October 07, 2007
"A Little Is A Lot"
By The Reverend Joanna M. Adams
Morningside Presbyterian Church, Atlanta
"A Little Is A Lot"
Text: Luke 17:5-10 (1)
The Reverend Joanna M. Adams
Morningside Presbyterian Church
Atlanta, GA
October 7, 2007
“A Little Is A Lot”
Download PDF 
Text: Luke 17:5-10 (1)
The Reverend Joanna M. Adams
Morningside Presbyterian Church
Atlanta, GA
October 7, 2007
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.” Luke 17:6
There are all sorts of reasons why some people experience a crisis of faith. A terrible tragedy happens, and the question of why becomes an insurmountable obstacle. A crisis of faith ensues.
The sheer volume of evil and violence in the world causes many people to question how there could be a God, at least one who is good, in a world like this. Faith becomes fragile.
Questions raised by reason can prompt a yearning for proof and since nothing that is known by faith can be proven, then faith can falter, even disappear. Frederick Buechner has written that almost nothing that makes any real difference can be proven. “I can prove the law of gravity by dropping my shoe out of the window, but I cannot prove that life is better than death, or that love is stronger than hate.” (2)
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” But he couldn’t have proved it to save his life.
Faith is fragile, and fear can often do a real number on it. Think of how the disciples had spent three years professing their faith in Jesus every chance they got. “Who do you say that I am?” he had asked them once.
Speaking for the group, Peter had replied, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” But after Jesus had been crucified, the circle of once-faithful apostles became a terrified little band huddled in the corner of a room with a chair braced against the door because they were afraid.
The American philosopher William James wrote, “Faith is the force of life, and when it is absent, life collapses.”
We encounter the apostles today while Jesus is still alive and on his way to Jerusalem, where he will be crucified. When we see them, they are not so much caught in the grip of fear as they are stewing in the juices of ordinary anxiety, the kind of anxiety that just about everyone I know is frequently susceptible to. It is essential to understand why they are so anxious. Jesus has just instructed them about two important things they will need to do as his followers after he is gone. Beginning now, but certainly after he is gone, if anyone is to have faith, two things will have had to have happened. First, the apostles, the twelve, will have needed to have set a good example for those who have not yet come to faith. They should never cause another person to stumble. Jesus, in fact, has just said to the apostles, “You would be better off having a millstone hung around your neck and you and the millstone be thrown into the sea,” than for you to be the reason why somebody else gets the wrong idea about God’s love and God’s grace and the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. (Luke 17:1-3)
The second thing he said was this: If anyone in this circle of apostles sins against you, then you must tell the person you were offended and if that person is sorry, then you must forgive him. If that person sins against you seven times a day and genuinely asks for forgiveness every time, then you must forgive the person seven times. Now, as far as I can tell, back in those days, there were still just 24 hours in a day. So if you take out seven hours for sleep, no, I like eight hours for sleep, that leaves you 16 waking hours, which means that theoretically, you could be having genuine, clear-the-slate make-up sessions with somebody every two hours and fifteen minutes. That’s what you call “limitless reconciliation”! Who in the world could ever keep up that kind of thing, while at the same time, watching your own moves to make sure you are setting a good example? It’s enough to make you want to take two aspirin and go to bed.
No wonder the disciples felt inadequate to the core. It is at that point that they say to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” Actually, they cry to him, “Increase our faith!” because they do not believe they have enough to do what he is asking of them.
And Jesus answers, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to the mulberry tree ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and the tree would obey you.” You see, it was not that they had NO faith. Their problem was not even fragile faith. Their problem was that they failed to use the faith they had. They failed to trust that God would make them adequate for whatever Jesus was asking them to do, using whatever was there.
Earlier, Jesus had described the kingdom as being like that of a mustard seed that grows into a great tree. And now the disciples’ faith is compared to a mustard seed. In other words, what might appear to be inconsequential – what might feel small and inadequate - actually does contain immense power. (3) Someone has just recently said to me, “We’ve been through a hard time. I never would have thought we’d make it. But we have. And we’ll make it tomorrow too.” If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you have power more than you can imagine.
Often, people say something to me about their feelings of inadequacy. They must think that preachers are superior Christians. So they say, “I am not sure what I believe.”
“I don’t know whether I am praying right.”
“I wish I could be more like my grandfather was. He always seemed to be at peace.”
We should all take comfort in this mustard seed idea and in the reassurance that we don’t need more faith; we need just a little. God has given us enough, if we could just trust that whatever we have, which was a gift in the first place, is not going to let us down.
