Sunday, October 27, 2013

Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 84; II Timothy 4:6-8,16-18; Luke 18:9-14

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

When I first started going to church many years ago I had some real problems with people there. Do you ever have problems with church people?

I certainly did.

I was at that time - and still am - what some would call a bible believing Christian - I not only took my bible to church with me every Sunday, but I normally had one in my smartphone.

At that time the faith was new to me and I was enthusiastic and eager.

Winning souls for God was important to me, prayer was important; enthusiasm in worship was important - and, while I was in a very good congregation, I nevertheless found that I was in some kind of minority within the church.

I looked around me at worship services - and I saw that many people there did not read their bibles, they did not sing the hymns, they did not seem to pray, nor did they fellowship with their brothers and sisters afterwards.

How many of you people do that you know - check out what other people are doing during worship? Looking to see if they are singing, or if they close their eyes during prayer time or lift up their hands?

I think lots of us do it. During worship - and at other times in our life together.

And when I did it, when I checked things out, I noted that many in my congregation seem more concerned that the service end exactly one hour after it began so they could get home and eat - than they were about the actual worship they were involved in.

I noted too that very few of the congregation ever bothered attending the weekly bible studies and fewer still in prayer meetings; and - and that - as far as I could tell by how they talked - most of them had never really grasped the Gospel message is one of grace - instead of works - that Jesus died not so people who treated one another decently could be rewarded - but so that sinners could approach the throne of God and find there a welcome that they do not deserve.

I had real problems with some of the people in the church in other words. To my eyes the church was full of hypocrites, full of people who could barely talk the talk, let alone walk the walk.

You ever make judgements like that??? You ever thought of yourself as better than someone else???

One of the biggest issues I had at worship services in those days were the prayers of confession that were often printed in the bulletin - as one was printed in our bulletin this morning.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I still have a strong reaction to the words that I find in prayers of confession that have been written by other people.

The fact that those prayers were prayers of confession didn't bother me. I knew I was a sinner. What bothered me was the kinds of sins that were often listed in the prayers - things like - neglect of the poor - selfishness - ingratitude - racism - and the like.

I found it hard to pray some of those prayers because I knew in my heart that I had not done those particular things - that I was not especially selfish or neglectful of the poor, nor was I in any way a racist, or ungrateful for all that God, and indeed other people, did for me.

I found it hard, in part, because I knew in those long ago days that, all in all, I was pretty much on the right track.

While I was not well off, I gave a substantial amount to the work of God each year, a tenth of my income in fact, and that little tenth was more than most others in the church gave, though they had far more income than I.

Indeed, I tithed, I went to prayer meetings every Wednesday night, I attended a bible study every Tuesday night, and I worshipped almost every Sunday morning - even if I had friends meeting me for lunch or relatives were expected to drop in for supper, and helped out whenever I could with church special events, and helped lead in worship whenever and wherever I was needed.

Not bad eh? I know that many of you out there have been there. You have been faithful. You have been generous. You have worked hard and asked nothing in return.

Like me all those years ago, you too have realized God needs many workers in his vineyard. Like me, you knew too that your efforts have made a difference both to others, and in the end, to you.

Now in all this you have to understand I was not particularly prideful. Any more than the hard workers among you are particularly prideful.

I knew that there were sins that I committed - I knew that I needed God's grace and forgiveness - I believed that it was only because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice upon the cross that I would enter heaven.

My favourite hymns in fact revolved around these ideas - and I, even with the poor memory that I have, memorized some of the key verses of those hymns: verses from songs like those we sing today:

Amazing Grace - how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now and found, was blind, but now I see.

Or

Just as I am, without one plea - but that O Lord, you died for me.

One of my favourite sayings from that time of my life, in fact it is still one of my favourite sayings, was a short and simple one that is know to you all - There, but for the grace of God, go I.

Those hymns, those verses, and that saying, my friends, are good stuff, they are of the essence of the Gospel - but I want to suggest to each of you here today, that they can easily be misused by us; that they can be, for us, songs and words that allow us to feel good about ourselves, and good about what we are about, instead of being words that penetrate and pierce our hearts!

