“Never Enough”

Luke 17:5-10

October 3, 2004

Saint Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

Sometimes us preachers throw words around in conversations and up in the air in sermons as if you, the ones who hear them, know exactly what we are talking about. The truth is that sometimes we do not know what we are talking about. Let me give you an example. Try this one on for size, forgiveness. Do you know what that means? Us preachers use it as if everyone knows what it means. What is forgiveness really? That is a tough one. I think that it is easier to tell you what forgiveness is not rather than to tell you what it is. I think that forgiveness is not forgetting. We hear the phrase, Forgive and Forget a lot, don’t we? Well, can you do that? I will be honest. I am not good at forgetting. I do not think that we are wired that way. Forgetting when someone has hurt us is next to impossible. Forgiveness is also not necessarily staying in a relationship with the one who has hurt us. Now that I think about it, maybe forgiveness is doing something or letting go of something so that you are free to live your life.

Let me try another one on for size. How about this word? I am sure that you have heard us preachers throw it around hundreds and hundreds of times. Here is the word: grace. What is grace, really? Mr. Webster gives us some possibilities. He says that grace is unmerited, divine assistance. I can buy that. He also prints that grace is something that is said before meals. My dad used to ask me, “John, would you like to say grace?” To which I would reply in a smart alecky kind of way, “Grace!” It was then that I got that look from my father that helped me to know that there would be trouble later. So what does grace really mean? Is it unmerited favor or is something that is said before a meal? Is that what it means? Is it the first or the second one of those? Or maybe it is this, a charming trait. As in, “She is so graceful!’ Well, for me it is none of those things. For me grace simply means the chance to start over and to receive something that I do not deserve.

Let me try one more word. Do you know what I mean when I throw the word faith around? By now most of you know that Bryan Gray and I meet on Tuesday afternoons to firm up our plans for the upcoming worship service. We visit for a while, catch up on things, and then I tell him my plans for our sermon. Sometimes I look at him and say, “I have no clue what I’m going to say. Do you have any ideas?” Sometimes Bryan remembers something that he said in a sermon that he preached in the not so distant past. Sometimes he says to me, “Good luck!” This week, I told him about our scripture. He looked over at me and asked, “How would you define faith?” I wish that he had not asked me that question. I wish that he had said, “Good luck!” I was suddenly reeling. I have been preaching for ten years now. I have used the word faith in hundreds of sermons. I have thrown the word up in the air hundreds of times. And yet for a few

minutes, I was speechless. I know, I know. Those of you who know me find that hard to believe. I will tell you, my first reaction was to fall back on the good definition from the book of Hebrews. The eleventh chapter begins with these words, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” But what does that mean, really? That definition did not seem to be enough. After what seemed like forever, Bryan let me off the hook. He told me that one of his professors had asked him the same question in seminary. He too, reeled. I find solace in the fact that Bryan did not have an answer. He told me that he went home and got an answer. His answer is this one and until I come up with a better one (which I do not think will happen), I will use his. “Faith is a new way of seeing things when you are in a loving relationship with Jesus.” That is a good definition of faith, isn’t it? Faith is a way of seeing things. Take rain as an example. A golfer will see rain and say, “Great! I was planning on playing golf this afternoon.” A farmer will see the rain and say, “Great, thank goodness. My crops are saved.” A child will see rain and say, “Great, I can splash in puddles this afternoon.” Faith is a way of seeing things the way Jesus sees things.

We are not the only ones or even the first ones to wonder what faith is all about. In our scripture lesson for this morning, Jesus’ disciples listen to two hard teachings, the first about keeping others from stumbling, and a second one about forgiveness and how we are to forgive someone even if they sin against us seven times in the same day. The disciples hear those teachings, realize the hardness of them, and exclaim, “Lord, increase our faith!” I like Matthew’s version a little better. He has the disciples coming home defeated. They have been out in the world. They have fallen on their faces and they have diagnosed the problem. They think that they have failed because they do not have enough faith. A lack of faith is not the problem. Jesus heard that. Perhaps he had a mustard seed near him. Maybe he held it up so that they could see it (which would have been a real trick, because a mustard seed is so small). When they squinted to see it, Jesus said, “If you had faith the size of this mustard seed, you could tell a mountain to move or a huge tree to be uprooted and to be planted in the sea and it would obey you.” I think that the seed is a great illustration. It is because the seed is so small, like we feel that our faith is. But given the right circumstances and given the right conditions, the seed grows into a great thing.

