Sunday October 5th: A response to grace

“We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty.”

Luke 17: 5-10

Something in us resist when we hear the words ‘useless servant.’ These words sound harsh – we who slave all day to build the Kingdom! Yet they hold a quiet truth. Jesus reminds us that service is not about earning approval or applause.

Everything – family, work, ministry, the capacity to love—is already gift and our task is to receive it and give it back in faithfulness.

Yet, so often, our human-ness gets in the way, our ego takes control and we measure our worth by all the things we have achieved on this earth, we sulk at the ingratitude of those for whom we have sacrificed, and yet Jesus says “Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told?”

Lord, help us to understand that our worth lies not in our achievement, but in belonging to Christ. When our ego takes control remind us that duty, when done with love, is not a burden but a response to grace.