We may, in other words, comprehend in our heads what these words concerning God's grace mean, but in our hearts, and with our feet and our hands and our lips, display a total lack of true appreciation for their messages.

In still other words, We may fail, by our behaviours and by our attitudes to really understand who we are before God - and who we are in relationship to one another.

Hear today's reading from the Gospel once again:

"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'

If you were one of the two persons described in that reading, which would you be?

You know, it is one thing to thank God for what he has done for us, for the blessings we have received. but it is quite another thing to compare ourselves to one another and to thank God for the differences, as if somehow we are better than that poor miserable tax collector over there, better than that single mother who drinks too much, or that clumsy idiot who is our fellow worker or the parishioner who sits next to us and seems to have no real faith at all.

But we do it don't we?

We do it - whether we see ourselves as the tax collector begging God's forgiveness, or as the Pharisee - who has been diligent in all things of the faith.

I don't know about you. But I suspect that most of you do it.

Even I, many years later from when I began, find myself doing it on occasions, I still find others lacking something - which I, by the logic of the observation, think I have.

Why oh why do we, do I, such dumb things? Why oh why do we, do I, engage in behaviour, or hold an attitude, that can do not but end up dividing us, one from another?

That is the mystery of sin my friends. It has power.

And while we have breath, we must continually fight that power. We must fight it - and we must trust in the good Lord to forgive us when we fail.

You all know the Jesus Prayer don't you? That famous prayer that is recommended as a mantra, which we should repeat over and over again, when we get down to serious praying?

"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."

"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."

"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."

It comes from today's Gospel reading - where the tax collector - the lowest of the low according to all that was right and holy in those days - and even today - beats his breast and says: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner".

Words to live by. Words to cultivate in our minds and hearts that we might know the true joy of salvation.

There is a beautiful promise in today's gospel lesson my friends, the promise is this:

"All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

It is a promise of God, but it is also a challenge - a challenge because it is very hard not to exalt oneself - very hard not to think that somehow or other, that I am better than that person over there: that tax collector, that sinner, that arrogant person, that cheat, that hypocrite, that lazy person, that liar, that domineering person.

It is very hard, but it is not impossible .

We do not have to think that we have the one right answer; that because we do this or that thing better, or more often than others, we are somehow better people, wiser people, or holier people than those who do it poorly or less often than we.

We do not have to think that because we are more diligent at serving God inside the church and out, that because we tithe, or attend worship more often than most other people, that we are somehow more important, or more faithful, or more loved by God than they are.

Nor do we have to think - that because we work hard, pay our taxes, and refuse to hold out our hands, that we are better than immigrants from the third world, or politicians, or those who own big businesses, or people on welfare.

"All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

A promise. And a challenge, a challenge that we are all called to embrace a challenge that we are all called to work on.

There is an old saying that goes like this:

"The person who thinks he can live without others is mistaken; the person who thinks that others can't live without him are even more mistaken."

Our prayer each day - should not be "O Lord, I thank you that I am not like other people - like John or Jane, like my mother or my fellow worker"; but rather it should be "I thank you God that you are so good to me - me a miserable sinner; help me be good to others in the same way."

May His Name be praised day by day. Amen!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Habakkuk 1:1-3, 2:1-4; II Timothy 4:1-5; Luke 18:1-8

Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, oh our rock and our redeemer. Amen

A security guard of a large department store saw a boy standing at the bottom of the escalator one day. The security guard became suspicious. He watched the boy for a while. The boy had his eyes glued on the moving handrail. Finally the security guard went over to the boy and questioned him. "Something wrong young man?" he asked? "No sir "., replied the boy, not taking his eyes off the handrail, "I'm just waiting for my bubble gum to come back."

Perseverance is a theme in all three readings from the scriptures today - perseverance in the face of suffering and injustice - perseverance in the face of neglect and rejection - perseverance in the face of trials and adversities.

