Do you find that there is always someone who wants more of a good thing ? Whenever I hear the word “more”, I immediately think of Oliver Twist asking for more food. Of course, his request is not met with an encouraging response.
I have to admit that I enjoy watching Strictly come Dancing. I have noticed that people taking part often ask for more training. This is always met with an encouraging response.
In our gospel reading this morning (Luke 17:5-10) the disciples asked for more faith from Jesus. I imagine that they may have been hoping for a long list of things to do, maybe an encouraging team talk but instead Jesus gives them a very simple answer. He describes an impossible scenario of uprooting a mulberry tree and planting it in the sea. Then he says that it can be done, as long as you have a little faith. Faith the size of a mustard seed.
I have never tried to uproot and replant a tree in the sea. I am pleased to say that Jesus isn’t saying that if we have enough faith we can do magic tricks. What He is saying is that we don’t need to ask for our faith to be increased. What we have is enough.
This is incredible, a small amount of faith can make a huge difference. This is really encouraging, we aren’t to beat ourselves up thinking that we need to always have faith that is super size. We just need enough faith for us to trust in God that He can do the rest.
In the previous passage to this in the gospel according to Luke there is an incident of Jesus teaching the disciples about forgiveness. The disciples ask how many times they need to forgive and the answer comes back that it is never ending.
Jesus said that even if someone continually hurts you but asks for forgiveness for something then you must forgive them. This could even be up to 7 times in the same day. I think the disciples realised that this wasn’t easy and so they decided that the best way to do this was to ask for their faith to be increased.
They wanted more faith as they realised the task before them was really difficult. The response of Jesus which could be seen as comforting was actually a bit disappointing. He didn’t give them an easy answer. They had to think of the fact that Jesus was releasing them from having a long list of obligations. This was the type of behaviour normally expected by the religious leaders of the time.
If anyone was in the guides, scouts, brownies, or any of the other uniformed organisations you will remember that in order to get a badge in a particular area you had a list of things you had to do.
I remember being so keen to get badges as a brownie that we invited the brown owl (the leader of brownies) over for tea. This got me my hospitality badge. I had arranged some flowers which got me another badge. I had helped cook the food, which got me another badge. I showed her the dress I had made for my doll, which got me another badge. I played the piano, which got me another badge. The brown owl had a very busy evening that evening.
I am pleased to say that there isn’t a book for believing in and following Jesus with such a list of things we need to do. All we have to do is believe, have faith and keep following Jesus. Of course, there is always the good news that we can be forgiven time, and time again so we can start back on our course of following Jesus.
I am afraid that I now need to take a moment to apologise to all those who were never brownies. As a brownie I learned lots of skills that could be passed on. I had a pack of younger girls that I was to help and support. Being a brownie was a skill I could pass on.
Faith is a skill we can pass on. As we tell people about our faith. As we take time to live in a way that is more like Jesus, people will ask us about our faith. In the reading from the second letter to Timothy (1:1-14) we heard more about passing on faith. Timothy’s faith was shared with both his grandmother and his mother. Paul, the writer of the letter shows that Timothy enjoys this faith and has a good example in his mother and grandmother of how to live as a follower of Jesus. There is this idea of passing on faith.
Then Paul discussed a gift that Timothy had from God which had come about as a result of Paul laying hands on him. This would have been in a manner of prayer. We don’t know exactly what the gift was. We do know how it came about.
Paul explains to Timothy that he is to use this gift without being scared, or as it is written, without cowardice. Paul had a relationship with Timothy where he is almost like a mentor to this young man. He encouraged Timothy in his leadership of a Church. This whole letter, just like the first letter to Timothy was to encourage and support him in his faith and leadership.
Paul had seen the gift that God had given Timothy to do this work and now he was reminding Timothy to rekindle this gift.
God has given us all gifts. We may not know what they are, someone may have seen a gift in us, we may be wondering what gift God has given us. This will become clearer through prayer and asking God how He can use us. Then it is, about us being ready to say yes to God.
We also, like Paul can look for gifts in others. When this happens we can share this with them.
God call us all to work for Him and we don’t need to be scared. After all, as we heard in the gospel reading we only need a small amount of faith. As we rely on God, He will do the rest. God can use us to share His word. To share His love. May we always ask God for how He wants to use us, remembering that we only need a little for God to do amazing things.
Now
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
(Jude 1:24-25.)
