Sermon: Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Luke 17:5-10, October 2, 2022
Sermon: Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Luke 17:5-10, October 2, 2022
Faith Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman
The apostles said to the Lord Jesus, “Increase our faith!” What prompted that? Well, right before that exclamation, as Luke tells the story, Jesus had just taught the apostles to forgive again and again and again those who sin against them. As we know from our own experience the work of forgiveness is daunting and difficult. Hence the exclamation, “Increase our faith!”
There are lots of reasons for us to cry out, “Increase our faith!” Indeed, abundant crises in our ever-crazier world can challenge our faith, our trust in the Lord. And faith is primarily trust in God.
Permit me a moment of personal privilege as your pastor, a moment for self-disclosure, for honesty and transparency: the past couple of years have challenged my faith, circumstances have led me to say, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” In other words, “Increase my faith!”
My New York years were marked by the terrorist attacks on 9/11, by Superstorm Sandy, by my divorce, and the resignation of the bishop I worked for because of his sexual misconduct. Then, as I was seeking a new call after my time in the bishop’s office, my son, Nathan, had his near fatal stroke which was followed by his long, arduous recovery. Then the pandemic hit just as I accepted the call to Resurrection Church in Arlington, Virginia, happening at the same time as the national protests against racist police violence and the economic woes related to the pandemic, and on and on the chronic crises went and go.
I was doing really well faith-wise until the pandemic hit along with the radical social isolation that was called for to guard against the virus. That’s when my struggles with faith took hold. It was that isolation, the absence of in-person Christian community, that eroded my sense of faith-related well-being. God felt far away. My spiritual practices, which are communally focused, were quite dry. And I felt distant from my deepest self. In other words, pastors, too, struggle with faith.
I have no doubt that most all of you can name events and circumstances in your lives that have provoked crises of faith. Take a moment to recall some of those times….
So, here we are, people of faith, at Faith Church. I find it intriguing that at the likely end of my career, I am called to serve and to lead at a church called Faith. There’s something about that name: Faith/La Fe.
Have you thought much about the name of our congregation, Faith/La Fe? Just what is faith? Today’s readings certainly invite such consideration, for they shed a lot of light on the meanings of faith.
In the gospel reading from Luke, Jesus spoke about having faith the size of a mustard seed. You may know that mustard seeds are tiny, little specks, seemingly inconsequential. Yet contained in the tiniest of seeds is all of the genetic material necessary to grow to become what it is meant by God to be – a huge plant, an oak tree, a sequoia. Think of it. It’s a marvel. Which is to say, a little bit of faith can go a long way.
Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus seems to chastise his disciples saying, “O ye of little faith.” Well, considering faith the size of a mustard seed, a tiny thing, having only a little faith may not be such a bad thing!
Having only a little faith in God is not a sin. In fact, one of the classic Lutheran definitions of sin is that sin is misplaced trust – trusting in people and things that are not God. That’s the sin, trusting that which is other than God. Which is to say, Jesus is not so concerned, it seems, with the quantity of faith, or even its strength, because in Christ a little bit goes a long way! We may doubt, we may waver, but faith sufficient is there, even the size of a mustard seed. So, it’s not the quantity of our faith, or perhaps even its quality, but that we have faith in God in Christ in the first place – that’s what makes all the difference!
God plants such seeds of faith in us in the proclamation of the word, in the word and water active in baptism, in the bread and wine of the communion meal, in the grace-filled, compassionate holy conversations among us fledgling followers. And through these means, the Holy Spirit causes the seeds of faith to germinate and grow and mature and to come full flower and to bear fruit in the gradual unfolding of time. That’s the gospel truth. This is what it is to increase our faith: the Holy Spirit works in, with, and under what we do every Sunday at church to cause our faith to grow
There’s more about faith in today’s readings. For example, Habakkuk has what seems like a throwaway line, but it’s central to Lutheran identity. Today’s passage concludes: “but the righteous live by their faith.” That’s one of the biblical foundations for our Lutheran teaching about justification by faith, that God saves us by grace effective through faith, through our trusting reception of God’s gracious gifts to us. Thus it is that we Lutherans proclaim, sola fide, faith alone! For it’s the foundation of trusting in God’s grace on which our Christian lives, on which the church is built and stands or falls.
There’s still more about faith in today’s readings. We heard in today’s second reading that faith is something that is passed on from generation to generation. Faith is not an individual, solo act. God’s Spirit works through others with whom we are in relationship to help bring us to faith. Listen again to how the apostle addresses Timothy: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” (2 Timothy 1:5) You would not likely be here today if it weren’t for parents and grandparents, friends, and neighbors whom God has used as vessels to help bring you to faith.
Take a moment to think about those significant others who have nurtured you in faith…. Thus, some musings on the meaning of faith from today’s readings.
At Faith/La Fe, we’re on a journey of faith:
By faith, we meet after worship today to take a vote to call Veronica as a pastor for our Spanish language ministry, with the hope of opening up a future for revitalizing and growing our ministry among Spanish-speakers.
By faith, you and I will formally and liturgically mark the beginning of our shared life in ministry together when Bishop Hutterer is here this coming Wednesday to install me as your pastor, and we’ll see what God has in store for us in the coming years!?!
By faith, we take this journey with plenty of anxiety about money – will we have enough resources to pay for our ministry endeavors?
By faith, we move forward with a set of buildings on a campus that makes many demands on time, energy and resources, but is a gift to our mission.
By faith, we do our work as an aging congregation, ever needful of younger, newer leaders to help take us to God’s promised future.
And by faith, we do all of this amidst a complex and difficult, fraught mission context and climate with social and cultural factors and circumstances which make ministry these days very challenging indeed.
Yet, here in this place our faith is enlivened week after week – by the proclamation of the word, in the celebration of the sacraments, in the love and nurture of God’s people in Christian community.
And then our faith is lived out when we leave this place to do, in humility, what God has commanded to do in showing forth God’s love for the world in our words and deeds, ever following Christ who invites us all to the table, taking the form of a slave to feed us with his very, life-giving, grace-filled presence. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Announcements for October 2:
Special congregational meeting immediately following this service to vote to call Veronica Alvarez as pastor half-time for our Spanish language ministry
Bible study only Wednesday morning this week.
Installation on Wednesday evening at 6:00