But not just any kind of perseverance is featured in our scripture readings; rather the perseverance of faith is held up to us, that perseverance which arises out of the hope that we have in God and which plays out in how we live in the world, whether the time is favourable or unfavourable.

Often of course the times are unfavourable.

We face issues far more serious than having our bubble gum get stuck on an escalator handrail - we face a world that to most of us seems completely mad, completely out of control - and we can easily slip into despair.

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not listen? Pleads the prophet Habakkuk - Or cry to you "violence" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention is all around me!

Who can blame a person for pushing the buttons on the remote control when the news comes on? For changing the channels when pictures of starving children on the African continent are presented.... it all seems so helpless and we cannot watch.

Yes, the times can be unfavourable indeed - and it is hard, very hard, to believe in God some days. How, oh how, can he let this pain, this suffering, this gross injustice continue?

It is easy my friends to loose heart - to forget - in the face of woe - just who we have and what we have in our God.

It is easy to forget the truth upon which the world is founded. The laws by which it ultimately operates, and the decrees to which it will finally be subjected to.

The apostle Paul's young friend Timothy went through a period of forgetting like this.

He attempted to preach the Gospel and was threatened by the authorities; he tried to spread the word - but was ignored by the crowds; he spoke of healing and of salvation and of those few who responded many ended up arguing over doctrines and beliefs as if the dotted I's and crossed T's of each word they had heard was critically important and God would reject those who did not believe exactly as they did.

I rather imagine that Timothy felt like he was spitting into the wind, spinning his wheels, going nowhere in a hurry.

Certainly Paul thought that Timothy had developed that feeling, that is why he wrote to him as he did:

Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed... In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom - I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching....always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

Many forces attack us my friends, often it seems that all there is is bad news - and we find ourselves losing heart - indeed many fall into doubt and unbelief when faced with suffering and injustice.

And that is very sad - for it gives the victory to the enemy.

We do not struggle, brothers and sisters, against flesh and blood, but rather we struggle against principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

Our enemy is Satan, and he wants us to surrender, to give up, to let go of God and to sink into despair.

We are in a spiritual battle and we need to use the spiritual tools provided by God if we are to be victorious, if we are keep the faith and not loose heart.

One of those tools most surely is prayer - persistent prayer - persevering prayer.

Jesus tells the parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge to illustrate what our prayer to God should be like: it should be continual - and demanding - and never give up, never give up no matter what the opposition throws at us, never give up until the day when the justice he has promised arrives.

But another tool, and certainly the most basic tool that God provides, is the faith we have - the faith that is referred to in the parable of the widow and the unjust judge when Jesus, after saying how God will respond to those who ask for justice, asks:

"and yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Faith, my friends, is a living thing, and like all living things produces still more life, that is - if it survives long enough - if it is nurtured and nourished properly.

Too many of us give up. We cry out to God and our neighbours for help, we complain about how hard things are and how we are suffering, but we never get down and do that which we really need to do, we never feed ourselves on the word of God and take comfort and strength from all that it says, and so we end up contracting a case of spiritual malnutrition and we waste away - all the while expressing great surprise and disappointment- as if it could be any different!

Will Christ find faith in this world when he returns?

Will he find people nurtured by the living word of God? People who are strong enough to weep with those who suffer and to demand healing and justice from the unjust judges of our world as they continually pray and wait for the true and final justice of God to be executed upon the world?

What I am saying to you is quite simply this - God has provided us with what we need to persevere with, he has provided us with all the tools we require to live life triumphantly and well.

There is a victory! There is justice! There is a time when what goes around comes around! Just as that young boy knew as he waited at the escalator handrail for his gum.

I ask you to remember God's answer to Habakkuk's cry - an answer that is also given to us by Jesus in the gospel....

There is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it. It will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud - their spirit is not right within them, but the righteous live by their faith.

My friends , our pain when we look upon the evil in this world is a good thing - it tells us that we are still alive spiritually, that we still care.

