The Joy of being Faithful

“Let us be content, then, not with our wage, but with our Master. Let us find our joy not in being first or last, but simply in being found, in being hired, in being home.”

I wonder how these words of Dom’s from the last post have impacted you. Our society is based on reward for work done. And our consumer culture has influenced our relationship with God; we tend to make our relationship with God a consumer one-- how can we get from God what we need for ourselves and for those whom we love. How then can we get our focus off the reward?

In our family when the girls were growing up, there were certain chores that they were expected to do as their contribution to being a part of a family. Rooms needed some semblance of order; floors needed to be vacuumed or washed. We all had to eat, so meals needed to be prepared, and the kitchen cleaned after anyone had made themselves a snack or meal. Oh, and then the most hated chore: dishes done! “Why can’t we have a dishwasher?”—and then when we did get one, who would have thought that dishwashers had to be loaded (according to Dad’s rules) and then unloaded and those dreaded dishes then to be put away! We gave them pocket money, but that was not tied to the work done. However, there were extra chores that had a money value tied to them.

One of our family values was volunteering. As soon as JoAnna was 14, she became a “candy striper” at our local hospital—she couldn’t wait to start. And eventually that led to her being employed there. Sharyn was our bookworm, so the library seemed a good place for her to volunteer. It didn’t take them long to discover what a hard worker she was, and a job was soon offered. Michelle in turn chose a vet clinic as animals were her love. This was work without monetary reward, but the girls discovered other rewards in the process.

This then is the focus of several of Jesus’ stories. Come with me and let’s join Jesus in a discussion with his disciples. (Luke 17: 3b-10)

“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘ I repent’, forgive him.

The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’

He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.”

Let’s start with your brother’s sin. You are encouraged to rebuke him. And, if he repents, you are to forgive him. That is fine. I can do that.

But then Jesus adds the bit about him sinning against you seven times in a day, and seven times coming back to you and saying ‘I repent’, and you are to forgive him. Wait a minute, Jesus, that sounds like enabling. He can go on doing what hurts me seven times in one day, and so long as he says he repents, I am to forgive him? Too much! Doesn’t repenting mean you don’t do the same thing again? And then to do it repeatedly and each time, just say, “I’m sorry.”

I remember how upset I would get when my husband and I would have a disagreement, and he would come later and say, “I’m sorry.” It seemed too simple—too much an easy out to cover a hurt. And seven times in one day?

Jesus seems to realize that recognizing sin, repenting, wanting to change, and actually changing takes time, takes encouragement, someone believing in you----relationship for the long haul.

It is interesting that the disciples’ response to Jesus’ talk about forgiving your brother led them to ask for an increase in faith.

So many questions arise: forgiving a brother when he repents, up to seven times a day? And why did this lead the disciples to ask for more faith? Don’t we often feel we need more faith? Why did Jesus equate a little faith with a huge outcome?

And Jesus’ response was to tell them that even the smallest faith could do mighty things. So, it is not about needing more faith? Then what is it about?

I wonder if faith is not quantitative as in “more faith”: the idea that “believing” more strongly will enable me to achieve a bigger outcome. I wonder if it is more qualitative: that it is deeper and it comes back to trust, not only in God but also in each other. The words translated as faith and faithful are very close in Greek. “Faith” can be defined as belief, firm persuasion, a conviction based on hearing, deep trust, and confidence in God. “Faithful” can be interpreted as living out what we believe, the quality of being loyal, reliable, and committed.

Have you ever been accused of not having enough faith when something you were asking God for didn’t happen?  Have we at some level misinterpreted what God means by faith? And are we willing to wait and trust him to work out what is best for us?

We tend not to think of faithful as “full of faith.” Think for a moment of what comes to mind when you think of someone being faithful.

I wonder if forgiving your brother repeatedly is an act of love, a choice to be present to him, to offer him your belief (faith?) that change is possible for him, and that you're willing to stick with him and encourage him on his journey. I wonder if faith is less about being having the right beliefs about God and more about trust in who he is and our choosing to love him amid challenging circumstances.

Let’s listen in as Jesus continued talking with his disciples.

Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’

Jesus, what does this story have to do with faith? What does a servant just doing his duty have to do with forgiving your brother 7 times in one day?

I wonder if the servant's willingness to just do his duty is just about being faithful. He completes his service, not needing thanks because he trusts that his master is good and that he will get to eat when all his duties are completed. There is something extraordinary about consistent faithfulness built on trusting that you have a good master and what you need will be given.

(One translator notes that the word “unworthy” literally means “without need.”)

I wonder if it has less to do with our “faith” and what we say we believe and more about our faithfulness. As you walk faithfully with God, your knowledge of who he is and what he is like increases, and that leads to a deeper faith. Ordinary everyday faithfulness builds and increases faith.

Eugene Peterson entitled his book, “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction”, acknowledging that we have been given all we need to be faithful throughout our life. Peter told us in the second letter he wrote, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the full knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.”

The invitation today is to circle back to Dom's words: “Let us find our joy… simply in being found, in being home.”

I wonder if we need to be grounded in our understanding of God—which is a lifetime journey. The initial and yet the highest call is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. This relationship can only thrive if we allow God to be God in all his fullness and our neighbor to be himself in all his foibles.

And at the end of the day to say "I am a servant without need; I have just done my duty.

And as I have served, I found my joy in being in relationship with the Spirit."

Welcome the Spirit into your everyday life.

Make living an adventure where God moment by moment unfolds his will and purpose through you.

Be loved.

Be loving.

And enter into the joy of your Lord!