The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
5 October 2025 (Proper 22C)
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy, forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Habakkuk 1:1-6 (7-11) 12-13; 2:1-4
2 Timothy 1:6-14
Luke 17:5-10
Today’s Gospel is, to say the least, challenging. First, Jesus explains the power of faith to the disciples using a conditional construction that more than implies that he believes that faith is something they don’t have. Then he tells them a parable – really he makes an analogy – that is centred on the idea that slaves should not expect to be thanked for their work, and nor should the disciples. Wow. One commentator even describes this passage as not only not comforting, but “deflating.” (1) Where then is the Gospel in this for us today? Where is the Good News that can inspire us to go out into the world and actively be Christ’s Body in the world?
Well, we have to do a little work, not so we can make the text fit our pre-conceived theology, but so that we can better understand, with clear eyes, what it is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Today’s passage is the second part of the instructions that he gives the disciples on what is required of them if they are to be his followers. In this section that is omitted from our lectionary, he tells them first that he recognises that sin will inevitably be a part of life. One translator renders sin here as “scandals.” There will be sinning, and there will be scandals, but Jesus calls upon the disciples not to be their cause. He balances this with his next instruction that if they fall into sin, they must repent, and in turn we must offer forgiveness. Human forgiveness is dependent upon repentance and the honest recognition of what we have done. By emphasising the repentance of those who even sin against us seven times a day, Jesus is acknowledging that forgiveness can be challenging to practice; but so can repentance.
Where we meet the text today, we are in the middle of this discourse, at the point when the disciples interject, “Increase our faith,” which might better be rendered as “Give us faith.” (2) This statement seems, on the face of it, to come out of the blue, however, even if Luke is stringing together sayings of Jesus from different sources, from a literary perspective I think we can understand the disciples’ plea. Following immediately on the demand not to be the cause of the sins of others, not to be the cause of scandal, and to repent and forgive, perhaps the disciples feel that they are being asked to do the impossible, or at least something very difficult. Faith, they believe will give them the power to do what Jesus asks of them, and Jesus’ answer implies that they are correct, that if they had faith – even faith as small as a mustard seed – that they could do amazing things. The problem is, Jesus’ assessment of them is clearly that faith is something that they do not possess. So, what is faith? What are they lacking? At its core, faith is trust and relationship; trust and relationship with Jesus that is like Jesus’ own trust and relationship with God the Father. This is what we mean when we say that we seek for ourselves the faith of Christ. At that moment, then, Jesus does not believe the disciples fully trust in him, and perhaps he understands why. He sees what the disciples have yet to grasp.
Immediately on the heels of his statement on the power of faith, he asks them a rhetorical question about the relationship in the world of late antiquity of slaves to their masters. This is well and truly a question on the subject of enslaved people, not simply servants. Jesus is talking about the way that those who own people treat them, and the tone of the question (at least to my ears) reeks with irony and a little bit of contempt, implicitly demanding the answer that Jesus seeks. This is not warm and fuzzy Jesus. This is a biting, serious Jesus who wants his followers to really understand what the standard for discipleship really is. Does the slave expect to be invited to dinner and thanked? Of course not. And nor should you.
Here, Jesus is criticising those, like the Pharisees, who are self-congratulatory, self-satisfied, self-justifying in their righteousness and make a big show of it. He is asking the disciples and us not to fall into this trap. Faith, Jesus is telling them, being in right relationship with him and with God makes demands on us that should be basic elements of human behaviour, especially our interactions with others. Don’t cause scandal, don’t lead others into sin, when you do sin, repent, and when someone has sinned against you and repented, then you must forgive them. This is the minimum requirement for discipleship. Making a big fuss about it is not appropriate, Jesus is telling them. It is simply what they must do. (3) It is simply what we must do.
This is a hard Gospel to preach. It is a hard Gospel to hear. Indeed, the Wardens and I have been talking about how we need to better express our gratitude, gratitude for your generosity with your money, with your time, and with your talent. And we are trying to do that. Real, heartfelt expressions of gratitude can be inspiring and help us feel and understand that what we have done matters, especially when there is no tangible reward waiting for us. But Jesus is also correct when he says that we should not expect to have a parade thrown for us when we have done the minimum of what is expected of us, which is basically to be decent and honest, to not be the cause of discord and scandal, and practice repentance and forgiveness. Christian community functions at its best when we can all agree to adhere to these standards of discipleship. As Jesus says, with the faith that is encompassed by our Christian duty, we “can do anything.”
It is easy, though, for us to get discouraged, especially with a message like today’s in the face of how distant, given the events of our world, the realisation of the Kingdom of God seems. I know we feel like Habakkuk, who asks, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and thou wilt not hear? Or cry to thee “Violence!” and thou wilt not save? Why dost thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.” And we feel like “I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told,” yet Jesus is telling us there is no special praise for keeping at our Christian duty. Yet, I tell you today, as I have found myself telling you over and over, that despite the troubles of this age, the evils of this age, in the end God will make things right and bring about his Kingdom. “If it seem slow,” Habbakkuk says, “wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.... [H]e whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
Jesus may show impatience with the faithlessness of the disciples in this moment. Jesus may be telling the truth that, without expectation of thanks or reward, we are called to get on with the business of doing our Christian duty to keep from being the cause of strife and sin, to seek forgiveness when we are, and to forgive others who have repented themselves, but Jesus has also acted for us, and has shown us the power of the Resurrection in the face of death and the works of evil men. The Gospel today – the Good News – is that we have a place in the work of the Kingdom of God in the here and now that we are to get on with, and that our work is meaningful to each other and to God. Our patience and our relentless love for God and for each other, this is the core of our faith, our lived relationships; and it makes a difference. God in Christ, whose faith we share, is working out his purpose to upend the powers and structures of this world and usher in the new age of Love into which we are invited even in this moment.
Andrew Charles Blume ✠
New York City
3 October 2025
© 2025 Andrew Charles Blume
1. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke, Sacra Pagina, 3 (Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN, 1991), 261.
2. Johnson 1991, 257 (translation of Luke 17:5).
3. Johnson 1991, 261-262.