Increase Our Faith
Luke 17:5-10
As you were reading this passage of scripture this morning responsively, what were the things that came to mind that you thought this text was trying to teach? Was it that if we had just a little more faith, we could do miraculous things like cause a tree to uproot over here and be thrown in the sea over there, a la David Copperfield? Was it that God is being compared to a slave owner who expects the slave to work all day, fix the evening meal without thanks and not complain? If either of those is a “yes,” you would be responding the way most of us were taught to hear this story. But what we have found over and over again is that there is something much deeper happening in texts like this.
Luise Schottroff wrote a book entitled, “The Parables of Jesus”. This was one of the textbooks from a course I took at United Theological Seminary last year and she does a good job of re-thinking how we understand parables. She shows how an allegorical understanding of the parables often leads us to a misunderstanding of God. An allegorical understanding interprets a parable to say someone in the parable is an allusion to God. That is how most of us learned to read the parables. When we read today’s text more closely we discover a deeper – and I would say just as difficult – truth being relayed.
In vs. 4 of this chapter, (right before our reading) Jesus has just told the disciples that they must forgive someone even if that person asks seven times a day. Think about that for a second. How do you think you would respond to someone who came to you seven times in one day to ask forgiveness? Once, maybe twice, most of us could handle and feel pretty good about our willingness to forgive someone. The third time would be a harder sell. Then the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh… I’m thinking that kind of forgiveness is much, much more difficult. That was why the disciples respond, “Increase Our Faith!” That would be Bible-speak for “Oh my God! You gotta be kidding!”
Jesus is saying that if you need help in imagining the depth of forgiveness required of us, then think of how a slave approaches labor. The parable describes a slave who has worked all day in the field and then must prepare the evening meal for the master. Does the master thank the slave for that work? Thanks would defy the corrupt system of slavery. This parable was not meant as an allegory where we put God in the place of the slave owner (even thought that is the common interpretation since we are told later in the text to say, “We are unworthy servants who have only done our duty.”) Rather, this passage is teaching us that, as disciples, we give up our claim to define the limits of forgiveness (just as the first century slaves had no claim to define the limits of slave labor). Do you see the difference this understanding brings to this text and to our understanding of what it means to be disciples?
Rather than holding up the institution of slavery as an example of how God works, the humiliation of the slave is held up as a metaphor for self-surrender to the love of God that is realized when we forgive.
How can this be? Why should we forgive people over and over again when obviously they aren’t showing any progress in getting things right? How long must we wait, the psalmist cried out, for justice. We understand that feeling.
The purpose of forgiveness is not to let people off the hook for the damage their actions might have caused. The purpose of forgiveness is to free us from the deadly cycle of retribution by surrendering our lives to the love of God. Forgiveness means freely giving up our right to vengeance. It is the only way to interrupt a cycle that has deadly consequences for all involved. “Vengeance is mine,” says God, not because God is a power freak but because vengeance in human hands is deadly.
This is a bit more radical that most Christians want to go, don’t you think? I mean, what would happen if we keep forgiving people who wrong us? Would they have any reason to change their ways? I don’t know. Maybe we should give it a try and see what happens.
I would bet that if I were to ask for a show of hands (and I’m not going to do that) of how many of us are in favor of living as forgiving people – that in fact the gospel calls us as an imperative to forgive as a way of life – I bet most, if not all, of us would raise our hands. We think of ourselves as forgiving people. But what are the limits of your forgiveness?
Are you a “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” kind of person? Do you secretly (somewhere in the deep recesses of your brain) maintain a tally sheet of how many times you’ve forgiven someone else (just in case they need reminding)?
Let me ask you a different set of questions: How many times have you sought God’s forgiveness for some mess you made in your life – a thoughtless comment, a stupid decision, making assumptions without all the information? The ways to make a mess of one’s life are limitless.
AND: Was there a qualitative difference in you when you received forgiveness? Did you feel, act, look, react, and behave differently after you experienced forgiveness? The word “transformational” often comes to mind.
We know there is something to this forgiveness thing. We’ve experienced it. If you’re in recovery, you know that forgiveness is key to your continued sobriety. In a sense, even those of us without an addiction problem grasp that forgiveness is key to our spiritual health.
Jesus was telling the disciples, “You’ve got to quit dabbling in forgiveness. You’re missing something much more profound.” If it doesn’t cause you to doubt your sanity occasionally, you’re probably not offering forgiveness enough.
Some recent opportunities to practice this: hateful graffiti on the side of the church and the frivolous lawsuit filed against the church this week.
We don’t have a lot of role models for this. You won’t see political leaders modeling this. That’s not how politics works in our world today. You won’t see the justice system modeling this. Our society is much too litigious. You won’t see a lot of religious leaders modeling this. They can raise more money if they have a good righteous indignation going! So it is up to us to model it for each other.
This summer – at our Town Hall meeting for the “Would Jesus Discriminate?” campaign – I saw so many of you graciously welcoming into this sanctuary individuals who have said terrible things about us and used us to raise money and even helped pass mean-spirited legislation. The decision to invite them and welcome them into our safe space was an act of forgiveness. Will it change anything? I don’t know. Our scripture says we need to give it six more shots. That’s what our call is. That is why we continue to ask questions like “Would Jesus Discriminate?” or “How does marriage equality not make sense?” or “How can you call yourself a follower of Jesus and use the Bible as a weapon?”
I know that my life is different today because I have been the recipient of not just second-mile forgiveness but third and fourth mile. I know that the quality of our community is enriched when we risk offering that kind of forgiveness to each other as well as to those beyond ourselves. I know my own spiritual life is deepened in those relationships where I have attempted to forgive and be forgiven more times than seems like the usual limit. And I can tell you this, if you don’t have a few panicky “Oh my God” sensations, you’re probably not pushing “the envelope” to the extent Jesus was talking about.
So yes, it is OK to pray, “Increase my faith!” when you’re struggling with how to forgive and be forgiven by others because there is no doubt that prayer will be answered.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com Small Steps, October 2007, Thanking Ourselves to Death, October 1998.
Schottroff, Luise. “The Parables of Jesus” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press) 2006.