Set Right What Needs To Be Done

I remember being on a retreat with Fr. Richard Rohr at the Center for Action and Contemplation many years ago. He was talking about the inclination that many of us have to compare ourselves to others. And he said straight out, “When you compare, you lose.”  He said this because in our binary minds, we’re either going to find ourselves “better” than the other person (which then feeds our ego) or we’re going to feel lesser than the other person (which is still an ego game, but a different kind).

Today we’re presented with a few scripture readings that I struggle with. 

Our first reading from Timothy starts out OK but then takes a little turn (that I don’t find as helpful). I know that Paul is commenting on the behavior of the “presbyters” (which is sometimes translated as ‘priest’ but really means elders and leaders of the community). He says outright, that they must “be blameless, married only once, with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious.” He goes on to say that “God’s steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled, holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents.”

Sheesh! Who can live up to this!

Then in Luke 17, Jesus, who acknowledges that “sin” will inevitably occur (meaning that humans will inevitably ‘miss the mark’), tells his followers that if someone sins against you, we should “rebuke them.” But he goes on to say that if this person, “wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive [them].”

Wait, what? Isn’t this excessive?

Today’s readings paint a challenging picture of the path of a follower of Jesus. Between Paul’s words and the words of Jesus, it would seem to be that we need to always be above reproach, be on our best behavior and be ever forgiving. If we compare ourselves to this ideal, I am guessing that most of us will fall FAR short. And the ones who say they don’t fall short will feel superior to the rest of us!

For me, the faith walk is all about starting where we are, acknowledging that we’re a work in progress and continually clarifying what we are trying to move towards. We do not have to be anything other than what we are, and yet we are always invited to become more.

There is an old Jewish tale of a Hassidic rabbi named Zusya. One day he got up in front of his congregation and said that when he dies, he will appear before the “celestial tribunal.”  And he said, “they will not ask me, Zusya, why were you not Moses? [Or] why were you not Jeremiah? [Or] why were you not Rabbi Akiba?  But then they will [ask] ‘Zusya why were you not Zusya?’ and to this I will have no answer.”

Zusya’s words offer us such a powerful lesson.

In the final analysis, I cannot imagine that we will be asked why were not more like so-and-so because they were such a great model of the faith. I think we will be asked, “Did you become what God was calling YOU to…?”

And inevitably, this is going to look different in every life. Which means that we each have to do the difficult discernment of listening deeply to God’s call at this moment and listening to whatever new invitations might be coming our way (because the spiritual journey is never a static one).

Of course we can look up to people and have models for our faith journey, but we must always remember that what they did in their life might look quite different in our context.

In the end of the reading from Luke, this disciples make such a heartfelt request. They realize that Jesus is asking a lot from them, and so they say, “Lord, increase our faith!”

May this be our prayer today, that our faith may increase and that we may become the followers of Jesus that WE are called to be – in our specific contexts, with all of our limitations, with all of our gifts and with as much as we can give right now in whatever ways we can give it.

In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he encourages him to do what he can do to, ““set right what needs to be done.” May we do the same in our lives – setting right what needs to be done – knowing as the Talmud reminds us that while we are not expected to complete the work [of God] on earth, we are also not free to just walk away from it.