Sermon 02 oct (Pente+20)

Lam 1.1-6; Ps 137; 2Tim 1.1-14; Lk 17.5-10

            We have some difficult readings this morning. And while some folks may prefer to skip over readings like this, there are really good reasons why we should engage with these tough passages. Primarily, I think, because they address the emotions of real life. Today we hear about loss, grief, fear, confusion, sorrow.

            The people in the scriptures are responding with very real reactions, too. There's bitterness, discontent, blaming. People are groaning, complaining, sighing, crying, demanding, and hoping for someone else to do their hard work.

            We've all had days like that, haven't we?

            And the challenge seems to lie, in today's scriptures, with folks who are stuck on the past. Our reading from Lamentations (and really, there's a book whose title lets you know exactly what to expect!). This reading is all about how the people remember 'what used to be'. It's a trend that hasn't changed in thousands of years of history.  When people are feeling thrown out of their comfort zone, faced with change, encircled by a world that doesn't seem to be theirs anymore. Well, that's when we're most in need of comfort, of the 'we've always done it that way before' - the looking back.

            No matter where and when, people have longed for what used to be - at least how it was in their memories. "Ah, the good old days..." some stories seem to start. And we miss them when they are gone, for our memories are of the best possible times in the past. But we have to recognise that they are, in fact, gone. We cannot live in the past, we can only live in the present - otherwise we become stagnant, caught, immobilised. It's like trying to run a obstacle course while facing backwards - clumsy, difficult, and potentially dangerous - all the while feeling alone, left behind.

It's a lament, indeed. And it's not what God wants for us to be caught in.

So how do we move beyond that then? Well, as is usual, Paul reminds us how to do that. And he does this in such a Pauline way - by writing a letter to a someone that is actually feeling this exact way.

            So Paul, in his correspondence with his friend Timothy, puts it bluntly. Accept the grace of Christ Jesus, given to us before the ages began. Learn more and more of the gospel - the GOOD NEWS of Jesus. Put your trust in the Lord your God - have faith - and God will see you through all the trials and tribulations of this life.

            It's a powerful message. And one that Paul supports by tapping into Timothy's own history - he references Tim's grandmother and mother, both women of strong and enduring faith, and encourages Timothy to find a similar faith. It's like Paul is saying 'I know you grieve, but I trust you can come through that pain.' And he knows this, because of his own journey from earthly grief into heavenly joy, from temporal fear to eternal faith. He puts his own focus on God in Jesus, on being an active and contributing member of the community, on living into the reality of the resurrected Christ.

            Paul is also empowering Timothy in this, by suggesting that the very sight of him will make Paul "be filled with joy." He's hoping that Timothy will start to recognise that the joy of Jesus does not have to come in monumental displays (though sometimes it does!). The joy that can be found in the ordinary, daily things - like sharing a meal with a loved one... helping a stranger pick up dropped items... serving the less fortunate at a community meal... the only limit to the possibilities is our decision to stop looking for them.

            Paul is inviting Timothy - and us - to look around ourselves, so that we might find the good news, own the good news as we make it ours, and then share the good news with the world around us.

            Sounds great! So let's do it! Let's change the world with the GOOD NEW of God in Christ!

            Ah - this is where self-doubt starts to creep in, isn't it? "Change the world?" our brains might query. "But I'm only me. Just me. I can't do it all, so I won't even try."

            Sounds familiar? Sound like the apostles in today's gospel? "Increase our faith!" they cry.  Make this easier for me, because I don't think I can do it alone!

            And here's a truth - we can't. None of us - not one - can do it all alone.

            And here's another truth - we're not meant to do it all alone.

            We aren't expected, as Jesus-followers, to have all the answers and solutions to all of the world's problems.  What we are expected to do, though, is to have a little bit of faith - just a tiny amount - and use that faith to do a bit of engaging with God and for God. We're meant to take that little bit of faith and live our lives as authentic, every-day Christians.

            Jesus, when he mentions the mustard seed, was not rebuking his followers by suggesting that they didn't have any faith. I think, instead, he was encouraging them to recognise the potential in the faith that they already had - and encouraging them to then use that faith.

            A little bit of faith, after all, is all we need. It's what we need to get going, to live our mission, to exercise our ministry. Jesus is wanting us all to embrace our faith - our own mustard seed, to celebrate it, to know it, and to allow it to become what it will become.

            That is the beauty of faith. Your faith is your call to mission, your opportunity to love and serve the Lord. And to do this loving and serving in the here and the now, with what you have to offer (and God has ensured that we ALL have gifts to offer) - and to do all of this in the joy that comes from being a child of God.

            So today I invite us all to let go of our own lamentations and grief and doubt and not-yet and 'oh I shouldn't' that come from our pasts, and instead live in the present glory of God.  Be the best mustard seed that you can be. Trust that the big things are in God's control.  Have the faith to do what you can. Change the small things, and the world will begin to change.

            It's not up to us to change the whole world ourselves, but it is up to us to do what we can. And that comes from loving and serving one another, because we love and serve the Lord.

            And when we put that faith into action, I believe that we will see our faith increase - not because God has changed anything, but because we have embraced our faith and grown with it and grown into it.

            So let us not cry out "Increase our faith!" and sit idly by. Let us instead celebrate that God is inviting us on the journey to grow our faith.

            Grow, little mustard seed, grow.

            Grow in love, grow in service, grow in faith.