The Sánchez Archives TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME Year C

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

Bring Your Umbrella

HABAKKUK 1:2-3, 2:2-4
2 TIMOTHY 1:6-8, 13-14
LUKE 17: 5-10

When Southern author and poet Laverne W. Hall was asked her definition of faith, she couched it in the following narrative. Summer sun and a lack of rain had left the fields parched and brown. As they tended their wilting crops, the townspeople worriedly searched the sky for any sign of relief. Days turned into arid weeks and still no rain came.

The ministers of the local churches announced that there would be a special service to pray for rain on the following Saturday. They requested that everyone bring an object of faith for inspiration.

At the appointed hour, everyone turned out en masse, filling the town square with anxious faces and hopeful hearts. The ministers were touched to see the variety of objects clutched in prayerful hands; prayer books, Bibles, crosses, rosaries, etc.

Just as the hour of prayer was concluding, and as if by some divine cue, a soft rain began to fall. Cheers swept the crowd as they held their treasured objects high in gratitude and praise. From the middle of the crowd, one faith symbol seemed to overshadow all the others; a small nine-year-old child had brought an umbrella!

Without speaking a word, the child enunciated that quality of authentic faith which expresses itself in commitment. By bringing the umbrella, the child affirmed the fact that faith is more than intellectual assent to a set of revealed truths or theological doctrines. A faith that remains at the level of the intellect and stops short of lived commitment may have stayed home that Saturday morning. But true faith is a personal and purposeful response to the presence of God in the midst of the human experience. Hence, the umbrella.

All three of today’s scripture readings focus on faith and prompt each member of the gathered assembly to consider both the quality of their own faith response to God as well as their continuing willingness to authenticate that response by “bringing their umbrella.”

For the prophet Habakkuk (first reading) and his sixth century B.C.E. contemporaries, “bringing an umbrella” meant trusting in God and living in fidelity to the covenant, even when the surrounding political turmoil and the apparent breakdown of divine justice would seem to dictate another course of action. “Bringing an umbrella” also meant choosing to live by truth and integrity despite the fact that the arrogant, dishonest, and greedy seemed to prosper.

For the author and recipients of 2 Timothy (second reading), “bringing an umbrella” implied a willingness to daily tend and foster the gifts of faith (“stir into a flame the gifts of God”, v.1). “Bringing an umbrella” meant to live bravely in the face of difficulty, never being ashamed by the gospel, or shrinking from the hardship which living as a believer entails.

For the Lucan Jesus (gospel), “bringing an umbrella” meant being certain that authentic faith can accomplish even what seems as improbable and humanly impossible as uprooting a sycamore tree and transplanting it into the sea. “Bringing an umbrella” also denotes a willingness to do all that we have been commanded to do without expecting any reward or recompense.

For contemporary disciples of Jesus, “bringing an umbrella” means that the Jesus who is encountered and celebrated at the weekly liturgy is also recognized and cared for in the poor, the needy, the hungry, thirsty, naked, lonely and oppressed. It means that the faith that is proclaimed by the gathered assembly continues to be spoken in personalized daily words and works. There is no question here of the centuries- old faith vs. works debate wherein works referred to adherence to the prescriptions of the law. Rather, works for the Christian are the means by which faith ceases to be a disembodied credo and becomes an incarnate reality, eager to cooperate with God’s grace in transforming the world. Faith that does not issue forth in transforming words, and works is tantamount to praying for rain but neglecting to bring an umbrella.

HABAKKUK 1:2-3; 2:2-4

According to the deuterocanonical section of Daniel, the prophet, Habakkuk was seized by the hair of his head and carried from Judah to Babylon to minister to Daniel in the lion’s den. When Daniel had received the bread and boiled stew which the prophet had prepared, he declared, “You have remembered me O God; you have not forsaken those who love you.” After that, the angel transported Habakkuk home to Judah. Although most agree that this “hair-raising” experience was probably an apocryphal anecdote, it does appear that Habakkuk wished to evoke from his contemporaries a declaration of faith and trust in God similar to that of the beleaguered Daniel.

