It Is
Not Yet Finished
Reflections
on Luke 17.5-10
RCL
Proper 27C
2
October 2016
Saint
Faith’s Anglican Church
Vancouver
BC
17.5
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 And the Lord said, “If you had
faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be
uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
7
“Will any one of you who has a servant ploughing or keeping sheep say to him
when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink,
and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9
Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done
all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done
what was our duty.’”
When I came to Vancouver in May 1987 to attend my first
faculty meeting at Vancouver School of Theology, I was unaware that I was about
to participate in an historic decision.
It was at this meeting that the faculty agreed to offer a Master of
Divinity degree by extension to aboriginal and non-aboriginal students who
lived in and served aboriginal communities in Canada and, some years later, the
United States. We agreed that aboriginal
elders and scholars would help us shape the degree programme so that it
respected aboriginal ways of learning and teaching as well as aboriginal
cultures and customs.
As I look back on that meeting from the distance of
almost thirty years, I realize how naïve we were. We did not realize how this commitment would
change our lives, both professionally and personally. We were not prepared for the challenges this
commitment would bring. There were
moments of joy and moments of disappointment; there were strides forwards and
slips backwards. When I left the School
in 2010, our work was still unfinished and much remains still to be done to
achieve the goals we set for ourselves in 1987.
In 1993 when our then Primate, Archbishop Michael Peers,
offered his apology to aboriginal people for the wrongs committed by the
Anglican Church of Canada through our involvement in the residential schools,
some Anglican may have thought that the apology was enough and we could all
move on. Twenty-three years later and
after the expenditure of millions of dollars in legal fees and in funding many
worthwhile projects intended to heal some of the wounds, we know all too
well that the work is not finished.
It is to this reality that the words of Jesus to his
disciples in today’s reading of the Gospel speak. Jesus and his disciples are on the journey
towards Jerusalem that will change their lives.
Opposition to Jesus’ teaching has begun to emerge and the wise among the
disciples realize that Jesus’ mission has risks. His inner circle, the apostles, begin to
wonder if they are up to the task Jesus has given to them.
For you and me, living two thousand years later and not
speaking Greek as our first language, it is important that we understand Jesus’
response to the apostles’ plea to increase their faith. When Jesus says, ‘if you had faith . . . ‘,
he is not accusing them but indirectly affirming them. [1] He is inviting them to live and act in the
faith that they already have, however small it may be. [2] This faith has the power to change their
lives and the lives of others. This is
the good news.
But as so often is true of Jesus’ words, there is what
some might call ‘bad’ news. The bad news
is that the faith that has led them to become Jesus’ disciples has brought them
into the on-going work of making the kingdom of God a present reality. If there is no rest for the wicked, then
neither is there any rest for the faithful.
Each day those who choose to follow the way of Jesus will be asked to
make known God and the saving work God has begun in Jesus. To use today’s jargon, Christian discipleship
is ‘24/7’.
But the good news is that we are not alone in this
work. Discipleship is a corporate path
as well as a personal identity. We are
members of a community and we rely upon each other for support and wisdom. No single Christian possesses all the gifts
necessary for the work we have been given to do. The kingdom is not enriched when we pretend
to be able to do something we are not able to do, nor is the kingdom present
when someone exhausts herself or himself in an unhealthy exercise of
ministry.
But God’s work of reconciling and renewing the creation
continues. In the death and resurrection
of Jesus a community of disciples is gathered to share in the work begun in
Jesus and empowered by the Spirit. The
community of Jesus’ disciples is called to do justice and we know all too well that
injustice continues to afflict the children of God. The community of Jesus’ disciples is called
to love steadfastly and we know all too well that fickleness permeates our
world. The community of Jesus’ disciples
is called to walk humbly in relationship to God and we know all too well that
self-interest and the desire for personal power frays the fabric of the creation
that sustains all life.
On the cross Jesus’ last words are ‘It is finished’. His mission, the reconciliation of humanity
to the very heart of God, is indeed finished.
His resurrection is the seal on this work, but it is also the
inauguration of our mission to do justice, to love steadfastly and to walk
humbly in relationship with God. There
are moments when you and I may doubt whether our faith is enough to continue
this work in the face of the many challenges that arise daily. But Jesus does not doubt our faith. And so we worthy servants do what God has
asked us to do. Why? Because we can do this work and the work is not yet finished.
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