Jesus lamented over Jerusalem - knowing how it would be destroyed. He wept at the grave side of Lazarus - sharing the sharing the pain of Mary and Martha. And he raged over the corruption and injustice of the Temple authorities and the teachers of the law who placed burdens on the backs of others that they would not carry themselves.

Should we be different than he who is our Master, our Saviour, our Friend?

Jesus said

"Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. My yoke is easy, and burden is light"

I have always take that to mean that we put down the burdens of anxiety and fear that we care - those centred on such things as what we shall eat and what we shall wear and how successful should we be - and take upon ourselves the kind of burden Jesus bore - concern for the poor, care for the sick, anger for the unjust, compassion for the lost.

And of course - my friends - it is a yoke of service - of walking the walk as well as talking the talk, no matter what the time is like.

The burden is light - not because it lacks any seriousness - but because it is carried within us by the power of faith - of trust - and of confidence - those things that are nurtured in us by the word of God and by persistent conversation with him in prayer.

I would like to end with a story about the nature of persistence - of perseverance if you will - it is about the first pilot to fly across the United States from coast to coast.

On September 17 1911 Galbraith Perry Rogers left Long Island, New York and on November 5th he arrived in Pasadena, California. The time Captain Perry spent in the air was only 3 days and 10 hours and 14 minutes. Along the way he crashed 39 times and made 30 other unscheduled stops. The only parts of the original plane that were left and completed the trip were the rudder the drip pan.

Pray always and do not loose heart, feed upon the word of God, be persistent whether the time be favourable or unfavourable, and our Lord will give you his yoke and his burden, and lead you and our world into the fulness of the Kingdom of God.

Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Jeremiah 29:1,4-7; Psalm 66; II Timothy 2:8-15; Luke 17:11-19

O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

On the way to Jerusalem to face the cross - while he was near Samaria - Jesus encounters ten lepers - ten outcasts - ten people with, for their time at least, the equivalent of AIDS.

They are under a sentence of death - no one will come near them - no one will touch them - no one will even touch their clothing and their eating utensils.

By the rules of their society, rules created because of the fear of contamination, lepers were forced to live apart from everyone else, and on those occasions when they drew near to others for one reason or other, they rang little bells to announce their presence and to warn others to stand off.

Until very recently Lepers were treated as the living dead - shunned and avoided, they were regarded as unclean - as people most likely guilty of great sin - as men and women of the greatest misfortune - as people beyond help and beyond all but the least significant form of compassion - charity.

As Jesus enters a village ten lepers approach him and, mindful of the rules of their society, mindful of their need to avoid contaminating anyone, and mindful too of the fear that others had of them, they call out to Jesus from a distance: "Jesus, Master, Have Mercy On Us."

What a plaintive cry that must have been. With what sense of futility, what desperate hope - must they have called out?

But Jesus does respond - even to them - but he does so in a most unusual manner.

Rather than saying, as he had said to others - "be healed - rise up - look and see - take up your bed and walk", Jesus responds to their cry by saying - "go and show yourselves to the priests".

It helps us to know that Jesus was referring to Leviticus, chapter fourteen, verses two and three, which specifies what a priest is to do with a leper who happens to get healed.

Lepers were not allowed in the temple because they were regarded as "unclean". If cured, however, the leper could gain re-admission to the temple, and to the rest of society, if he was ritually purified and certified as "clean" by a priest.

Still, Jesus' command to the ten lepers is a bit confusing. They have asked for mercy - they have asked to be healed. But Jesus does nothing for them but tell them to go and act as if they are healed - to go and present themselves to the priests as if they were whole, healed, accepted, living people.

Yet, despite the unusual response of Jesus - despite the possible confusion in understanding what Jesus is about, they go, and as they go - as they walk down the path towards the priests in the village they are healed.

The Greek for the word healed here - in verse 14 and again in verse 17 is IAOMAI - which literally means cleansed or cured.

As we know - one of the ten - a Samaritan man upon realizing he has been made clean, turns back and praising God with a loud voice he comes up Jesus and prostrates himself, he falls on his knees and his face before Jesus's feet, and thanks him.

