A reflection on the Lectionary readings for the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost.
I have to admit, y’all, that reading the word ‘worthless’ in either the scripture or the Book of Common Prayer, really troubles my heart. First of all, I don’t like hearing I’m worthless from any source and secondly, I know that God doesn’t view any human being that way. We are not worthless to God. God made us good, as beloved image bearers of the divine goodness. Jesus often uses hyperbole to grab our attention to help us listen more deeply. So, I often translate the word worthless to human and much of the time, I believe the authors of our scriptures and the prayerbook theologians were trying to communicate just that. We have to be reminded sometimes (often?) that we are humans and not gods or that we are human and not less than that. Being human doesn’t make us worthless. It is who we are made to be, with all of our potential faults and our limitations we are God’s beloved.
To be human is to have limits and there is great freedom in accepting and living within those limits. When we try to be limitless, we become slaves to fruitless pursuits that will never come to fulfillment. We become slaves to the impossible task of trying to be what we are not. Mustard seeds don’t try to be anything but a mustard plant. Jesus show us the way of freedom, life lived as we are made to live.
In our prayer today, we ask God to give us the good things that, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, are ours for the asking, even though they don’t fit within our human limits. So, just what are the good things we are not worthy to ask for? The God who pursues us, who was willing to become one of us, to live as God made us to live, to experience the joys and pains of being human, to go through death so that we, too could pass beyond physical death to everlasting life in God’s presence. This everlasting life isn’t something we have to wait for but begins in our here and now as God is with us, the help of the holy spirit living in us.
Jesus tells the disciples that they don’t need to increase their faith but need to learn how to live into their faith. They need to “work” differently, not harder. The first thing they need to do differently is to let go of the concept of earning or deserving when it comes to our relationship with God. From the beginning of creation, God made humans to participate with God in God’s purposes in this world. God’s love and the gift of life is just that: a gift. It isn’t something we have to earn. It isn’t something we have to prove ourselves worthy of. God loves us and gives us life. It isn’t something we can have more or less of than others. We have the choice to live in a way that honors God or struggle to live contrary to who we are made to be as humans.
Who among us expects exceptional praise for doing what our jobs pay us to do (if you do, we need to have a different conversation, but I digress…)? When we make a contract with an employer, we do what our job description requires of us and our employer pays us. It is a simple transaction (yes, I’m speaking in ideals here. I know some employers expect an amount of work and commitment that isn’t equal to the amount of pay and the use of the words slave can inhibit our modern imaginations but this is the way parables and metaphors work, bear with me). The employer in Jesus’ parable has defined and culturally acceptable expectations of the people she pays to tend to the fields and herds and household. It’s an equitable transaction of work for payment as it was understood in their time and culture.
It’s easy, and for most of us preferable, to envision ourselves as the employer rather than the employee in this parable. Jesus is well aware of this as he turns the table on us at the end asking if we as the employee would consider ourselves deserving of anything beyond the defined and culturally acceptable expectations. In other words, who among us feels entitled to what we haven’t earned. In what ways do we expect from others more than we are willing to give ourselves? It’s that scandalous ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ thing again!
Another translation of the word NRSV translates as ‘worthless’ is ‘unprofitable’. Does it help to read the last bit of Jesus’ words, “we are unprofitable employees, doing only what we ought to have done”? Do we even do what we ‘ought’ to do? We all have responsibilities and we shouldn’t expect exceptional recognition for doing what is ours to do. In the economy of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, what we do for others isn’t transactional but relational. We do for others because we want for others what we want for ourselves. We don’t keep score. It isn’t a zero sum game. Life isn’t about having more than others (being profitable) but working together to ensure everyone has what they need (unprofitable). The defining factor for the economy of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven is loving God, our neighbor, and ourselves.
When we begin to see the world through the lens of love, our faith in the God who made all there is becomes a way of life not a tit-for-tat, transaction based existence. Other human beings are not a means to get our own expectations fulfilled but companions and fellow image-bearers with whom we journey together, following Jesus into the Kingdom here and now. Together and with God, we strive to meet everyone’s needs and respecting the dignity of every human being. This is true freedom and God’s unconditionally given gift to each and all of us.
Some of us need to let go of the idea that we need to prove ourself worthy. Some of us need to let go of the idea that we are worthless. Some of us need to let go of the idea that we deserve more than others. Each of these comes from a place of pride – thinking we know better than God who and Whose we are. We all need to let ourselves be the humans God made us to be and receive the gift of God’s love freely given. We are all God’s beloved, made to live the Kingdom life with the spirit of power and love and self-discipline journeying together in love. Amen.
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