|
| |
LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH
Scripture: Lamentations 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:1-14,
Luke 17:5-7
“Increase our faith, Lord!” Do you ever feel like your faith is weak, that you need someone to help you to get more
faith? Maybe there have been times when you have felt like the poet in Lamentations. A little background here: in 587 BC
the Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple. These lamentations were written at this time of political, social
and religious crisis. We are not sure of the identity of the author, possibly Jeremiah. One thing that is sure is that
the poet is in great pain: homelessness, hunger, poverty, fatigue, imprisonment, and humiliation. He sees his condition
as the result of God’s wrath; however, he remembers God’s promises of love and mercy and decides to wait patiently and to
hope in God. It’s easy to become angry at God when things are not going right. How many of you have raged at God because
of the tragedies that have hit you personally or groups of people? The lack of justice, the devastation caused by natural
disasters are but a couple of many circumstances that have made me lament.
Getting back to Jesus and the disciples, in the previous verses Jesus has just finished talking to them about
forgiveness, about having to forgive a person, who even sins against them seven times a day or Matthew raises the ante
to seventy times seven. The disciples are incredulous; how could they practice this kind of forgiveness. This
commandment seemed to go beyond reason as did other teachings of Jesus such as love your enemies. So this is the
background of the disciples coming to Jesus and asking for more faith.
Jesus responds that “if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this tree, be uprooted and planted in
the sea, and it would obey you.” In other words it doesn’t matter the size of your faith; the important thing is that you
have faith. What he his saying to encourage them is, “You have enough faith already.” It’s like being pregnant; you can’t
be a little bit pregnant. You have faith or you don’t. In our Epistle lesson, Paul encourages his young companion
Timothy, that in spite of his youth and inexperience, the faith he has is enough to provide the required leadership to
his community. The Bible is filled with examples of the power of small or insignificant people and small groups of
faithful ones: a few examples, David killing the giant Goliath, and the small groups of the early Christians, clustered
in their house churches. Looking at the Deering Community church historically and now, we may be small in number but
still great things continue to happen in our faith journey.
When we look around and see people doing amazing things because of their faith, it is understandable that we would
feel — if only I had more faith, I could then do these remarkable things. I’m sure many of you are familiar with
Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Hospitality Houses, where she lived among the poorest of the poor,
giving them food, shelter and love. She would sometimes overhear folks talking about her as a saint. She would get upset
and address the speaker, “don’t escape like that. You say that to convince yourself that you are different from me, that
I am different from you. That is an easy excuse. I am not a saint. I am like you. You could do what I do if you wanted
to. You don’t need any more than what you have.” Fred Buechner, a Christian theologian and writer, says, “Faith is
better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than as a possession. It is on-again — off-again rather than
once-and-for-all. Faith is not being sure where you’re going but going anyway. A journey without maps.”
Keeping in the spirit of worldwide communion Sunday, I thought it would be interesting to see what other religions
say about faith. I found a very similar quote from Islam to our Gospel lesson.
“Ibn Mas’ud reported God’s Messenger as saying, “He who has in his heart faith equal to a single grain of mustard seed
will not enter hell, and he who has in his heart as much pride as a grain of mustard seed will not enter paradise.”
(Hadith of Muslim)
The Buddhists say that there are four kinds of faith: faith in the Ultimate Source, faith in the numberless excellent
qualities of the Buddhas, faith in Dharma, the disciplines that lead to enlightenment, and faith in the Sangha, the
community of disciples. (From Awakening of Faith in Mahayana) This definitions sounds more like what I would call
beliefs instead of faith.
From the Hindus:
"Faith is composed of the heart’s intention. Light comes through faith. Through faith men come to prayer. Faith in
the morning, faith at noon and at the setting of the sun. O Faith, give us faith." (Rig Veda 10.151.4-50).
Sometimes my friends, it is overwhelming for us, and it was overwhelming for the disciples. How can I love my enemies,
bring peace to those around me, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, spread the Good News of Jesus? How can I forgive
seventy times seven those who have hurt me so badly? It’s tempting to say: I am not strong enough, wise enough,
generous enough, healthy enough to do what Jesus taught us to do. We may not be able to do it on our own; however, the
Good News is that we are not alone. God is with us; God works through those who believe, God wants to transform our
hearts and our minds as well as the world in which we live. All we need to do is reach down to that little mustard seed
within us. We need to take that first step and know God will be with us and work through us. I have to remind myself
of this each Monday morning when I sit down to write yet another sermon. We all have to let the grace of God be in us
and work through us. A Chinese proverb tells us that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. So take that
first step and follow it up with other steps, knowing that God will use us to bring about God’s kingdom. Buechner says
that faith is a journey without maps. If you are courageous enough to start walking, you will be more confident in your
faith. Remember the faith you have right now is all you need because God has faith in us.
In closing I want to borrow an illustration from Richard Fairchild, a minister whose sermons I read regularly to get
ideas for my own. He gives two examples of objects that the believer could be compared to. First is Waterford Crystal,
beautiful to look at but when you drop it, its broken and no matter how hard you try to glue the pieces back together,
it never looks as beautiful again. People, who see themselves or others like the crystal, see themselves as lovely until
they make a mistake. The mistake breaks them and they can never be put together again quite right. These are the ones
who carry burdens of guilt, anger, depression and so forth.
Fairchild says it is better to compare human life to Silly Putty. I bet you all know what Silly Putty is and probably
played with it as a child or with your children. “Like Silly Putty, we can be pulled apart, rolled into little balls,
flung against the wall, or smashed flat. But like Silly Putty we can always be scraped back together again, forgiven,
reworked, remolded, and reshaped into someone that is even more beautiful than before.”
God never gives up on us. God wants us to be a family that stretches around the world, a family that is called to love
as God as loved us, to forgive as we have been forgiven. Remember that if you have faith right now, it is enough faith
for you to do amazing things with the help and grace of our Lord. Amen.
|
