Musings at Altitude

We had a tough sermon at church today, with the message coming from Luke 17.  Verse 10 really hit home (New Living Translation):

In the same way, when you obey me you should say, “We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.”

Christ was teaching His disciples that the sacrificial work that they were expected to do was equivalent to the standard duties of a servant.  Our expectations here on earth should not be for praise, or affirmation, or rewards, but instead, when we do what is expected, we have simply done our duty.

It’s been 8 hours now and I’m still thinking about it.  That’s the sign of a good sermon.

Here are some takeaways from both the spoken and unspoken words:

(1) Since Christ specifically said, “when you obey me”, we can assume He was talking about the minimum requirements for obedience, sinlessness and sacrificial love to name two

(2) Since we know that it’s impossible to live a sinless life and incredibly hard to sacrificially love all the time, we know that anything we do is below the minimum expected requirements of Christ

(3) Since we know we can’t even come close to the minimum expected requirements of Christ, thank goodness for God’s grace and forgiveness

As I continued to ponder on the sermon, other things became clear:

(4) Any good deeds that we do here on this earth should not be for praise, affirmation, or reward; those good deeds are what’s minimally expected

(5) Since we have evidence in the Bible of the sins and shortcomings of those God loved dearly, even when we come up short we can count on the love of our Creator

If you’re like me, the meaning in the verse was pretty tough – check your ego at the door because the good work you do is what is expected to meet the minimum essential requirements for obedience.  But God’s message is also very clear – “I’ll love you even though I know you’ll come up short.”

Thank goodness for minimum requirements even if the highest of expectations.  More importantly, thank goodness for love and forgiveness when we all come up short.