Enough faith (Proper 22 & harvest)

 Luke 17: 5-10

Do you remember the scene in the film “Oliver”…?

Where Oliver Twist, the beautiful blond haired urchin takes his emptied bowl of gruel and asks “Please, sir, can I have some more?”. You will remember the roar of disapproval from Mr Bumble - the portly man in charge -  “MORE?!”.

 

Poor Oliver asks because he hasn’t enough.

By contrast we celebrate having so much…

 

How lovely it always is to pause and celebrate harvest.

Of course, we eat every day – several times a day if we’re lucky. But we don’t always remember to stop and give thanks. So today we make sure we do that.

 

Being surrounded with so much produce – either here in church or in our gardens and fields and shops – we realise how blessed we are, how grateful to God.

And so we celebrate having enough – and then we can be generous with what we have to share with others.

  

The story we heard today of Jesus and the disciples might make us wonder what it means to have enough faith.

The story begins with the disciples approaching Jesus with a seemingly reasonable request:  “Lord! Increase our faith!” .

 

Jesus has been teaching things like: Love your enemies, bless those who curse you. Forgive even when it’s not deserved. Give without expecting anything in return. Be ready to take up your cross. 

So maybe it’s no surprise that the disciples ask for help. If we are going to be those kinds of disciples, we’re going to need a boost to our faith.

 

But Jesus’ response to the disciples feels a bit like that “More?!” response. More… faith?” and he tells them that if they had faith as small as a mustard seed, they could command a mulberry tree to uproot itself and replant in the sea…and it would obey. 

I think Jesus is telling them that even a little faith can do great things. But I’m left wondering what is the point of asking a tree to plant itself in the sea.

 

Perhaps Jesus is saying that great, flashy shows of faith are about as useful as uprooting a tree and planting it in the sea.

So if Jesus is warning people not to seek more faith to do flashy things - what is faith for? and do the disciples really need more faith?

 

Jesus helps his disciples to think about what faith really means by asking his disciples whether a servant would be so cavalier as to demand a meal with his master, or want special praise for doing his basic household duties. 

 

Now, this may strike us as a little odd because we know Jesus wasn’t in the habit of speaking unkindly about slaves or people of low status. He had many parables to tell about the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, where the lowest and the least are given special honour.

So what is Jesus trying to say to the disciples?

Firstly -  “Enough”, you already have enough faith – you don’t need more.

 

The faithful servant doesn’t ask for more – doesn’t ask for rewards or upgrades – but gets on with the task of serving. That is what faith in Jesus is about – not having more and more proof of God’s blessing, not being filled, on demand, with a great sense of purpose, not being lifted into some holy state of certainty that Jesus IS God with us – but serving, following, trusting.

Real faith is a falling into line behind Jesus and seeking to serve the kingdom of God, about which he teaches.

 

Secondly, I think Jesus is saying that the mistake the disciples make isn’t so much in asking for more faith, but in thinking they don’t already have enough, in thinking God’s grace is insufficient. 

 

I think we can imagine Jesus with a twinkle in his eye as he warns the disciples that they already have enough faith.

 

But surely Jesus performed miracles himself?

Why did he not hold himself in check and after a hard day of teaching stop and say ‘that’s enough’?

 

The miracles – the signs and wonders performed by Jesus and described in the gospels  - always had a point. They healed, liberated, fed, blessed, restored and comforted people. And so they pointed to the mission of Jesus and the purpose of the Kingdom he announced.

Jesus taught about the kingdom of God and then demonstrated the coming of that kingdom in the lives of people around him.

 

We meet here to celebrate the harvest – and we know we have enough food – and more to share.

But we meet as people of God, as followers of Jesus Christ, so what about our faith?

Do we have enough?

 

If we are to be disciples of Jesus who are full of faith – faithful – we need to follow Jesus as closely as we can.

We don’t need to ask for more faith as evidence from God that we are on the side of the blessed. But we affirm the faith we have and pray that God will use us and bless us.

 

We have enough faith, says Jesus – because even faith the size of a tiny mustard seed can do amazing things.

As we seek to follow Jesus we seek to do amazing things - to heal, liberate, feed, bless, restore and comfort people.

 

So may there be a harvest in our lives of good works, sharing the life of Jesus with everyone we meet.

 

And all in service of Jesus and for the glory of God.  Amen.