The Gospel of Luke 17:5-10
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “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.
“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'”
Let us Pray: God, you weep with those who are oppressed, with those who are uprooted from their homeland and with those who are without shelter or security. Grant that your faithful love may reach out through us, so that your healing mercy may rise like the dawn. We ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen
Faith is a relationship of trust with Jesus Christ. And that trust is based on God’s promise that in Jesus, you will find your redeemer. He is the one you can trust in for forgiveness. Faith receives the presence of Christ into our hearts. He takes on our sin, our sadness, our misery, our fear, our anxieties, our pessimistic and dour outlook. In return, we receive his grace, forgiveness, love, and new life. We need to keep from the temptation to turn faith into something more complex, faith should be something that is straightforward and requires one to be committed to Jesus. Jesus tells the disciples that faith is simple. You just need a little to move mountains. That’s not to say there’s not room to grow and develop faith, but it’s also not a race. We don’t need more faith; we need to be more faithful. And it’s also possible that we need a different kind of faith. Maybe what we need is the kind of faith that, like mustard plant, spreads contagiously wherever it is dropped, grows persistently, and cannot be easily destroyed. Maybe what we need is the kind of faith that is willing to enter the process of Christian formation with humility, spiritual discipline, and patient trust. When we understand that faith is trusting God, we can begin to live out that trust through discipline and humility, becoming true servants of God who do the work God gives us to do. Faith can become an obsession a distraction away from the kind of faith that Jesus actually teaches. The faith of Jesus is about loving God and loving neighbor, not about getting more and more of something for yourself. So, when it comes to faith, sometimes a little bit will be enough. Why? Because faith is powerful. It only takes a small light to pierce the darkness, and God doesn’t require one to be a spiritual master to move in us, do things with us, or love us.
Faith depends on this idea of community, because, when you get right down to it, faith is bigger than believing. True faith is a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in us through the gospel. Faith is trust, and trust requires relationship. As we put our trust in Jesus, we give up any illusions of depending on ourselves only, and we recognize that faith cannot be measured; it can only be lived. This being the case, faith is a lifelong, endeavor, for the challenges, the difficulties, the setbacks, and the worries don’t stop because we have faith. Life in this world will always be a unsettled and challenging for many reasons. However, when through faith, we have Christ in our hearts, nothing the world can dish out will become a mortal threat. For as Paul said in Romans, “There is nothing in all creation” that can separate us from the love of Christ. Finally, Jesus says it doesn’t take much faith to do great things.
Let us Pray: God, you weep with those who are oppressed, with those who are uprooted from their homeland and with those who are without shelter or security. Grant that your faithful love may reach out through us, so that your healing mercy may rise like the dawn. We ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen
Reflections by Bob 