The Gospel for The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (October 3, 2004)
Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith like a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you. ‘Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, “Come and have your meal at once”? Would he not be more likely to say, “Get my supper ready; fasten your belt and wait on me while I eat and drink. You yourself can eat and drink afterwards”? Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told? So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, “We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty.” ’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Study
Frederick William Faber (1849) created the lyrics to Faith of Our Fathers. The third stanza is:
Faith of our fathers! we will love
both friend and foe in all our strife:
and preach thee, too, as love knows how,
by kindly deeds and virtuous life. -- Hymnal, 1982, Hymn #558
A Reflection
By faith we are called to love: to love one another as Jesus loves us. Agape love is beyond any normal human response to our human sisters and brothers; we are so accustomed to accommodating those who "just get by," and we ourselves are often guilty of just that sin -- or less.
But Jesus asks us to love "both friend and foe in all our strife," as the lyricist says so well, and then to preach Jesus as love knows how, by example.
People who do hard physical work know the biological signs of fatigue: sore muscles, cramps, and bruises. This is the work that humans are given the ability to do, by our maker. Those engaged in it with appropriate diets and medical care will statistically outlive the rest of us with cushy white-collar employment.
On the other hand, it is amazing, isn't it, that emotional fatigue and emotional pain and emotional bruises come from avoiding the life and the work that Jesus set for us to live?
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
3:55:40 PM 
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