Grateful Faith

May 8, 2016 Background Scripture: Luke 17:11 – 19 Lesson Passage: Luke 17:11 – 19 Today it seems that gratitude is a dying virtue in American society. We often summarize the general attitude of today’s society as being the attitude of entitlement. Many in society believe that the world owes them something because they were born. With such an attitude, no matter what a person receives, it is seen as only a down payment on what one is really due. One of the first phrases many of us were taught as babies was “Thank you”. Sometimes it was stated in the form of the baby talk phrase “ta ta”. We were taught to use this phrase in conjunction with receiving something from someone. Even today, you can witness parents rehearsing the phrase with babies and toddlers. Between the toddler stage and the young adult stage, there appears to be a great gulf fixed or better yet, a “Bermuda Triangle” for virtues. What we were taught as babies somehow doesn’t always translate into character virtue in us as adults. As rare as it appears to be at times, we find ourselves being appreciative when someone expresses genuine gratitude. In today’s lesson, we revisit the healing of the ten lepers. Those men came close enough to Jesus to cry out to him for mercy from a distance. Jesus gave them the instructions found in the Law. Those instructions provided steps a person should follow who had been cleansed of leprosy. Although they still had leprosy, they followed Jesus’ instructions and were on their way to present themselves before the priests. As they went, they were cleansed. Their obedient faith brought healing. One of the ten men saw that he had been healed and turned back, glorified God, and went to Jesus. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. Jesus noted that all ten men had been cleansed but only one of them returned to express gratitude. Jesus further noted that the man who returned was not a Jew. (This is characteristic of Luke’s account of the gospel where he brings many Gentiles front and center and presents them as part of Jesus’ ministry beyond the Jews.) Jesus raised the question about the nine men who did not come back to express gratitude. The fact that Jesus asked the question about the nine who did not return is enough reason for me to see that there is an expectation that gratitude would be expressed by those who call upon God and receive their requests. Our faith in God should be coupled with gratitude towards God—especially when He answers our prayers in the affirmative. Gratitude completes the loop of believing, trusting, asking, and receiving. Our faith should cause us to believe, trust, and ask of God. Our gratitude shows our appreciation and understanding of the fact that every good and every perfect gift is from God. God is not obliged to give simply because we ask. When God chooses to respond to our petitions in the affirmative, we should be grateful enough to express our appreciation to Him. Faith should always be accompanied by gratitude. Robert C. Hudson April 6, 2016

Increased Faith

May 1, 2016 Background Scripture: Luke 17:1 – 10 Lesson Passage: Luke 17:1 – 10 Do I have what it take to be an average Christian? Can I grow spiritually to the point where I can handle the day-to-day character requirements that I believe are expected of me based on the teachings of Jesus? When Jesus said “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”, do I have the capacity to do this in all sincerity and not just pay lip service to it? I believe that these were some of the questions on the minds of Jesus’ apostles when he taught them about unlimited forgiveness. No matter how many times a person offends you, if they repent and ask for forgiveness, forgive them. It doesn’t take much imagination for me to know that this type behavior is far from my norm in terms of interpersonal relationships. In my “very human” way of thinking, “three strikes and you’re out” is a very lenient response to being offended. I am convinced that when you take the cap off and make forgiveness unlimited, that requires something on the inside that we are not born with. There is no wonder that the apostles responded as they did to Jesus’ standard of forgiveness. They requested that he increase their faith. Today, it would likely sound like this: Lord help me, or Lord give me strength, or Lord you know my heart. All of these responses suggest the same thing: I don’t know how to get from where I am to where the Lord wants me to be but I believe if I had more faith, I would be able to do what the Lord requires of me. On the surface, Jesus’ response to their request seems to ignore the request altogether. First, Jesus talked about what a person with faith can do. Then, Jesus used the example of the expectation a master has of his servant. The master doesn’t suggest trading place with the servant and the master serving him based on the servant’s labor in the field that day. In the evening, the master still expected the servant to serve him in spite of the work the servant had done in the field that day. It was the servant’s duty to work in the field and to serve the master in his house. Then Jesus dismissed the notion that forgiveness should be thought of as a character trait but rather it should be seen as the duty of his servants. The apostles asked for more faith but Jesus responded that their faith in him should be clearly seen by their loyal obedience to him. They had enough faith to move mountains but the challenge of forgiveness is not a challenge of faith but an act of obedience to the Lord. True faith is not intellectual acquiescence but deliberate action as evidence of obedience. Forgiveness may never feel like the right thing to do but obedience to the Lord is always in order. In fact, we demonstrate our faith in the Lord through our acts of obedience. God does not forgive us based on merit. God’s forgiveness of us is always unmerited. And He expects the same behavior from us based on His Spirit living in us. It’s not always a matter of needing more faith. Sometimes we just need to walk in the faith we have already been given. Robert C. Hudson April 6, 2016