Sunday, January 22, 2006
Lectionary readings :
Genesis 15:1-6
Hebrews 11:1-6
Luke 17:5-10 (but please read from the beginning of the chapter)

A bit messy, particularly since the original (held Sunday) is very much based on some proverbial phrases and puns in my native language.

Sometimes I need to read more than just the lectionary-reading to get a handle on what the texts of the day is about. This is the case today.
And if I do that, 3 rather heavy subjects come up :

Faith
Forgiveness
Servitude

... try coupling them with

Faith
Hope
Charity

Fairly good match, eh :-)

To me these 3 (both sets) are Christian duties.
You have a duty to forgive, when you are asked to do so ! If someone sins against you, you and regret that, and ask your forgiveness, you have a duty to forgive them, because you are God's, and God does forgive trespassers who ask forgiveness.
You have a duty to trust in God. To believe that you are something, because you are God's, and whatever is God's is most certainly not worthless.
You have a duty to serve God, because you are God's creation, God's creature, God's child.

So, the short-hand version could be :
You are not your own, you are God's

And that can be quite hard to know and to live.

To know that you have a duty, at all times, to strive to be what you are ... God's
Not strive to be God or to be god-like. You are created more God-like than you think in ordinary life, seeing that you are created in the image of God :-), no, the duty I'm writing about here is the duty to do as you are told and say "Thank you " afterwards.
Because that is what a servant has to do.
What s/he is told.
Go about your life and your duties, Christian and secular, in the best way you can.

And that really doesn't fit into the 21st century very well.
"I deserve ..."
"I'm entitled to ..."
"I want ...."
... And frankly, its not fair to expect me to just give and give. I have rights you know !

... rights ?
Aren't all your rights founded in the most unreasonable, un-fair ... fact of them all ? That you are alive ! That you are a living soul !

Did you deserve being born ?
Is your being alive a right that you have earned ?
Have you paid for just one of your heart-beats ?

No. You haven't have you :-)
You just take it for granted .... as most of us do most of the time.
But that shouldn't make us forget that life itself is something we have been given freely in the first place.
Just because it is to our advantage, it doesn't mean that it is fair and just :-)

And then there is love.
"No-one ever loved me !" cries the wo/man in despair.
But that is not true !
Someone loves you.
Present tense.
And He has loved you so much, that He took on flesh and blood and became all human.
For you !
He loved you so much, that He lived a full, human life.
For you !
And He died, because He was fully human. And His death was cruel and painful. Not so that you should suffer, or feel bad about putting Him through suffering, no, He did it to set you free from suffering.
He lived and died, and broke the gates of Death, so that you can know that you are loved !
He lived and died, and broke the gates of Hell, to give you the means to open the gates of Heaven.

For your neighbour and for yourself.

... life and love ...
Not exactly things of little or no matter.
But they are, what your duties are founded in.
That you have been given.

... naturally, life and love isn't exactly trendy, and you can't get a new one in 3 months when this one becomes unfashionable ... on the other hand, I find them somewhat more useful in the long run than a new pair of jeans or the accessory of the month.

So, the un-fairness that the duties of Faith, Forgiveness,and Servitude (or Faith, Hope and Charity) are founded on, is the un-fairness that you have been given.
Life, love and eternity.
... perhaps not the height of fashion, but still ... it is something, isn't it :-)
God bless you