Above: Icon of Christ Pantocrator
Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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READING LUKE-ACTS, PART XLII
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Luke 17:1-10
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Luke 17:7-10 is one of the passages many Antebellum Southern (U.S.) defenders of race-based chattel slavery twisted to argue that the “Peculiar Institution of the South” was compatible with the Bible. 17:7-10 uses imagery from the social world of the Roman Empire. However, the passage is about accepting salvation via grace and responding faithfully to God.
Faithful response to God is the core of Luke 17:1-10. Faithful response to God necessarily spills over into how we think of and behave toward others. Faithful response precludes leading people astray. Faithful response requires forgiving the penitent, regardless of how often they sin. Faithful response entails trusting God. Faithful response mandates humble service to one another in the name of God. Faithful response entails imitating God.
Jesus is the ultimate example of faithful response to God.
May we imitate Jesus in imitating God, by grace.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 22, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN JULIAN, ANGLICAN PRIEST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMNOLOGIST
THE FEAST OF ALEXANDER MEN, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1990
THE FEAST OF BENJAMIN LAY, AMERICAN QUAKER ABOLITIONIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT LADISLAO BATTHÁNY-STRATTMAN, AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PHYSICIAN AND PHILANTHROPIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT VINCENT PALLOTTI, FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLATE, THE UNION OF CATHOLIC APOSTOLATE, AND THE SISTERS OF THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLATE
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
Yes, the disciples say to Jesus, “Increase our faith,” and Jesus answers by saying your faith should be like that of a slave doing his duty. So it’s about how we should all have that extreme kind of humility, if we mean to follow Him. Now this passage makes more sense to me.
And it brings up that theme of sitting with the master, presuming to sit with him. So in that way it’s like Luke 14:10, where Jesus says, don’t look to sit at the most honored place at any gathering, go to the most humble place.
That is a good connection.