Extra Credit

This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday October 7, 2007, the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Lamentations 1:1-6
Psalm 137
2Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

I don’t know if I have ever shared this with you, but I have a rule of thumb. When looking at the scripture for Sunday, I generally find that the shorter the reading, the tougher the message. I don’t know if it works this way for everyone, but that’s the way it works for me. I find that the longer a passage is, the better it flows. Longer pieces just tend to have more of a melodic quality, a rhythm that lends itself to preaching. Narratives like the Call of Gideon in Judges or the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospels lend themselves to proclamation. True to form I find today’s reading of just seven verses from Luke’s Gospel just plain nasty. In this tiny little reading, Jesus gives two lessons to his apostles, the first is two verses on faith and the other is five verses on personal worth.

Let’s begin by noting that this Word of the Lord was not for everybody. Jesus did not direct this message to the masses. He specifically addressed these sayings to his apostles. So when we read, “Who among you would say to your slave…?” Jesus was asking the twelve to put themselves in the place of the master, the slave owner. And Jesus is asking them how they would treat their slaves.

Also remember that slavery in the first century was not the same thing slavery was in seventeenth to nineteenth century America. Slavery in the first century was closer to what we would call indentured servitude. It was possible for slaves to earn their release from service after a period of time. This is particularly true among the more orthodox Jewish masters who by the Law of Moses were called to release their slaves on the Sabbath year. Still first century slavery was not a picnic. The hours were long and the work was difficult. Slaves could earn their release, but it was a long and arduous process.

So Jesus is asking his apostles, the twelve who knew him best in this world what they would do as masters of slaves. Jesus anticipated their answer, nobody would invite their slave to sit on down, take a load off, and take a place at the table while someone else, or even less likely the master, gets the slave’s dinner. No self respecting slave owner would ever do this.

Is it so different today? If you say yes, I want you to go to Crescent Hotel after worship and tell the person waiting your table at the Crystal Dining Room to take your seat, have a little bagel and lox, and maybe a waffle, while you take care of their tables.

Or how about going to Sonic, telling the carhop to get in the back seat of your car while you get her a Coney and some Ched-R-Peppers[1] while you handle her orders?

Oh, and the tips still go to the restaurant staff.

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

In a way, we are different. We appreciate the people who serve us, but we don’t invite them to trade places with us. More than that, the slave master of the day would not thank a slave for doing what they had been commanded. Appreciate maybe, commend no.

This is where Jesus puts the screws to the disciples. They have just finished affirming the way things are in the world as if they were the masters when Jesus turns the tables on them. “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done.’” Jesus gets everyone worked up over how they would treat their slaves, only to be told that they themselves are slaves, and when they have done all that was ordered, they shouldn’t expect any thing more than to be slaves. They are expected to say, “Well, I’m just doing my job, boss.”

Yuck. There’s something you want to hear from the Messiah, the Anointed, the Christ, “we are worthless slaves.” But let’s take this apart before we get too offended by these words. Other translations don’t use the word slave; they use the word servant instead. So we are able to soften this if we wish. But I don’t think we should.

Without bondage to the slavery imposed by sin, we don’t need the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. If sin is turning against God and others, claiming mastery of our own lives, and becoming exploiters of the world,[2] then redemption is how we who are slaves to sin are recovered by our original owner for a price.[3] When we use the language of slavery we can use the language of redemption.

We are slaves, slaves to sin who have been redeemed, purchased for a price by the body and blood of Christ. Using the word “servant” gets rid of that nasty antebellum plantation connotation, but it candy coats who we are and minimizes what God has done. As slaves, our freedom was purchased by the Lord on the cross with his body and his blood.

Jesus is subtle. He sets a snare for the disciples, having them imagine themselves masters over slaves and them springing the surprise, tells them that they themselves are slaves in this life. And as they do what they ought to do, they should not expect to receive special treatment from the master.

There is a bit of this passage in the New English Bible translation that I like better than the New Revised Standard Version. Instead of saying we are “worthless” the New English Bible says we “deserve no credit.” The nuance that this translation gives us is not that we are not worthy, but it’s that we don’t deserve extra credit for doing what we are supposed to do.

Marie didn’t sponsor a parade for me because I took out the trash on Wednesday night. It’s what I’m supposed to do. There will be no bill boards posted for me because I served as chaplain at the hospital last week. This is what I am supposed to do. Now Marie did graciously thank me for taking out the trash, and others have thanked me for serving at the hospital. But these are not master-slave relationships either. To tweak this a little, it’s not that I’m worthless; it’s that I don’t deserve extra credit from the Lord for doing what I am called to do.

And this is where I am glad that Jesus Christ has come to redeem us. The big twist of this passage is the difference between what we have earned and what we have received.

You see, despite the fact that we shouldn’t expect to be invited to sit down and be served; God has invited us to the table. The words, “come, taste and see that the Lord is good” ring from the table every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It is the Lord who invites those who believe to come and receive his gift not because we have earned it, but because the Lord wants us to be there. The Lord invites us to the table and says this is my body given for you and this is the new covenant sealed in my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And whenever we take of the loaf and the cup, we do it in remembrance of Him who invites us to the table and provides the meal.

Since early this morning, and throughout the rest of the day, Christians around the world come to tables like this one and share the one loaf and the one cup. With other Christians around the world, today we celebrate World Communion Sunday. In this meal, we are fed, we are fortified, and we experience the outward sign of the inward grace of the Lord God Almighty. In this meal, the church, the body of Christ is fortified and nourished.

The joy of this meal is in the simple fact that we participate in this good gift not because we deserve it, but because the Lord wishes to share it with us. We are slaves who do not deserve extra credit for doing what we are supposed to be doing, feeding the poor, praying for the church, taking the word into the world. But because God has created us and because God wants a relationship with us, God invites us to this table. The extravagant gift of the living God is that the Lord God gave himself, body and spirit that we may be in relationship with him, even though nothing we can do could ever earn us a spot at the table. We are not worthy of such a wonderfully gracious gift, yet we are invited to come, share, and celebrate.

We are saved by grace through faith. And by the Lord’s grace our faith is fed by the meal he sets before us, the meal of bread and cup which become so much more by the virtue of the one who provides them. It becomes so much more because the Master invites us to join him at the table. It is the meal the Master serves the slaves. It is the meal that lifts our spirits and our bodies as we do the Master’s work in the world. And by this meal, this sacrament, we are able to move mountains, and mulberry trees. We are able to join together to do his work.

We are hungry, so hungry, and we long for the master’s table. But there is nothing on earth we can do to deserve a place at the table. Yet in the twist that defines our faith, the master invites all of us, all of humanity, all of creation to the table not because we deserve it, but because the Lord God wants us to come and join him. This is the meal we share with God and God’s glorious creation. Come, taste, and see, the Lord is good.

[1] Ched-R-Peppers is a Registered Trademark of the Sonic Corporation.
[2] The Confession of 1967, The Presbyterian Church (USA), Line 12.
[3] “Redeem” entry, The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Buttrick, G. A., General Editor. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962-1992, electronic version, 2002.