Pentecost X, Proper 14

Genesis, 15:1-6
Hebrews, 11:1-16
Luke, 12:32-40

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

If you were to win the lottery, and really strike it big, and I hope you do, even though lotteries are wicked things -- stirring up greed and false hope and raising revenue mostly on the backs of the poor - if you all of sudden had hundreds of millions, one way your life would certainly change is that you'd have a lot more servants. You'd consider hiring a butler, a valet, a chef, and maids and gardeners, perhaps even a driver. You'd have at least one personal assistant to organize your life and fetch your dry-cleaning and coffee, and then there would be more pricey servants: lawyers, bankers, accountants, that is servants to multiply your millions still further. If you have children, you'd probably want to hire an academic as a tutor. If you have a medical condition, or if you're a hypochondriac, you'd have a doctor on your staff. The devout might even engage a chaplain, who of course would never say anything offensive or challenging and would serve up religion just the way you like it.

If you daydream about hitting the lottery, and if you've been quite serious in your daydreaming, you may have even considered what qualities you'd want in your servants. And if you pondered just a little longer, and struck by a moment of authentic altruism, which really never enters our daydreams, but just say it did, then you might ask: "How could I be a good employer to my servants?" Plato wrote, "He who is not a good servant will not be a good master." (1)

Never mind the ambition of our fantasies. Christianity is about grounding us in reality. A brigade of lackeys and flunkies attending to our every whim is not what we need or truly want. Rather, what we need, what we are called to be, is exactly what we are so often trying, and dreaming, to escape. One of the chief goals of life is to be a good servant. God is our master, but we know him not primarily through his dominion and control over our lives. We know him primarily through his service to us. God reveals himself to us through serving and ministering to us, not through controlling us or lording it over us.

Jesus asked his disciples, "For which is greater, one who sits at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves." (Lk 22:27) Jesus also said, "He who is greatest among you shall be your servant." (Mt 23:11) S. Peter, S. Paul, S. James, S. Timothy, S. Jude, almost every one of the apostles and epistle writers described himself as a servant, a servant of God.

What are the qualities of a good servant? First, our ideal is Jesus himself. Jesus had faith in God. It's clear that Jesus always did what his Father called him to do, but in doing his Father's will he experienced temptation and exasperation and reluctance. Satan tempted him. His disciples exasperated him. And in Gethsemane, we see that he did not relish accepting his cross and passion. He prayed for his cup of suffering to be removed, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Lk 22:42) Christ shows us perfect trust and confidence in God.

We heard in today's Old Testament about Abram's trust in God. God had promised to give Abram and Sarah a son, and even more that Abram's descendants would be as numerous as the stars of heaven. Initially, they don't believe God. They believe that Sarah is barren, that they are too old. Sarah laughed at God's promise. (Gn 18:12) But Abram came round and believed in God. Today we heard in Hebrews, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews explains to us that Abraham acted as if God's promise to him would be fulfilled when he had little reason to think it would be. Faith is about trusting God and his promises, even though we do not know or understand his ways; it is believing, having confidence that God loves us, that God is always with us, that God provides for us. God says, "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." We do not need to be anxious about anything in life. Our job is to act as if God's promise of his love for us will be fulfilled.

Second, servants are not lords. They are not householders. They are not masters. They don't own anything. They are stewards. We have temporary use and responsibility of worldly wealth. We aren't going to take it with us. What we have God has given us to use to his glory. The important question is: how do we use what God has given us? We are servants, and since God loves us, he gives us the ability to choose our master. "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Lk 16:13)

In our society the biggest obstacle to faithfulness is storing up possessions, accumulating wealth, seeking false riches, serving mammon. If we are not faithful stewards of mammon, of the possessions God gives us, Jesus asks, "Who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you haven't been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?" (Lk 16:11b-12) Those with true riches are those who give freely, not those with the most possessions.

What we do with our worldly treasure indicates how we have oriented our lives. What do we do with money? Spend it? Save it? Give it away? What we do shows us where are hearts are and what's important to us. In this way, money is sacramental. A good spiritual exercise for us is to sit down and figure out what we do with money and possessions. Heavenly treasure is not worldly wealth, but a godly character. The one thing we truly own is our character. The way we use wealth will either build up our character or make it ugly. God does not call us to be greedy and grasping servants, but generous and charitable, using what belongs to our Lord for the benefit of others.

That leads us to a third trait of a good servant: focusing on the needs of others more than on their own. In today's gospel, Jesus exhorts us to be like servants waiting for their master's return. Servants should be prepared. But as there so often is in Luke's gospel, there is a surprise ending. When the master comes home late at night, he will gird himself and make a meal and serve the servants. Luke's point is not only a moral exhortation to us to be prepared, but also a promise of God's graciousness, his love for his servants. Luke's telling of the parable fills us with hope. In our darkest hours, when we doubt that God will come to us, when we've had enough of being patient, God comes and cares for his servants. God's servants stay focused on helping others, their own anxieties don't consume them, because they have the sure hope of God's care for them.

God calls us to serve him by serving other people. In Paul's second letter to Timothy, he writes, "The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, an able teacher, forbearing, correcting his opponents with gentleness." (2 Tim 2:24) Paul explains that our goal is to bring everyone to the truth of the gospel, to carry on the ministry of Christ, and that means we have no ulterior motives in serving one another. We expect nothing in return. God's graciousness has no conditions. "Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." (Phil 2:5b-7a) God calls us to be self-emptying, not self-serving.

Fourth, a servant knows his place. Jesus asked his disciples, "Would you thank a servant because he has done what he was commanded?" Of course not. Jesus said that in the end we should recognize, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty." (Lk 17:9,10) We serve in humility. We do not complain others or hinder them or worry about them. Paul asks, "Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls." (Rom 14:4)

Fifth, a servant of God rejoices in the privilege of giving himself to God, to other people. "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Mt 11:30) We serve God with gladness for the opportunity to participate in his ministry. Our gratitude comes from the love we've received from him. When we recognize that God calls us to be his servants, we learn that God has ordered our lives and given them purpose. We don't have to live in daydreams and fantasies, but appreciate the infinite richness of what we've been given.

If we want faith - authentic faith, deep faith, faith that shapes and changes and strengthens our lives, it comes from being a good servant.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

1. Plato, Protagoras, 762 E.