A Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. Patricia Gillespie

Habakkuk 1:1-6(7-11)12-13;2:1-4
2 Timothy 1:(1-5)6-14
Luke 17:5-10
Psalm 37:1-18 or 37:3-10

I took off into the wilderness for a while this week. Some might say doing that was an act of faith -- or foolishness, given that there was not only rain but snow that day.

We who live on the edge of the Boundary Waters know that traveling in the wilderness requires a certain amount of trust -- trust in the folks that made the maps, in the equipment we carried with us, and in ourselves to have the stamina to get by.

But I don't think that kind of trust is what Jesus or his followers are talking about in today's gospel. "Increase our faith" the apostles demand. And Jesus' response is: "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."

That's another ballpark than a trip to the Boundary Waters. I trust the maps and the equipment and even myself because of experience. They've all been tested and I've seen them work before. It's almost like saying "I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow." That's not much more than a conditioned reflex. I've seen the sun rise lots of times, but I've yet to see someone say to a tree "Go jump in the lake" and had it happen. ...

Except maybe in the Boundary Waters. There we do sometimes see trees planted in lakes. A great act of faith? Well, maybe. The beavers did it.

Of course, beavers don't take down trees simply by saying "Go jump in the lake." It's long hard work, one bite at a time. But something faith-like keeps them working away. Did they learn it from Mom? Were they born with it?

Those questions biologists ask about beaver behavior are suspiciously like the thoughts the Apostle Paul has about faith in his second letter to Timothy. Yep, Paul says, Timothy got it from Mom ... and Grandma, too, it seems. And Yes again, he's had it all along: It was given to him "before the ages began." Before the ages began the gift was given US Paul tells us. The gift we already had was revealed when Jesus appeared. And we learn about the gift and the revelation from the Loises and the Eunices in our lives -- from our mothers and our grandmothers, from our preachers and our Sunday school teachers, from those who handed on the Christian tradition to us.

Faith is a gift. Timothy didn't earn his faith by being an eager beaver. He didn't work to get it or to increase it. Neither did the apostles earn their mustard-seed size faith.

They are, as Jesus reminds them, like slaves. Slaves cannot earn anything. Think about that. It's totally foreign to our culture. We think that if we just work hard enough we can get almost anything we want. Imagine that no matter how hard you worked or didn't work, you earned nothing. You could work like an eager beaver, chatter nonsense like a squirrel, or, like a lazy human being, sleep all day in a tent, and the reward is all the same: You don't earn anything. You just accept what the master gives you.

Jesus reminds us that slaves can't earn anything not even a seat at the table after a hard day's work. Just so, we can't earn anything from God not faith, not a seat at God's table, not even our lives. Everything we have is a gift.

Our faith is a gift. A mustard seed's worth of faith isn't much. But it works miracles.

In another place, Jesus says that the kingdom of God "is like a grain of mustard seed" (Luke 13:18-19) that grows into a tree where birds can nest. Something so tiny grows stubbornly into a large plant. It's hard to stop mustard from growing -- mustard is a weed and like other weeds it is a worthless nuisance. The kingdom uses the insignificant and the worthless to do great things, to give life.

Maybe Lois or Eunice felt insignificant. Perhaps they never expected that their faith would nurture the seed of faith in Timothy that spread the gospel far beyond his mother or grandmother's imagining.

We may think our own gifts are useless, but remember the Giver has a knack for using insignificant things to work miracles. A God who uses an impoverished baby to save the world can surely make something miraculous from what little you have received. Don't ignore the gift of God that is within you.

Faith is a gift that was given us before the ages began. But it seems there's a hitch to this gift. It is a gift that calls out to be used.

The beaver's gift of sharp teeth comes with a desire to chew that puts huge trees into the lake. Timothy's gift of faith, calls him to "suffer for the gospel," to teach the standard that Paul has handed on to him. The apostles' gift of tiny mustard-seed-size faith calls them to work miracles. And they will do just that.

We don't earn our faith by good works. We do good works because of the gift of faith.

So what is your faith calling you to do?

It is the gift of faith that calls you to reach out to others -- in volunteer work in visiting someone who is sick or lonely in financial support of any number of loving causes, in forgiving someone who has hurt you, and in loving "good works" of all sorts.

It is the gift of faith that has kept this church alive through the gifts of time and ability of many. It's the gift of faith that gives us hope for the future of this church. This is true stewardship – sharing those gifts that we have received by offering our gifts of faith, and time, and ability. These are the offerings that make our church happen.

Listen to Paul and "rekindle the faith that is in you" and consider what that faith is calling you to do today. It may be only a tiny seed, but remember: Jesus has planted that seed, and there's no stopping the growth,

Like the beaver taking down a huge tree one bite at a time, the tiny mustard seed of faith God has given you can work miracles a little bit at a time.

You've got the faith. Now get to work.