Good Enough
Luke 17:1-10[1]
I don’t know about you,
but I’ve always had a problem with the concept of “good enough.” I think it’s
fair to say that I’m a “recovering perfectionist.” And when I say “recovering”
I mean I’ve made progress, but I still have room for improvement. I grew up
with the message that “if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” And,
truth be told, I still believe in that. I just recognize that there are times
when my “best” is better and times when it’s simply “good enough.” Learning to
embrace the idea that it’s okay to do some things “good enough” is a way for me
to keep my sanity. Especially when my “to-do” list feels overwhelming. I have
an idea that perhaps I’m not alone in that!
When it comes to our
faith, the idea of “good enough” can get us into all kinds of trouble. One of
the ideas in our part of the Christian family is that we can never be “good
enough” to deserve God’s love. For some of us, it’s freeing to know that. For
others, it can become a burden. Especially when we think that we still have to
try to be “good enough”: good enough for God to love us, good enough to go to
heaven. Most of us have to make the journey in our faith from thinking we
somehow have to try to be “good enough” to deserve God’s love to the place
where we realize that’s not possible. More than that, it’s not necessary. God
accepts us for who we are, just as we are.
As we’ve been working
our way through Luke’s Gospel this year, I would imagine that our Scripture
lessons have at some point gotten uncomfortable. The way Luke’s Gospel presents
us with what it means to follow Jesus is deeply challenging. Some of the most
difficult demands Jesus makes are found in Luke’s Gospel. We’ve heard them this
year. Give without expecting to receive anything in return. Welcome and embrace
and even invite into one’s home the outcasts, the unwanted, and the rejected.
The “exalted” ones will be humbled and the humble will be exalted. You must
“hate” your family and even your own life. You cannot serve God and wealth, and
so you must “give up” everything.
In our lesson for
today, Jesus makes a couple more difficult demands. First, he instructs his
disciples to avoid causing any of the “little ones” to sin. I don’t think he’s
talking about children here, but rather the “humble” ones we’ve heard about all
through the Gospel: the least and the last and the left out. But this sounds
uncomfortably close to saying that we have watch to ourselves constantly to
keep from harming others. It sounds like we have to live up to some kind of
demand for perfection that we all know is impossible. It sounds like doing the
best we can to avoid hurting the “little ones” around us just isn’t “good
enough.”
If that weren’t hard
enough for us to hear, he goes on to say that if someone sins against us, we
should forgive them. And Jesus said, “if the same person sins against you seven
times a day and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must
forgive” (Lk 17:4). That’s a lot of forgiveness. Think about it, if someone
hurts you seven times a day and asks you to forgive them each time, you have to
wonder if that person is really “repenting.” And yet the demand is there:
forgive those who sin against you. Every time they sin against you. And keep
forgiving them. Again, it sounds like a demand that is beyond what is
reasonable to expect from anyone.
I think it’s no wonder
that the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith! On top of everything
else that Jesus has demanded of those who would follow him, he adds that
they’re not to sin against others, and they’re to forgive everyone who sins
against them, every time. I think it’s interesting that Luke calls them the
“apostles” here. That’s the first time he’s done that. Normally he calls them
the “disciples.” But here he says that “the apostles” asked Jesus to increase
their faith. I think it would have gotten the first Christians’ attention when
they heard that “the apostles” admitted they needed more faith to live up to
the seemingly impossible demands Jesus made of them. It sounds like even the
“apostles” doubted whether their faith was “good enough.”
I’m not sure it helps
us when Jesus adds the bit about being “unworthy slaves.” I think a better
translation would be: “We servants deserve no special praise” (Lk 17:10, CEB).
The idea is that it wouldn’t have made any sense of for a slave in that day to
think that they had done anything to deserve any special reward just by doing
what they were told. Similarly, those of us who follow Jesus don’t somehow
“earn” rewards by doing our best to do what he taught us. But at the same time,
Jesus’ preaching about the kingdom of God has already made it clear that we
don’t have to. God extends his mercy to us simply because he wants to!
I think most of us
wonder whether we’re “good enough.” A good enough parent. A good enough husband
or wife. A good enough friend. A good enough (fill in the blank with your
profession). A good enough person. What Jesus has to say about living the
Christian life in Luke’s Gospel can make even the most faithful among us wonder
whether we can ever be a good enough Christian. But the good news of the
kingdom of God is that we don’t have to be “good enough” to deserve God’s love,
or God’s mercy, or God’s promise of blessing. God loves us unconditionally and
irrevocably; he always has, and he always will. In response, what God asks is
that we muster the faith we have to love God back and to love others. And when
we do that to the best of our ability, it’s “good enough.”
[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/2/2022 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/1WvsOlIIPk4
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