Last week, you were invited to take out a dollar to think about what is written on it. “In God we trust…” Is that really true? Do we trust in God? Do we take to heart God’s calling of us to have compassion on our neighbors? Are we able to see God’s face on the face of our neighbor’s need?
And then you were invited to think about what you will do with that dollar. How will you spend it? Does it reflect our trust in God? Do our choices make a difference in the wellbeing of others?
Thank you to those who shared your personal dollar stories publicly with the assembly this past Sunday. We heard your struggles as some of you talked about the difficulties of deciding what to do with that dollar.
Make no mistake – all of this is hard to do. Some of you might be sitting here thinking…uh, oh … I forgot to do that. Perhaps even feeling a bit of shame. Put it back in your pocket, went on with life and didn’t think any more about it. Like I said – this faith stuff all is hard to do.
The disciples were finding that to be true as well. They are walking with Jesus to Jerusalem and the walk is getting more challenging because the talk is getting harder.
Jesus had just finished talking about the forgiving as many times as it takes and that it is better to drown yourself than to cause someone to stumble. That was enough for fear to creep in and to send the disciples running to Jesus.
“Increase our faith!” The disciples have begun to think, “we can’t do this, we don’t have enough faith, add to what we have, please…”
In other words, Jesus, we don’t have enough faith to handle all of this forgiving and anything else that is coming our way. We just can’t do this.
As we endure yet another week of school shootings that injure and claim lives, violence perpetrated against law enforcement as well as by law enforcement, senseless accidents that injure hundreds, terrorism threats both real and imagined, racial unrest, and the list goes on and on.
And the same plea falls from our lips, too: Jesus, increase our faith…we just can’t do this…we don’t have enough… it’s not going to be enough, add to what we have.
Fear has crept in again… fear that is opposite of faith.
Perhaps this request surprises Jesus a bit. Perhaps he’s taken aback by both the disciples and us.
The original Greek isn’t always the easiest to translate and convey meaning into English, but there is a conditional clause here. Scholars dispute just how to translate it. …if you had the faith of a mustard seed…and you do! And. You. Do.
It might be the size of this tiny mustard seed but you do have faith. And it is enough.
Mustard wasn’t a welcome addition to any Jewish garden. It was considered a weed, useless and even forbidden to plant – but prolific just the same. So you would find these weeds outside of the acceptable 1st century garden gate.
This is the kind of faith that Jesus is saying is enough, it will get us through.
Faith doesn’t have to be huge or flashy or prominent. It just has to be.
Look at whom Jesus commends for having faith –those outside of the “acceptable” garden gate of the time – a Roman centurion concerned about a sick servant, a diseased woman who knows that just a touch will heal her.
Looking ahead in Luke, a leper will turn back to give thanks and a blind beggar will receive sight. Again all people who would have been found outside of the “acceptable” gate.
And here’s why it’s enough.
Jesus talks about a servant who does what is expected of him, just going about his job and not expecting any great rewards for doing. The servant is simply doing what has to be done, the mundane work that is right in front of him. The ordinary, everyday tasks of being a servant. Just doing the job.
Faith isn’t a commodity that can be added to, saved, or spent, used only when we think we need to. It is a prolific, humble gift to be passed along, shared, nurtured. Faith is found in the mundane, in the doing of what needs to be done. That is what Jesus is saying is faithful.
Nothing flashy, just going to work and doing a good job; listening when someone needs to talk, even if it’s about the weather; sitting with someone at lunch and being a friend to the friendless; cooking breakfast, feeding the dog, letting someone in front of you on the highway, writing a letter of thanks.
These are indeed acts of faith.
And what if, tomorrow, you didn’t do any of this stuff, and the next day, and the next day… What might the world look like?
Bleak to say the least.
This week there will be more gun violence, there will be hatred, there will be more computer hackings, there will be more of this contentious election.
And yet among all of this there will be signs of hope. Because God will continue to love and care for this world – using our hands, and hearts and voices, and time, and treasure and talents.
God will use all those mundane, simple, ordinary, everyday tasks that we do to help spread that love and hope and grace and joy in this world.
So you might think that you are not enough, but Jesus thinks that you are enough. You do have faith and at the end of our days it will be Jesus that will be saying to us,
Well done, good and faithful servant, well done.