Proper 22 C
Faith Saves and Faith Serves
St. Luke 17:1-10
6 October 2013 – Redeemer
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If today had a name other than the 20th Sunday after Pentecost or Lutheran Womens Missionary League Sunday it might be called faith Sunday. The prophet Habakkuk declares, “The righteous shall live by his faith.” St. Paul writes of Timothy’s sincere faith – a faith handed down to him by the ladies of the missionary league of his day – his mother and grandmother. In today’s Gospel reading the apostles, having heard the demands of the Christian life, pray to Jesus, “Increase our faith.”
Faith is simply trust in something. When you turn the ignition in your car you have faith that it will start. When the weather turns cold you trust your furnace will warm your house. You have faith in these objects because usually, almost always, they do exactly what you expect them to do.
That leads us to another point – faith trusts in an object – that doesn’t always mean the object is trustworthy. You can have misplaced faith. For example I trust myself as the chief mechanic of the Timm fleet of vehicles, but every now and then my faith is misplaced. I cannot fix everything and when I take my car to my real mechanic he usually greets me with, “What did you do now?”
One of the chief Lutheran confessions is that we are saved – we actually like the word justified – we are justified by faith alone. It is the Biblical confession drawn straight from Habakkuk’s mouth, “The righteous shall live by his faith.” So what is the object of your trust, what do you believe will make you righteous? There are two answers to that question – either you trust something you do with your hands or you trust something you receive with your hands. You either trust yourself or someone else. You are either self-justified or other-justified.
So which is it? Do you try to justify yourself? Do you cover your gossip with the claim that it is true? Do you justify your anger because the person deserves it? Do you mask your prejudice under patriotism? Do you condone your lust because your marriage isn’t what you thought it would be?
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus destroys those who would justify themselves. “And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. (Luke 17:1–4, ESV)
Jesus speaks to his followers, “You are going to face temptations, but if you are ever the source of temptation, if you lead another child of God to sin, if you teach one lie to a child, if you don’t hold to every doctrine of Scripture and mislead one of My little ones, you will not stand. It is the absolute obligation of every Christian to hold the Word of God in truth and purity. Dot every “i” and cross every “t.” And if you don’t – you are not righteous. You cannot not stand before God – you sink with a several hundred pound necklace of stone.
If Jesus doesn’t sink you with pure doctrine He crushes you with right practice. After He preaches God’s Word in your ears, He puts your neighbor (or enemy) before your eyes. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Seven times. Seven times your son leaves dishes downstairs by the couch. Seven times your husband ignores you and pretends not to hear. Seven times someone runs a shopping cart into your car. Seven times a coworker lies about you. Seven times your three year old throws a tantrum in Coborns. Not seven times in a week, not seven times in a year, seven times in a day. And Jesus says, “if he turns to you seven times saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Once sure. Twice maybe. Three times hardly ever. Seven times in a day – never. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t do it.
And if you don’t have that amount of forgiveness in you then you cannot be Jesus’ disciple. It’s millstone time again. Where does Jesus’ word leave you? He leaves you without faith, without faith in yourself. That’s the point of Jesus’ Word – if you look to yourself for salvation, if you look to yourself to be justified before God, well then you better love and keep every Word of God in Holy Scripture and you’d better be able to forgive anyone anytime who sins in any way against you. It’s simple really – if you want to save yourself then you need only be perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect.
If you’re not perfect in and of yourself (and you’re not), then you better look elsewhere. When the Apostles heard these words they got it, “Lord, increase our faith.” This English translation is a little weak. The Greek Word for “increase” is “prosthes” or “prostithami” from which we get our word “prosthetic.” A prosthetic replaces something you lost. If you served our country and lost your leg to a mine or shrapnel you received a prosthetic leg. It doesn’t mean to increase. It means to give you what you don’t have. A literal translation might be, “Lord, add to us faith.” The Apostles didn’t have faith in themselves, so they looked to Jesus – Lord give us what we have lost. We are not righteous. We don’t love your pure Word and we don’t love our neighbor as ourselves and there’s no way we forgive seven times a day.
Faith looks to Jesus – and in Jesus our Father gives to our faith what we don’t have in ourselves. Jesus kept the pure Word of God. He regarded it as holy and true. Jesus believed Adam and Eve were real people, that God created the world and everything in it, that Jonah lived in a fish for three days. He always followed His Father’s Word. And He forgave more than seven sins a day. He forgave all your sins (which I believe is more than seven per day). He forgave all the sin of all the world in a single day. He took the millstone destined for your neck and the death your sins deserved and He died. You need righteousness and Jesus is righteous. You need pure obedience and Jesus is obedient. You need forgiveness and Jesus forgives 70 times 7 times all your sin and all of you.
When you are baptized into the name of Jesus and given faith in Him – all that Jesus has is added unto you. The Apostles’ plea of “Lord, add to us faith.” is answered when Jesus died on the cross. Your same cry is answered when you are baptized into His death and resurrection, when you receive absolution from your pastor’s mouth, when you eat Christ’s body and blood for your forgiveness.
Faith in Jesus alone saves and faith in Jesus serves. Dr. Luther said that we are saved by faith alone, but then added faith is never alone – it is always active in works of love and mercy. And so Jesus speaks of faith’s service.
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (7–10)
God the Father does not need your obedience or works. He has the obedience and works of Jesus on your behalf. Your neighbor needs your works. You serve God by serving those around you in need. Not to earn salvation, not so God can see you, but because He sees you righteous in Christ, because you are God’s child. The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League does many works of service in this congregation and throughout the state, nation, and world with their mites. You can help them with the work today by contributing to their mites. Remember – your coins, your cash, your care and compassion don’t save you. Christ saves you and faith which believes that — saving faith is also serving faith. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
5 October 2013 anno Domini