Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4  Psalm 37:1-10  2 Timothy 1:1-14  Luke 17:5-10

In the verses prior to those we have read from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has been leading a discussion with the disciples concerning the demands of true discipleship.  The disciples have asked Jesus to give them the faith to live into the Kingdom – to provide the quantity of faith necessary to be his true followers through the difficult times that were sure to come.  Surprisingly, Jesus responds that the faith the size of a tiny seed is all that is necessary.  Jesus is saying that the disciples do not need faith measured by quantity – they do not need some kind of magical concoction of faith.  In fact, he is telling them that they already have the faith they need; they just need to go live that faith.

Faith is a way of life.  Faith, we might say, is really not a noun, but a verb – an action verb.

Jesus is saying, “Just keep being faithful.”   Jesus’ message to his followers is not to judge our faith based on its strength or weakness or quantity.  Essentially, don’t focus on your faith; don’t focus on the obstacles to your faith; don’t worry about what lies beyond the light that illumines your next step on the path.  Rather, focus on the One in whom your faith is bound.  Just keep following the One in whom your faith is bound.  Just keep taking that next step of life in the kingdom.  “Just keep being faithful.”

Mattamuskeet Lake is the largest lake between Maine and Florida.  It is clearly visible from space; its origin is a mystery.  And, it is unique in that it is sliced through the middle by a land bridge that provides a highway corridor for north/south passage.  To preserve that land bridge there are a number of concrete culverts passing under the road.  The lake is rather shallow and swimming at the culverts is quite desirable because of the concrete surface of the culvert.  Swimming is forbidden, however, because of an eminent danger.  Moving away from the roadway, at a distance unknown to the swimmer, the concrete surface ends, dropping off into an abyss.  Water rushing through the culvert and swirling downward at the edge of the concrete surface sucks the swimmer down into the abyss, where he or she is helplessly drowned.  Many visitors, as well as local teens and adults knowing full well the danger, have drowned at the Mattamuskeet culverts.  Some years ago, father standing on the shore, agonizing through the minutes that grew to hours as a diver searched for his son’s body said something that I have never forgotten, “I just can’t stand this but I have to.”

It is our faith that allows us to go on “standing it,” when we feel we just can’t.

Our faith is a gift.  But, our faith is not our faith; it is faith through the work of the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit that binds us to Jesus Christ.  Faith is a gift – an undeserved, unearned gift for which we strive to be worthy in the face of tragedy, in the face of apathy, and in the face of prosperity.  God doesn’t change at these times of tragedy or times of prosperity; we change in our reception of God’s gift of faith.  And, the gift of faith is constant.

Faith in God is a mutual relationship of responsibility and accountability.  Jesus, through the words of Luke, uses the phrase “worthless slaves” to describe our position in the relationship.  Certainly, this is a phrase that conjures up all sorts of frightening and distasteful images for us.

But, if we can put away those images for a moment and focus on our “worthlessness” in terms of our ability to “earn” faith through our own prideful egos, we recognize the fruitlessness of this me-focused endeavor.  Our faith cannot be earned; it is a gift for which we owe thanks to God.   Acknowledging our faith as gift allows us to relinquish our senseless, fruitless efforts to take the control of our lives out of God’s hands and into our own.

Being faithful, then, is not something for which we expect God to thank us any more than the slave of our parable anticipates being thanked for doing what is expected of him.  Being faithful is the most basic demand of discipleship.  Thus, when we accept this gift of faith as God intends that it be accepted, we are slaves to His will – the prideful ego, the self, is not the focus.  The focus is the next step in and toward the Kingdom of Christ – the Kingdom that is now and is to come.

Faith is a way of life – an action verb.  Jesus Christ came to show us faith; our faith in Christ should mirror the faith of Christ.

In our epistle lesson from the second letter to Timothy, which may or may not have been written by Paul, the writer is grateful to God for the faith that has been mirrored for Timothy by his Jewish grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.  Timothy is being encouraged to model his Christian faith from this example.

Timothy, like most followers of Christ in this mid-first century, would have been subjected to persecution; non-believers would have sought relentlessly to mock him and heap great shame upon him for his faith in what they considered to be a crucified criminal.  Certainly, death on a cross was the most shameful of all means of execution.  There were those who espoused that God can be recruited to insure one’s good health, great wealth, and undeterred success in this earthly life.  Thus, the sign of poor health or tragedy or mere lack of prosperity was a sign of too little faith in God.  Imagine how this principle might be perceived to apply to Timothy’s crucified savior.

This gross misinterpretation of the gift of faith through which God can be recruited to assure our earthly success is termed “prosperity gospel.”   There are still today, perhaps more than ever, those who preach this misconception, which remains as spiritually dangerous and frightfully misleading and far too common in religious networks as it was in Timothy’s day.

Faith is a gift not measured in quantity or quality.  The gift of faith that God has given you is the same gift that he has given me, the same as that gift he gave these disciples in our Gospel lesson.  Acknowledging that gift and remaining faithful is the basic expectation of us as disciples of Christ.  It is our way of life.

Through the imagery of the mustard seed, Jesus is saying, “Just remain faithful.”  Just keep walking step by step in and toward the Kingdom.   Remember the words addressed to Timothy, at the end of our lesson, which we read earlier, “Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”

Just keep being faithful.  Even when you feel that you are being swept down into the abyss, just keep being faithful.