October 7, 2007 (Jimmie Johnson)

Lamentations 3:19-26

The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Luke 17:5-6

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."

Sermon

It is no wonder to me, really, that following Jesus’ remarks calling for continuing forgiveness, the disciples would quickly do “a forgiveness inventory” and realize they were short.

Or, they would look around at all the little ones stumbling and falling beneath the load of life -- and then surveying their own faith’s resources, they would cry out:
“Help! We need more faith. We are insufficient in the face of all the needs.”

They didn’t ask Jesus to help them have more love or forgiveness. No, they asked for more faith. They needed God’s help. That’s what faith is.
Faith is the rather humble perspective that acknowledges you don’t have what it takes to be God’s person or congregation in the face of all you see before you. And you really need God’s help in believing that God can do so much more with you.

So, we hear a text this morning where Jesus urges us to make sure we don’t bring harm to the little ones, the vulnerable ones among us, that we don’t allow them to stumble under burdens placed upon them. In addition, we hear Jesus tell us to be always generous with forgiveness.

And we think “yes,” that’s what we are about. That’s the meaning of our Christian Baptism: to help God’s children and to always practice forgiveness as God so generously forgives.

But, who are we to live up to such a challenge? When you begin to realize it takes a large measure of faith to simply watch the evening news, you realize there is massive hurt in God’s world every day. Terrorism, war, AIDS, hunger, and the deadly devastation of storms, floods and drought -- well, it makes you want to turn away from this relentless hurting. And it makes us feel embarrassed about even entertaining supernatural hope as part of our faith. We struggle in such a moment to trust there really is more mercy and hope in God than sin and despair in us. The fact is if we are brutality honest, we admit this morning that the power of God seems thin and flimsy in the face of the loss and brutality and anxiety and hollowness of today’s world.

Yet, the historical truth is that Christians have known from the beginning and even staked their very lives on the conviction that God’s gift of faith to us and God’s call for us to be different in the world are supported by God’s power that we have seen in the resurrection of Jesus-- and Christians before us have believed God’s goodness and mercy will prevail in the world in God’s good time.

This morning’s text interrupts us this morning to tell us it is our turn to face faith’s challenge. As the first Christians had to decide this issue of whether there is more mercy and hope in God than sin and despair in them— it is now our turn. It is why we are here today in this peculiarly appointed room doing religious actions with water, bread and wine. We sing hymns, say prayers, listen to the Christian story and share the Peace of Christ with one another.

We are asking God to increase the conviction at the very depths of our being that God still has plenty of game left to pull off being God. This is still God’s world, and God’s own good time still governs even in the face of the chaos.

Only with this assurance can we go forth, can we go on, trying in our halting, inadequate ways to bear some of the pain of the suffering, to relieve some of it, to eliminate some of it. Yes, our efforts seem so paltry, so pitiful and so small. But Jesus doesn’t seem worried about our tiny faith. Jesus says the size of your faith doesn’t matter:
“If you have faith the size of a tiny mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.”

Ask the folks whose lives you touch through the outreach of this congregation if the impossible is possible.

Ask the folks who receive their meal from our Meals on Wheels servers.

Ask the women and children at Hope House who use the kitchen utensils we donate to help them begin again in safety.

Ask the little children at the school in Guatemala where we send congregants on a mission trip each year.

Ask Dennis Smith our missionary in Guatemala.

Ask the staff of the Presbyterian Hospital in the Congo, a hospital we help support in its fight against the Ebola virus.

Ask the man who got financial help this week from Caritas because we give money to Caritas.

Ask one of the young men getting trained to be a welder at the Church of South India Training School that we help support through our gift each December.

On and on, we could list our missions in Waco and the world. And yes, from one perspective they are small. They seem tiny and insignificant. So small when measured against what we see and hear on the evening news. But if you ask the one person or family helped, they will tell you it changed the whole world for them.

We believe that our small faith can indeed, by the grace of God, be used to heal and transform. We may have come here with fear but we will leave with a spirit of power and love.

And so to the Table.

Spread here before us are all the hurts and losses of the world.
Spread here before us also is the power of God given as steadfast love, mercy and faithfulness.

This Table reminds us again that we are supported by God’s invisible, hidden power ruling in authority for us and creation--- a power of unlimited mercy and hope that we know will prevail in the world in God’s good time.

Sure we have such a tiny, tiny faith. I know. I am right there with you.
But remember, Jesus promises it is more than enough for God to pull off being God. It’s miraculous. It sure is. As impossible as mulberry trees being planted on the waves of the sea. How the impossible is accomplished is always hidden. But we do believe even in the face of the Enlightenment values we hold and value, that there is still no reason for us to be embarrassed by our belief in the mystery of a God who intervenes.
We have a core conviction that refuses to give in to the darkness of a closed world that always ends in competition for the ‘goodies’ of the world.

We believe there is more going on than what we see. Sure, at First Presbyterian, we will never be “happy clappy” about the miraculous. We don’t want to be arrogant or ignorant children of God— so we will always be cautious and humble in our use of the word “miracle,” but we do believe.

We may not be big believers, but Jesus doesn’t seem distraught over this. He seems rather confident.