I like what writer Kathleen Norris says on this subject: “Faith is still a real surprise to me, as I lived without it so long. Now I believe that it was merely dormant in the years I was not conscious of it. I have become better at trusting that it is there, even when I can’t feel it (oh, what a good thing to remember – even when you can’t feel it!) you can trust that it’s still there.(4) When it seems as if God is absent from the world, when it seems as if God is absent from a situation, your feelings can lie to you, because wherever we are, God has promised to be there.”
A friend of Al’s and mine died on Friday. I remembered the assurance of the 139th Psalm –“I come to the end; I am still with you.”
I don’t think I was in a grumpy mood when I stopped yesterday at the Chick-fil-A on Peachtree Road to get a quick lunch., but I was in a grumpy mood when I left. At the next table were three people who just could not say enough about Jesus. Between bites of slaw and sips of Coca-Cola, they quoted Bible verses to one another. One would say one, and then the other would say, “Yeah but you know over in-so-in-so it says. . .”
“Yeah but over in so-in-so it says… “Their voices got louder and louder and soon they were debating who was going to get into heaven or not, and they even talked ugly about their preacher! Believe it or not, that was not what offended me to the core. What offended me was that they were so sure; they had no doubt. There was no ambiguity. They never would have cried, “Lord, I can’t do it; I don’t have enough.”
At the other end of the spectrum, we are dealing with a whole new wave of righteous superiority on the part of those who have forgotten that humility just might be the most indispensable Christian virtue.
“Lord, increase our faith.” Why? So that we can live a life that does not cause other people to stumble – that’s a pretty modest expectation, also so that we can be reconciled to one another over and over again.
I believe that faith will never die. Faith persists because we have within us a longing for connecting with the One who is transcendent, and we long for connection with one another. I am interested in the 50th anniversary of the launching of Sputnik, and how we went through a whole period when we just couldn’t wait to go to the moon. Over and over again, we sent people there, but then nothing. Someone wise has recently written, “We’ve not gone in a long time, and one of the reasons is a psychological one – on the moon, there is only dust and rock, while on earth, you can be wandering in a dry and arid place, but always with the hope that there could be something human over the horizon.” (5)
God made us with the need to connect with God and with one another. I have no scientific proof for it, but I believe that there is a little homing device in each of us that signals us when we are close to God, and which we cannot hear when we are far away. That little bleep is there, sometimes barely discernible, but always there. Whether you hear it or not, there is in you that which draws you close to God.
I am interested in the new book of Mother Teresa’s letters that has recently been published. I have been reading those letters this week. I am stunned by how often she felt “unloved and unwanted: by the Lord she served, and yet everyday, she pressed on because of his claim on her life.” (6)
Jesus never instructed his apostles to figure out the doctrine of the Virgin birth. He did not instruct them as to how to understand other religions. He said, “Live your life in the way that reflects the values and the ethics I have taught you. He said to them, “Never forget that you have in you the capacity to be the world’s agents of reconciliation.” I think he was so strong about it because he knew he wouldn’t be with them much longer, and he knew everything would depend on their using what they already had.
On World Communion Sunday, we remember that the church is one in Spirit, one in faith, one in baptism. And even though we do not always live as if we believe it, we come to the table and do something that is both real and symbolic: proclaim the power of forgiveness in this world. Every time we take that little piece of bread, every time we take it into ourselves, we are offering to all a reminder of the power of reconciliation through Christ our Lord. This is Christ’s body broken for us, which makes it possible for us to forgive again and again and again.
The children sang of peace today. They reminded me of an old story about a shoe company that sent out one of its salespeople to a faraway country to start a business. After a few months, the salesman sent back the message: “Coming home; no one wears shoes here.”
The same company sent out another salesperson to the same area. After a few months, the new salesperson wrote the home office this note: “Send more order forms. Nobody wears shoes here.” (7)
Nobody believes in peace out there in the world. Hardly anybody believes that a few good people armed with God’s loving power can change the world. But believe me, the world can be changed, IS being changed.
Mother Teresa said, “I can do what you cannot do. You can do what I cannot do. And together, we can do something great for God.” Yes, we can. Something great for God. You and I.
(1)The sermon title is taken from a sermon of the same title by Richard J. Fairchild for World-Wide Communion Sunday. (Ordinary 27-Year C).
(2) Wishful Thinking.
(3) Susan Eastman, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, in as essay in Lectionary Homiletics, October/November 2007.
(4) Amazing Grace.
(5) Charles Krauthammer, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10/5/07.
