October 2, 2016
20th Sunday After Pentecost Year C

“The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 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!’”  Luke 17:5-10

“I just love the Dilbert cartoon strips by Scott Adams. They are one of that
very select company of cartoons that have achieved ‘classic’ status by their satirical and witty take on life. They feature the office workers Dilbert, Alice and Wally and the rather thankless tasks they are frequently occupied with. One of the strips seems to speak directly to today’s gospel reading:

The annual appraisal interview is due and Alice waits for it in the office of the pointy-haired boss. The boss begins, ‘Alice, your performance this year is “meets expectations.” You get a two percent pay increase.’ Shocked, Alice shouts, ‘MEETS EXPECTATIONS?! I worked eighty hours every week!’ The boss replies, ‘Yeah … Well, I expected that.’ Defending what she has achieved, Alice stands up and imploringly holds her hand up, saying, ‘I earned three patents this year! The company will make millions!!’ The boss says, ‘Really? Wow. ….I mean … I expected that too.’ Absolutely beside herself, Alice continues, ‘I donated bone marrow to our biggest customer!!! TWICE!!!’ To which the boss replies, ‘I noted that under “attendance problem.”’ In the last scene, Alice is seen in the lunch room, head buried in her hands. Dilbert says to Alice, ‘I told you the bone marrow thing would haunt you.’ And Wally adds, ‘I’m starting to think the time I worked through my lunch hour was for nothing.’

Echoes there, or at least so it seems at first sight, of ‘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!”’ These sayings from Jesus are just too near the appraisal comments of the pointy-haired boss for comfort. Do our heartfelt and taxing efforts at discipleship really amount to nothing more than ‘Meets expectations?”’ ( George Herbert, Preacher Rhetorica website)
Thank goodness our salvation is not based on how well we achieve the things that Jesus commands, because the life of the disciple is hard – very hard. It is almost unachievable. It is unachievable if we try to do it on our own. My friends, we will fail more often than we will be successful in doing what Jesus commands, but that is not the point. The point is not that we keep track of what we achieve, but that we practice our faith, no matter where we are on our faith journey. We all fall short of the glory of G-d, we are all worthless slaves who are called to do the Master’s bidding. But we are not worthless – we are loved. We are loved – and so we take that love and we stop thinking or worrying about deserving a reward for our good deeds, but simply go and follow Jesus, modeling the example of Jesus to love our neighbor, forgive limitlessly, and share our faith.

Pastor Dave