Having Enough Faith?

Can be listened to here


Gate Pa – Year C - 20th  Sunday Pentecost; 27th  Sunday of Ordinary Time
Readings:
Psalm                          Lamentations 3:19-26
First Reading:                         Lamentations 1:1-6                            
Second Reading:        2 Timothy 1:1-14                          
Gospel:                        Luke 17:5-10                                         

What I want to say:
What does it mean to increase our faith? Is this a real question? What is it we have faith in God to do? Fix it? Be with us in the midst of life?
What I want to happen:
people to reflect on what it is we have faith in God to do?

The Sermon

     1.     Introduction:

sad story from Facebook
people posted – praying hard son healed
            believed son healed
            God glorified
            have faith
three days – son died
            hard imagine devastation
            family
many people who had had faith God would intervene
God would heal little boy
several posted how angry and devastated they were that God had not healed him
some wondered if they had had enough faith
            maybe if they had had more?
so many asked
-         why God has this happened
-         and why did you not heal this little boy
-         why did you not spare this faithful family this terrible pain?
They had faith that God would fix it
but God didn’t fix it
maybe if they had more faith?

     2.     Disciples

disciples too were looking for more faith
today heard how they asked Jesus for more faith
with each story
            Jerusalem gets closer
with that disciples get both more hopeful and more anxious
            they hope that their arrival will cause miraculous toppling of both Rome and Judean elite
            reign God restored
            Jesus at centre of all that
            they - his disciples also at centre
seen enough crosses on the road and during their lives to know how this story usually ended
seen enough death to know that Romans, Herod and Sanhedrin did not take threats lightly
so they wavered
            they believed
            and they doubted
“increase our faith!” they said
increase our faith that you will win
that we will win
with the friends on Facebook they prayed
increase our faith that you God will fix this
and it will be all good

     3.     The cross

We the hearers know that with each step the shadow of the cross grows darker
we know that God does not fix it
we know this path leads to betrayal
guilt
devastation
death
Jesus knows that with each step the shadow of the cross grows darker
that God will not fix it
that this path leads to betrayal
guilt
devastation
death
What then is faith?
what it is that we are to have faith in God to do?

     4.     Jesus responds

to be honest it is hard to know how to read Jesus’ response
some suggest he is saying that with the smallest amount of faith we can do miraculous things – including planting mulberry bushes in the sea
-         which is miraculous, and silly
some say that he is saying faith will lead us to see things in new and out of the box ways
-         like planting a mulberry bushes in the sea
-         who would have thought of that
some say that they really are missing the point
            either have faith
            or not
ð like your arm is broken, or not
ð or pregnant – or not
just giving facetious answer
because Jesus wasn’t about casting mulberry bushes into the sea
he was about changing the world
was faithful to his disciples
loyal to them as they were to him
that is what we are talking about here
being loyal
being faithful
trusting
that is faith
saying – either you are loyal and trusting
or you are not
together we are living reign of God
wherever that will lead

     5.     Faith

what it is we have faith in God to do?
fix it all?
Bible really clear that God will not fix it
reading of Lamentations is this astounding reading of grief in face fall of Jerusalem
people are left crying out
-         why God has this happened
-         and why did you not stop the destruction
-         why did you not spare we your faithful people this terrible pain?
today we join in that lament
that prayer to a God who does not fix it
and we bring our own griefs
our own cries
-         why God has this happened
-         and why did you not stop this
-         why did you not spare us your faithful people this terrible pain?

     6.     Faithful Praying

to be able to pray that is to have faith
trusting that God is with us even when it is not fixed
            even when we are in midst of the darkest place
God is there
faith is not gaining rewards
faith is not holding on to a God will fix it all
we are not asked to trust that God will make it all good if we have enough faith
So what is faith?
faith is trusting God
that God is bringing in reign of God
creation is being restored
faith is trusting in reign of God when all evidence is to the counter
faith is trusting that God is with us
            even when nothing is fixed
            when there seem to be no rewards
            even when all we can do is join in the lament
so then
what it is that we are to have faith in God to do?





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