His was not a faith borne of fear but of unrelenting confidence in the power of God to save. For that reason, Habakkuk could be bold in his complaint that all was not right and demanding in his plea that God should act quickly to remedy the situation. How long O Lord? (1:2) should not be mistaken as a sign of despair but as the lament of one who has known the love of God and yearns to heighten the experience of that love in the midst of desperate circumstances.

Some scholars have suggested that Habakkuk’s lament was prompted by the fall of Israel to Assyria and the subsequent infiltration of Judah (721-612 B.C.E.). Others believe that Habakkuk’s complaint was directed at the corruption that pervaded Judah after the death of Josiah. When he succeeded Josiah on the throne, Jehoiakim (609-598 B.C.E.) relaxed his predecessor’s reform and by his abuse of power caused the poor and defenseless much suffering (see Jeremiah 22:13-19). A consensus of scholars agrees that Habakkuk regarded the ensuing Babylonian invasion of Judah as the means by which God’s justice would put an end to the violence, ruin, misery, and destruction (1:2-3)).

While his contemporaries wrestled with their political, religious and economic difficulties, many were tempted to lose heart; it appeared that their fidelity to God was of no avail. Contrary to what they had been taught, the wicked and faithless were prospering whereas the just seemed to have been forgotten by God. Just when his lament seemed to strike its lowest chord, the tone of the prophet’s message exhibits an undeniable shift. His descent into seeming hopelessness is cut short by the assurance that God, who hears the cries of the faithful has not forgotten their plight. Scripture scholar Joachim Begrich was the first to suggest that the shift from lament to hope and from plea to praise hinged upon what he called an oracle of salvation. Working upon Begrich’s hypothesis, Walter Brueggemann (The Message of the Psalms Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis: 1984) has explained that the salvation oracle may have been a word or gesture of comfort offered by someone formally appointed to do so, e.g. an elder, a priest or some such functionary. Once offered, the salvific message must have had a profound emotional as well as theological impact on the complainer, whose fear and outrage yielded, in that moment, to a new experience of trust and gratitude.

Appointed by God to deliver the oracle of salvation to his contemporaries, Habakkuk was also instructed to put it into writing. In its literal translation, the text of 2:2 reads “so that those who run may read.” This directive emphasized the importance of the message as well as its permanence. No doubt, this largely written promise of God’s power to save was a comfort to those who waited in hope for its fulfillment (2:3). Was it also the forerunner of the modern billboard?

For their part, Habakkuk and his contemporaries were reminded to “keep their umbrellas at the ready; they were to live by faith until God’s saving plans were realized in their midst.

2 TIMOTHY 1:6-8, 13-14

Among the many treasures preserved in the Vatican Library is the eleventh century C.E. Bible of St. Cecilia. Beautifully illustrated, this ancient manuscript included a miniature painting of Paul handing the letter to the Romans to Timothy for delivery. Obviously, Paul trusted the younger man who had been his companion, coworker, and envoy for special missions (1 Thessalonians 3:2-6; 1 Corinthians 4:17; Acts 19:22). That trust is also obvious in today’s second reading, wherein the author of 2 Timothy, writing under a Pauline pseudonym, charged Timothy with preserving the sound teaching of the good news and guarding “the rich deposit of the faith” (v.14).

Paratheke, or deposit, is elsewhere described as “that which has been entrusted to you” (1 Timothy 6:20), and as “sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). In his role as a church leader, Timothy was responsible for the authoritative transmission of the message of Jesus Christ and the teaching (didaskalia) that is in accordance with godliness (6:3). Having himself received this sound teaching from Paul, he was to hand it on intact to his congregation. As Richard B. Hays (The Moral Vision of the New Testament, Harper Collins Publishers, Inc. San Francisco: 1996) has noted, the content of the deposit of the faith is not described in detail because Timothy knows it well already. From the hints provided in the letter, we can surmise that it included both confessional traditions (1 Timothy 1:15; 2:5-6; 3:16) and moral instructions (1 Timothy 2:2; 4:7-8; 6:3-6, 11).

