Luke 17. 5-10

Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4; II Timothy 1:6-8,13-14; and Luke 17:5-10

The key word today -- found in all the readings -- is faith. The first reading is a complaint against God for not intervening when we are in trouble. When things go wrong, we cry out to God, “Where are you? Why didn’t you do something when we were in trouble?” God’s answer is that we must wait with hope for his justice. The rash persons lashes out and gives u, whereas the righteous person - lives by faith.

In the gospel, the apostles ask the Lord to increase their faith. He tells them that they could do almost anything if they had a little bit of faith. He then gets at the root of their problem: They always want everything to go their own way. This is the wrong attitude. They should want things to go the Lord’s way. They should serve him loyally and ask for nothing more. They should not be servants who do their job and then expect their master to wait on them. When they have lived with absolute loyalty and faith, they must still say, “We are merely servants; we have done no more than our duty.” Of course, if we live this way -- in a spirit of real faith and loyalty to the Lord – we are told that he will richly reward us. But we must not get the cart before the horse: We serve him because he is right and it is right to do so. We must never  serve him from a motive of reward, but simply because we want his will to be done. With this attitude, he will reward us for genuine faith.