Preparing for Worship - October 2, 2022

The Scriptures for this Sunday remind us that we are only unworthy servants of our Lord and need to keep trusting Him and His plans, no matter what. The prophet Habakkuk has to learn this in the Old Testament lesson, Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4. He cannot understand why the Lord would seem to let evil go by without doing anything about it. He has to learn to “live by faith” and wait for God’s wise ways of doing things, in the coming Savior Jesus. (If you want to look more at Habakkuk, there is a earlier series of podcasts that you can find and listen to at any time, if you keep scrolling back.)

David has learned this lesson over time, as he writes in Psalm 62. God alone is his Rock and Salvation. David will “wait in silence” upon the Lord and “not be greatly shaken,” for the Lord is his Refuge. He will not put his trust in people of “low estate” or “high estate” or in any forms of evil, but only in the power and steadfast love of the Lord.

In our Gospel lesson, Luke 17:1-10, Jesus reminds us that we are only “unworthy servants” of our Lord, even if we have done everything commanded us. And who of us has always done our duty? Have we ever caused someone else to stumble, to sin? Do we always forgive, again and again? Do we always do our expected work faithfully and then do even more, seeing it as our Master’s expectation? It is impossible. We finally are taught that we live by faith in our Lord, not by our great efforts, and the tiniest faith that our Lord gives and works in us is enough.

Paul teaches Timothy and us about that faith in our Epistle lesson, 2 Timothy 1:1-10. Paul has seen that “gift of faith,” in Timothy’s grandmother and mother and now in Timothy himself. That faith can be “fanned into flame,” not as Timothy looks at his own works, but but as he and we look at “the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” That Gospel is the Good News, not of what we have done for God, but of what God has done for us through Jesus, “who saved us… by His own purpose and grace.” Paul knows that he and Timothy and we are only servants, unworthy servants, but Jesus came to serve us and gave His life for us to forgive us again and again of every sin and to give us “a holy calling” to share with others “the promise of the Life that is in Him, Christ Jesus.”