Therefore, those who received and responded to the rich deposit of tradition were to become its witnesses, not only by professing the faith with their lips but also with their lives. Aware that their authentic witness to Christ and the good news would leave them vulnerable to suffering, the ancient author encouraged his readers to draw their strength and capacity for endurance from God (v.8) and to rely on the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells within each believer (v.14).

Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament, Doubleday, New York: 1997) has suggested that 2 Timothy was written not long after Paul’s death as a farewell testament by someone very close to him during his last days. Therefore these words of encouragement should be understood as part of an eloquent and passionate appeal by the greatest Christian apostle that his work should continue beyond his death through generations of disciples. While some would criticize the Paul of 2 Timothy as a boaster (“take as a model. . . what you have heard me say”), Brown believes that he is being genuinely portrayed as offering the only argument left him in prison and at the brink of death viz., the example of a life lived in a way that could encourage other disciples. While Paul contributed enormously to making the love of Christ real to believers, the author of 2 Timothy has greatly contributed to making Paul known and loved.

Because of the example given by Paul, Timothy and others who have followed their lead, the gift of faith that each of us have received from God continues to be fanned into a flame (v.6). We, for our part, are challenged to avoid all that would squelch or diminish that flame by faithfully carrying on the work and continuing to witness to the good news of our salvation.

LUKE 17:5-10

Not surprisingly, the apostles’ request for an increase of faith, as recorded in today’s gospel, followed immediately after Jesus’ teaching on sin and forgiveness. Drawing upon their common source Q (for Quelle: name given to a sayings-source hypothesized by C.H. Weisse in 1838), both Matthew and Luke portrayed Jesus as warning his disciples against causing another person to sin (Matthew 18:6-7; Luke 17:1-2) and then challenging them to be willing to offer unlimited forgiveness to those who wronged them (Matthew 18:21-22; Luke 17: 3-4). Readers of Luke can well imagine the impact this teaching must have had upon the apostles, and will, no doubt be able to muster a fair amount of sympathy on their behalf. Faced with what appeared to be humanly impossible demands, they pleaded for an increase of faith.

In discussing their request, Walter Burghardt (Speak The Word With Boldness, Paulist Press, New York: 1994) pointed out that the apostles were not asking for a catechism or list of doctrines that they had to believe in order to enter the kingdom. Faith is not simply a head trip. Rather, they were asking Jesus for an increase in trust; faith, in its fullness is a surrender of the whole person to God. No one has ever reached eternal life by merely reciting the Creed, however sincerely. To truly believe, to fully trust means saying yes to God, despite all risks and dangers, regardless and in spite of all objections, even whom human reason would dictate another course of action.

Jesus’ response to his disciples’ request for an increase of faith made it clear that what was required was not a greater quantity of faith but a firmer, true quality of faith. To illustrate his point, Jesus assured his own that even a miniscule amount of authentic faith has the power to accomplish something as incredible and unexpected as the uprooting of a tree in order to transplant it into the sea.

As if to shift their focus from the marvelous to the more mundane quality of faith, Jesus offered the example of the servant. Having worked in the field all day, his work was not complete until he had done everything he was commanded to do. This would require that he see to the needs of his master by preparing the dinner and serving it. Ordinarily, servants toiled either as laborers in the fields or as domestic help. It is significant that Jesus described a servant who did double duty as doing no more than what was expected. Then, as if to clarify the demands of discipleship even more pointedly, Jesus invited those who did all that they were commanded to identify themselves as “useless servants”. Luke Timothy Johnson (The Gospel of Luke, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville: 1991) suggested that this identification indicated that the followers of Jesus have done nothing extraordinary when they refrain from causing others to sin (vv. 1-2) or even when they offer unlimited forgiveness (vv. 3-4). These are the demands of faith and should not be perceived as “double duty” but as the absolute minimum for life in Christ.

Today, every useless servant who hears this gospel proclaimed is reminded that even a miniscule of authentic faith makes the possible to meet the demands of Jesus. Each of us is further reminded that if even a miniscule of authentic faith can uproot a great tree and plunge it into the sea, it would be a good idea to be prepared for the splash by bringing along an umbrella. I believe Lord; help my unbelief.

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