“Increase our faith!"
A seemingly straight-forward appeal with some not so straight-forward assumptions baked in. Bob Dylan one wrote "Either you have faith or have unbelief, there ain't no neutral ground."
With that in mind, perhaps the appeal should read "Give us faith". Is this what we long for, pray for? When we have the doubt (that inevitably comes in our lives) we want to have the strength to hold onto our faith. We admire those who keep their faith.
We might desire a faith that brings a measure of certainty. Perhaps,
this was somewhat unintentionally a request for spiritual superiority.
Many of us talked about being part of a church of the future, bucking
the current national trend of fewer worshipers on Sundays. We wanted to
have, at least, the prospect of positioning ourselves as relevant in a
future church we can't yet discern.
We wanted our financial and spiritual problems to, magically or
mercifully, be solved and many of life's spiritual challenges to no longer be a
worry for us. We wanted to have faith to tackle some pretty big
accomplishments that would be signs of God's presence in life.
Certainty isn't faith, however. Quiet service and fidelity to the community could be better indicators of our faith. There are
many ordinary and daily acts of ministry and service that Creator
members were presently engaged in both inside and outside the church.
This is not done for reward, recognition or praise. The vision of being a church of the future is, perhaps, worthwhile. Yet we should allow ourselves the dignity to do only what we
ought to do and be grateful and satisfied with the size of the faith
God has granted us as individuals.
Martin
Luther proclaimed, "The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid." It
is hard to come to that cradle without preconceptions. I marvel today
abut the economy and scandal of the response of our Lord "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."
As a reader for years my initial understanding of this reading was Jesus
reproaching the disciples regarding their faith (and us for ours). In other words this is how I
heard our Lord's answer, "You don't even have faith the size of a
mustard seed because, if you did, miraculous things would happen. A
mulberry tree would be uprooted and planted in the sea if only you had
enough faith.
Initially I did not think of the implications of this interpretation. This means Jesus is scolding rather than answering the
disciple's request or he is taking the stance that increasing faith comes down
to us as individuals. We need to make a greater spiritual effort
to increase our faith to the point that it is at least the size of a
mustard seed.
Today I hear reassurance and a direct response from Jesus to their
request. In other words his answer is refreshing and inspiring, "You
don't need to increase your faith to follow or act. You don't need to
be a winner in some faith race. You have all the faith you need.
Everyone has faith the size of a mustard seed. Look for the changes that
will make around you,"
I am told mustard is regarded as an invasive weed in that part of the world. An interesting understanding when thinking about this text. Here Jesus would then be saying "Your faith will act like an invasive weed and will be the hidden catalyst for change in the world.." Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to yeast. "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened."
To pray to increase our faith in this regard is not what we are really asking for. It is the equivalent to asking to increase yeast have a larger size so it can be seen in the dough of everyday life.
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