Living in Faith

 

Luke 17: 5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ 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.

 ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? 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”? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 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!” ’

“Increase our faith, Lord!” That seems like such a great request for the disciples to ask of Jesus but doesn't the reply Jesus gives them sound a little bit like a put down? Wouldn’t a request like this be one that would bless Jesus’ heart and make him feel like his message about Kingdom priorities was actually getting through to them? 

Maybe.

The thing about Jesus is that he is a heart reader; he always knows the deeper motivations behind the prayers we pray and the requests we make. He knew exactly why the disciples were asking him to increase their faith and my guess is that their inner motivations were not the ones he was looking for. It was necessary for him to immediately set them straight and make them understand that spiritual riches can be misunderstood and, like material riches, can be coveted for the wrong reasons and end up being abused. 

The disciples may have been asking for an increase of faith because it was so cool when Jesus said, “Be healed” to an ill person or “Be still” to a storm and those commands were instantly obeyed. What a sense of power! They sure wouldn’t mind having that kind of faith. Think of what they could do with it! Think of the status they would attain if they had the power to command trees, waves and illness. They would get so much respect. Jesus needed to immediately let them know that the desire for power and status is not a kingdom desire.  As Habakkuk said in the first reading, “Look at the proud person! Their spirit is not right within them, but the righteous person lives by their faith.”

 The disciples also may have been asking for an increase of faith because they were still having trouble believing that Jesus was who he said he was in spite of all his teachings and miracles. It could well have been a combination of both: the temptation of the power of spiritual riches plus the hardness of their hearts that made it difficult for them to believe, even in the face of all the evidence, that Jesus was indeed who he said he was. Wrong motivations plus a lack of trust creates very rocky soil for the planting of true faith. In this week’s psalm, the Lord says, “Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.”

Jesus’ reply was not just intended to knock them off their high horses by telling them their faith was punier than a mustard seed or that they were just worthless slaves. He was actually opening up to them a beautiful kingdom mystery: true faith permeates the heart of the humble one who knows the power of being a servant of the Lord. Only in God's kingdom can the word 'power' be yoked with the word 'servant' and make complete sense.

Mind you, it does nothing for you to go around saying, “I am worthless, a big nothing and a lowly worm,” and think that this is what is pleasing to God (unless you realize that God created worms and thinks they are an awesome work of immense beauty). What is pleasing to God is the heart that does not demand compensation for service rendered. God owes you nothing – but he gives you everything. Why is it so difficult for all of us to rest in that? We always want to say to him, “I did this and this for you. I gave up my time, I left behind possessions, I accepted the difficult situation, I was generous with my money, I built up this and tore down that, I spoke your truth when it was unpopular to do so…” and the expectation is that we should be rewarded at least by increased faith, if not all sorts of little bonuses and blessings. It’s difficult to comprehend a God who does not operate on the worldly reward system of 'I’ll do this for you if you do that for me.' This kind of attitude keeps a person on the surface of a true spiritual life and it creates a vulnerability to being continually knocked off balance when things don’t go right or when one finds oneself in a spiritual desert. It's easy to feel punished and abandoned and wonder why it's deserved.

Jesus wants you to live on a deeper level than that. He urges you to move onto a level of faith that doesn’t look for rewards or compensation. He's not asking you to engage in self-abnegation or to completely reject your worth and value; he's inviting you to live in a place of total security based on the knowledge that before you ever tried to do something for God you were completely and utterly loved by him. It is impossible to make him love or value you more than he already does. Living Faith comes from dwelling in a resting place where status and recognition cease to be important because you have found your status and recognition in God. Walking in faith is being open to discovering his face in every moment and in every person you encounter because you know that God has done it all. He’s done the work and completed the story. All that’s left for you to do is to serve him, not for reward but because gratitude gives you wings and makes you desire more than anything to fly close to him. It won’t matter to you how you serve or where you serve for you will know that he can move mountains and reveal himself whether you are cleaning toilets or speaking to thousands.

Jesus wants us all to understand that faith is not a thing and it's not a just a power that makes things happen; it’s an environment. It’s where we’re called to live, move and have our being. The disciples asking for their faith to be increased was like asking to be given more air to breathe. They didn’t need more air. They just needed to stop holding their breath. 

We all need to be less aware of how we think things should go, accept that we are completely beloved of God and abandon ourselves to being a servant of the Lord by being a servant of the ones he loves - which means every single person we encounter each day, whether they are Christian or not. We must serve them as if they are Christ himself.

 

If we can do that, we will have more faith than we will know what to do with.

Just breathe.