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The Twenty-first Sunday after PentecostE. Bevan Stanley
October 2, 2016
Proper 22, Year C
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
This is a reasonable request for disciples.It is certainlya prayer I pray with some frequency.There are days when I really wonder if God really cares about anything at all.When friends get sick or die, when tornados and hurricanes strike.Or sometimes just a whole lot of little things. “Lord, increase my faith.” Or maybe trying to be obedient, or to stick with some discipline comes to seem hopeless when we have failed in our attempts.Or maybe some persecution or evil oppresses us to a degree that we just don’t have the stamina to resist it anymore. “Lord, increase my faith.” How many of you have at timesasked for more faith?How many ask at least once a month?Every week?
And the Lord’s answer makes very little sense.He doesn’t say, “Sure, here’s some more faith.” Nor does he say, “Sorry, boys, that’s all there is.” He says, “If you had faith as agrain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, “Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.”This is not a general promise that faithful Christians can go around bossing trees.This is a reply to a question. “What do you mean “increase your faith?If you had any faith at all, you could tell this tree to go jump in the lake and it would.”
Taken that way the answer seems to makes some sense.But then what do we make of the story that follows that seems to have nothing to do with either the question or the response?The story of the slave and the master suggests that there is no particular virtue in keeping the law.That is no more than the obedience required of any slave.That seems hardnosed, rude, and unfeeling.You mean to say, Lord, that even if I did manage to love God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and my neighbor as myself, you wouldn’t even say thank you?Do you mean to say that you would expect me to say that I am an unworthy servant and have done nothing but what was my duty?Gee, I might as well quit now.
I think the only way to make sense of this story is to see it precisely as the response to the request for more faith.The disciples are being trained by Jesus the way a coach trains an athlete.And there are moments when the athlete or student is ready for a new level.In the preceding Chapter, Jesus had been saying that not one jot or tittle will pass from the law.And then there is the story the rich man and Lazarus we heard last week about the dangers of ignoring Moses and the prophets.Then comes a dire warning at the beginning of Chapter 18 about what happens to anyone who causes another to sin, followed by the command to forgive sins as often as there are sins.It is at this moment after hearing about having to forgive that the disciples break in and say, “Increase our faith.” I can see that.
So Jesus sets out to increase their faith.He starts a new part of their training.And he does it by increasing his demands.For now, not only must the disciples understand that the Law must be obeyed in full, but even more, they have to remain humble even in their righteousness. “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”
When our daughter Sarah was in fifth grade, her class was unusually difficult. I do not know exactly in what way. And the school decided that they would have the same teacher in sixth grade that they had had for fifth. He was a teacher for two years who was one of those rare people who has a gift for teaching.After school he coached the football team of a neighboring high school.And he ran his class room much the same way he did his squad.He was well-know for expecting a great deal from his students.He would demand hard work, he would yell at them some times, he would ridicule them at times, and he would get every ounce of performance out of them.He was a good, hard teacher.
I think Jesus is doing the same sort of thing here.I can imagine a disciple saying after they heard this story, “This is too much.I can’t do it.” And then Jesus says, “Well, I guess you better go home, if you are a quitter.” And Jesus walks on without looking back.After standing in the road with his mouth open a minute or two, and then kicking a few rocks in weeping fury, the disciple grabs his heart in his fists and slams down the road after Jesus’ back.He will go on, who knows why, after this impossible man.It’ll probably kill him in the end.But there’s no turning back now.He’ll go on, and he won’t even realize until years later how much his faith grew that day.And then a smile will crease the corners of his eyes and he will at last whisper to his Lord, “Thank you.”
Jesus is a tough teacher.We might want to think twice before asking him to increase our faith.And yet if we don’t, how will we manage?It’s a nasty pickle we are in.If we are to be disciples, then we need to be trained by the Master.But it is not all grim, grinding discipline.There is another side.When Sarah’s class finished sixth grade, there was a little graduation ceremony.And each teacher introduced his or her class to the audience.And each class gave some polite applause for their teacher.Except for one class.When Sarah’s teacher climbed down from the risers, they could not be restrained, they clapped and they yelled and they whistled and stomped. They made it very clear how very much they loved their teacher.They had done no more than their duty, and they gave great glory to the one who had kept them at it for two years.
And so, on that graduation day when we appear before the entire company of angels and archangels and all the saints, will we be able to say, “We have only done what was our duty”and give praise to out Teacher?Or will we have given up along the way somewhere on some forgotten hill, when we decided he was asking more than we could stomach?
And so we say, “Lord, increase our faith.” And he turns around and looks at us.The corners of his mouth twitch into a wry smile, and he says, “If you people had any faith ... And then we nudge each other in the ribs and shrug our shoulders and follow after this teacher, this master, this impossible man.This Jesus whom we have come to know and love and follow as our Lord.