Pentecost 19.htm

Habakkuk 1:1-4;2:1-4

Psalm 137

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Luke 17:5-10

More, more, more....more faith, more love, more forgiveness.

If only I had more faith I could forgive. If only I had more faith I could teach that class. If only I had more love I could talk to my neighbors....

If only I had more...

That’s what the disciples are after this morning. They had just been told to forgive one another, even if they sin seven times a day. Forgive them seven times.

And the apostles says, “Increase our faith!”

But Jesus says, you have enough. It only takes a mustard seeds worth. Just a dab will do you.

Use what you have and amazing things will begin to happen.

Amazing things! For God has already given us enough. Total acceptance, forgiveness, courage, love...

All these things in spades.

And amazing things are happening! We are filling the pews, er, chairs...

We have reached our financial goal for this year and are looking forward to next year with great excitement.

We have given so much away...money for world hunger, soup to benefit Story County Community Housing, last year it was spaghetti for the Emergency Residence Project.

We give so much love to the children who are here, who come to Sunday School. We give support to one another, cookies to visitors, space to folks who need space.

We use what we have been given, including faith. And amazing things happen.

Wow.

But it doesn’t mean it’s been easy. It doesn’t mean it will be easy. There are times, like today that we celebrate...time to rejoice in gifts, welcome our visitors, share in the bread and wine of the table.

But there are other times when that mustard seed of faith seems to diminish. Times when we struggle with our lives, with our future, with prayer. There are times we cry out with Habbakuk:

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Or cry to you “violence!” and you will not save?

We look around and see the world in pain. Images of war and starvation. Of violence and alienation. We get overwhelmed with the brokenness that surrounds us and the brokenness that is in us. We cry out in pain...waiting for the Lord. And our faith is tested. But God listens, hears our cry.

There are times when we lament with the Psalmists. We weep for the pain of the world. We weep for the pain in our families and in our communities. We know that having faith, even a bit, doesn’t guarantee a peaceful happy life or peaceful happy world. Faith makes us see the pain more clearly. And that can hurt. But God listens, and hears our lament. And makes it God’s own.

Faith means we ultimately trust God with all of life. The joys and celebrations, but also the brokenness and lament. That’s why I love the name of this congregation: Lord of Life. Because God is the Lord of all of life, not just the good times.

Faith means we trust God with the hard stuff of life, the pain and the disappointment and the brokenness.

I keep coming back to the line in 2 Timothy: “But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.”

The one in whom I put my trust. We put our trust in many things, money, jobs, cars...we put our trust in other people. It is good to have people you can trust with your hopes and dreams, your sorrows and pain.

I hope you have someone like that in your life. But other people, other things can all betray that trust. Has that happened to you? You think you can trust someone with your innermost longings, and it turns out that you can’t.

Faith is knowing in whom to put our trust. If we put our trust in God, God will never betray us. God will hold it all in confidence and compassion.

We put our trust in God, knowing that even when it feels like we are waiting, God is already at work in our lives. Even when we hit bottom, we know that God is there with us.

Faith is knowing in whom to put our trust and then following that up with action.

Faith is pledging extra money to the budget knowing that this congregation has made a difference in your life and exists to make a difference in the lives of people we haven’t yet met.

Faith is getting up and coming to church on a gray dreary day, knowing that somewhere during this hour or so, peace is at hand. And you will be given strength for the week ahead.

Faith is trusting that even a tiny little mustard seed of faith can change the world. Mother Teresa said “Our calling is not to do great things, but to do small things with great love.”

We already have faith enough to move mountains. We already have faith enough to survive. We already have faith enough to thrive!!!

Amazing things happen in this place. And then spill out into the world around us.

For this we give God never ending thanks and praise.

Oh, yeah, when it comes to making room for another person with mustard seed faith, there’s always room for one more!!!