(6) Come Be My Light.
(7) As told by Fairchild.
"A Little Is A Lot" Text: Luke 17:5-10 (1) The Reverend Joanna M. Adams Morningside Presbyterian Church Atlanta, GA October 7, 2007
Download PDF
Text: Luke 17:5-10 (1)
The Reverend Joanna M. Adams
Morningside Presbyterian Church
Atlanta, GA
October 7, 2007
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.” Luke 17:6
There are all sorts of reasons why some people experience a crisis of faith. A terrible tragedy happens, and the question of why becomes an insurmountable obstacle. A crisis of faith ensues.
The sheer volume of evil and violence in the world causes many people to question how there could be a God, at least one who is good, in a world like this. Faith becomes fragile.
Questions raised by reason can prompt a yearning for proof and since nothing that is known by faith can be proven, then faith can falter, even disappear. Frederick Buechner has written that almost nothing that makes any real difference can be proven. “I can prove the law of gravity by dropping my shoe out of the window, but I cannot prove that life is better than death, or that love is stronger than hate.” (2)
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.” But he couldn’t have proved it to save his life.
Faith is fragile, and fear can often do a real number on it. Think of how the disciples had spent three years professing their faith in Jesus every chance they got. “Who do you say that I am?” he had asked them once.
Speaking for the group, Peter had replied, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” But after Jesus had been crucified, the circle of once-faithful apostles became a terrified little band huddled in the corner of a room with a chair braced against the door because they were afraid.
The American philosopher William James wrote, “Faith is the force of life, and when it is absent, life collapses.”
We encounter the apostles today while Jesus is still alive and on his way to Jerusalem, where he will be crucified. When we see them, they are not so much caught in the grip of fear as they are stewing in the juices of ordinary anxiety, the kind of anxiety that just about everyone I know is frequently susceptible to. It is essential to understand why they are so anxious. Jesus has just instructed them about two important things they will need to do as his followers after he is gone. Beginning now, but certainly after he is gone, if anyone is to have faith, two things will have had to have happened. First, the apostles, the twelve, will have needed to have set a good example for those who have not yet come to faith. They should never cause another person to stumble. Jesus, in fact, has just said to the apostles, “You would be better off having a millstone hung around your neck and you and the millstone be thrown into the sea,” than for you to be the reason why somebody else gets the wrong idea about God’s love and God’s grace and the coming of God’s kingdom on earth. (Luke 17:1-3)
The second thing he said was this: If anyone in this circle of apostles sins against you, then you must tell the person you were offended and if that person is sorry, then you must forgive him. If that person sins against you seven times a day and genuinely asks for forgiveness every time, then you must forgive the person seven times. Now, as far as I can tell, back in those days, there were still just 24 hours in a day. So if you take out seven hours for sleep, no, I like eight hours for sleep, that leaves you 16 waking hours, which means that theoretically, you could be having genuine, clear-the-slate make-up sessions with somebody every two hours and fifteen minutes. That’s what you call “limitless reconciliation”! Who in the world could ever keep up that kind of thing, while at the same time, watching your own moves to make sure you are setting a good example? It’s enough to make you want to take two aspirin and go to bed.
No wonder the disciples felt inadequate to the core. It is at that point that they say to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” Actually, they cry to him, “Increase our faith!” because they do not believe they have enough to do what he is asking of them.
And Jesus answers, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to the mulberry tree ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and the tree would obey you.” You see, it was not that they had NO faith. Their problem was not even fragile faith. Their problem was that they failed to use the faith they had. They failed to trust that God would make them adequate for whatever Jesus was asking them to do, using whatever was there.
Earlier, Jesus had described the kingdom as being like that of a mustard seed that grows into a great tree. And now the disciples’ faith is compared to a mustard seed. In other words, what might appear to be inconsequential – what might feel small and inadequate - actually does contain immense power. (3) Someone has just recently said to me, “We’ve been through a hard time. I never would have thought we’d make it. But we have. And we’ll make it tomorrow too.” If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you have power more than you can imagine.
Often, people say something to me about their feelings of inadequacy. They must think that preachers are superior Christians. So they say, “I am not sure what I believe.”
“I don’t know whether I am praying right.”
“I wish I could be more like my grandfather was. He always seemed to be at peace.”
We should all take comfort in this mustard seed idea and in the reassurance that we don’t need more faith; we need just a little. God has given us enough, if we could just trust that whatever we have, which was a gift in the first place, is not going to let us down.
