truth of the matter is that is how too many people want to serve today--when it is convenient for them, when it is within their area of expertise, when they can receive recognition and appreciation.
Servanthood is really an alien concept for many of us. If I were to ask you what it would really mean for you to take up a cross and carry it, many of you would look at me like I was from Mars.
The disciples thought their problem was that they lacked faith. Jesus’ told them that was not the problem. The problem was a lack of commitment. That is our problem, too, isn’t it?
Dr. Isaac Watts put our situation in a hymn a couple of centuries ago,
Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease?
While others fought to win the prize, And sailed through bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace, To help me on to God?
Sure I must fight, if I would reign; increase my courage, Lord.
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by thy word.
Are those sentiments lost on us? Are we too affluent, too pampered, too comfortable to hear and appreciate the words of the Gospel?
Father John Dear tells about a friend of his who died several years ago from cancer. She was a very lively, outgoing person, says Father Dear, who worked in two big parishes in Long Island, New York, and was very involved in many good causes, including the struggle to abolish the death penalty and nuclear weapons. Just before she died, she said to him, “John, I figured out the meaning of life!”
He said, “Really?!”
She said, “When you’re a child and a teenager, you serve. When you are in your twenties and beginning life and starting a family, you serve. When you are in your thirties and forties, you serve. When you are middle age, you serve. When you are in your sixties and seventies and starting to retire, you serve. When you move into your eighties and start to slow down, you serve. When you get sick, you serve. When you are dying, you serve. On your last day, as you die, you serve.” (3)
That’s true. You serve. Without fuss. Sometimes with very little recognition and not a lot of glory. It’s only when you pass over to the other side, to be received into the arms of Jesus that you hear those ultimate words of commendation, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share my joy.”
That’s who we are--servants. We serve because there was One who first served us. We are not seeking to work our way to heaven. That is already taken care of because of what Christ did on the cross. But our salvation came about because once long ago the Lord of all the universe was willing to take upon Himself the role of a servant. Now God calls us to service. Not because it will look good on our resume, not because we will be praised for it, but because that is who we are, we are followers of the Man who became a servant of all that we might be sons and daughters of the Most High.
Pastor Dan Baumgartner tells about a group of men at a church in Minnesota who have a servant mentality. These men have made it a mission to take care of Bob, a man in their church who suffers from severe degenerative arthritis. Every morning, someone from the men’s group goes to Bob’s house, makes him lunch, rolls his wheelchair around the neighborhood for a walk, keeps him updated on the latest church news. Every morning, one of Bob’s Christian brothers arrives at his front door, ready to spend time with him. They have been doing this every morning FOR TEN YEARS. As Pastor Baumgartner says, “(These men) had experienced God’s grace themselves, and they were now responding by how they lived out their lives.” (4)
Does this make sense to you? Can you sense that we have a crisis of commitment, a crisis of servanthood in our society? Can you sense that the “Look out for # 1 attitude” has taken something very important out of our character? Sometimes that crisis makes itself felt even in the church when there is a job that needs to be done, a job for which there is little opportunity for recognition and praise, only hard work, toiling in relative obscurity, sometimes without even the sweet scent of success. Teach a Junior High Sunday School class, sing in the choir, serve on the finance committee--”Oh, pastor, I couldn’t do that.” The disciples asked Jesus for more faith. There is no record that Jesus granted their request. They didn’t need more faith. What they need was simply to show up for duty. He would give them what they needed, but first they needed to show up. They needed to say with Isaiah the prophet, “Here am I, send me.”
1. Mack R. Douglas, How to Win with High Self-esteem (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 1994).
2. http://www.holyspirit‑elca.org/SERMONS/2004%20Sermons/040804.html.
3. http://www.johndear.org/sermons_homilies/welldoneservant.html.
4. http://www.bethanypc.org/sermons/index.htm.