Let Your Good Deed Glow
October 7, 2007, 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4 II Timothy 1:6-8,13-14 Luke 17:5-10
To the church in the diaspora[1]
& to the church of the unchurched[2]
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you, Lord.
(Lk 17:5-10)
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied,"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.If one of you had a hired hand who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, would you say to him, “Come here and sit down at table”? Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished'? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'"
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ
Introduction
Foul!
In the parable today a farm hand goes out at sunrise and bears the heat of the day and the toil of plowing the fields and tending the sheep. At sunset he returns to the farmhouse feeling good about his good work. But his master reminds him that he’s done no more than his duty and is no more than an unprofitable servant. In fact, the master adds to the farm hand’s fatigue by making him put on an apron and prepare supper for him. The master will eat and drink first, and then the tired servant may satisfy his hunger (Lk 17: 7-10).
The parable makes one cry foul! The boss, you’d think, in gratitude to his farm hand for his good work would have patted him on the back and poured him a rum and coke at the end of a long hard day. And if he were a truly great guy, the boss would even have donned an apron and said to his servant, “Now you sit down and relax while I prepare you a good dish of pasta.” “Not so!” says the word of God today. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways” (Is 55: 8).
It reminds us of another of the Lord’s parables. The owner of an estate hires day laborers to work in his vineyard. Some are hired at early dawn, some at high noon and others in late afternoon. At sunset they all line up for their checks, and the foreman of the vineyard gives the late arrivals the very same pay he gives those who were on the job at early dawn (Mt 20: 1-16). That, too, makes one cry foul! You’d think the early birds would have received a lot more than the stragglers. “Not so!” says the word of God today. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.”
New news
The good work of the farm hand didn’t work for his master. The good work of the day laborer who came into the vineyard at early dawn didn’t work for the estate owner. Both parables seem to attack or at least deflate good works. It’s old news when religion attacks our bad works (our sins). In Galatians Paul recites a litany of our misdeeds: jealousy, anger, ambition drunkenness, and orgy, and then declares that, “Those who do these things will not enter the Kingdom of God” (Gal 5: 20-2). But it is, indeed, new news when religion attacks or deflates our good works. (It is, in fact, a kind of shocker, for from mother’s milk our elders and often our religion tells us to ”Be good and God will love you!”)
St. Paul is the attacker par excellence of good works. In Galatians he writes, “Christ has freed us from the curse of the Law [with its heavy burden of good works]” (Gal 3: 13). Again he writes, “Christ has come to set us free from circumcision and the Law [with its heavy burden of good works]. “So don't ever take up that yoke again" (Gal l5: 1).
Good news
To attack good works or deflate them of power over God is not only new news it is also good news! It’s gospel! For it delivers us from the terrifying fear of a God who needs to be bought off by the sweat of our good works. (Down deep, ever so subliminally, we feel the same about Gods who need to be bought off as we do about people who need to be bought off.) The gospel attack or deflation of good works is good news because it delivers us from the gnawing doubt about whether we’ve done enough of them to buy God off or even whether they good enough to buy God off.
Protestant theologian Paul Tillich thinks our good works are never good enough to buy off the priceless God. All our virtue, he says, is really flawed. There’s always some pride in our humility; always some selfishness in our generosity; always some self-centeredness in our God-centered lives. If it weren’t for the mercy and grace of God, he says, all our works would be basically tragic, and we would be terrified not only by our vices but also by our virtues.
God doesn’t need them
The Protestant Reformation sought to reform a corrupt 16th century church. But over and above that it sought to reform the bad news (rife in the general piety of the day) that God needed our good works to make Him happy and put us right with Himself. Luther’s revolution was personally and urgently more about that than about the corruption of the 16th century church. On the cornerstone of his reformation he inscribed two solitary words: Sola Gratia – By Grace Alone. We are justified (put right with God) not by any good work we do but only by the blood of Christ. That’s called grace. That’s called Amazing Grace. Luther discovered that amazing good news as he was working out his personal and terrifying problem of how to make God feel good about him. In Paul’s letters (especially to Galatians and Romans) he discovered the good news that our works have no power to puts us right with God; only the blood of Christ has that power. That marvelously freed Luther; what he could not do for himself that Christ did for him!
We need them
But while the good news of Amazing Grace liberates us from the hopeless task of trying to buy God off, it does not liberate us from good works themselves. God, indeed, does not need them, but we, indeed, do! Jesus said we need them. “I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me. Come you blessed of my father and take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of creation” (Mt 25:31-40).
The Good Samaritan needed his good work
One day a man was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was waylaid by robbers who left him half dead. Along came a Jewish priest who was hurrying off to Jericho and passed him by. Along came a Levite (the priest’s helper) who also was in a hurry and passed him by. Then along came a Samaritan. Seeing the victim dying by the side of the road he came to a screeching halt to pour the oil of compassion into his wounds.
God didn’t need the good work of the Samaritan, but the man waylaid by robbers, indeed, did. And more importantly the Samaritan needed his own good work even more than the poor victim. To ruthlessly pass by the man dying by the wayside would have made the Samaritan a monster like the Jewish priest and Levite. It was by stopping that the Samaritan became the great human being whose praises all the ages sing.
Our kids need their good works
In this new day our kids need ipods, iphones, blackberries, gps, etc. One good father and mother were wise enough to see that their four sons needed something better than such consumerist needs. Their sons needed good works not to buy God off but to buy themselves off. So the parents encouraged their sons to do volunteer work in an animal shelter cleaning out dog and cat kennels (no pay). And to socialize puppies in preparation for leader-dog programs for the blind (no pay). And to tutor kids who were poor in mathematics (no pay). As the mother and father rang Salvation Army bells at Christmastime, they invited their sons to accompany them by playing Christmas carols, one with a guitar, another with a saxophone, a third with a French horn and a fourth with a key board (no pay). God didn’t need the sons’ good works. But the animals did and the blind did and the poor at Christmas did. But above all the sons themselves needed their own good works because that’s what makes them great humans beings.
Conclusion
Let them glow
Today’s parable asks, "Who among you would say to your hired hand who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here and sit down at table’”?
If I had a hired hand who worked hard all day long plowing the field and tending the sheep, I would “turn the tables.” I would rise and say to him, “Come here, good man, and sit down at table.” Then after pouring him a rum and Coke, I would don an apron and prepare a good plate of pasta for him. That’s the way it is with our good works. They have power to “turn the tables.” They have power to set masters donning aprons and serving their hired hands. Our good works have power not over God but over the people around us.
“So let your good deeds glow for all to see, and incite them to the praise of the heavenly Father” (Mt 5:16).
1] Diaspora is a Greek word meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered colonies of Jews outside Palestine after the Babylonian exile. It’s now come to mean the migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland or parish!
[2]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