I like what writer Kathleen Norris says on this subject: “Faith is still a real surprise to me, as I lived without it so long. Now I believe that it was merely dormant in the years I was not conscious of it. I have become better at trusting that it is there, even when I can’t feel it (oh, what a good thing to remember – even when you can’t feel it!) you can trust that it’s still there.(4) When it seems as if God is absent from the world, when it seems as if God is absent from a situation, your feelings can lie to you, because wherever we are, God has promised to be there.”
A friend of Al’s and mine died on Friday. I remembered the assurance of the 139th Psalm –“I come to the end; I am still with you.”
I don’t think I was in a grumpy mood when I stopped yesterday at the Chick-fil-A on Peachtree Road to get a quick lunch., but I was in a grumpy mood when I left. At the next table were three people who just could not say enough about Jesus. Between bites of slaw and sips of Coca-Cola, they quoted Bible verses to one another. One would say one, and then the other would say, “Yeah but you know over in-so-in-so it says. . .”
“Yeah but over in so-in-so it says… “Their voices got louder and louder and soon they were debating who was going to get into heaven or not, and they even talked ugly about their preacher! Believe it or not, that was not what offended me to the core. What offended me was that they were so sure; they had no doubt. There was no ambiguity. They never would have cried, “Lord, I can’t do it; I don’t have enough.”
At the other end of the spectrum, we are dealing with a whole new wave of righteous superiority on the part of those who have forgotten that humility just might be the most indispensable Christian virtue.
“Lord, increase our faith.” Why? So that we can live a life that does not cause other people to stumble – that’s a pretty modest expectation, also so that we can be reconciled to one another over and over again.
I believe that faith will never die. Faith persists because we have within us a longing for connecting with the One who is transcendent, and we long for connection with one another. I am interested in the 50th anniversary of the launching of Sputnik, and how we went through a whole period when we just couldn’t wait to go to the moon. Over and over again, we sent people there, but then nothing. Someone wise has recently written, “We’ve not gone in a long time, and one of the reasons is a psychological one – on the moon, there is only dust and rock, while on earth, you can be wandering in a dry and arid place, but always with the hope that there could be something human over the horizon.” (5)
God made us with the need to connect with God and with one another. I have no scientific proof for it, but I believe that there is a little homing device in each of us that signals us when we are close to God, and which we cannot hear when we are far away. That little bleep is there, sometimes barely discernible, but always there. Whether you hear it or not, there is in you that which draws you close to God.
I am interested in the new book of Mother Teresa’s letters that has recently been published. I have been reading those letters this week. I am stunned by how often she felt “unloved and unwanted: by the Lord she served, and yet everyday, she pressed on because of his claim on her life.” (6)
Jesus never instructed his apostles to figure out the doctrine of the Virgin birth. He did not instruct them as to how to understand other religions. He said, “Live your life in the way that reflects the values and the ethics I have taught you. He said to them, “Never forget that you have in you the capacity to be the world’s agents of reconciliation.” I think he was so strong about it because he knew he wouldn’t be with them much longer, and he knew everything would depend on their using what they already had.
On World Communion Sunday, we remember that the church is one in Spirit, one in faith, one in baptism. And even though we do not always live as if we believe it, we come to the table and do something that is both real and symbolic: proclaim the power of forgiveness in this world. Every time we take that little piece of bread, every time we take it into ourselves, we are offering to all a reminder of the power of reconciliation through Christ our Lord. This is Christ’s body broken for us, which makes it possible for us to forgive again and again and again.
The children sang of peace today. They reminded me of an old story about a shoe company that sent out one of its salespeople to a faraway country to start a business. After a few months, the salesman sent back the message: “Coming home; no one wears shoes here.”
The same company sent out another salesperson to the same area. After a few months, the new salesperson wrote the home office this note: “Send more order forms. Nobody wears shoes here.” (7)
Nobody believes in peace out there in the world. Hardly anybody believes that a few good people armed with God’s loving power can change the world. But believe me, the world can be changed, IS being changed.
Mother Teresa said, “I can do what you cannot do. You can do what I cannot do. And together, we can do something great for God.” Yes, we can. Something great for God. You and I.
(1)The sermon title is taken from a sermon of the same title by Richard J. Fairchild for World-Wide Communion Sunday. (Ordinary 27-Year C).
(2) Wishful Thinking.
(3) Susan Eastman, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC, in as essay in Lectionary Homiletics, October/November 2007.
(4) Amazing Grace.
(5) Charles Krauthammer, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, 10/5/07.
(6) Come Be My Light.
(7) As told by Fairchild.
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