Lamentations 1:1-6
Psalm 137
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10
The Absurdity of Increasing Faith
We live in a culture
that likes to quantify things; that likes to put a price on things. Believe it or not, Antique Road Show is not one of my favorite shows. Despite my love for antiques - a love that
really came through my time as a museum collections manager and my training in
museum studies - I really am not thrilled with the concept of these antique
experts going around putting price tags on family heirlooms. If you've seen the show, you have witnessed
people bringing items that have been in their family or items that they've
found in their attic to these antique experts who tell the owners a bit about
the item and then quote them a price as to what they could fetch at a public
auction. The problem is that the price
they quote is just for the item and never includes the story that the item has
to tell. Often these items have stories to tell; stories that are touching and of
great emotional significance to the owners; stories that make me wonder just
how any price can be attached to the item.
Yet, in our culture, it's our nature to find out just how much money we
can get in exchange for just about everything.
Normally,
when we think about quantifying things, the notion is “the more the better.” We've even found ways to quantify
non-tangible things like electricity.
We've figured out ways to measure how much electricity is used and then
put a price on that! We quantify things
like electricity and put prices on such things usually to fulfill agreements,
contracts, and terms of service. We have
agreements with the Duke Electricity that usually state that we'll pay a
certain price for a particular amount of electricity used. That's the arrangement. We even do that with ourselves and our
time! We have contracts for hourly
wages.
You know,
this concept or desire to quantify things, even intangible things, is really
not new nor unique to us here in the West.
In our reading from Saint Luke's Gospel, we find Jesus and the disciples
talking about faith. The disciples try
to quantify, to measure, faith! You see,
in the section just before our reading today, Jesus told the disciples how they
must forgive and order their lives in such a way that they do not lead anyone
away from God. As these things are
pretty tough things to do, the disciples respond by asking Jesus to increase
their faith. Jesus then replies,
"If you had 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." This is absurd! Oh, not the power of faith, but the stated
outcome and the concept. First, why
would you want to have a mulberry tree uprooted and planted in the sea? The tree will simply die; it can't live
submerged in water, let alone the salt water of a sea. Why would you want to do such a thing? What good is there in it? It's an empty exercise that does no one any
good. That's absurd! The absurdity of the described action is
intended and derives from the absurdity of trying to quantify or measure faith
to begin with. To say that faith has any
size is as absurd as to ask what color is faith or how much does faith
weigh. The intended point is not so much
to describe how much faith is needed, but instead to point out that faith is
all that is needed. Eugene Peterson gets
right to the point of this passage in his translation of the Bible, The Message. His translation states, "But the Master
said, 'You don't need more
faith. There is no 'more' or 'less' in
faith. If you have a bare kernel of
faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, 'Go
jump in the lake,' and it would do it'" [Luke 17:6].
We like to
think about faith as something that we can have more or less than because it's
easier to blame our short-comings on the amount of faith we've been given. Nobody really wants to say, "I don't
have faith," but we're willing to say, "I guess I don’t have as much
faith as others'." We use such
phrases to explain or even excuse actions that may not be "Christian
like," or actions that are even sinful.
More often, we use such phrases to explain or even excuse the times we
feel as if we're not as good a Christian as others. We like to think that clergy and lay leaders
have more faith than the "common" Christian. In actuality, as Christians, we all have been
graced with faith.
As United
Methodists, we understand our salvation as a life-long journey towards
perfection. Through God's grace, we are
transformed from a sinful creature to a perfected creature. We receive God's grace through faith in the
practice of the means of grace - those acts of piety like prayer, worship, Holy
Communion, studying scripture, hearing scripture read aloud and preached upon,
and fasting; and acts of mercy like feeding the hungry, caring for the poor,
and visiting the sick and imprisoned.
Life as a Christian is a life that is not spent trying to increase
faith, but a life spent being changed by faith.
So, all we
have to have is faith, right? Yes, but
truly having faith is to allow ourselves to be changed by that faith. And let's face it, change is tough. One area in which Christian faith changes
people is in our perception and concept of entitlement; a sense of reward for
our actions. It's interesting that the
very next thing Jesus said to his disciples after his teaching on faith is a
rhetorical question concerning a slave's responsibility.
Here's a
little Bible study tip; whenever Jesus asks a question that begins with the
phrase, "Who among you...," the answer is always, "no
one." In today's reading, Jesus
asks, "Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from
plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place
at the table'?" [Luke 17:7]. And
the 1st Century Palestinian answer is...
[wait for congregation's response].
No one, of course. Jesus explains
that the slave's role is not to sit at the master's table, but to continue to
serve the master. Serving the master is
not above and beyond the slave's role, but instead is exactly what the slave
ought to do. Jesus then says, "We
are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!" [Luke
17:10]. He is pointing out that we all
are servants of God and our lives of faith are not over and above our calling,
but instead are exactly what we are called to do. Often, we feel that we should be rewarded for
being faithful, or doing something out of faith. The truth is, we are faithful and do things out
of faith not for any reward, but instead simply because Christians are people
of faith. Being faithful is not reason
to be rewarded, but being faithful is the reason for our being.
Yet, what
about Heaven? Isn't that our
reward? No! God's promise of salvation through Jesus
Christ is not a reward for the faithful, but a freely given gift. Salvation is God's gift, freely given, not
earned, not rewarded, but given. Since
we have received the freely given salvation through Jesus Christ, we don't have
to worry about earning salvation. We're
free from this kind of labor, and free to be faithful to continue Christ's
ministry here on earth. We're free to
live our lives here on earth with the knowledge that the things of the earth
are not the end all. We can live our
lives free from worrying about whether we deserve an eternal reward. We can live our lives free from worrying
about needing more faith because all we need to do is allow the faith we
already have to change us into the perfected people God intends us to be.
When we embrace this freedom that
faith brings, our perceptions, our understanding of the world changes. Things that the world values don't seem to
have the same meanings for us. Money,
for instance, becomes easier to give away to such things as the church,
charities, and even the needy. Taking
time to rest, true Sabbath, starts to be seen as essential and ceases to be
seen as lazy. Prayer starts to become a
passion and ceases to be something we do only when we need something. Worship ceases to be about what "we get
out of it" and starts to be about what "we offer God.” Living ceases to be about just "making
it" and starts to be about life.
Faith the size of a mustard seed...
how absurd! Faith is too powerful to
measure; too powerful to put a price on; too powerful to not let it change us.
SDG