In recent Sundays I have talked about how different our lives are, from the lives of Jesus’ disciples in the first century. Despite that difference, the request the disciples made to Jesus in today’s Gospel reading: “increase our faith”, resonates with us. Whatever difficulties we face in our lives, we could surely handle them better with more faith. I suspect many of us feel that we have tried to have more faith: we have prayed, we have read books, we have meditated and read the Bible and gone to classes, but still our faith does not increase. May be it is no bigger than a mustard seed. Today, I want to reflect with you about Jesus’ use of the mustard seed as a symbol, and then go on to his words about faith in the Gospel of Luke.

What Jesus said in today’s reading about the mustard seed is one of several places where he used it, and they all say, one way or another, that you only need a small amount of faith: a very small amount, about this big (hold up mustard seed). Just for contrast, I have brought some other seeds today: here is a seed of wheat, an acorn, the seed of an oak tree, and a mango> seed, which I imagine everyone can see! Isn’t it puzzling that Jesus says we don’t need as much faith as this big mango seed, or even as much as the acorn? Just so that you understand HOW puzzling it is, I want to give everyone here a mustard seed, and for comparison, a seed of wheat. I have taped them to cards, and I’d like each person to take one of the cards, and to pass the baskets along, until everyone has a card. While I go on speaking, be sure to look carefully at these seeds.

Jesus chose the mustard seed to describe how much faith we need, for several reasons. First, there is the symbolism of seeds in general, which represent life at its beginning stage--potential life we might say. In the ancient world, people did not know that seeds needed nutrients from the earth, and sunlight, to grow. They thought the seed itself, and water, was all that was necessary for growth. So for Jesus’ listeners, a seed was a self-sufficient entity, with great potential. Second, there is the symbolism of the plant that grows from the seed. The size of the plant is in most cases, exponentially larger than the seed: to a moderate extent for the wheat seed, to a greater extent for the mustard seed, and to a huge extent for the acorn. So Jesus was encouraging us to notice that comparison: the small amount of faith we have, will eventually lead to a great harvest of love, service, and goodness.

The drawing of the tree on your bulletin insert shows this, because there are branches and leaves above ground, and branches and roots below ground. The part of the tree above ground stand for the visible good we do in the world: feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, teaching our children, helping a neighbor. The roots below ground stand for the invisible good we do: the work of forgiveness, the conversion of the heart, the increase of love. Finally, third, Jesus chose the smallest seed his listeners would have known about. I think he chose it to convey the idea that they already had enough faith; and indeed to divert their attention from the amount of faith, to something else. In order for me to tell you what I think Jesus wanted them to attend to, I will have to describe briefly the context for this saying.

Jesus and his disciples had been on that journey from Galilee to Jerusalem for a long time. We don’t know whether it was weeks or months, but in Luke’s Gospel the journey began in chapter 9, and now we are in chapter 17: fully one-third of the Gospel. Let us try to imagine, for a moment, what the disciples must have experienced along the way. Certainly they witnessed healings, but it seems that only a few of those who were healed, had become disciples. Many of the poor people received the good news Jesus brought with joy at the time; but then they went back to their labor, and would they remember it? The Pharisees and scribes were generally suspicious of Jesus, if not actually scornful. The disciples had listened to Jesus prophesy several times about his rejection and death in Jerusalem, which at first they dismissed. But now the possibility that the prophecies might be true, had begun to worry them. It is very likely that they felt discouraged, and anxious about the future. This is the historical context in which they said to Jesus: “increase our faith”.

Did you notice, as the deacon read the Gospel, that Jesus’ answer to this request was, apparently, NO? What a surprise! He did not think they needed more faith at all. In fact, the tiny faith they already had, was enough to command a mulberry tree to uproot itself, and replant itself in the ocean! Those disciples must have been astonished and dismayed. What did Jesus mean by these words, and how could they face any kind of confrontation in Jerusalem with such small faith? Because they scattered when Jesus was arrested, it appears that their faith was indeed too small. But I think they must have discovered what Jesus meant, because they were together after his death, when he appeared as the Risen Christ.

