The Disciple’s Job 100707

Luke:17:5-10

Children’s message

Either photo of self as child – hard to believe something this small grows into something this big--God’s love is like that, it might look small, but you never know what it’s going to turn into And we do what we’re supposed to do, grow.

Or

Mustard seed on contact paper (otherwise too small to handle) and newsprint tube cut to pull out into tree. Mustard seed does its job, so do followers of Jesus It’s our job to grow and obey

Sermon

One of my favorite email jokes is the one about the mother who goes in to her son’s bedroom on a Sunday morning and shakes him:

Time to get up for church

He groans and rolls over. After several attempts, he says, why should I? Give me two good reasons why I should. His mother replies, One, because I say so, and two because you are the pastor!

Clearly he had to preach on a tough text too!

Here we are again, facing a challenging text. Surely this text is an awful putdown of what little faith we have, because I for one have never been able to get a tree to jump in a lake.

I don’t like that it seems a tacit acceptance of the institution of slavery. Doesn’t this undermine the gospel of freedom and equality?

And that’s just for starters. Then we have to address those bad words, politically incorrect words we don’t much, like servant, or slave as it really is, and obedience In a culture such as ours, neither is too popular.

No wonder the pastor wants to stay in bed! TMI too much info

So…we’re just going to look at the very first part and leave the slave part to your discussions during the week – email me if you like; talk about it in your family, at work, in study groups and choirs….

Give us more faith! Say the disciples. Have you noticed in our lives, and in our culture, enough is never enough, except when it’s bad, then ‘enough’s enough!’ Think of all the things you want more of. Faith might even be one of them. It’s very human.

‘If I had more faith, this wouldn’t happen to me. ‘

‘If you have enough faith, you’ll be healed.’

‘If we increase people’s faith, they’ll give more to the budget’

We treat faith as if it’s some kind of magic. Like Ron in the HP books, we might imagine trying to wave a wand and move a mulberry tree from here to there (flick boom, flick boom)

Just a little more faith and I can do it! Move it tree!

It’s fascinating to me to hear what went on just before they asked for more faith. They had been talking about confronting wrong in relationships and forgiveness- 7 times a day if necessary.

Lord, give us more faith! That’s an impossible task!

So’s uprooting a tree.

So’s tossing it in the sea and expecting it to grow.

Jesus says, there’s no ‘more’ or ‘less’ about faith. You already have it. And it is enough.

I came across a Thomas Merton quote this week-it’s about prayer but you could substituted faith:

We are indoctrinated into means and ends…but that is not the way to build a life of prayer. In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are, and you deepen what you already have, and you realize you are already there. We already have everything, but we don’t know it and we don’t experience it. Everything has been given to us in Christ. All we need is to experience what we already possess. The trouble is we aren’t taking the time to do so.

Enough is enough. We already have enough faith. The trouble is we don’t exercise it. Like Blue Cross challenge, Faith is stepping out, not laying low.

Jesus knows that – the fact they baulked at working on their relationships- forgiving someone who hurt them shows him that.

And he tells this silly example about the uprooted tree. It’s a ridiculous image of the impossible that becomes laughable.

Faith approaches the impossible with laughter and an attitude that if it must be done then it can be done – because the assumption is that God is there, and active.

You see, it’s not about us having enough faith to do extraordinary things

It’s about faith doing extraordinary things with us.

If we obey Divine Grace in the household of God, the way the slave obeys in household mentioned later..…if we obeyed God in the way the tree obeyed faith, then we become the tree, and extraordinary things can happen:

Deep-rooted habits can be dug up

safe places can be left behind

new movement can be experienced

transitions can be encountered with humor

growth can happen in unlikely places.

It is the disciple’s job, put simply, to obey God, as the slave obeyed the householder. And simple obedience recognizes the simplicity of faith. It is enough. And what God can do with us will be extraordinary! Simple doesn’t mean easy. But it is enough.

We’re spending all fall on the attributes of faith and discipleship, so we KNOW what obeying God looks like.

The story is told of the pastor who told the congregation, I have good news and bad news:

Bad – we have a budget problem

Good – we have enough to cover it

Bad – it’s still in our wallets.

Whether it’s about money, or the death of someone beloved, or a cancer diagnosis, or some other life transition, Jesus is saying,

you have enough. Just move it. Put it to use.

And watch God do marvelous things!

Thanks be to God. Amen.