And Jesus looks upon him - and he says something very strange - and very important to his disciples. He says:

"'Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?' And then he says to the man: 'Get up and go on your way, your faith has made you well.'"

The word for well that is used here in the Greek is SOZO - which like the word IAOMAI - can be used to mean "healed" - but unlike IAOMAI, SOZO also means to be made whole or to saved.

My friends, we all know, or ought to know, that faith makes us whole. That is a basic tenant of our teaching. But here, in this story, we have the opportunity to see faith in a different light than we might normally see it.

We have the opportunity to see faith as something that leads us to a life that is more than normal.

And we have the opportunity to see faith as nothing more difficult and as nothing more profound as remembering what God has done and giving thanks to him for it.

What, after all, is the difference between the nine lepers who are made clean and the tenth leper who is not only made clean, but made whole? Between the nine who go to the priests as commanded and the one who returns to Jesus praising God and thanking Jesus for healing him?

Robert Capon, in his book "Parables of Grace" urges us to think about it this way.

The ten lepers are all dead people. Whether you are talking physically, spiritually, or socially, they are dead. They would love to get healed which, in this context, means they would love to get raised from the dead, and return back home to a "normal life".

That's all that they, like most people, ever really asked for. Just a chance to "be like other people", an opportunity to go back home be like everyone else, to be normal. They assume that this is what Jesus is all about - a return to the normal, a revival of the ordinary for people who, because of their infirmity and illness, are abnormal and sub-ordinary.

But one of the healed lepers, the Samaritan, realizes real resurrection. He alone comes back to say "Thanks". He realizes that his healing comes from God - through Jesus - and that God has put him in a relationship to Jesus - and that relationship alone has made him whole and alive again.

All that the other nine wanted out of Jesus was to made well, to go back home and start all over again, doing what everybody else had been doing: going to school, driving to work on Mondays, attending synagogue on Friday night if nothing more interesting is going on, eating yogurt out of plastic containers, meeting someone and maybe starting a family of nice, normal, ordinary kids? And who would blame them?

But that one Samaritan comes back not only cured, but saved, made whole.

He comes back - saved - because he alone saw that his healing, his resurrection, for what it was.

He was saved and accepted by Jesus - by God - while he was a leper, while he was still sick, while he was untouchable, before he got well.

He realized that Jesus didn't just want to heal people, much less make them normal, but that he wanted to, and had the power to, raise them from the dead, now. Today.

Nine lepers got healed, one got saved.

Nine people go away from Jesus healed, but not saved, because they put their lives as lepers, as outcasts, as dead people, behind them.

They go in obedience most certainly, but they go in a hurry, anxious to be on with it, to begin living like everyone lives.
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They go away unsaved because all they really want is a normal life - a life like that they have dreamed of, a life like that which they had before they became lepers - a life like everyone else's.

But the tenth leper - he is not in such a hurry to forget how bad it was - he's not in such a hurry to get a normal life. He realizes something important.

He realizes that the hand of God has touched his life; that Jesus has accepted him - as he accepted the other nine, before he, before they, were healed.

It didn't matter to Jesus that they were lepers, that they were outcasts, that they were dead in their sins.

And the Samaritan realizes this - he realizes how unusual, how out of the ordinary, how exceptional this is, and he gives thanks to God, and to Jesus for it; and his acknowledgement of this fact - his Thanksgiving - is called faith by Jesus, a faith that saves.

How many of us have made vows to God to do something for him if only God in return would do this or that for us - and them promptly forgotten those vows when our lives have returned to normal?

Too strong an example?

Well then, how many of us have had an experience of divine grace - only to forget that experience shortly there afterward like those who have never encountered grace?

How many us have had an experience of knowing that God is truly out there and that he truly cares - only to go on with living our lives like normal people, like those who have never known the grace of God's forgiveness or the wonder of his many gifts?

Too remote an example?

Well, how many of us have been in trouble, how many of us have despaired, how many of us have been rejected by friends and by family members, and then encountered one day a person who has really helped us, or experienced an event or a series of events that has allowed us to live again, to live and rejoin those whom we had feared forever lost to us and then failed to treat each day thereafter as a incredible gift from God?