The answer they found may be available to us in the literary context of the Gospel of Luke. Let us look at what is written right before and right after Jesus said that their very small faith was adequate. Right before our reading, are some sayings about sin, and how sin can be a stumbling block. Jesus made it clear that the important thing was forgiveness, even if the same person sins seven times in one day. I guess some of us may have sinned seven times in one day, and others of us have been sinned against seven times. We know how hard it is to forgive, especially after the 5th, and 6th, and 7th time. I can imagine that if you and I feel this is a difficult standard to meet, Jesus’ disciples must have felt that way too. Then and now, one might say, “I can’t possibly forgive seven times in one day; my faith is not strong enough for that!” When we have been wounded by someone else’s lies, or thoughtless actions, our faith that God is in heaven and all’s right with the world tends to shrink even smaller.

Hold that thought, and look at the odd parable in the second half of today’s reading, about the slaves who worked tending the sheep, and then were expected to prepare dinner for their master. The point of the parable seems to be that the master does not thank the slave for his or her obedient labor. This parable is hard for us to understand both because we have never owned slaves, and also because we DO sometimes thank people for doing their jobs, even when thanks are neither required nor expected.

I don’t think I could ever have figured out the connection among these sayings of Jesus, if I hadn’t read a commentary that focussed on the other places in the Gospel of Luke where issues of faith come up. There are at least 7 incidents, maybe more, where someone felt unworthy of Jesus attention, and Jesus commended their faith. The first one was that paralyzed man let down through the roof, who wouldn’t speak or act on his on behalf. The second was the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his slave, and said those famous words, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof . . . only speak the word and my slave will be healed”. That same day, a woman of the city anointed Jesus’ feet with her tears, while he was reclining at dinner in the home of a Pharisee. She did not ask for forgiveness, but he forgave her. Later the woman with the flow of blood did not feel worthy to ask for healing, and instead worked her way through the crowd to touch the robe of Jesus. In each case, there was a feeling of unworthiness, and in each case there was faith.

The connection between these two facts, is that faith is not the same thing as belief in a proposition; and faith is not an attitude we can create; and faith is not a good work we do, in order to please God. Faith is a means of approach to God, by those who know that they are not worthy. It is a kind of hope against hope, that even though I am unworthy, perhaps a little of the mercy and grace of God may be given to me. Please understand that I am using the word, unworthy, in a very precise way. Each person created by God is of infinite value to God. Yet each of us, in different ways, has lived as if our actions and choices didn’t matter, and had no worth to anyone but ourselves. If we approach God with the attitude that we have met God’s requirements with correct worship, and good behavior, and therefore God owes us healing, or protection, we will have sadly missed the mark. But if, on the other hand, we recognize that we have not valued ourselves, and others, as God’s beloved children, that we have not used the talents we have, nor done our best within our life circumstances, then we may stand before God in humility. Then we may recognize that whatever we receive from God is sheer grace, unearned, generous, and indeed extravagant.

In fact, the grace and mercy God gives to us is so far out of proportion to our faith, or to our actual lives, or even to our best intentions, that we must revise our idea of who God is. God is not at all like an employer, who pays for the hours and the work completed. God is not at all like a judge, who administers the justice of punishment, and reward. God is not at all like a head of state, who requires both work and allegiance. The only human beings who might give with such extravagance, are parents, and lovers. I conclude, that Jesus was trying to shift the attention of the disciples away from themselves, away from their efforts to do what is right and to develop their own faith, so that they would give their attention to the presence, the love, and the overflowing generosity of God, who is eager, as Jesus says, to give good gifts to his children. So this is the bottom line: your anxiety may be very large, and your faith may be very small; even so, take the risk that the grace of God is overflowing for you, right now!