What God Makes Possible

The passage on which this sermon is based is Luke 17:5-10

Jesus said, “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.” Jesus said, If you have faith, you can do impossible things.

Which is all very well and good, until you actually find yourself in an impossible situation, and no matter how much faith you try to have, you still can’t make it obey you. The diagnosis comes back and it is not good; or the doctor says there are no treatment options; or you hope and dream and work for something, some new change in your life, and sometimes you seem so close, but you just can’t seem to make the pieces fall together; or you need to raise more money, and you just can’t see where the money’s going to come from. Sooner or later you find yourself in an impossible situation, and you try to have the faith to command it to begone, and nothing changes. What then? Has Jesus’ saying judged you, pointing out to you that your faith is just not good enough, because if it were good enough you could do impossible things? Or is Jesus’ saying simply wrong, one more of those “irrational” things the New Atheists are always complaining religionists believe? Or does Jesus have something else to say? — is the meaning of Jesus’ saying not quite what it seems on the surface? Is Jesus here not really talking about doing impossible things?

It helps to look at the request to which Jesus’ saying is a response. The disciples say to Jesus “Increase our faith!” — which, if you think about it, is kind of an odd thing to say. The disciples seem to be thinking of faith as some sort of commodity, some sort of possession, some sort of stuff, that you can count out and measure in terms of increase or decrease, more or less, bigger or smaller. The disciples seem to be thinking of faith as something that Jesus can give them, so that they can get a lot of it, and improve themselves as disciples. But Jesus seems to think about faith differently. When Jesus teaches about faith, he doesn’t seem to be talking about a quantity that can be measured by increase and decrease, so much as he is talking about a relationship, a relationship between humans and God, a relationship that is marked by trust and empowerment and sincerity and joy. For Jesus, faith isn’t something we have or do or increase, but faith is something God does with us, faith is a quality of the relationship God invites us to be in, faith is the means by which God’s Spirit works in us to make us able to work with God, to do the work God gives us to do, to be co-creators with God of the love and compassion and justice and generosity and grace that is God’s will for the world. For Jesus, faith is the name of the quality Paul describes in our Epistle reading today as “not a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” To Jesus, therefore, the disciples’ demand “Increase our faith!” is kind of absurd, it’s a demand that misses the mark, a demand based on a misunderstanding of what faith really is. So, as a teachable moment, Jesus gives them an answer that is equally absurd — a mulberry tree planted in the sea? — in hopes that absurdity will jolt the disciples into thinking about faith in a new way, that the very silliness of the image will surprise the disciples into a better understanding of what faith is. That’s how teaching in parables works, by surprising us with new insight. The point of Jesus’ saying is not that if we have enough faith we can do impossible things, but the point is that having faith opens us up to God’s work within us, and God working within us can make all kinds of things possible.

And that in turn reminds me of another image of a tree: not a tree planted in the sea, but the image of the tree in our theme this year for Christian Education — and indeed our theme for Stewardship — the tree planted by streams of water. You know, the mulberry tree planted in the sea, for all its evocation of impossible wonder, in the real world would be sort of useless; but the tree planted near the water, with its fruit in due season and leaves that do not wither, is a much more accessible image, something we all can connect with. The tree planted near water is a wonderful image of how the creative grace of God and the co-creative energy of the creature work together to make good things happen. The water creates the conditions for the tree to grow, but the tree has to utilize those conditions to do the work of growing in itself; the grace of God creates the conditions for us to live Christian lives in the community of the Church, but we must utilize those conditions to do the work of being the Church. And what makes us able to do the work of being the Church is faith, the spirit of power and love and self-discipline, by which God working in us makes all kinds of things possible.

And that is good news for our Stewardship Pledge Drive this year. For all intents and purposes October is Pledge Drive month at Trinity: we begin today with Stewardship Moments in the service, and next Sunday, October 10, we start a series of cottage meetings that will last until almost the end of the month. These cottage meetings may be a little different from cottage meetings you’ve had at Trinity in the past: these gatherings will be mostly informal, a chance for me to get together with small groups in the most systematic way yet since I’ve been your rector, a chance for me to share with you some of my vision for Trinity’s future, a chance for you to share with me and with each other some of what you think Trinity is doing well and what we might do better, and a chance for all of us to hear together about the budgeting challenge we will face in the year to come. Most of you will have heard by now that, if pledging in 2011 remains at 2010 levels, we could face a budget deficit of around $80,000. That’s a serious number, and a deficit that size is a scary proposition. Planning to deal with a number like that could seem like facing an impossible situation, a real test of our faith. But that’s where Jesus’ saying today speaks to us, and reminds us that our faith is not about making impossible situations obey us, but our faith is about being open to discern what God is doing, and about joining with God to work God’s work in the world, and about bearing witness to how God empowers us to make all kinds of things possible.

And I believe God is at work in Trinity Church, working in us to make so much good happen — I mean, just think of some of the things we do here: packing the church with 750 people to hear the Haitian men and boys choir, and raising over $11,000 in response; bringing together ecumenical volunteers from churches and donors all over town to serve Noon Lunch; building a labyrinth as a spiritual path for our members and for anybody who walks through our churchyard; offering our building as a gift of beauty to enrich the senses and nourish the souls of concertgoers and worshipers and visitors and tourists; helping children and youth and adults engage the Bible, and learn with their heads and their hands what the Good News is all about; being a place of prayer where all sorts and conditions of people can find refreshment for their spirits and counsel from the clergy and community with people in communion — God is at work among us, working in us to make much good. And I believe God is at work among us in this pledge drive too, making it possible for us, each and every one of us, all of us, to give generously, even sacrificially, of our work and our wisdom and our wealth to be the living wherewithal by which we do the ministry God calls us to do. That’s the commitment to Trinity we can make real and concrete and effectual by participating in cottage meetings and making a pledge. That’s how we can be like trees planted by streams of water, to grow and bear fruit in God’s work. That’s our faith in stewardship, the spirit of power and love and self-discipline God gives us to make all kinds of great things possible.

Let’s just see this month what God will make possible for us. Amen.