1 Sermon DATE: OCTOBER 6, 2013 SERMON TEXT: LUKE 17:5--10 SERMON TITLE: "Lord, Increase My Faith It was a reasonable request on the part of the disciples; of all the things they could have asked for, they asked Jesus to increase their faith. In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul includes faith, along with hope and love, as one of the three essential traits of Christian character. But it was not hope or love that the disciples requested of Jesus it was faith; it was their faith that needed to be strengthened. I would submit to you this morning that this simple question of the disciples is foundational to our Christian faith journey. It has been a plea of would-be followers since the beginnings of our Christian faith formation. "Lord, increase my faith." Ever since the concepts of "discipleship" and "following" and "cross bearing" came into being with the advent of our Lord, there has been a constant plea from those who have attempted to follow: "Lord, increase my faith!" What the disciples uncovered in the making of this request addresses the very predicament of followers of the faith. You see, the disciples, in the short time that they knew Jesus, came to a fundamental discovery about the Christian calling. And that is this: under most circumstances the demands to follow Christ are too great for the measure of faith that we possess. Did you hear me? The demands to follow
2 Christ are too great for the measure of faith that we possess. It is the very place the disciples found themselves in that very day. They said, "Lord, we hear what you are asking of us; we hear your call to us to follow, yet we don't know if we have the kind of faith sufficient to follow, to be your disciples. Lord, increase our faith." It was not that the disciples didn't believe in what Jesus was trying to accomplish in his ministry. I am sure that if one had canvassed the disciples all of them could support the idea of healing the sick and casting out demons. I am sure all of them would have been in favor of the inclusion of the outcast, the welcoming home of sinners, and the need to minister to the lost people of the world. The ability to embrace the ideals and the beliefs of Jesus Christ was not the problem. The problem was that they lacked the faith to put these ideals and beliefs into practice in their own lives. So they asked, Lord, increase our faith! Yet there have been times in all our lives when our faith was all we had to cling to, and we have wondered if even our faith would be enough. All of us at some time or another have been faced with life s tragedy: the loss of a loved one; the loss of a job; separation and divorce; illness; or whatever crisis we have faced in our lives. The point I am making is that in all of these circumstances the only thing we were left clinging to was our
3 faith, our trust in a hidden tomorrow. And at times it did not seem our faith was sufficient, so like the disciples we cried out to our Lord, "Increase our faith." I find the way Jesus responds to his disciples very interesting. I would imagine that the answer they were expecting was much different than the one they received. I would suspect that what they wanted to hear was, That's okay, boys. I knew from the beginning you were in way over your heads, so just do the best you can do; give it your best shot, and I'll be happy." That's not what Jesus said at all. In fact, the words he spoke to them probably only heightened their anxiety about their faith. What he told them in a nutshell is this: "What you are called to do, this being disciple stuff, is hard work. There is nothing at all easy about it. In fact it is like a servant who works out in the field all day, working like a dog, and when he comes in from the field, he doesn't go and lie down and rest. He still has to prepare his master's supper. That is what is expected of the servant. And that is exactly what I expect from you. This is no glory job, and if that is what you expected, then you are in for a big surprise. Discipleship is hard work and the only thing that will keep you going is your faith. That is the bad news. Then he continued, The good news is that it only takes a little bit of
4 faith to do it. That's all, just a little bit, about the size of a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds not a big old baking potato, or a giant ear of corn, but a little, bitsy mustard seed. That is all the faith it takes to do what I am asking you to do. You see the disciples are a lot like us or we are a lot like the disciples. They and we think it is the quantity of our faith that makes all the difference. We think if only we had more faith then we would be better disciples. If only we had more faith then it would be easier to walk the Christian walk. And that is just not true. To be a follower of Jesus Christ is hard work, and there is no easy way around it, and how much faith you think you have or you think you need won't make following any easier. It is the quality of your faith, not the quantity. It is like the faith of the Centurion who had a beloved servant who became very ill and was dying. And the Centurion believed that the only thing Jesus had to do was "say the word" and his servant would be healed. Just say the word not touch him, not perform some elaborate service or perform some mystical act. The Centurion believed all Jesus had to do was "say the word." It is the same quality of faith that moved a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years to come up behind Jesus in a crowd in order that she might touch the very edge of his cloak to receive healing for
5 her disorder. Her faith was simple enough for her that she could be healed without even the knowledge of her savior. Simply by touching the hem of his garment she could experience his healing power. It will be the quality of our faith that will enable us to endure the uncertainty of a hidden future. So instead of saying Lord, increase my faith," we should be saying "Lord, improve my faith; refine my faith until it is as small as a mustard seed." Perhaps our faith is too complex. Perhaps our faith need not be any more complex than the faith of a farmer who returns to his fields year after year, regardless of the season before. Regardless of how little rain he had or how much, he relentlessly returns, placing the seed in the ground, believing in the soil and the soil s ability to produce a crop and believing that when fall comes, there will be a harvest. Perhaps that is all Jesus expects from us and our faith. Keep working at what we have. Do not worry about wanting more. Refine what you have. And keep placing your trust in a hidden future, believing in the promises of our Savior.