Date: September 29th & October 2nd
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
First Reading: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalmody: Psalm 37:1-9
Second Reading: 2 Timothy 1:1-14
Gospel: Luke 17:5-10
One thing that my husband and I received when we got married was an ice cream maker. At seminary we would make ice cream for a friend for their birthday and even now when we have someone coming to visit, we will make them whatever ice cream they choose from an extensive list of recipes. And when we first started to make ice cream, we did some experimenting, especially with basic flavors like vanilla. A lesson that we learned quickly in this process was that the type of vanilla you use makes a difference.
My Mom makes homemade vanilla each year, and gives it as Christmas gifts, and so one day we decided to use that vanilla for our ice cream. We thought that perhaps a little extra would add the vanilla flavor we were trying to achieve, because having more of something should make it better, right? In the end we used too much and had a batch of vanilla ice cream that clearly tasted like alcohol and had trouble freezing properly because of the alcohol content from the vanilla. This was an important lesson that sometimes, you only need a little bit of something to make a difference. And sometimes, even if you have more, it can be harmful instead of helpful.
The apostles in our Luke reading for this week are being taught a similar lesson when it comes to their faith. Today’s story jumps right into the middle of the action and shows the apostles speaking to Jesus and not only offering a request, but actually giving a command, that Jesus increase their faith. The passage right before this is warning against sin overtaking their actions, and so their response is to command the Lord to increase their faith so that through that they might not suffer with sin. Sometimes we think that difficult or bad events in our lives are consequences of our own lack of faith, but that is not what Jesus teaches us here. Rather than agreeing to increase the apostles’ faith or telling them how to do so, he explains to them why whatever faith they already have is enough.
Jesus replies to their command saying that even if their faith was the size of a mustard seed, they would have great power and ability in the world. The size of the faith is not really the point here, it is the importance of having faith at all that matters. Jesus gives an example of one of the smallest seeds they would have used in their context, and is explaining that even this miniscule, almost unnoticeable thing can be big when it is given everything it needs to thrive. Faithfulness is never about having more or better faith than your neighbor, it is about trusting in the faith that you do have and allowing that faith to do what it was meant to do. Faith is not meant to be a merit that is won or a litmus test for how holy or righteous you are, faith is meant to give you assurance, even in the days where it is difficult, that God is with you and never abandons you. This promise then urges you to share this good news of companionship and love with others through words and actions. And so, if there is even one particle inside you that trusts in that promise from the Lord, that is more than enough to do wondrous things.
The problem is that sometimes we can use our faith to do things that are not holy or righteous. We may only need a small amount of faith to do great things, but that also means we only need a small amount to do destructive things. In the case of this reading, Jesus says that faith even the size of a mustard seed would allow someone to make the mulberry tree near them uproot itself, and plant itself in the sea. At first, this can seem like an amazing feat just because the tree moved and replanted itself, but what if we consider the growing conditions that are best for a mulberry tree. I did some quick research and found that although mulberry trees like moist soil, they are very negatively affected, or their growth is stunted, when planted in soil that stays very wet or holds a lot of water. This means that it would not be great for a mulberry tree to be planted too close to water, let alone in water. And then there is the fact that the sea is not only water, but salt water. And mulberry trees also do not have an extremely high salt tolerance, which they would need in order to be planted is such salty soils. This means that though Jesus is saying you only need a small amount of faith to make this big, unlikely thing happen, there is still the possibility that something you do in the name of your faith could be harmful or unhealthy for those it affects the most.
In the same way, when we as Christians try to use our faith to justify harmful actions to God’s creation, our neighbors, our community, or even ourselves, then we are still falling into the trap of sin that the apostles were trying to avoid by asking for their faith to be increased. Faith of any amount does not exclude us from the ability to sin, and therefore harm relationships to creation, people, God, or ourselves. Jesus then reiterates this point in the second part of the reading by explaining that just by having faith, we are not praised for doing the minimum of what that faith urges us to do. Our faith in Jesus is meant to give us the energy to share the love we receive. Spreading that love and Good News through word and action to help our neighbor is not going above and beyond when it comes to faith. It is doing what that faith was meant to stir in us all along. Jesus wants the apostles in this reading and us today to understand that we do not have to be worried about the amount of faith we think we have, but we should also not expect to be praised for the ways that we live into that faith every day.
Considering this response from Jesus, perhaps we can learn from the apostles’ mistake in this passage. Instead of commanding the Lord that our faith be increased, we can pray to the Lord that the Holy Spirit help us to faithfully live into the faith that we have. Whether it is the size of a mustard seed, or a mountain, does not matter, any amount of faith is enough for the Holy Spirit to work in, through, and beside you. What matters is how we use that faith to affect the world around us. Will we use it to condone actions that inevitably are harmful to the world around us, or will we care for creation and neighbors as the Lord has taught us, and not expect praise for following the loving example given to us by Jesus? Thanks be to God.