When the disciples asked Jesus to
increase their faith it was as though there was some way to measure the amount
of faith they had. Did they have
just a tiny bit of faith about the size of a mustard seed, or an abundance of
faith, so much that no vessel could contain it? Jesus, who, in his parables, always seemed to turn things
upside down challenged the prevailing customs and mores of his day. He responded to the disciples by
telling them they lacked faith. Their
faith was smaller than a grain of mustard seed. He said, “If you had
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.”
The point Jesus made is that
faith, when considered to be as microscopic as a tiny mustard seed, can be the
instrument of spectacular results.
As for a mulberry tree, how could anyone imagine a large and substantial
tree planted in the sea? A small
amount of faith, no larger than the size of a mustard seed, has the power of
transformation like a huge mulberry tree uprooted out of solid ground and
planted in the sea.
Jesus taught the disciples, and he
teaches us, that what matters is what one does. There will be times when there is little faith, but there
will never be times when one should not act responsibly with compassion,
forgiveness, and love. Instead of
measuring the level of faith in quantitative terms, it is the quality of faith
that makes a difference. As an
illustration Jesus told his disciples a parable about what slaves or servants
were expected to do. Today, we are
God’s servants and know what we are called to do.
Our faith is always in need of
rejuvenation, what the Apostle Paul referred to as “rekindling the gift of
God.”
Paul, in his letter to Timothy written
from prison, said that he was grateful to God and longed to see Timothy so that
he could be filled with joy. He was
reminded of Timothy’s “sincere faith,” a faith that had lived in his
grandmother and his mother, and now a faith that lived in him. Paul asked Timothy to “rekindle the
gift of God” because it is God who gives us a “spirit of power and love and
self-discipline.”
Paul said, “join with me
in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his
own purpose and grace…. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have
heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to
you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”
Ours
is a holy calling today just as it was in the time of Jesus’ disciples, and in
the time of Paul and Timothy. We
are to adhere the standard of sound teaching as we receive it in the Bible, and
we are to share the faith and love we have received through the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Through our baptism the Holy Spirit lives in us and we are given the
power and grace to minister to one another and to others.
The late John Kavanaugh,
who was a professor of Philosophy for many years at Saint Louis University,
wrote, “As Christians, we are sent
into the world as Christ was sent. We are an incarnate people. In terms of our civil societies, we are
a people of inculturation. Our
faith lives in and through the cultures we inhabit. Herein lies the splendid diversity of all the ways our faith
is celebrated…. But the Incarnation is also about realities beyond this world
and its ways. It is a testimony to
truths that extend further than the reach of the earth or any culture.”
You and I come from various
national and cultural traditions, but we share the faith that has been
entrusted to us. That faith is
what we celebrate when we gather for worship. It is our praise and thanksgiving to God for all that we
receive. As it is stated in one of
the Eucharistic Prayers in our Book of Common Prayer: At God’s “command all
things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the
planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.”
We celebrate the reality of
God’s compassion that transcends all things that came to be, a compassion that
is beyond all the cultures and traditions we know. We are to be good stewards of all that has been entrusted to
us. Part of that stewardship is
caring for the pets and animals that surround us. And so, today we shall bless the animals created by God for
our enjoyment as part of our thanksgiving to God for all the blessings of our
lives. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment