PENTECOST XX

• Lamentations 1:1-6 and Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137 •
• Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 and Psalm 37:1-9 •
• 2 Timothy 1:1-14 •
• Luke 17:5-10

There are many occasions on which the cultural gap between our world and the world of the Old and New Testaments makes it very difficult for us to understand the Scriptures. The village images of the shepherd, the fisherman, the country wedding have no very obvious counterparts in a world of freeways, skyscrapers and the internet, and this is why it often takes an effort to find a modern meaning in some of Jesus’ parables.

The Slave (1872)  J W Waterhouse

The gap is at its widest in this week’s Gospel, which relies on familiarity with a world in which slavery is taken for granted. Not only is this a different world to ours; it is one of which we fiercely disapprove. So what can we make of Jesus’ assumption that no one would think of allowing a slave to rest until all the master’s needs had been satisfied? Or the instruction to his disciples to think of themselves as slaves – ‘worthless slaves’, indeed? Haven’t we rightly abandoned a world in which people are treated like this, and learned not to think of anyone as a “worthless slave”, ourselves included? And besides, doesn’t this fly in the face of the Epistle in which Paul tells his fellow Christians that ‘God did not give us a spirit of cowardice’?

These are understandable reactions. Yet, there is still a way of making the central point that has some modern resonance. No one would think of thanking us for not murdering, assaulting, cheating or stealing from other people. Refraining from actions like these is just expected. We don’t earn special moral merit from merely respecting the rights of others. Special praise and thanks are called for only when we go beyond the requirements of duty.

Two Disciples  (1911) Augustus John

Christian discipleship can be viewed in this way. We don’t earn any special merit for giving God the time we ought to. It is something we should do as a matter of course. Moreover, picking up on a theme of the Epistle, we can and should say more than this. The service of God is ‘a holy calling’, a special gift which Christians are privileged to exercise, and there is no 'beyond the call of duty'. God cannot be given more than he can reasonably expect.

Yet the truth is that church people regularly and easily fall short in this regard. They expect from each other, and they give to each other, fulsome thanks and praise for exercising the privilege they enjoy as Christians. That is to say, they thank each other for not neglecting God -- which is precisely the attitude that Jesus is rebuking in his disciples.