Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed

Richard Smith

PROPER 22 (27)

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Watch a video version of this sermon

Just prior to the gospel passage we just heard, Jesus has wrapped up a series of teachings:

• About the prodigal son who wanders far from home and is then welcomed back by his dad; 
• About not being able to serve God if you’re gaming the economic system to make yourself rich at the expense of others: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.”
• About the greedy rich man who would not heed Lazarus, the poor man at his gate; 
• About never causing one of the little ones to stumble 
• About forgiving over and over and over. 

It’s a lot. The disciples are overwhelmed. They want to live this new way, but they’re not sure they have the necessary spiritual resources. Not sure if they’re up to the task.

So, in today’s passage, they look look outside themselves for help. They say to him, “Lord, increase our faith.” And he tells them they’ve already got all the faith, all the spiritual resources they need to live this new way. It only takes a mustard seed of faith. You have everything you need.

This passage parallels another exchange between Jesus and his disciples, one that some of us prayed about at last Sunday’s mini-retreat. In that story, Jesus has had compassion on the crowd because they are like sheep without a shepherd, and he has taught them many things.

As night descends, the disciples perceive a problem they don’t know how to solve. “This is a deserted place, and the hour is very late. Send the crowd away to the surrounding country and villages so they can buy themselves something to eat.”

Jesus responds sharply, “You give them something to eat.” The disciples’ immediate response is to focus on their lack. “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread?” If the disciples are to feed people, they need more than they have. They must go and buy from others. They perceive the situation as impossible unless they bring in something from the outside.

When the disciples confront a new situation, they look at their own spiritual resources and find themselve lacking. (Shea, John. The Relentless Widow: The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004.)

It’s true for us. Standing against things like racism and misogyny and homophobia and all the mighty economic and political systems of our world can seem so overwhelming. Like trying to uproot a mulberry tree with its vast and expansive roots and branches and commanding it to hurl itself into the sea.

Maybe you wonder if you have the courage and the clarity of vision and the stamina to pull it off.

But you do, Jesus tells you. You have everything you need.

Jesus sees more in us than we see in ourselves. He is continually urging us to understand ourselves differently, to reconsider what we can, in fact, do. He directs us inside and asks us to reappraise what we might bring to our situation.

Here are some words from a psychotherapist who is working with a particular client. The psychotherapist writes:

I remember one client who described himself as a “wimp.” A mid-level bank manager, he felt pushed around, bullied, and generally ineffectual. In talking about his job, his eyes became glassy, his voice turned to a monotone, and his shoulders drooped. I found myself feeling very tired in therapy. In search of some spark in his life, I shifted the focus to his earlier years and discovered that not only had he put himself through school by working two jobs, he had been on the boxing team in college, and flew airplanes on the weekend--hardly the behavior of a wimp. When he talked about flying, he fairly crackled with energy. He seemed surprised when I commented on the difference between his style at work and his style behind the controls of his airplane. The key moment in therapy came when he recognized that his problem was not a “chronically wimpy personality”, but a failure to identify and tap into his resources. He pinpointed the solution when he said, “I guess I need to fly at work, huh?” My client Illustrated an important point: People cannot cope with tools they do not believe they have. (The Psychology of Religion and Coping, 99 - 105, cited in Shea, John. The Relentless Widow: The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers)

If we do not know what we have, we cannot use it to achieve what we aspire to. Jesus in this passage is trying to convince the disciples, including us, that we are not wimps, but people who can fly into exploring a new and different world.

Today we begin our stewardship season. There’s an obvious practical side to this conversation: we can’t maintain this sacred and beautiful space without money; and we need money to pay our part-time staff of a music director, a parish admin, and a vicar.

But in addition to these practical concerns, which you’ll hear more about later, this season is also an occasion for some profound and necessary spiritual work. It raises some important spiritual questions:

• Whether we envision our lives through the filter of abundance or scarcity
• Are we filled with gratitude?
• What kind of persons do you and I want to be? 
• Whom do we want to belong to?

Our stewardship emerges when we recognize what we have; it comes from our sense of abundance. Gratitude begins to well up inside.

• When you woke up this morning, chances are you slept on a comfortable bed. 
• There was breakfast to eat and perhaps a glass of juice or a good cup of coffee or tea to sip. 
• You put clean clothes on. 

For most of us, this is the way it has been nearly every day of our lives. We see evidence of the Creator’s care and provision all around us.

• We hear the birds singing in the morning. 
• The sun rises, rain falls to water the earth, and year after year so many plants provide oxygen and food for our bodies. 
• We are not only provided for but lavished with good gifts: companionship, meaningful work, music, the beauty of nature and cultures, the good sensations of movement—walking, running, swimming, dancing, the joy of sexuality, and a sense of destiny and yearning for the divine mystery. 

Life itself, every day, is a gift that ancient voices once described as the very breath of God (Genesis 2:7).  (Scandrette, Mark. Free: Spending Your Time and Money on What Matters Most. InterVarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2013.)

We embrace the abundance of life by practicing gratitude and trust. This gratitude makes for a life that does not skimp, but throws itself generously and with gusto into this crazy and wonderful world.

Its out of that same sense of abundance and gratitude that we steward this community, both financially and otherwise.

• This community with its beautiful array of skin colors, ages, sexual orientations, and economic classes, 
• This beautiful sacred space where we and others come to pray and meditate, and where our unhoused sisters and brothers find a quiet, safe place to sleep, 
• The things we do from here: 

• Distributing bags of fresh produce each Saturday morning 

• Hosting a free community dinner twice each month

• Leading Nightwalks to end neighborhood violence and doggedly holding out the hope--despite all evidence to the contrary--that things can be different

• Vigils for Amilcar and the other victims of police violence at Mission station 

• Visits to City Hall and meetings throughout the neighborhood to stem the displacement of families and seniors and fight for more affordable housing

At the foundation of our stewardship are abundance and gratitude; these are at the heart of whatever else any of us might say these coming days.

In these stewardship days, Jesus sees in us possibilities we often fail to see in ourselves. Throughout the scriptures he struggled with all the art at his command to show us the abundance, the beauty, the faith he sees in us.

What he sees are mulberry trees, one after the other, on their way to the sea. ((Shea, John. The Relentless Widow: The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers.)