Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 5, 2025
Luke 17:5-10

The audio of this sermon is available here. The livestream of the worship service is available on the Trinity Church website.

One of the running jokes for clergy, is that seminary doesn’t really teach us how to do our jobs. Think of it – people like Chase and I spend four years getting a bachelor’s degree, three years getting a master’s degree, we have to prove to everybody that we should in fact be ordained – and then we show up to work at a church and we have no idea how to do anything. We take classes in theology and Bible and church history and ethics – and then we spend our time doing budgets and human resources and, yes, fixing toilets. Which I have done. There is no plumbing class at seminary. But the biggest thing, the biggest thing that seminary did not prepare me to do, was to function as the superintendent of a school. And yet here I am, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, and since there would be no school without the church, here I am Chair of the Board of Trustees for Trinity Episcopal School. It’s like learning how to fly a plane when you’re already in the pilot’s seat. 

And on this Trinity School Sunday, that’s what I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about these two institutions. 270 students and 600 church members; combined budgets of 4.3 million dollars; nearly 3 million dollars in endowments; over 50 employees; five weekly worship services; and ten committees with 62 seats served by a combination of church members, school alumni, parents, grandparents, and community members. With more square footage, air conditioning units, and toilets that I would like to count. No, seminary did not prepare me for this. 

But you know, it’s not about the enrollment, or the budgets, or the numbers. That’s not why we have this church, I pray it’s not why we have this school. If we are going to have this church, if we are going to have this school, we have to do it for the right reasons. All these people, all this money, it must be about something bigger. Trinity Church must not be a social club for the righteous; Trinity School must not be an escape from the world. 

That’s what Jesus is getting at it in this admittedly tough lesson. We all ought to be doing the right thing, not because we expect to be thanked, not because we want to be recognized, not because it’s good for us; but because we are only doing what we ought to be doing (Luke 17:10). This is one of the hard lessons that Jesus keeps bringing up, over and over again. He’s asking us that tough question – why? Why are you doing what you’re doing?

And I see it, I see it in so many of you. I see it in the teachers that are here at 7 am getting ready for the school day. I see it in the building staff who are here late into the night cleaning. I see it in the church and school staffs that work together, who have to juggle conflicting calendars. I see it, even in the seemingly endless committee meetings to which I am destined – I see people of good faith trying to do their best. Not to serve ourselves; but so that we would all become more faithful servants of the living God.

And I’ll tell you why I have given myself to these two institutions. It is to share the good news of God’s love, as I know it through Jesus Christ, to all the people who set foot on this campus. And for all those people, both in the church and the school, to turn around and take that love and grace with them, so that our community, so that this world, would be a more loving, more gracious, holier place to live. It’s why I have such high expectations for this church; it’s why I have such high expectations for this school. If we are going to do this, we must do it right and for the right reasons. I’ll tell you, that’s why I went to seminary. Not so that I would know how to run a board meeting and keep track of which committee is doing what, but so that the boards and the committee and the employees and the parishioners and the students and the alumni and everyone else in a place like this, at the end of the day, could honestly say to the Lord God – “we have done only what we ought to have done.”

And as you all know, the children of this generation are facing immense pressures. Pressured from social media, pressured by each other, pressured by their families – they are told to believe that some people are worthier than others. They’re getting messages, telling them that the only thing that matters in life is money. I see them struggling to make sense of this unsteady and confusing world. Just this week, at middle school Bible Study, a student who does not go to Trinity Church asked us a gut-wrenching question. He asked, “if God made us all equal, why is it that we treat people so differently?” It hurt to give the answer because I know I am guilty of it, too. We treat people differently, because we don’t really believe that we are equal. It’s our brokenness, it’s our lust for wealth and power, we aren’t doing what we ought to be doing. But that student’s question gave me fresh resolve. It’s why I took my ordination vows. To help all of us close that gap between the world as it is and the world has God dreams of it. Because that student painted the picture perfectly – he looks at the reality of the world in which we live; he hears the promise of God’s kingdom, and instantly he could tell that things don’t stack up. Our job, then, as this school and as this church, is to help that student excel academically, physically, spiritually – Mind, Body, and Spirit – so that empowered by the Holy Spirit, he would help close that gap between the sinful reality of the world and God’s vision for what ought to be.

I know I have painted an awfully bleak picture, but it’s not all bad. Trinity School is also just school. Last Thursday was school picture day. I mean, how clergy get to have their picture in a school yearbook. There’s field trips, and sports, and musical theater, and lunch, and recess, and middle school dances. But there is one thing that does make Trinity different. And that’s how I’ll end. A few weeks ago, we put out these three boxes in the school. First, a prayer request box. Second, a questions for the clergy box. And third, a shout out box, so we can shout out to people when they’re doing something good. And in three weeks, look at this. Look at these prayers, look at these questions, look at these praises – this is holy paper. Kids are asking me about who God is, and how God created the world, the very core questions of our faith. On one of these pieces of paper, a kid gave a shout out to another kid who picked up some trash. One kid wrote a shout out to our “helper priest.” Amazing. And kids are offering their heartfelt prayers, asking God to help, to heal. That is our mission.

So all that is Trinity – all those dollars, all those meetings, all those people, all that energy we put into this place is so that that student could ask that question at Bible Study and go home and go on in life, one step closer to the Kingdom of God. So that each kid who knows Trinity Church or School, would know that this a safe place where God loves them, as God made them. So that we could teach the next generation that it’s okay to ask questions and to be curious, so that it’s okay to ask for help and prayers, so that it’s good to praise other people. So that each student, each parishioner, each person in the pews on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays would serve the Lord God and when all is said and done, offer that quiet prayer, “I have done only what I ought to have done.”