What Do We Celebrate?
Some musings on something more minor.
Blessed fourth Sunday of Easter to you. I pray you can find yourself with an expression of the Body of Christ today.
I’m not sure I’ve ever really focused much on the first paragraph of today’s passage. This won’t be the most ground-breaking reflection you’ve ever read, but it is something I often wonder about.
It seems there are many places in which it’s easier for the things of the world to seep into the Church’s practice than others. The more obvious acts of sin against God are clear - we don’t murder people in the Church. We don’t, generally, punch each other in the face. I cannot take the keys from your car and drive it as though it’s mine without your permission. These practices are known to be things that happen in the world that should not in the community of the Church.
But there are other things, more widely embedded in the general culture, when they enter the practice of the Church, that cause me to think sometimes. Part of this has to do with how we celebrate people.
To be clear - there are reasons to celebrate people in the Kingdom of God. Jesus makes this clear, particularly in the “lost” parables we just read earlier this week. When people are healed, we celebrate. When people receive salvation, we celebrate. Jesus also loves to celebrate at a table and calls us to at the Table. Each of these things celebrates the goodness God has given us for specific people.
There are also moments when the way we recognize people in the Church gives me pause. Not because honoring what God has done is wrong, but because it can drift. What starts as gratitude can become something else, something that looks more like the world’s way of assigning value and importance. And that can be hard to discern in the moment.
Again, celebrating what God has done in or through someone(s) is a worthy thing. Recounting the history of God’s work in and through particular individuals or churches - this resonates with something like Hebrews 11.
The opposite problem would be to not recognize what God has done at all. Jesus heals ten and only one returns to acknowledge it. This, too, is not within the Kingdom.
When considered at once, Jesus seems to be holding these two things together. On the one hand, we are not to expect recognition for simply doing what is asked of us. Faithfulness is not something to be applauded as though it were extraordinary. It is simply the life we are called to live. And yet, on the other hand, we are not to miss what God has done. Gratitude matters. Recognition matters, but it must be rightly directed. Not toward elevating ourselves, but toward acknowledging God.
Luke 17:7-19
“Would any of you say to your servant, who had just come in from the field after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Come! Sit down for dinner’? Wouldn’t you say instead, ‘Fix my dinner. Put on the clothes of a table servant and wait on me while I eat and drink. After that, you can eat and drink’? You won’t thank the servant because the servant did what you asked, will you? In the same way, when you have done everything required of you, you should say, ‘We servants deserve no special praise. We have only done our duty.’”
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten men with skin diseases approached him. Keeping their distance from him, they raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, show us mercy!”
When Jesus saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” As they left, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he had been healed, returned and praised God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus replied, “Weren’t ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? No one returned to praise God except this foreigner?” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.”
Prayer
God,
As we gather with your Church today, center us again.
Keep us from making too much of ourselves, even in the good things we do. Teach us to be faithful without needing recognition, to serve without expectation.
And at the same time, do not let us miss what you are doing. Give us eyes to see your work, and hearts quick to respond with gratitude.
Order our worship rightly, that our attention would not drift toward status or comparison, but remain fixed on you.
Make us a people who celebrate what you have done, and who live faithfully without needing to be seen for the sake of the ego rising above others.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.