Sermon: “Faith.”
The apostles said to Jesus: “Give us more. Give us more faith. Increase our faith.”
Increase my faith. Give me more faith.
Just for a moment, think about what faith is? Do you think you have enough faith? Do you think you need more or stronger faith ? What does faith mean to you?
According to the dictionary Miriam Webster faith has 3 meanings:
1. Loyalty: an allegiance to a duty or a person.
2. Fidelity: to ones promises and intentions. A form of sincerity.
3. Trust in God as belief in traditional doctrines of a religion or belief in something for which there is n proof. A complete trust. A strong conviction.
What does faith mean to you? Is faith something that is given to us, something ingrained in our human nature? Is faith taught and developed by determination, intelligence and education?
Is faith something we can measure, weigh and calculate?
Is faith something we can compare and be envious about or long for?
Can you have too much or too little faith? Can faith grow and become better with time?
Faith and the concept of faith is at the center of the Gospel this morning – and we could say that faith is at the center of our worship every Sunday. Because this is a house of faith and a house of worship.
Do we come here because we believe or because we want to confirm and confess our faith?
Do we come to church to be lifted by faith and be embraced by faith on this Sunday morning.
Martin Luther said that “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s Grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. “
He also famously described faith like this: “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
Faith is the flowing, daring, spirited trust that is so hard to describe and even proof.
Faith is taking the first step even when you do not see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
The disciples who had been following Jesus for years, been in his graceful orbit, seen his healing touch and felt his presence, - even they could not quite grasp what faith is.
In todays Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith. It seems like a stupid request to make as they have been with Jesus for a long time, and they should know better – or have more faith, you would think. But like us, the disciples tend to think that more is better. If they could just have a little bit more faith, then everything would be easier. They have seen what Jesus has done: made blind people see, healed leprosy, cast out demons, fed 5000 people with a few fish and some bread, and so much more. And still, they ask for more faith. We are part of a thousand long-standing tradition, listening to the words and teachings of Jesus, and we still ask for more. More faith. More security. More certainty.
I remember some years ago when I was at one of the many soccer games with our boys, and we were enjoying lunch with the families. We were talking about the game, the score and the business of being soccer parents – and we were talking about our lives and livelihood. So, one asked me “What do you do?” And I answered, ‘I am the pastor of the Danish Church.”
And then one of the mothers looked at me with envy and said “Oh, that makes it all so much easier, doesn’t it? I wish I had as much faith as you do! ”
Better, bigger, more.
We often think and talk about faith as if faith is something you can process, yes achieve. The bigger and stronger, the better. And if our faith is big enough, strong enough, then we can manage everything. As if faith is some kind of superpower, you process or some kind of procession that you collect, earn and save for a rainy day.
“Oh, so you believe so much in God, you have such a strong faith,” we say as if we can weigh, measure and estimate faith – and thus we weigh, measure and estimate each other as less or more believers or Christians.
The disciples’ request “Increase our faith” comes from that kind of thinking… that more faith is the answer. We need more.
The Gospel today addresses the issue of faith: whether the degree and depth of our faith is enough…
Instead of giving the disciples more faith or ensuring them that they are strong enough, good enough, believing enough… Jesus points at the tiny little mustard seed.
Apparently, faith is not about capacity. It is about orientation.
Faith is beyond measurement.
Jesus counters all these questions and false pretenses about size and depth of faith by telling his disciples that to move a mountain, you only need faith the size of a mustard seed.
It is not about having enough faith.
It is about having faith and being faithful.
It is quite striking and funny that every time the disciples ask about more: more faith, the best seats at the tables, Jesus points to and highlights the small.
Even in OT God chooses the underdog, the young David, to defeat the giant Goliat; and God even chose a young poor teenage girl, living in Israel under the Romans occupation – as the one who would give birth to Jesus. Jesus does the same when he visits with the despised tax collectors, lifts the children and their faith, praised the Samaritan on the road and promised the glory of heaven to a crucified villain on the cross.
So, when the disciples ask to have more faith, bigger faith, better faith, stronger faith… Jesus points to the smallest seed. The mustard seed.
Just image that small mustard seed.
A tiny little seed.
When asked for more, Jesus actually follows that lead in his own upside down way: yeah, you might not have much faith but if you just had so much faith as you can fit into this tiny little seed, then you have more than you can image to the unimaginable.
Jesus clearly tells them and us that faith cannot be measured, weighed or compared.
"The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness." —Henry David Thoreau
Jesus reminds us that faith is more. It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen, as it reading Hebrews.
Faith is trust. Faith is hope. Faith is love.
To have faith is to be faithful.
Jesus had a remarkable way of turning things upside down. Jesus had a way of changing our concepts and our beliefs. And give room to that moving powerful Spirit of God to move us, fill us, confront us, bless us, sustain us and save us.
We love because God so loved us.
We have faith because God instilled faith and hope in our human soul.
There is a wonderful story in the Gospel about that time when the disciples got into a very intense argument about who was to be regarded to be the best, the first, the chosen one.
24-26 Within minutes they were bickering over who of them would end up the greatest. But Jesus intervened: “Kings like to throw their weight around and people in authority like to give themselves fancy titles. It is not going to be that way with you. Let the senior among you become like the junior; let the leader act the part of the servant.
27-30 “Who would you rather be: the one who eats the dinner or the one who serves the dinner? You would rather eat and be served, right? But I have taken my place among you as the one who serves.
Faith is to be faithful.
Like former president Obama said:
“And our faith changes us. I know it’s changed me. It renews in us a sense of possibility. It allows us to believe that although we are all sinners, and that at times we will falter, there’s always the possibility of redemption. Every once in a while, we might get something right, we might do some good.” —Barack Obama
Increase our faith, the disciples said. And we pray: give us more faith, more security, more proof. And then Jesus tells us: Be faithful to the life you have been given. Be faithful to your neighbor by serving and not mastering, because faith is a trust in what we cannot see but for what we hope.
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. Saint Augustine
So, Miriam Webster told us that faith is: Loyalty, Fidelity and Trust.
And Jesus tells us that faith is to be loyal, faithful and trusting.
Remember that “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s Grace.”
And “Even if we knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, we would still plant our apple tree.”
Faith is taking the first step even when we do not see the whole staircase. AMEN