I fear that all too many of us are in the position of the nine lepers who went onward to the priests and to a renewal of their "normal lives".

What a shame to have met Jesus, the Lord and Giver of Life, to have met the one who loves to eat and drink with sinners and to worship in the synagogues and in the temple and to pray alone on the mountain tops and in the wilderness, and to then come away from that meeting with nothing more than our health.

What a shame to have met Jesus, the risen Christ, the one who takes us and embraces us just as we are, the one who forgives us and gives us his resurrection power, and come away from that meeting with nothing more than normal.

The power of salvation, of wholeness, is in remembering our previous state - what was normal for us - how we were enslaved by the powers of despair, darkness, and death, and seeing the miracle of what we have now - of seeing that God has acted and is still acting ,of then acting like this is the day that the Lord alone has made, and rejoicing and being glad in it.

Our faith is not about how to live a normal life. It is about how God touches us and Christ embraces us, and raises not only that which was dead to new life, but transforms that which was ordinary into the blessedness of the more than normal, the blessedness of knowing that God's hand and God's heart is in each and every moment of each and every new day.

One day Jesus healed ten lepers. Of them nine went away as commanded to show themselves to the priests and to return to their normal lives. But one of them, a Samaritan, turned and gave Jesus thanks - and he was made whole, he was saved - on account of his faith.

Blessed be God, day by day. Amen.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

II Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10

Lord of light - shine upon us. God of love fill our hearts with your wisdom. Holy Spirit, bring yourself closer to us in my words and how we hear them, in our thoughts and how we think them. Use this time - and use us to accomplish your good will. Amen

There is a legend from the Orient about a traveller making his way to a large city. One night he meets two other travellers along the road - Fear and Plague.

Plague explains to the traveller that, once they arrived at their destination, they are expected to kill 10,000 people in the city.

The traveller asks Plague if Plague would do all the killing.

Oh, no. I shall kill only a few hundred. My friend Fear will kill the others.

Fear, whether real or imagined, can discourage us, overwhelm us, strangle us. And fear is widespread in our society, from the personal - fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of not being loved, to the social - fear that war and disasters will gone on forever, fear that society will collapse, fear that the pollution will kill us, and so on and on.

And in the church too there is fear. The personal fears. The social fears. And the spiritual fears.

There a lot of people who feel

- that they are not able to do anything important
- that they can not and do not make a difference to anyone,
- that they are unable even to do even a part of what it is that God asks them to do,
- and that the great work that obviously needs to be done will never be done, and that they will let God down, and that God will let them down.

Many Christians are in a mess, they have forgotten what their faith is all about, they have forgotten what it is that God can accomplish.

Do these feelings describe your life - fear, despair, a sense of futility, a sense of hopelessness?

Do you feel unexcited by your worship of the Lord? Unsure of just what the good news of the Gospel is? Burdened by life and by what is that God asks of you? And yet wanting to believe - wanting to do what is right - wanting to have the life that God has promised us even in the here and now?

Wanting, and yet...

How can I feed the hungry?
How can I clothe the naked?
How can I bring peace to those around me?
How can I spread the gospel of Jesus Christ?
How can I forgive the people who have hurt me so badly?
How can I even experience the joy that is supposed to be part of life with?
God, let alone help bring it to others?

The disciples experienced these feelings. In our Gospel reading today we heard them cry out to Jesus a cry that perhaps you have made at one time or another.

They felt that what they faced in life, let alone what they faced as ones who wanted to follow Jesus, was too much for them, too much for their small faith to handle and so they cry out to the Lord- "Lord - increase our faith"

"Lord, help us believe enough so that we can do what it is that you have commanded us to do - help us trust enough so that we can live as you say we should be living. Lord, take away our fear."

And what does Jesus do - how does he answer their prayer?

Does he lay his hands upon them and pray and give them more faith as they asked?

