St. Matthew’s Sermon 10-02-2016

I can do WHAT!

Lamentations 1:1-6, 2 Timothy 1:1-14, Luke 17:5-10

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God. Amen

Without my decision to include verses 1-4, today’s reading would have started with the Disciples saying “Increase our faith”. And with that alone, I would be obligated to preach on the power of faith; how a tiny amount, the “size of a mustard seed”, would allow us to command trees to be “uprooted and planted in the sea”.  And I could go on to compare Jesus’ faith to ours; how he could perform miraculous feats and how we cannot. I could take that thought even further and belittle all of you for your weakness in faith for not even being able to move my sermon along faster, much less move a tree. But, then, I’d have to address my lack of faith for not being able to do likewise.

That’s the problem, though, when you take verses out of their context. If I had followed the assigned reading we would think that Jesus is speaking about the power of faith that enables us to move trees by only a command. However, considering what he said that caused the Disciples to ask for their faith to be increased changes everything.

For your benefit now that you’re considering this new view, let me repeat what precipitated the Disciples request…

Jesus a said to his disciples, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come!  It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.  Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.  And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”

When Jesus speaks of “stumbling” he is talking about abandoning their faith. Notice, however, in this case it’s not as much about woe to those who stumble as it is about “by whom [occasions to stumble] come”. In other words, in this story, Jesus isn’t grieving over the one who loses faith as much as he is the one who causes another to lose faith.

Then, he tells his Disciples how to avoid causing another to lose their faith. “Be on your guard!” he says, “If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”

“Ohhh Loorrd”, the Disciples are thinking, “just once I can see, maybe even twice; but you’re telling me, that as your follower, I have to forgive someone who has offended me personally every time; even if it’s 7 times in one day”! “I don’t know that I can do that”! “Lord, increase [my] faith” so that I can; lest someone lose their faith because of my lack of forgiveness and you say, “woe” to me. and I wind up better off at the bottom of the sea with a millstone around my neck!

Thinking this through, it isn’t hard to see what Jesus is talking about. The “little ones” he refers to are those new to the faith and / or struggling to maintain their faith in Jesus. Causing them to stumble is indeed a sin. And if any disciple becomes too self-righteous to forgive one who is struggling time after time after time, it’s not hard to see how that “little one” would begin to feel inadequate, become disheartened, and lose their faith rather than growing in faith, encouraged by the forgiveness of others and the love for them that forgiveness communicates. Especially if forgiveness is received time after time.

So when Jesus responds to the Disciples’ request for increased faith with the reference to the mustard seed, he isn’t telling them how little faith it takes to move a mulberry tree into the sea, rather he is helping them understand how faith works.

 Faith is believing in things unseen, even unimaginable. Faith opens us, mind, body, and soul, to the power of God; faith enables God to work in our lives in ways that defy ordinary human existence. And if, through faith, we can open ourselves just a little bit to that power we can accomplish unimaginable things; like forgiving an offender time after time, even 7 times in a single day; a feat even more difficult than moving a tree into the sea. And, and, with forgiveness we can move the hearts of the toughest, deeply rooted, most stubborn offenders, individuals and institutions, among us!

Jesus had faith like that. Yet, have you ever noticed that he is never reported to have moved a tree? Jesus has more practical things to be concerned with; like building God’s Kingdom. And he started that work by forgiving sin and healing wounds caused by sin. I’m not sure how challenging those acts of forgiveness were for Jesus, but certainly, for us, it’s not an easy thing to do. Yet for the quality of life that the Kingdom offers to all people, it is the first required step. But, even then, once we have opened ourselves to God’s power and have learned to forgive, we have need for even more faith.

Jesus calls this to our attention in the rest of the story where he makes reference to a master who wouldn’t think of rewarding his slave for doing his job.

The slaves reward is being fed and housed while he works off a debt that he couldn’t pay. His service was his duty; neither he nor his master would think otherwise. And so it is for us also. That once we have mastered the act of forgiving others, we are still not masters of our lives. We have no claim on reward for our difficult work, rather we are only working off our own, unpaid debt to our master.

So, go now in faith; seek the power that faith opens you to; work to fulfill all that is demanded of you as a follower of Christ; know that, even if you can’t move trees, you can do even harder things; you can move hearts. But also know that as you do, you have done only what you ought to have done.

Amen.

Lamentations 1:1-6
1:1 How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.
1:2 She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
1:3 Judah has gone into exile with suffering and hard servitude; she lives now among the nations, and finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
1:4 The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to the festivals; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her young girls grieve, and her lot is bitter.
1:5 Her foes have become the masters, her enemies prosper, because the LORD has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.
1:6 From daughter Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like stags that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.

2 Timothy 1:1-14
1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
1:2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
1:3 I am grateful to God–whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did–when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
1:4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.
1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.
1:6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands;
1:7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
1:8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God,
1:9 who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
1:10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
1:11 For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher,
1:12 and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.
1:13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1:14 Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

 [Adding verses 1-4]

Luke 17:5-10

17:1 Jesus a said to his disciples, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come!

17:2 It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

17:3 Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.

17:4 And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”
17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
17:6 The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
17:7 “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’?
17:8 Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’?
17:9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded?
17:10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'”