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“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” – Mother Teresa
Anyone who is local to the St. Louis area knows what people ask someone they’ve just met: “Where did you go to high school?” Where you went to high school tells someone your social status, allows them to put you in box. As someone who went to a public high school in another state, I’ve always been something of outlier. High schools all have some of the same categories: popular kids, jocks, mean girls, and nerds. I was a nerd, poor at sports, a science fiction fan and a reader of comic books, with a vivid imagination, and nerds weren’t cool or popular. If you were a nerd, there was something wrong with you; it was a reason to be ashamed. In his second letter to his young friend, Timothy, Paul tells him, “So do not be ashamed.” (2 Tim. 1:8 NET Bible). A few sentences later, in verse 12, he comes back to it: “I am not ashamed.” Paul suggesting that he’s not ashamed implies—at least to me—the possibility that there were people who thought Christians should be ashamed, maybe even some Christians who were ashamed. Christians were the outsiders, the nerds of the day. Jesus said, “‘For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.’” (Luke 9:26 NET). But he also talked about pride (14:11). One day, the disciples asked him for more faith (Luke 17:5-10), and they probably assumed he’d say, “Sure.” Instead, he said, “‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, “Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.’” (vs. 6b NET). It doesn’t seem like you should fault the disciples for wanting more faith. Faith is good, right? But instead, Jesus says, “Instead of asking for more, you should be grateful for what you have.” I don’t know for sure but I suspect Jesus knew the disciples didn’t want more faith so they could do more works or be better servants but so they could be proud of it, of how much faith they had and what they could do. Remember, these were the guys who had argued over who was greatest (9:46). Extra faith would give them something to brag about and Jesus wasn’t having any. Instead, he said, “Use the faith you already have.” When I’m at work, I don’t expect an “Attaboy!” because I did the bare minimum or because I didn’t burn the building down; that’s expected—although some of us probably have coworkers who are exceptions. Romans 12:1 (NET) puts it like this: “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service.” It doesn’t say, “your going above and beyond service,” but “your reasonable service.” The word translated “reasonable” is the Greek word “logikos,” as in something that makes sense. We tend to define being a Christian by what we do or don’t do, or how we vote, or what music we listen to or don’t listen to, or something else, but it’s really about what we are, about whose we are. And why would we be ashamed of what we simply are? Why should we be proud of what we are? We didn’t have anything to do with it because, Jesus reached out to people who were poor, who were sick, who were from wrong side of tracks. He ate with sinners and associated with outcasts because in his eyes they were worth it. He thought they were worth dying for, and he thought we were worth dying for too. We don’t need to be too ashamed—or too proud—to come. We just need to come. “So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, a prisoner for his sake, but by God’s power accept your share of suffering for the gospel. He is the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began, . . . I am not ashamed, because I know the one in whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect what has been entrusted to me until that day.” (2 Tim. 1:8-9, 12b NET). (Based on a sermon I preached on October 6, 2019)
Copyright © 2019 by David Phelps |