Does he snap his fingers and grant them a double dose of his Spirit and his Faith?

No my friends - he does not - instead he says to them

"if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'be uprooted up and planted in the sea", and it would obey you".

A strange answer - but really the best answer that could be made because you see the issue for us all is not: "how much faith do we have?" but rather: "do we have any faith at all?"

Let me tell you a story:

Many years ago shoe company sent one of its sales people to a far away country to start a business. After a few months he sent back the message: "Coming home, nobody wears shoes here."

The same company sent another sales person to the same backward company in his place. After a few months she wrote the home office this note: "Send more order forms - nobody wears shoes here."

The second salesperson saw the opportunity in her situation - not the difficulty - and more - she believed in her product - and because of that she succeeded where the first salesperson failed.

Faith is somewhat like pregnancy. You simply can't make a valid distinction between having a little faith and a lot of faith anymore than you can claim that someone is a little bit pregnant but not really a lot pregnant.

If we believe - even a little - even the smallest amount - then my friends we are on the right track.

And I believe all of you here today are on the right track, all of you asking - like the disciples asked - "increase our faith"

Having said that and having understood the distinction between having faith and not having faith - the question becomes for us not one of how much faith we have, but what we have faith in.

Too many of us look at ourselves instead of God.

We look at ourselves and we say - I can't do it. I am not strong enough, wise enough, loving enough, giving enough, I do not have the money, the power, or the faith to succeed at what I am doing.

And that my friends is completely true - we are not able! We do not have what it takes when it comes to dealing with what is truly important.

But my brothers and sisters in Christ - God has it - God is able, and when we take hold of Him and believe in him, even a very little, his power is able to flow through us - and he will work through us what is his will to do.

We have all met people who have lived through very difficult times, and no doubt many of us have thought about them that they must have had great faith to come out of their tribulations as well as they have.

We may even have said to them - with respect and admiration: "I don't think I could have faced what you have faced. Your faith must be very great."

I have heard this said to people, and I have heard the answer that they normally make. They reply almost always with words like these:

"My faith is no greater than anyone else's. I just didn't know what I had until I needed it. God helped me, if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have made it."

Haven't you heard this kind of thing yourselves? Isn't it one of those occasions when we may have said to ourselves: "I wish I had a faith like theirs"?

You know those people of faith that we admire are so right in what they say. We so often do not realize just what we have. We let it lie dormant in us - asleep in us - and we go out looking for something else. While all the while - God is there - and our faith in God is there - doing very little.

The good news of Jesus Christ covers all areas of human life, it speaks of forgiveness and peace and eternal life, it addresses the problems of poverty and of war, it provides solutions to despair and answers to human distress.

But most of all my friends it tells us that alone we can do nothing, that we are, as many of us think, incapable, inadequate, sinners lost in a dark world, and then it tells us that we are not alone, that God cares, that God works in the lives of those who believe in him, that God's good purposes can't be thwarted, that his word does not return to him empty, that he desires to transform not just the human heart - but the world in which we live, and that all we need to do is reach down to that little kernel, that little seed within us and begin to do what it is that we have been called to do and God will do the rest..

God will do the rest - that is his promise.
God will work in us and through us and bring his word to pass.
He will pluck up the mountains and fill in the valleys.
He will bring about the kingdom that we pray for.

What I am saying to you today is not - "have more faith" - but rather - "work with the faith that you already have".

My friends, when we start acting in faith the very first thing we discover is that a little is a lot.

The Chinese proverb tells us that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

I am saying - take the step; follow the commands of God - heed his advice found throughout the scriptures and believe - that what God has promised will come about.

Remember - no matter how small the step the step you take you are get closer to your destination when take it. But you have to take the step, you have to start claiming God's word as your own if you are to receive what God has promised and do what God has called you to do.

When you practice the faith, when you pray, when you believe and when you do, then, in the language of the story that I began with, you will overcome - God will overcome - plague and his far more dangerous companion - fear, and the blessings of life will be more completely yours, yours and the world's.

Praise be to God, day by day - AMEN!