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October 7, 2007 Sermon by
Pastor Katherine Douglass Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Faith – we admire it in others, but we often don’t recognize it in ourselves, Or we imagine that we don’t have enough, or Sometimes we really don’t. Faith is what tripped up the rich man who ignored his poor, sick neighbor, Lazarus, in last week’s gospel – He thought that his wealth, his possessions, his lifestyle was his salvation – He had no faith that God would provide for him, that he could share what he had and not worry about not having enough. He had no faith that, in caring for his neighbor, he was doing what God has commanded, and that caring for that neighbor is simply what he had been called to do. He had no faith that God is the one in control, and not him. And faith is the question again today in our Gospel, and, frankly, faith is the question that we wrestle with daily in our world and in our congregation – How do we hold onto faith in the midst of a world full of temptations and trials? How do we act out our faith in the midst of our daily life, in the midst of our responsibilities to our neighbors and to God? And how do we have enough faith to do what needs to be done – To step out without fear, to take the risks that followers of Christ are always called to take - To move beyond our comfort zone in trust and without anxiety? “Increase our faith!” was the cry of the apostles, and it might as well be our prayer to Jesus, too – “increase our faith!” – we feel like we need more – we feel like we don’t have enough. We feel like, if we are truly to be bold and imaginative disciples of our Lord, Our faith somehow has to be bigger, stronger, more powerful. We must need some kind of faith power bar, some kind of faith supplements, something. And the first followers of Christ, the ones sent out into mission two by two, the ones who were commanded to preach the good news, heal the sick and cast out demons – well, I’m not sure we can criticize them too much for asking Jesus to increase their faith – Because we’re also reluctant disciples – we are also a little leery of going out into mission –especially going where no Lutheran has gone before – Let’s face it, the unknown, the untried, is scary. Mission is scary – going out to towns and villages proclaiming the good news to strangers is not easy. So, if we were in the first apostles’ situation, we would almost surely ask Jesus to increase our faith. We recognize faith as powerful – we know it when we see it in others – That faith that sets people free to do extraordinary things. That faith that cancels out fear and leads to possibilities that most of us can only imagine. We see that power of faith in Christ and think “if only I had that kind of faith”, or “compared to that person’s faith, mine is so meager.” But when the disciples cry out for more faith, for bigger and bolder faith, Jesus gives them a very interesting answer – He says, “if you had faith the size of a mustard see, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” Now, that is powerful faith in a very small package – The mustard seed is, after all, a very tiny seed – it’s little bitty – And mulberry trees tend to be big and sprawling and messy things with lots of branches. And to command anything that is rooted to the ground to plant itself into the sea, and to have it obey you – well, that’s nothing short of miraculous. But listen to what Jesus is saying – IF you had faith the size of a mustard seed – IF you had it, you could make the mulberry tree transplant itself Which implies that the apostles’ faith was even smaller – significantly smaller – than the mustard seed. Because making a tree move under its own power is something that none of the apostles was able to do…So, their faith was pretty small. And yet, they did great things – spreading the gospel to the known world, planting churches, suffering persecution and even death for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So how did they do it with the very little faith that they had – the faith they clearly sensed was inadequate? Well, that’s where the second part of this strange teaching comes in – the part where Jesus talks about slaves – and apostles – doing what they were commanded to do – doing their jobs – doing their masters’ will. “When you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “we are worthless slaves; we have only done what we ought to have done” – They did as they were told – and that was their act of faith – They went out, they preached the gospel, they healed the sick and cast out demons – And by that, we know they had faith – their faith becomes visible through their lives, whether they knew it or not. Whether they felt that their faith was big enough, powerful enough, or not, It clearly was, By the fact that they followed Christ’s command to love God and their neighbor. A few weeks ago, around the 10th anniversary of her death, some of Mother Theresa’s letters to a friend were revealed – Writings in which she questioned, not only her own faith, but the very existence of God – Writings in which she wondered where God was in the midst of the poor, the sick and the dying of Calcutta. For those of you too young to remember who Mother Theresa was, she was a nun, an educated European woman, who found her calling in caring for the poorest of the poor, the street people of Calcutta, in India. Many suffered from leprosy, and all were so poor that they were left to live and die among the open sewers of that terrible place. But she, with her own hands, and soon with the help of others who were moved by her acts of faith, with her own hands she bathed and cared for those who were dying. She founded an orphanage and schools and workshops for the street children, And she became known around the world as a living saint – that is, as a person with so much faith that she was able to do what most people could never imagine doing. And yet, this woman who cared for so many and who made such an impact on our imaginations, Struggled with her faith. Doubted. And wondered “what am I doing here? And where is God?” It was amazing to me to hear the letters she wrote. And yet it was reassuring too – reassuring to know that someone who, in my mind, was a pillar, a rock of faith, Could question, could wonder, about what she was doing and about what she believed. But, even in the midst of this wondering, this questioning of her faith, She carried on doing what she was doing – healing the sick, caring for the poor, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ through her life. She may have questioned her faith, But it shown through in what she was able to do, just by doing what she ought to have done – loving her neighbor as herself. In fact, her faith may have been much smaller than a mustard seed, but many lives were touched and changed by it anyway. Which brings us to our faith… Perhaps instead of wondering whether we have enough, whether it’s strong enough or pure enough, We just need to do what we ought to do – and maybe we’ll be surprised by what faith has the power to do. Maybe just by loving God and our neighbor, We will be surprised at the power of only a little bitty bit Of the power of God.
In Jesus’ name,
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