Mustard Seed Faith

Increase our faith! That is the demand that the men and women who have followed Jesus all this way lay at Jesus feet in the story this morning.   Increase our faith! As I have pondered that demand- this week I began to wonder what’ really behind that demand, what has caused his disciples to cry out is desperation-- to feel the need to have just a little bit more faith—Increase our faith!  Why do they come to Jesus with this hope?  

At this point in the story they’ve turned toward Jerusalem- their heading toward the cross- are the disciples starting to realize that this thing that they have going is about to go sideways --that this is about to get messy. Remember Jesus predicts that things are going to end well- are they starting to believe it.   Do they realize that they are going to need a little bit more faith to get through?

Maybe the disciples were beginning to doubt that Jesus was going to be able to deliver on the promised kingdom of God? 

Were people around them starting to snicker and sneer, were they beginning to hear the whispers behind their backs that maybe this Jesus guy was just some religious crackpot? 

What would make them cry out to Jesus and say Lord we just need a little bit more, help us to trust you a little bit more, increase our faith?

It is probably safe for me to assume that we’ve gotten down on our knees and looked heavenward and made this same request.

There is probably someone here today that needs a little bit more, that is storming the gates of heaven saying “Lord, increase my faith.  Saying,- “Lord, I am at the end of my rope, just give me a little bit more today-   Lord I don’t know how this is all going to play out just give me a little bit more. just help me get through this or that. 

I recently heard someone on the radio someone say that faith doesn’t take away the bad or difficult things in our lives, but rather faith helps us find a way through those things.

As you can see  the faith as I am speaking about it today is not our intellectual assent to something. I am not speaking about faith as a belief that something is real or that something has happened, like I believe in the Holy Spirit or I believe in UFO’s or that on the third day Jesus was raised from the dead.    The faith I am speaking about is not just the heady faith of believing doctrine. 

But rather Faith as I am speaking about it more about trust, more about trust that God is holding us in our palms of his hands, Faith that something bigger that something greater than ourselves is in the mix.

This week I saw on the internet a story about a young woman playing softball for a college team in Western Oregon.  During the championship game between Western Oregon and Central Washington a you woman Sarah Tucholsky hits  the first homerun of her career.  Sarah is a spitfire of a player only 5-2 and known more for her line drives than for tape measure home runs hits her first career home run-- never at any level has  Sarah hit a home run.  But for some reason on this day when the ball hits Sarah’s bat- it just flies and flies and somehow  the ball finds it way over the fence. 

In all of her excitement-  though  as Sarah rounds  first base she misses it- she doesn’t step on it. As she twists her body to go back and touch first base- Sarah’s knee pops she finds herself facedown in the dust a torn acl slowly she crawls back to first and lays there clutching the base.  Her coach comes out and asks if the umpire is she can have someone pinch run-   the umpire explains that Sarah’s home run would turn into a single.  Can a teammate assist Sarah around the base- nope Sarah would be out if she is assisted by a teammate.

As the coach is scratching her head trying to figure out what to do- one of the  young woman on Central Washington- Sarah’s opponents steps forward and ask if the opposing team can carry Sarah around the base.  That fits in the rules of baseball so two of Sarah’s opponents pick her up and  carry her around the bases.  As they pass each base they gently lower Sarah so that can touch each base.  When asked later about this act of sportsmanship Sarah’s opponents says that Sarah earned that trip around the bases.  

Ultimately Sarah’s home run helps decide the game in Western Oregon’s favor.

The faith we are talking about today is meant to carry us when we fall when we stumble, when fall, when life goes sideway.  The faith gives us the power to do things that we could never do- because we trust that God is in the game. 

But when do we have enough of this faith to be carried? 

How much do we need? When does the faith meter reach full, overflowing? When do the scales tip in our favor?

Jesus answers the demand increase our faith by saying-- all you need is faith the size of a mustard seed, all you need is a little smidge, a tiny kernel faith.  Typically when we hear Jesus say “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’…it would obey you.”  Typically when we hear that we hear chastisement, we hear judgment for a lack of faith.  But what if   in the story today-- Jesus wasn’t chastising his disciples, what if he was encouraging his disciples- what if he was saying you already have enough to face the days ahead, what if he was already saying you already have enough to get through these tough time- what if he was saying you already have enough to do what needs to get done. 

Maybe we don’t need any more faith- maybe we already have enough faith? 

All we need is a mustard seed- what if we already had that – I believe that God has already implanted in us a tiny mustard seed of faith- God has already given us enough. 

Do you believe it?  It could make all the difference- that tiny mustard seed.