October 3, 2004; The 18th Sunday after Pentecost Readings: Habakkuk 1:1-6, 12-13; 2:1-4; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10; Psalm 37:3-10.   The Rev. Dr. Hilary B. Smith Occasions for Faith Jesus is speaking to the disciples. Giving them some basic instruction about life lived with him in mind. We come in on the conversation as the disciples say to Jesus "Increase our faith!" "Increase our faith!" It is a plea from those who feel unprepared for the tasks at hand. What huge challenge had Jesus just given to his followers? First five verses of Luke 17, which come right before today’s gospel reading, deal with occasions for stumbling, causing others to stumble, and the need to forgive. Occasions for stumbling are bound to come—we hear. Literally translated from the Greek: "it is impossible for scandals not to come." The scandals referred to here are those that cause another to lose his or her faith and turn away from Jesus. People do things that cause others to turn away from Jesus. What might those things be? What comes to your mind? The possibilities are many. In his book the Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis creates characters, demons, whose work it is to lead people away from Christ. In the book, there is a man who is relatively new to the faith and the church. He is sitting in the pew and the younger demon is instructed by his mentor demon to put ideas into the man’s head—while he is sitting there in church! The young demon gets the man to think about what hypocrites his fellow churchgoers are, and how they do not act like Christians. The demon is trying to get the new Christian to leave the church. It is going to be much easier to get the man to abandon his faith once he is outside the walls of the sanctuary—away from the sacraments and the grace given through corporate prayer and worship. Occasions for stumbling do come, and "woe to those by whom they come"—those who cause another to stumble. Jesus goes on to say, but if that person repents you must forgive even if the person commits the same sin against you seven times a day. That’s the point when the disciples cry out, "Increase our faith!" Jesus was not telling them to end hunger or cure all the sick. He was not asking them to take the gospel to all nations or walk in water at that moment. No, he was just telling them about the reality of the faith journey and the need to forgive others. The disciples feel absolute unprepared and ill-equipped to face these tasks. "Increase our faith!"—they plead. This is where Jesus gets a bit exasperated with his followers. "If you had the faith of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you." In other words, if you have even a small amount of faith, you can do amazing things. Then Jesus goes on to remind the disciples about who they are. In relation to God their master, they are worthless slaves. Now, obviously Jesus does not think of anyone as being worthless. Here again, he is using a dramatic example to make his point. The disciples are servants of God, who are called to do certain things by God. It is God who makes it possible for the disciples to work in God’s field. With faith the size of a mustard seed, you and I can do amazing things. We can do these things because God makes it possible. As we hear in Ephesians 3, it is God’s power working in us that can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. In our culture of achievement and individual glory, this is good news indeed. We can step back and recognize that it is God who makes life possible not us. It is God who brings us into a faith community not us. It is God who makes it possible for us to forgive not us. It is God who brings people into our lives and into our church not us. It is God who brings new life from what was dead not us. Now, or course, God uses us. God calls us. In fact, as the disciples found, God often calls us to things that are difficult. We are part of God’s plan of redemption for our world. Redemption is never easy, but it gets much easier when we remember who we are. We are the disciples of our time. We have all the same limitations and weakness that they had. That should give us some hope because God used those first Christians to change the world. They were limited, but God was not. They were uncertain, but God was sure. God took those little mustard seeds of faith and planted field after field. We are still harvesting those fields even as we plant new ones. We are planting our mustard seeds when we reach out to those who do not yet know God’s great love for them. We are planting when we focus on children and youth. We are planting our mustard seeds when we grow closer as a church through fellowship. We are planting when we help the needy in our community. We are planting when we offer worship experiences that glorify God through words and music. Just this week we received a letter from Bishop Lee informing us that we have received a grant from the diocese—called the Mustard Seed Grant to expand our music program. We are planting seeds by focusing on music, which often brings people into a church for the first time. We are a Mustard Seed congregation. We are not that big, but God can do big things through us. Some of these big things, we may never fully understand—such as a person whose life was changed by being here or a family that found support during a hard time. God will take the mustard seeds that we plant and create from them more than we can ask or imagine. Amen.