Have you ever gotten tired of feeling
like you just did not have enough faith?
Tired of feeling overwhelmed that you just did not have enough faith to
go around with all the expectations of being a faithful person or “good
Christian”? Ever wondered why in the
world you ever signed up to be a follower of Jesus after looking at all the
demands and examples of his life that are sitting before you? Have you even wanted to cry out, just as the
disciples did in our reading this morning: “Increase our faith!”
As I read our scripture reading this morning,
I could not help but to identify with the disciples in their request for an
increase in faith. Here are these
followers who have been asked to do all of these things that Jesus does . . .
things like not making people stumble and sin, forgiving others who have
wronged them—not just once, but over and over again. Throw on top of that his preaching and
teaching about peace and justice . . . loving one’s enemies . . . being
inclusive, inviting all to the table.
That is a lot to heap on one plate . . . overwhelming! How is one to have enough faith to do
everything?
So, the disciples did what any of us
would do . . . they asked Jesus to increase their faith!
How many times have we caught ourselves
in this same predicament?
Often “faith” is described as believing
in something for which there is no proof.
Which is great when we are looking down the road at an uncertain future,
but it has little to do with what Jesus is talking about in our reading this
morning. The faith that Jesus is
referring to is based upon . . . not the future, but what can be done right
here and now . . . based on our everyday lives.
In this regard, faith becomes more of an allegiance towards something
that must be done or done for someone. In
regard to those who are faithful that means an allegiance to God and God’s
will. With this Jesus is saying to his
disciples that faith is nothing heroic . . . nothing dramatic, it is doing what
must be done that is right in front of you.
Faith, when you get down to it, is
pretty ordinary. As Jesus describes it,
faith is just doing your job, just doing your duty, not because of any sense of
reward but simply because it needs doing.
Because of this faith is doing what needs to be done right in front of
us. According to Jesus, we all can
already do this. Faith can be pretty ordinary. Thus, Jesus says, “If you have faith as small as a
mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in
the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
It doesn’t take a whole lot of faith to yank out a mulberry tree and
move it . . . you just do it.
It is that simple.
Here is the bottom line: faith is not an
idea, faith is a muscle.
I think that we sometimes gets ourselves
caught up in a trap when we consider faith to be an idea . . . consider faith to
be something out there beyond our reach that we hope for. This creates a lot of stress and feelings of
doubt . . . doubt that we can be who God created us to be. Thus, the mantra of “increase our faith”.
Instead, Jesus says that it really is
quite simple. Jesus lets his disciples
and us know that we already have what we need to be faithful. Being faithful is comes down to recognizing
all the God-given opportunities before us that show up each day and need to be
done. Think about it. Faith is:
·
Doing
our work . . . doing our work to the best of our abilities . . . doing it to
keep food on the table . . . to keep the world running.
·
Caring
for those who are in need . . . family, friends, and the strangers who enter
our lives out of nowhere.
·
Protecting
the vulnerable we encounter in our lives . . . the friend who is having a
difficult day . . . a co-worker who has experienced a loss . . . a child who is
crying.
·
Reaching
out to the lonely . . . those who are unable to leave their homes . . . the
kids sitting at the end of the lunch table by him or herself . . . those who
are mentioned but are not seen.
·
Befriending
the friendless.
·
Keeping
the world going . . . doing what we can to make the world a better place . . .
picking up garbage we walk by on the street . . . cheering on the local kids
who are out there competing or playing in the band . . . supporting local
businesses.
·
Contributing
to the common good . . . supporting the local food pantry . . . after-school
programs . . . youth groups . . . the library.
Jesus is telling us that it is all there each
and every day. It is all the ordinary
stuff that we do all of the time. When
it is taken together and blessed by God it moves from the realm of the ordinary
into the extraordinary.
It is our job to remember that even the
simplest things that are done in faith can have a huge impact. Think about it. Think of all the good things that people have
done this past week in their roles as employers and employees, students,
parents, citizens, volunteers and more.
It adds up . . . it adds up to be a mountain of good works. Now imagine what that week would have been
like if those things had not gotten done . . . it would be a darker and grimmer
world that we would be living in. And,
think about how it made you feel doing this supposedly simple, ordinary work .
. . how it empowered you. How it could
make you want to do even more. Too often
we think that what we do does not matter much to God or others, but the reality
is it makes a big difference when we step up and faithfully do what is set
before us each day. It makes ordinary
faith extraordinary. It is exercising
that muscle.
Faith is also an adventure. We do not always know what each day will
bring . . . where God will lead us . . . who God will put into our lives. Faith is putting one foot in front of the
other and plugging onward towards a future that we trust in God in all
things. Faith is stepping out into the
world and looking for opportunities to be God’s partner and co-worker in the
world . . . of working towards fulfilling God’s will. From solving a problem to forgiving someone
who has wronged us, we have opportunities on a daily basis . . . simple,
ordinary opportunities . . . that we are invited to experience and grow in our
discipleship and witness to God’s presence and goodness in the world. It is an adventure!
We do not need more faith. We have plenty of faith. We just need to use it . . . to use it in our
daily lives. To do that which we need to
do each and every day . . . to live life!
There is nothing extraordinary about such faith . . . nothing
heroic. It is essential. We just need to live it as each opportunity
presents itself on a daily basis.
When I graduated high school and was heading
off to college, my mother presented me with a present. It was a framed piece of embroidery. It had a simple acronym . . . “K.I.S.S.” It was the “K.I.S.S. theory”. The acronym stands for “keep it simple
stupid”. My mother did not think that I
was stupid, but she did think that I needed to be reminded from time to
time—when feeling overwhelmed with the world around me—that I needed to keep
things simple. That I needed to do the
things that gets one through the day. If
I could do that, she believed, I would be fulfilled and successful. It was the gift of simplicity.
Jesus reminds us that faith is quite
simple. It is doing the ordinary stuff
of daily life knowing that it is a gift and blessing under our care. With God it all becomes extraordinary. So, thank you. Thank you for all you do as the followers of
Jesus week in and week out. It takes
courage to get up each morning and dedicate yourself and your life to making it
another day. God sees it . . . and, we
are all blessed. Amen.
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