Luke 17:1-10 (New American Standard Bible)
Now He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to one through whom they come! It is better for him if a millstone is hung around his neck and he is thrown into the sea, than that he may cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” But the Lord said, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.
“Now which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him after he comes in from the field, ‘Come immediately and recline at the table to eat’? On the contrary, will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’? He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the things which were commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’”
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"“Increase our faith!” cry out the disciples. What do we think they were asking for? What do we think of when we hear the word faith? Do we think they're asking to believe harder? That faith is mostly about believing a certain way? In our age of science, believing is a lesser form of knowing. We pose faith against scientific knowing in such a way that faith seems to be losing out [...]
“Increase our faithfulness!” cry out the disciples. “Faithfulness” is a better translation than “faith” of the original biblical word. “Increase our faithfulness!” cry out the disciples. And now what are we talking about? We're talking about human relationships, aren't we? We're talking about a relationship kind of knowing instead of a scientific knowing. [...] We don't need more faith, which in the terms of today's scientific knowledge, seems like a lacking of that knowledge. We need more faithfulness to each other as human beings that we might live together in peace.
[...]
“Increase our faithfulness!” cry out the disciples. We have talked about this faith in terms of relationships instead of believing, a love-kind of knowing instead of a scientific kind of knowing. But there is a more specific context that we should attend to. The disciples cry out for increased faithfulness right after Jesus has given them a challenging picture of forgiveness. [...] Now we can see why the disciples ask Jesus for greater faithfulness. It takes great faithfulness to keep forgiving someone who keeps hurting you!
"[...] [F]orgiveness is a very complicated business! And these few words from Jesus about forgiveness evoke the disciples' response for Jesus to help us with our faithfulness. We need his power of faithfulness to even begin to forgive others as he forgives us."
- Paul Nuechterlein, from a sermon delivered on October 3, 2010 (https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper22c_2010_ser/)
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"[The] paragraph begins with Jesus' ominous warning against being occasions of stumbling (scandals) for any of Jesus' “little ones.” Unlike the parallels in the other synoptic Gospels, however, this warning is quickly followed by an admonition to rebuke those who cause stumbling but then to forgive them if they are penitent, even if it is seven times a day, which is a lot of forgiving.
"So, the disciples aren't having a problem believing in the Nicene Creed. They are having a problem accepting this demand to be forgiving on such an incredible scale. After all, if one repents seven times a day, how serious is the repentance? Forgiving like that often requires the patience of a saint and not even many of the saints I know anything about are as patient as that. [...]
"Unlike the parallels in Matthew and Mark, [where] faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to move this mountain, perhaps the Temple Mount and its sacrificial system, from here to there. But mulberry trees have nothing to do with sacrifice. So why a mulberry tree in this version? [...] Mulberry trees [...] have complex root systems that spread out a large distance just under the surface and they also send sinker roots deep into the soil. [...]
"We see the mulberry tree as an image of the intractability of the occasions for stumbling that we encounter on a daily basis. The image also stands for the tangle of our anger and frustration over being asked to forgive those who keep making us stumble over and over again. The close coupling of Jesus' admonitions here suggests that all of us cause others to stumble about as much as we have occasion to forgive others for making us stumble. Faith the size of a mustard seed is enough to pull us out this tangle of scandal and stumbling and yet we have trouble having as much faith as that!
"A brief parable follows. We are apt to think the master treating his slaves so harshly stands for God, but Jesus is asking: Whom among you would say to his slave to come sit down for dinner after a hard day's work? The implication is that we are the ones who would like to have the power to order people about like that. But is that faithfulness to Christ? Looks more like a cause of stumbling to me. Jesus then shifts to the perspective of the slave who must not presume to be worthy of any reward, just as slaves were so considered in his time. In a similar parable in Luke 12, Jesus says that the master is the one who will wait on those slaves who eagerly await his return.
"In daily life, we often feel that we are slaves of those who cause trouble and so demand much attention and energy on our part and yet are the last to express any gratitude for what we do for them. We tend to resent such slavery and take refuge in vengeful anger and maybe some grudging forgiveness that makes us feel superior. But Jesus places himself in the position of the slave to those who stumble and make others stumble, so that is where we will find Jesus if we have the faith the size of a mustard seed."
- Andrew Marr, Abbot of St. Gregory's Abbey (Three Rivers, MI), from blog post titled "Increasing Faith in Forgiveness" (https://andrewmarrosb.blog/2016/10/01/increasing-faith-in-forgiveness/)
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"In this story from Luke, all of this happens before the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. [...] Jesus will enact the very thing he tells his disciples they must do. At the crucifixion Jesus himself becomes the servant of God who forgives us and in that shows us the way of forgiveness. He provides a most powerful example of what we are to do in our lives in all ways. Here is a leader who sets an example and asks us to do as he has done."
- Tom Truby, from a sermon by titled “The Power of Forgiveness” (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Truby-Proper22-2016-The-Power-of-Forgiveness.pdf)
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"[T]hat's actually how you will find yourselves living the other half of the story, that the One will come into your midst and come to your table and will serve you, those two mentions of serving the Lord and what place you are in it coming together. [...] I think that this is Jesus actually nudging people into having a bit of a bigger imagination about what it looks like to serve and not to be too important, and to remember that their work is not over until they have served the Lord."
- James Alison, from video "Homily for Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 C" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKz-jabeylI)
[Source of links to Paul Nuechterlein and Tom Truby sermons and Andrew Marr blog, and for analysis and discussion on all the lectionary texts for this Sunday: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-c/proper22c/]