Just a Smackerel will do....

Just before today’s bit in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has been sharing with his disciples that following in the Way of Love requires endless forgiveness. Jesus is telling them that following him means that they are expected to forgive, forgive, forgive. Endlessly.  This is why they go up to Jesus and say: Increase our faith!  Because of course, forgiving endlessly and forgiving everyone, seems impossible……at the very least, improbable.

Kinda like how many of us feel right now with all that is taking place in our world. There is so much cruelty and pain and suffering that it is hard to know where to look, or maybe it’s hard to find somewhere one can “not look” in order to catch a break from the hellish chaos and take deep breaths.  We are facing huge social, economic and environmental issues in our country and in the world, and we know, as today’s followers of the Way, that we should do something, but what? How?  And we probably feel like whatever we do do or can do is not enough. Increase our faith, Jesus. Give us a big enough faith to do what needs to be done…..or at least to know what needs to be done.

But Jesus is telling the disciples, and telling us, just a smackerel of faith will do….even a tidbit is enough. Enough to do the impossible and improbable. Because in order to change the world by affecting and impacting one life, one situation, one struggle, one crisis at a time, it’s not the bigness of our faith that matters. It is the bigness of what we have faith in. Love is big enough. God is big enough. Our faith, no matter how big or small, brings Love to the moment, to the person, to the issue. And Love is big enough. God is big enough.

The prophet Habukkuk reminds us today that our job is to write the vision.  When the world around us has lost its way, when humanity forgets who we are and whose we are, our job is to write the vision, as Habukkuk puts it, make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. The runner in Jesus’ time is the one who literally ran from village to village to read out the messages that were on those tablets. Beloved, our lives, our responses, our words and choices are the tablets upon which God’s vision is to be made plain. So that everyone we meet, every life that is connected to our life, can begin to see, know, trust and believe that there is another way. Another Kingdom. God’s Kindom Kingdom. This Kingdom Vision should be writ so plain in our lives that it spreads from us to the next person to the next person to the next person until the Kindom Kingdom spreads far and wide. From the ground up, not from the top down.

Beloved, if the Gospels were lost and could no longer be read, shared, and discussed, future generations should know what the Gospels said because of how we live. Our lives are the embodied Gospel. We do not need a bigger faith because what we have faith in: Love, or who we have faith in: God, is big enough. Even fragile faith opens the way for Love to do her work, for God to do her work. Throughout Luke’s Gospel we are told and shown ways our faith works. Faith gives us the ability to:

• Be willing to take risks

• Have the courage and resilience to reach across borders and divisions

• Love boldly

• Be brave in our choices

• Praise God with our words and actions

• Give generously, like the Prodigal son’s Father, give recklessly

• Midwife and give birth to Love into the world.

Yes, us. This is what faith, even just a small smackerel, enables us to do. And people just like us.  People just like Mary. People like those wayward and confused disciples who left everything behind in order to follow. They all had scraps of faith that were big enough. Because Love is Big enough. God is big enough.

Another thing Jesus is making clear in today’s Gospel is that the life of a servant, the life of a slave to Love, isn’t about getting praise, recognition or a reward. That’s the other empire’s way.  We serve because we love. Period. We serve because Love is who we are. When we find ourselves needing a reward or recognition or praise, chances are that we are no longer moving from Love—-putting another’s needs on equal footing with our own. 

The word faith means having trust in something, belief in something. The thing about this Faith of ours is that we believe death is a part of this Creation, not something to be utterly avoided, but something that is necessary for the ongoing evolution of ourselves and all of Creation. Because we believe that God is always at work bringing forth new life. Particularly in places of death. We are an Easter people. That is what we have faith in. That is what we trust. This Resurrection Truth that Love is bigger than death; Love is bigger than hate and apathy and indifference. That there is no force, no power, no entity greater than Love. Our faith means we can trust that even a smackerel of faith is what is needed in each present moment. In every moment. 

"God of mustard seeds and mulberry trees, we bring our small and fragile faith. Breathe your spirit upon us. Stretch our imagination. Strengthen our trust. Teach us to walk in humility and love. 

God of hidden seeds, when we feel overwhelmed, remind us that even small faith is enough. Give us courage to forgive, to risk love, to serve without seeking reward. Through Christ who came among us as a servant and friend."(www.heartedge.com)

And all God’s people say: Amen.