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October 7, 2007 Rev. Steve Gehlert You get tired. You get angry. You give and give, everywhere, and sometimes you feel used, taken for granted. At home, if you have to carry the weight of everything: cleaning, shopping, cooking, bill paying, and parenting, and usually get whining and non-cooperation if you ask for help. At work, if you do your best, help out those who aren't as conscientious, and yet often still get put down by more vocal co-workers or those you're trying to serve. At church, you do your best to serve and foster a sense of family, yet many who call themselves friends, don't care about such things; their passion is about more worldly things, which to them have become sacred. It's easy to be resentful. It's hard to forgive. Forgiveness is hard. Sometimes you feel like you've had enough, you can't give any more, and you don't want to. And what you feel least like giving is forgiveness. Yet Jesus had just told his disciples that they must forgive again and again. If someone wronged them seven times, but then said, "I'm sorry," they must forgive that person. No wonder they responded, "Lord, increase our faith!" The demands of the Christian life seemed overwhelming - especially in regard to forgiveness. They knew that nothing's harder than forgiving repeated wrongs. They couldn't imagine having enough faith to forgive as Jesus said they must. The only way they thought that it possible is if Jesus would give them more. Jesus responds to their request in a surprising way. He doesn't do some miracle, or give them some teaching to "increase" their faith. Instead he talks about what even a little faith can do. "If," he says, "you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted' and it would obey you." Even a little faith can uproot a tree with an elaborate root system. Wow! He's saying, "You have faith!" The issue's not the amount, but rather whether it is present at all. And since it's present in you, you can do what faith requires, even the most challenging things, which for many of you, is to forgive. The point is, you have faith, and it can enable you to do whatever faithfulness demands. Stop worrying about how much you have and start using it! What good news! We don't have to shy away from anything because "we don't have enough faith." If we have any, we can do what God calls us to do in any situation. What good news, and also, what a challenge! It means there's no excuse for avoiding opportunities to grow or serve; no saying we haven't enough faith to do it. No responding to an invitation to a learning opportunity with, "that's for the really faithful ones." No dismissing a retreat invitation with, "that's for the real believers, I'm just a novice." No recoiling from a request for help to work with the poor or homeless, with the thought that our faith isn't strong enough to take the challenge. We all have enough faith to grow, to share, to serve, and to know the blessing of such times. It's not that we don't have enough faith. We do, and with it amazing things are possible. The problem is that we don't trust it, don't put it to use. The problem is also that we want to use it for the wrong purpose. We see faith as something that's supposed to earn us all kinds of rewards; we want more to get more rewards. That's why he has us imagine a situation where we're in charge, with someone working for us. He asks, when you're the boss, do you cater to your worker? Do you say, "Come on in, sit down, put on my slippers, watch my TV! Let me get you a drink! Let me make you supper! Of course not! Do you reward people with special gratitude for doing what they're supposed to be doing? I don't think so! Then, without warning, he flips us out of our in-charge position: "When you've done all that's asked of you, (all that faithfulness requires), say, ‘We're only servants; we've only done our duty.'" That's the modest view we're to have. As servants doing what God expects, we don't expect rewards. How do these teachings connect with Jesus' hard sayings about what it means to be faithful? First, by enabling us to see that it's not just those who are lazy or irresponsible, insensitive or hurtful, passionate about the wrong things or just plain idolatrous, who are tempted to live as if they are the center of the universe, the faithful can be tempted to assume that they are too. They can be tempted to assume that they should, somehow, be protected from wounds and injustices. They aren't. In fact, given what happened to Jesus, they can expect to be hurt by those who belong to the world. It happened to Jesus, why wouldn't it happen to those who follow his way? Faith is a blessing but it's not protection from the cost of discipleship. Second, by reminding us that faith is its own blessing, not a ticket to some greater reward. The faithful are faithful, not because they're trying to get something, but because they know that they've already been blessed, and so they are grateful. That gratitude increases their trust in God, their love for God, and their desire to serve God. That's what the faithful do - trust, love, and serve God. Living that faith is the blessing of faith. It's what moves us toward life in right relationship with our selves, with God, and our neighbor. It's what the Bible calls "shalom," what those on retreat last weekend shared a taste of together. What could be greater than that? That is true wealth beyond all measure. If you're blessed with that how could you think something else could be "more?" Faith is all we need. May God help us find it, trust it, use it, and share it. Amen. |
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