Is God's love enough?

Brad Sullivan

Proper 22, Year C
Sunday, October 3rd, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-10
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

“Increase our faith,” the apostles say. That seems like a pretty good thing to say. They kinda commanded rather than asked for it, but we’re supposed to be people of faith, so “increase our faith,” sounds pretty good to me, and then Jesus replies “You don’t need more faith. You can do plenty with what you’ve got.” I think that’s basically the message Jesus was giving the apostles when he told them about faith size of a mustard seed. That seems rather a rather odd exchange. “Lord, we want more faith.” “No, you’re not going to get it.”

Well, just before the disciples asked for more faith, Jesus was telling them to be on guard. He was reminding them that it is very easy to stumble in our walk with God, and that it is easy to cause others to stumble. He taught them that they should forgive others, and in response, the disciples asked for more faith. It’s as if they were saying, “Um, we don’t think we can pull this off with what you’ve given us Lord. We need some more.”

So Jesus tells them, “No. You’re not getting more faith. You’ve got plenty. Go out there and use it. Don’t be afraid. Remain faithful with the faith you’ve got, and you’ll move mountains.” Paul said as much in his letter to Timothy. “…God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.” (2 Timothy 1:14) Jesus didn’t say, “go off by yourself, I’m leaving you, and I won’t be with you.” Jesus said, “go, I will be with you, and be not afraid, for the faith you have is sufficient.”

But what about when we do remain faithful with the faith we’ve got? Might we get a little prideful and feel deserving of reward because we remain faithful? Jesus certainly seems to think we will. What does Jesus tell his disciples as soon as he tells them they already have all the faith they need? He tells them, “don’t remain faithful for the sake of some reward.” He tells the story of a slave or a servant coming in from work and expecting to be waited on hand and foot by the master of the house. That certainly sounds nice. That even sounds like the kingdom of God in which the master becomes the servant. Jesus taught as much when he washed the disciples’ feet, but that’s not the lesson he’s teaching here.

Using the social structure and norms present at the time, Jesus was warning the apostles against expecting or even demanding some great reward for having remained faithful to God. Think of the story of the Prodigal Son. The prodigal son returns, they throw a party, and the brother is bothered, feeling like he was entitled to a party as well. What does the father say? “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” What is he saying but, “you have been with me and loved me and I have loved you all these years. Isn’t that enough.” The father is telling the son, “I thought you were remaining here with me because you love me, not because you wanted a party. You’ve been the recipient of my love all these years, and that is the greatest gift I can give you.”

The apostles were being asked to remain faithful to God and to let God’s love be enough for them. That doesn’t fit too well in our economy of exchange that we have here in the world. We provide goods and services for some kind of reward…money, food shelter. I do this for you, and you do this for me. That makes sense. That’s fair.

God’s economy doesn’t seem to be an economy of exchange, and economy of commerce. God’s economy seems more to be one of household. In households, by and large, we do things for one another out of love, not in order to manipulate a situation and get something for myself. In economies of exchange, we may remain faithful to the same company for 30-40 years partly because we like the company, but we’re also probably expecting some kind of pension at the end of it. Maybe not anymore, but there was a time when that happened.

In households, we remain faithful to one another simply out of love for one another. Can you imagine a 40 or 50 year old saying, “Well, Mom, Dad, I’ve been a part of this family for 50 years now, and I’m ready to call it quits, retire from the family so I’ve put together a little portfolio here, a little retirement from the family package; let’s see what we can work out.”

Looking at this on the other end of the age range, I think of children being given gifts for good behavior or for good grades. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with parents giving their children gifts, but we run into a problem when parents give their children gifts because they deserve them. “My kid made good grades, and so he deserves some great gift,” or “my kid is respectful of me and other adults, and so he deserves some great gift.” Making good grades, being respectful of adults, these are not things that are deserving of gifts. They are simply what we’re supposed to be doing.

The purpose of being in school is to learn, and good grades reflect learning. There is intrinsic value in getting an education; the learning is its own reward, and doing so is simply what one is supposed to be doing. Being respectful of ones parents is simply how children are supposed to behave. Doing so is intrinsically valuable, it helps mold a child into an adult with character. Again, it’s not deserving of reward. It’s what one is supposed to do.

For adults as well, there are many ways in which we may feel we are deserving of some reward, when we’ve really just been doing what we’re supposed to be doing. Reward for service works in an economy of exchange, but does not work so well in an economy of household. Economy of exchange is not the way God intended families to work. It’s certainly not the way God intended his household to work.

God never said to the people of Israel, “Ok, Israel, you’ve remained faithful to me for 40 years, you’re time is up. Go serve other gods.” And so with the apostles, Jesus was saying, “You’re not serving me in order to gain some great reward. You will be my people and I will be your God. You’re reward is to be part of God’s household. You get to walk with God. You get to experience God’s love and to know that you are loved by God. You’re not entitled to anything else, but isn’t God’s love enough?”

For us hearing these stories today, we’ve got the same issues as the apostles. Sometimes we feel like we wish we had more faith. Has anyone here ever felt that way? Have you ever seen someone who seems really, really faithful and certain in their faith and found yourself being a little jealous? I wish I had that faith. I know I have, and yet Jesus tells us the faith you’ve got is faith enough. Our faith might increase over time especially as we are faithful in our faith, but whatever faith we have is enough. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus says in Matthew’s gospel. They don’t have an overabundance of faith and yet the faith they have is enough for God’s kingdom to be theirs. If we feel we don’t have enough faith, God can work with what we’ve got.

Now, as to feeling like we deserve some great reward for remaining faithful, we tend to fall into that pit as well. Maybe we’ve served the church and then felt that the church didn’t do enough for us. Maybe we’ve had faith our whole lives and then had some bad thing happen to us and felt angry at God for not preventing it. “I’ve been faithful to you, God. How dare you let this happen to me?” I’m guessing we’ve all had times when we’ve felt that our faith has entitled us to something, and in these times we might have lost sight of the fact that through our faith we’ve gotten to know and experience God’s love for us, and we’ve gotten to love God right back. That’s why we’re faithful. That’s enough.

So, here’s our homework for this week. Everyone pick a day. Take some time to examine or discuss the questions, “to what do I feel entitled by God, or to what do I feel entitled by the church?” “What do I expect from God, and is God’s love enough? Can I let God’s love be enough?” Amen.