The Rev. Dan Rondeau
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Habakkuk 1:1-13 | Psalm 37:1-23 | 2 Timothy 1:1-14 | Luke 17:5-10
Paul wrote: I know the one in whom I have put my trust... 2 Timothy 1: 12
"Increase our faith!" the apostles cried out. And Jesus responded. What can we learn from this encounter?
Faith is a rather mysterious and full word. It has a variety of meanings. The apostles, I think, were asking Jesus to increase their capacity to do what he was asking them to do: leave house and home for his sake; love enemies; bless their persecutors; do not judge others; lay up no riches on earth; forgive endlessly; don't cause others to stumble; and so on. If full faith was indicated by these, they had a long way to go.
I believe that "faith for Jesus was radical trust in Abba—in all things, and for all things. It was personal and intimate—childlike in its simplicity. It was marked by a wholehearted willingness to trust [the Father] in every dimension of life. At home. At work. At play. Anywhere and everywhere in things great and small. And for the persons who placed themselves in this kind of position—who yielded their deepest selves to Abba—all things were possible. Out of such a [grace filled] communion, the abundant life would ensue."1
[My image of faith as Jesus lived it: Jesus in the Garden; "not my will, but yours, be done."]
By his response to the apostles Jesus reveals that faith is a gift. It is not about the disciples and what they are doing, it is about God, and God's generous love. Once accepted, faith then becomes our response to God's gift. That is at least part of what Jesus is teaching the apostles, and teaching us, today.
With the apostles we probably struggle to understand that faith is a gift, and that God gives us the whole gift, not just part of it.
You don't receive a portion of faith and then little by little add to it. You have faith, in its entirety, because God has given you this treasure and you have accepted it; or you do not have it, because you have refused God's gift.
Jesus is saying to his apostles, and to us, you have the gift of faith; if you responded to and used that gift in the smallest measure, you could make a tree move into the sea—which is to say, you could accomplish wonders and marvels beyond your imagining. Jesus is also saying, you don't earn faith, you don't buy God's love, you don't win God's respect by doing. You receive faith as a gift from God.
Along my way to understanding the mystery that the faith in me is first of all God's gift to me I encountered an illustration that helped me a lot. I share it with you this morning. It is from Donald Baillie, a Scottish theologian.
He writes: Let us imagine the case of a small child, a little boy, entrusted to the care of a nursery governess. When she arrives, the little fellow is taken into the room where she is, and left in her care. But she is strange to him, he does not trust her, but looks distantly at this strange woman from the opposite corner of the room. She knows that she cannot do anything with him until she has won his confidence. She knows she has to win it. The little boy cannot manufacture it, cannot make himself trust the governess.
His faith in her is something which he cannot create—only she can create it.
And she knows that she cannot create it by forcing it; she has to respect the personality of the child; and to try to take the citadel by storm would be worse than useless, and would produce fear and distrust instead of confidence.... She sets about her task gently, using various means—words, gestures, and smiles, and perhaps gifts, all of which convey something of the kindness of her heart. Until at last the little fellow's mistrust is melted away, she has won his confidence, and of his own free will he responds to her advances and crosses the floor to sit on her knee. Now that her graciousness, using all these means, has created his faith, she can carry on the good work she has begun.2
With him, I acknowledge that if you press this illustration too far it breaks down. But I hope you begin to understand what Jesus was teaching, what the apostles eventually understood, what Paul came to discover: first, God loves us and gifts us with faith and when we accept that gift and climb into the open arms of God the kingdom of God becomes larger, the world becomes better, hope is renewed and abundant life, abundant living, becomes possible.
Faith for Jesus was radical trust in Abba—in all things, and for all things. It was personal and intimate—childlike in its simplicity. And the Father, Abba, gives this gift freely to you and me. We have received, as gift, the ability to trust the Father, the creator of all that is, seen and unseen, in all things and for all things. We have the ability to enter into an intimate and grace filled communion with God, because God has gifted us with this ability. We need only accept the gift, and live in the power of that gift.
As to the description of slaves and owners and rewards and expectations, Jesus is correcting the notion that we sometimes cling to: faith is measured by what we do, and the better we do the more faith we must have, and the more God will love us and our place in heaven will be secure. Paul, the great apostle tried to live that way.
What Paul discovered was that a perfect score in keeping the Law was both what was expected, no more, no less, and was entirely impossible to do. Not even Paul, in all his zeal, could keep the Law perfectly. And even if he did, it was what the Master, the Creator, expected (the point of the story about the slaves and the slave owner—they did what was expected, no more, no less and the owner was not that impressed). The perfect keeping of the Law would not win God's favor, would not result in God's lavish praise and invitation to sit down at the main table. It would fulfill God's expectations of his creature.
The Good News, discovered by Paul, was that God's gift, faith, was also God's invitation to come and sit at the main table. The gift of faith allowed Paul to relax and not seek perfection in Law keeping. The gift of faith allowed Paul to concentrate on the beauty and wonder of God's love revealed in Jesus Christ.
God's love invited intimacy (calling God, "Abba"), brought forgiveness and reconciliation, produced healing and wholeness, freed those bound by both physical and spiritual chains, broke down barriers separating God's children, and resulted in an abundant life beyond Paul's imagination. The gift of faith, trusting God, the Father, Abba, in all things, seeing God's hand at work in the world, trusting God's handiwork in persons, in situations, in the world, transformed the narrow persecutor of God's church. Paul became much larger, much more potent, much more like the child God envisioned from the beginning, in the moment he accepted the gift of faith and cried out, "Abba."
Of course, he was, like us, a work in progress the rest of his earthly pilgrimage. Never quite done, he was nonetheless, relieved of the burden of being perfect in keeping the law. He was, like the apostles, invited to the main table even if he was less than perfect, even if he fell short that day, even if he didn't deserve the invitation—receiving and using the gift of faith was what he needed.
We, too, struggle between a conviction that we must be perfect in trusting God in all things, in loving God wholeheartedly and loving our neighbor as ourselves and the conviction that in Jesus all our shortcomings have been overcome, or paid for, or redeemed—we need only accept God's gift of faith and experience for ourselves the beauty and wonder and power of God's love revealed in Jesus.
When we are convinced that we have to earn God's love we focus mostly on ourselves. Our actions, no matter how noble, are cheapened by becoming only a payment to receive God's love. When we accept God's gift of faith, and from that vision and trust we act in genuine love for God—to the best of our ability—when we act in genuine love of neighbor—no matter how imperfectly—we rightly have our focus on God and God's kingdom and don't worry as much about ourselves. We have a wonderful freedom in this.
We gather here this morning as God's children. We have experienced at just the right moment and in a way unique to us, the offering of the gift of faith. We are here this morning because no matter how tentatively or imperfectly we have accepted God's gift of faith. Each of us has begun to explore that gift. The promise held out in the Gospel is that if we can begin to use even the tiniest portion of that gift, wonders beyond our imagining can be accomplished. Let us trust God, let us trust Abba, to help us use the gift of faith to accomplish the dreams of His heart for you and me, and for this church.
Let us pray, Abba, Father, in darkness and in light, in trouble and in joy, help us to trust your love, to serve your purpose, and to praise your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.3 Amen.