Increase Our Faith
A Sermon of The Rev. Dr. David A. Killian, Rector
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
October 3, 2004
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Stewardship Caring for our Spirits Sunday
Text: Luke 17:5-10
I
A few years ago, I visited the monastery of Clonmacnoise in Ireland which is located on a lovely hill overlooking the Shannon River. The location, however, proved to be dangerous when the Viking invasions began. The river, which served as a water highway for travel between the monastery and outlying towns, provided easy access for marauding Vikings with their sleek vessels that seemed to appear out of no where. Many times in the monastery's history, the Vikings plundered goods and food and took the monks hostage or slaughtered them.
We might well imagine the inhabitants of Clonmacnoise in the 6th century A.D. voicing the same complaint as the Israelites in the time of Habakkuk 600 years before Christ. Of course, it was not the Vikings but the Babylonians that were terrorizing the Israelites. This is the situation of today's first reading where Habakkuk cries out "Violence" and calls for help. He is at his wit's end, he doesn't know what to do next.
II
Do you ever feel that way? We are not threatened like the Israelites in Habakkuk's day or the monks at Clonmacnoise -- or, for that matter, like the one million refugees in Darfur in the Sudan or the people in the war zone in Iraq or Afghanistan, or the people of Haiti or Florida devastated by hurricanes and floods.
But there are people all around us with their own discouragement and desperation. In today's Gospel passage, the apostles cry out, "Increase our faith." Perhaps their plea comes from a feeling of distress. When you or I are up against it, when we face some difficulty, don't we feel that our faith is too small, that we do not have enough strength? And so we cry out, "Increase our faith."
Jesus' reply seems a bit mysterious: "If you had the 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." What does Jesus mean? Jesus is making a rhetorical point, typical of Hebrew speech. It was a form speech of the rabbis, which shows a bit of his humor and ability to joke a little bit with the disciples. Jesus is telling the apostles that they shouldn't give up so easily, because even a little faith, as small as a mustard seed, is enough to accomplish big things, such as transplanting a mulberry tree.
The apostles need to discover the mustard seed of faith within and help it grow. So, first, don't give up too quickly; even the little faith you have is a seed that will allow you to do great things and overcome great obstacles. Second, nurture this faith so that it can become stronger. As we heard in today's epistle to Timothy: "rekindle the gift of God that is within you."
III
Today is "Stewardship Caring for our Spirits Sunday." A banner was carried in at the beginning of our service; flyers and materials on how to care for our spirits are on the display panel and tables in the back. Here at All Saints, one of the ways we care for our spirits is through the groups that support us in our life of faith.
I meet monthly with the spiritual support group for the unemployed and underemployed. Some of the members of our group have been looking for work for two years. They have spoken of the discouragement that eats away at their sense of self-worth. Like Habakkuk and the apostles, they wonder if they have enough faith to hold on, to keep searching for job openings, sending in applications, going for interviews, and asking friends to serve as references. In our group they can voice their fears and rekindle their faith.
The Men's Group meets on Saturdays at 8 am. A dozen men come together to rekindle their faith and discuss Stephen Prothero's book, American Jesus. The Women's Reading Circle is discussing Finding Jesus Again for the First Time. The Explorations in Faith course will be reading Following Jesus: First Steps on the Way. The Gay and Lesbian Saints are a group where one can experience the support of a Church that affirms its gay and lesbian members. Faith on Tap is a new group for people in their 20s and 30s which will meet tonight to talk about issues of faith -- not here at All Saints, but at the Citiside Grill in Cleveland Circle.
All of these groups support us in our journey of faith; they are a nurturing environment where we can question and express our doubts. It is not required or expected that you have your act together before hand. You may have been away from church for many years, even decades. No matter. It is not too late to discover the mustard seed of faith that is within. Do not give up when you feel besieged, confused, or discouraged; the little faith you have is a seed that will allow you to overcome great obstacles.
And, if it happens that we find ourselves doing great things and overcoming great obstacles, Jesus tells us not to get too puffed up or self-important about it, because not so long ago we were crying out, "Increase our faith." So Jesus reminds us that "we have done only what we ought to have done." In other words, we have done what is not extraordinary -- because it was really God working in us anyway.
In closing, I want to say a word about the prayerful reflection about our pledge to All Saints Parish that we are asked to do this time of the year. Think of the mustard seed not only as the seed of your faith, but also as the seed of your generosity. God is trying to renkindle faith within us strong enough to uproot the mulberry tree. If we come to sense that God is working within us, then we will want to give thanks to God for whatever good we are able to do. We will want to give back to God, not what we think we can afford to give, but what we deeply feel God is calling us to give. There is perhaps no greater barometer of faith -- or of the desire to rekindle faith -- than one's capacity to give. Freely. Happily. Unconditionally. God loves to give, and the presence of God in our lives engenders the holy desire to give.
As we care for our spirits, we pray that God rekindle the gift that is within that we may discover the seed of faith and to nurture that faith in a generous and open hearted life. Amen.