2 Timothy 1;1-14 & Luke
17:5-10
Having
All That is Needed
This Sunday might be a bit of a let-down
after last Sunday. It won’t take many days
(probably won’t even take a few hours) for you to forget what is said in this
morning’s sermon, but those who were here last Sunday will long remember the
sermons offered by three of our high school seniors. Am I right?
During the week that has ended, I heard not simply words of appreciation
for those three reflections, but the content which was shared.
Do not be concerned. I am not offended. In fact, as an Interim Pastor this is exactly
what I hope to hear. Your comments about
the sermons of Anna Rush and John Wallace and Ryan are the perfect affirmation
that in this place God has blessed us; God has been good to us; and God has
made of us a wonderful community of faith.
It is a living experience of Paul’s
encouragement to Timothy, where he speaks of guard(ing) until that day what
(has been) entrusted. Each of the three
of them told you how you had impacted their lives and how this community of
faith had sustained them. Again, in that
letter of Paul to Timothy, we are made aware that faith is not something
snatched out of the air, it is something passed from one generation to the
next. We pass on to those who come after
us the marvelous gift which we have received.
In order for the good to continue, it is essential that the next in line
have the confidence of those who have gone before.
Those who have gone before do have a
confidence, carried on shoulders which have experienced life’s challenges. Maybe our minds don’t allow us to recognize
what our lives reveal, but the reality is not lost on those who look up to
those who have gone before. This
congregation is a re-write of Paul’s words to Timothy in which he says, “I
am reminded of our sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother
Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.”
“Faith” is the theme which pulls
together each of today’s readings. The Gospel
lesson begins with Jesus speaking of faith in a quantity equal to a mustard
seed. At this week’s Thirsty Thursday,
we looked up how tiny a mustard seed really is.
Small. From one perspective,
mustard seed sized faith is frightening.
From another perspective, it is all that you need, and then some.
The apostles say to the Lord, “Increase
our faith!” They had seen him work
countless other miracles; surely, he could handle this one. He hears their request, I am sure that he
does, but he doesn’t meet it. He does
not “increase” anything in them. Rather,
he tells them that what they have is enough.
He assures them that even the tiniest kernel of faith will see them
through. “If you have faith the size
of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and
planted in the sea.’ and it would obey you.” All too often we mis-hear this and think that
Jesus is setting some baseline for faith.
We mistakenly think that he is saying, you need to amass enough faith to
make trees abandon their God-given location and go to some place where they are
no good to anyone and will surely die.
Jesus isn’t setting some impenetrable baseline – he is assuring us that
what we have is enough. It is plenty.
This Gospel story is in that in-between
time - the time between realizing that Jesus’ life will end with rejection and
crucifixion and that time when they will enter Jerusalem and see all this come
to pass. What the apostles are about to
face is going to be tough. There will be
days, many days, when their faith will seem to be too thin to sustain the life
they have taken on. Jesus wants to
assure them that their faith isn’t too small, even if it is only the size of a
mustard seed. It is enough. It is not the amount of faith which one has
which matters; what matters is the One with whom that faith connects us.
I was heartened a few years ago with the
release of Mother Theresa’s memoir. She shared
what I have so often felt – doubts.
There have been times when I felt as if I didn’t have enough “faith” to
carry out my office. There are times
when I have to force myself to find something to say. At such times, when some sort of a spiritual
connection to an unseen heavenly being lags, it is my faith in the work of
God’s people which sustains me. I
continue, in those difficult times, because I can see in others the faith which
I desire. Sometimes, my “faith” seems
too thin to support the weight of living in the real world. It seems too thin, but it isn’t. It may only have the size of a mustard seed –
but that will do.
Martin Luther once described the Church as
one poor slob in the ditch, trying to help another poor slob out of the
ditch. We are in this constant struggle
to find the confidence we need. Jesus
tells his disciples not to worry about amassing enough to do great things. “The little bit you already have,” he tells
us, “is enough.” This is the true story
of what took place here last week – and what will continue to make this place a
beloved community of God’s people. We are
a gathering of God’s children in which those who have gone before can testify
(sometimes with words, more often with lived experience) that from one
generation to the next we will pass on the assurance that God is good, that God
is great, and that God is with us. This
too, may seem like a small thing to those of you with many years of life
experience. But it is a gift beyond
value to those who are just getting ready to start out in that great big
world. It is the opportunity for
interaction between those who have had decades to develop this confidence and
those whose lives are barely one-decade old that makes this the ideal place for
the uprooting of mulberry trees.
Amen.
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