“Letting Seeds Grow” - Luke 17:5-10
October 7, 2007
Dr. Michael C. Yarbrough

          Their request was really an implied universal spiritual question: “Jesus, won’t you, – can’t you – tell us what to do to increase our faith?”  It seems to be a fair enough question, don’t you think?  The disciples’ words imply that they already have some faith – but that (somehow) Jesus has the power to say something or do something that will help their faith to grow.

          Growing faith is a worthy goal.  It’s worthwhile to explore ways to nurture the gift of faith that God has already planted within our hearts.  Surely, it’s worth the time and effort – and patience – and then, to watch it flower into the fruits of a confident and rich Christian life.  Isn’t that what Spiritual Life retreats, and Spiritual Life Groups – and Bible Study – and Children’s Church – and personal daily prayer – and giving of yourself to a ministry to which you have been called that serves others – and even the stewardship of tithing – and the practice of other Spiritual Disciplines – all attempt to do within Bread of Life?  Aren’t we doing these things with the hope that it will increase our faith?

          On that occasion so long ago, Jesus listened to his disciples and then answered them.  He said, – Guys, if you only have faith as small – and as insignificant as a little (itty-bitty) mustard seed (the smallest object he could think of), that tiny hint of a particle of faith is sufficient to do the humanly impossible – even uproot trees and replant them in the sea.  Jesus told them that the minuscule faith that the disciples already possessed was enough to put them in touch with the power of God!  How about that!!!

          Now, I have to tell you something.  A number of years ago, when I was in the Holy Land, I saw a mustard bush.  I shook out one of its seedpods and held the results in my hand.  What I held was not the whitish, crossbred, domestic mustard seeds of a commercial crop for French’s or “Grey Poupon.”

          The mustard plant and seed of Jesus’ day and place was something else.  Each of the tiny black mustard seeds I held was smaller than the periods at the end of each sentence in my Bible – and their weight was so minimal, that they blew out of my hand like fine dust on a desert wind.  That’s the size of the amount of faith Jesus was talking about!  Do you have even that much faith?

          And then, Jesus continued his answer with a parable.  In it, he said that one who wants to increase their faith must become a humble and dutiful slave.  For, he said in the parable, a faithful witness is one who carries out the will of a master with out expecting any recognition, praise, or reward.

          I think I like the first part of his answer better.  I wish that he’d talked a little longer about tiny seeds and mulberry trees – and then had stopped before he went to meddling.

          Being a “master” is a lot more appealing to me than being a slave.  Suanne and I know who is really in charge at our house, but the running joke between us is that when I’m feeling like life is a little out of control – or I’ve been tromped on a bit – or my ego got squashed a little too flat – she lets me pretend (for a little while) that I’m the master of the house and “Lord of the castle.”

          Now please understand: I know how to keep a thirty-four year marriage healthy.  Most of the time, Suanne asks my opinion about stuff – I tell her what I think – and then she just goes ahead and does whatever she had planned to do in the first place.  Most of the time, I’m only “the master” in my fantasies.

          If the increasing of faith means becoming a slave – and slavery is not what we generally set for our personal life-goals – then I have to ask Jesus a second spiritual question.  “Jesus, how do I become a willing and faithful slave?”  In the parable, the faithful slave has two important characteristics.  First of all, slaves in the parable do “the right things” – they do what is expected of them – their actions serve the master.  Secondly, faithful slaves have the right attitude.  They not only know their master’s expectations, but they are also happy to get them done.  They expect no reward or thanks – and none is offered.  The true servant does not expect thanks but rather IS thankful.

          Paul Tillich, one of the greatest Christian theologians of the last century, once wrote this about the Christian life: “Thankfulness has taken hold of us, not because something special has happened to us, but just because we are, because we participate in the glory and power of being.  It is a mood of joy, but more than a mood, more than a transitory emotion.  It is a state of being.  And it is more than joy.  It is a joy that includes the feeling that it is given, that we cannot accept it without bringing some sacrifice – namely the sacrifice of thanks.” (The Eternal Now, 1963, 176)

          The true servant is thankful.  We, those who would make Jesus our master, have ways to express that thankfulness.  And we, who would follow Jesus, gather in this sanctuary every week to celebrate “the Great Thanksgiving.”  It is called by many different names, including “The Lord’s Supper” – “Eucharist” – and Communion.  There is something that happens here that makes this table a “spiritual key” to becoming faithful and thankful slaves of Christ.

          When we express our thankfulness through the reenactment of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples, we become equipped to serve the master.  When we recall the promise of a new relationship with God that is sealed in the words and actions at the table, we are empowered and encouraged to act on the promises God has made.

          When we are truly thankful – when we can serve our master joyfully – when we can act in confidence because of God’s promises of love, power and eternal life – ONLY THEN can we call ourselves true servants!  The Lord’s Supper is the one moment in Christian worship where all of these elements come together and charge our lives like electric volts from a battery!  Can you understand how important this table is if you want to increase your Christian faith?

          At this table, we get our model for servanthood.  Communion reminds us of Jesus’ obedience – Jesus’ service to his master – God!  Communion reminds us of our call to obedience – to the service to our master – the risen Christ!

          The central theme of Jesus’ words and actions in the upper room is that to have Christian faith means that you no longer need to be the master.  The fact that Jesus’ ministry ended in death taught us that one does not ever say, “Now that I have completed all the duties of love, it is my turn to be served.”  NO!  Not in the kingdom of God!  Instead, we serve Christ because he served God – even to death.

          Jesus is the model slave.

          Do you want your Christian faith to increase?  Come to Christ’s table.  Join in song, and memory, and taste, and smell, with millions of Christian servants and slaves – literally encircling the earth – uttering more languages than we can count – singing – remembering – tasting – hoping to renew or to experience for the first time the power of faith.

          Come to Christ’s table.  This morning, come to the table with your commitment and your tiny, “mustard-seed-sized” faith.  Come and take part in the symbols of Jesus’ total obedience and sacrifice.  Come, so that those tiny seeds of faith in you can be nourished by what happens here – and they might increase – they might grow.

          Let us pray:

          O God of Boundless Love:  you have spoken to us through the eloquent life of Jesus.  The words and actions have been remembered for us.  Our hearts yearn as hungrily as the apostles’ for a deeper and stronger Christian faith.  Use what we have.  Nurture it through communion.  Harvest it through service.  We pray it in the name of our master, Jesus.

Amen.