Proper 22 Year C

What a long delay. This sermon is from October 6th, 

Here are the readings: Link!

I am reminded of your sincere faith, Paul says to Timothy this morning. And I too, am reminded of your sincere faith, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity. What a lovely way to describe faith. But the more I thought about our sincere faith, my mind began to wander…what is faith? Okay, well, maybe you don’t like the idea of one of your priests having a week of wondering what is faith, but I want to assure you it is okay to do so. I think we (and by we I mean something bigger than those of us gathered here) we often try to be very careful around faith. We don’t want to disturb or upset our faith. We know that there are lots of people with out any faith. Some of our closest friends, or even our families might be with out faith. There may even be times in our own lives where we have doubts and questions. So in a culture that is increasingly with out faith, I think we tend to guard our faith. Or as it says in the letter to Timothy: “Guard the good treasure entrusted to you.”

When we think of our faith this way, as something that must be guarded, and protected, we have some troubles. We have to keep it safe, so we try not to bring it out if things seem dodgy. When we encounter atheists and skeptics, we might try not to talk about it, just so that our faith doesn’t have to confront them. And perhaps when we read the science times on Tuesdays we might suspend our faith, just so it doesn’t get all muddled up.

And when we confront uncertain situations, we might want to leave our faith out of it. It seems awfully dangerous to bring our faith with us as we visit a friend dying in the hospital, or perhaps consider our future here at St. Ann’s with full knowledge of the difficult few years we have ahead of us financially. Who knows what might happen to our faith if we allowed it to come into contact with all our fears and anxiety.

Today’s Gospel suggests another reason we ought to guard the good treasure entrusted to us…we might not have enough faith. Can you believe it? The apostles sure were worried they might need a little more. Especially as things were taking a turn for the darker, and they could see that Jesus had his eyes set on Jerusalem. They knew, like we know, that faith would help them confront this difficult time. But they also knew, as we do, that sometimes it would help to have just a tiny bit more of it. If only we had that tiny bit more of it, we might be able to….well that’s just where this whole line of thinking, this whole sermon falls apart.

Turning to Jesus’ response in the Gospel then we hear that we only need faith the size of a mustard seed to move a mulberry tree into the sea. This would be very useful if we were landscape architects, or if we had a problem tree in our back yard, but to my modern ears, I don’t totally understand Jesus’ response. At first, I kept reading this thinking, okay, if only we had even a little faith we would be able to do a miracle. But soon, I began to hear this a little differently. We have a tendency to hear Jesus, and perhaps more largely the Bible, as scolding, or angry, or condemning. But this is not the tone Jesus is speaking in here. Let’s hear Jesus speaking with the love he certainly felt for his followers and friends. Hear him tell them, “You don’t need any more faith. Even if you had only a tiny little bit, the size of a mustard seed, it would be enough. It would be enough to do whatever is required of you.”

Jesus doesn’t leave it there. He rarely does, I guess. He complicates things, doesn’t he? Before we venture into the second half of our Gospel, a note on language is necessary. The word slave is hard to hear. And it should be. For us as Americans, we know the ways our shameful past of slavery continues to have repercussions today. Comparisons where being a slave is a good thing are difficult for us because we know how awful the practice of slavery was. And too, looking at our world with open eyes we know that slavery continues, particularly for children and women and sex workers around the world. So when Jesus uses the word slave it echoes in our ears all wrong. And sure, I could tell you that slavery in the first century usually was for a set amount of time, and perhaps was closer to something like indentured servitude. But it doesn’t help that word from being much easier to hear. Here is what is important here: Jesus is describing a relationship. This relationship has clear expectations and accountability. Then, if we see the relationship that Jesus describes instead of being between two people, but rather between ourselves and God, we see that God does have a relationship with us. There are clear expectations and accountability that come with it. God expects us to perform our duties, and we in turn, expect that once we have done our work, God will feed us, give us rest, and protect us.

So, now that I think we understand the second half of the Gospel better, how then do the two pieces fit together. A few weeks ago while preaching I said I thought our passage sort of had every saying Luke could fit about wealth in a row, with little connection. But this week, the connection is there but it’s hard to see. I don’t know if any of you are expert at interviewing. But I am always told that when going on an interview, sometimes you need to guide the person asking the question. The advise goes something like, don’t answer the question you are asked, answer what they should have asked. Jesus is doing something like that with the apostles today. They want to know “How much faith is enough?” And his response suggests that he is answering instead, “How do we use our faith?” This sort of changes everything. I began this sermon talking about guarding and protecting our sincere faith, but Jesus’ way of talking about faith as something we use, and as something in that forms the basis of relationships suggests to me that our typical way of thinking about faith is all wrong. Faith is not a thing. Certainly not a breakable and precious one. And it isn’t a set of beliefs or doctrine. Seeing faith as Jesus suggests in the Gospel this morning is to understand that we have an abundance of it, and that it is a relationship with God, that compels us into a certain way of life, and this way of life comes with expectations, but also unique rewards. Faith then cannot be measured, there is no more of it we could possibly have. Faith can only be lived and enacted.

As I think about our faith here at St. Ann’s it is clear that yesterday we all enacted our faith. We are certainly full of worry here, how will we make our finances work when we have no Parish hall to rent out to space sharers? What will our life be like when the renovation plan beings? Where will our parish office be? Will the renovation start on time? Will it finish on time? But in the face of all of this, what we enacted yesterday was an action and a show of our faith being enough. Our faith was enough yesterday to institute Fr. John Denaro as our rector. This showed forth a confidence and a faith in our future and our relationship with God to our community, our diocese and the wider world. We are going to be here at the corner of Clinton and Montague, as a community commons, as Christ’s body in the world. Being here, as individuals and as a community, is a part of our faith. But our faith continues as we walk out the doors, and as we open them to our community. We will need our faith as we face serious questions, and some challenging times. Our faith will remind us that we already have an abundance of God’s love, and are committed to a life in relationship with God. Our faith will require us to take risks, be adventurous, and try creative solutions to solve what feel like practical problems. Knowing the character of this church, and the dedication of this parish family, we can feel secure in our faith. Know that we have enough. We will be fed, we will get rest, we will be loved, and we will be protected.