Hab 1:2-3; 2:2-4
2 Tim 1: 6-8; 1:13-14
Luke 17: 5-10

Bishop Untener's Homily

Here we go again with one of those Gospel passages that, if we had our choice, we'd never pick for a Sunday reading. But, as I've said before, we are a "full Gospel Church" and we open ourselves to the entire word of God.

Passages like this force us to look for the deeper meaning in the Lord's words and not simply stay on the surface and think predictable thoughts. So, let's look at this one.

The first part about faith is not all that difficult. The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith. Jesus talks not about the quantity of our faith, but its quality. The quantity may be as small as a mustard seed, but if it has the quality of true faith - which means recognizing and believing that God is everything, and we depend totally on God - if our faith has that quality, then it is all God asks of us. That is the response of Jesus to the Apostles' request: "Increase our faith."

Then Luke attaches to this incident one of Jesus' parables about a servant who simply does what his master has hired him to do. Jesus ends by saying: "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.'"

Actually, there is some good news here. There really is.

This Gospel could have been used to comfort Joseph when he was dying. Of course this Gospel wasn't written yet, but I'm simply using Joseph as an example. As he lay on his deathbed, Joseph could have been sad, disappointed. He might have said, "I have nothing to brag about in my life. I did pretty much what anyone does. I held a job, provided a house and put food on the table. That's all. God probably expected more of me."

In this Gospel passage Jesus is saying, "That's all I ever wanted you to do. All I asked of you was to do what was in front of you to do each day, and to do it as best you could. I'll handle 'the great accomplishments.' I can work through you in ways you don't even know."

Come to think of it, this Gospel passage could have been used at Mary's funeral too. She was simply the handmaid of the Lord, and that word "handmaid" is the same word as the word "servant" in the parable. The same word. When Mary's life was over she had - it seemed - little to show for it. But now we know the true greatness of her life. She let God work through her.

Each of us can take heart. Our life's work is simply to do our best each day and let the Lord handle the rest. We're "unprofitable servants" in the sense that we don't have to show a profit, a great accomplishment. God takes care of that, and by doing our best each day we make it possible for God to do that. As Joseph did. As Mary did.

But there's one more thing. This parable has a surprise ending.

In the parable Jesus says that when the servant has finished a day's work in the fields, no master would say to that servant, "Come here and take your place at table and eat." Yet that's exactly what the Lord does for us. At every Eucharist the Lord says to us, "Come, take your place at my table. Here is the bread of life for you - the Word of God. Here is the bread of life that is my body which is given for you. Take and eat. Here is the cup of my blood, shed for you. Take and drink."

And when we die, the Lord has promised that we will sit at his banquet table in heaven, together with all who have gone before us, and we shall enjoy the life that never dies. It's not something we have to earn. It's not something we can earn. We don't have to show a profit to get there. All we have to do is what is put before us to do every day.

That is good news. And it is the good news of this parable.

Originally given on October 7, 2001