The disciples assumption is a common one. I understand it. They believe that faith is a quantitative thing, something that you can somehow store up and accumulate. So that the more that you have, the more things that you can do. You do not need a lot of faith, because faith is not a thing. You cannot accumulate it like cash. Well, you knew that I would have to say that on this Sunday a week away from our stewardship drive, when the pledge cards have been delivered to your mailboxes. Faith is not like cash; it is not something that you can accumulate. So that if you have a little, you can do little things and if you have a lot you can do great things. Faith is not like that. It is not quantitative. It is qualitative. Faith is a relationship with God. Faith is simply trusting God. And so either you trust God or you don’t.

And our Bible, well, they are full of stories of people who have trusted God with everything. One of the greatest stories about faith is the one of David and Goliath. You know that story, don’t you? We think that it is a story for our elementary Sunday school classes. I will tell you, this is no children’s story! It is a classic story of facing life and it’s troubles and dangers with faith alone and maybe a stone and a slingshot. David, I would remind you, was the one who stood up when God’s army was cowered down in fear. He stood up and asked, “Who is this guy that he would defy the army of the living God?” That is great question; no one had asked it. No one had wondered where God was in the facing of a giant. The point of the story, at least one of them, is that Goliath was huge and strong and armed to the teeth. And David was just a kid, no armor, and little strength, but one who had a relationship with God and who knew that he wasn’t alone. That is easy to forget, especially when you are facing giants. These people, God’s chosen people, forgot it. They forgot that God had done some great things for them. They forgot about being freed from bondage by trusting God. They went through deep waters, trusting God, they went through the wilderness, not knowing where their next meal was coming from, by trusting God. They had become a great nation, a royal priesthood, by trusting God. But like most of us, they began to put their trust in other things and when a giant came around, they cowered down, because they were afraid. Since Tuesday, I have been looking for a definition of faith. I have looked every where, including my heart. I am coming up with my own, but I like Paul Tillich’s definition. Paul was a great theologian. He defined faith as courage. He said that when you see it, that is what it will look like. That makes sense, doesn’t it? In fact, if you are doing anything worthwhile, it is done with faith and courage. To have faith in God means to trust that God has done something great in the past, and He will do it again.

It is that same understanding of faith that Jesus wants his disciples to have. Jesus says that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you have great faith. You see the problem is not that you do not have enough faith. The problem is that you are not using the faith that you have. It is the same language in the Parable of the Talents. You remember that story, don’t you? A master goes away and he gives talents to three of his slaves. Talents, I remind you, is money. Did I mention that the commitment Sunday is next week? The first two servants get a certain amount of money. They are supposed to invest it wisely and they do. They make more money for their master. But the third servant sits on it; he plays it safe. The master returns and sees what has happened. He rewards the first two and scolds the third for doing nothing. The third guy could not understand it. He says, “But I guarded it closely so that I could give it back to you.” He played it safe. And his master said to him, “What makes you think I like playing it safe? You were supposed to use it, not bury it.” (That is my interpretation). That is the way that it is supposed to be with your faith, friends. You are supposed to use what you have, because if you do, you just might be surprised what will happen. I understand how these disciples must have felt. In the ministry, I have felt overwhelmed. Sometimes things have not gone well. I was sure that I needed something more. I needed a seminar. I needed a class. I needed another degree. I even thought about going back to seminary, to get my doctorate. I felt so inadequate. I mentioned that to Susie (the going back to seminary part) and she said, “Okay, I will start the divorce proceedings.” I remembered that my last year of seminary and our first year of marriage coincided. I promised that I would not ever go back to school. She remembered what I said. Friends, it is not a class that we need. Jesus says we have all that we need. We are afraid. Somewhere I read another definition of faith. It went like this, “The opposite of faith is doubt.” People think, “I have some doubts, so I must not have faith.” Well, let me tell you this. Faith won’t remove doubt. It seems to always be there. Faith is the courage. That is what Paul Tillich believed. Faith is the courage to go into the future in spite of the doubts. Faith does not take away fear, either. It, too, hangs around. Faith is the courage to do the right thing even when your knees are trembling. There is something else that faith doesn’t do; it does not take away disappointment and it doesn’t guarantee success, but it does give you peace.

Let me close with this. Madeleine LEngle writes this in one of her books: “Slowly I have realized that I don’t have to be qualified to do what I am asked to do. I just have to go ahead and do it, even though I can’t do it as well as I think that it ought to be done. This is the most liberating lesson of my life.” Friends, as we get close to making a decision about the future of our church and our giving to it, be not afraid. Let us pray.