Luke 17:5-10
“Platters, Sippy Cups and Gravy Boats”
October 6, 2019 World Communion Sunday
The measure of a lesson learned is when you can put it in your own words and find a way to integrate it into the person you are. Hear then how today’s reading comes alive in one particular person’s personal credo: “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something…My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.” Those are the words of someone who has modeled life as a Jesus follower for the rest of us without grand gestures or big speeches. Those are the words that encapsulate the teaching Jesus here in the words we heard today and the ones that come before and after them that he is passing on to his followers on what it takes to be a disciple. Those are the words of Jimmy Carter who became the oldest former president of the United States when he celebrated his 95th birthday this week. The measurement of faith is not, Jesus teaches, how much of it you claim to have but rather what you do with it. A faith that is huge but sits holed up in one’s head, never seeking an outlet and not put into acts of service to others isn’t worth a bucket of spit. We, of the culture which says bigger is better and more is never enough, have a hard time thinking that a little bit of faith is good and that’s because somewhere along the way we were told if we had enough faith all would be well with our world. Doubt was painted as sacrilegious at some point when doubt is instead a component of faith.
In our big brash world where success is often measured by the size of one’s house or car or bank account, we would do well to remember God’s preference for things that are small and unassuming and seemingly unimportant by the world’s standards. God called up the very weak Gideon to defeat an army that had occupied Israel. David was the smallest of the brothers and God chose him. And then God chose a poor, young woman who was an unknown and living under Roman occupation to give birth to Jesus. God finds a way to use whatever little bits can be found and amazing acts then become possible. This isn’t the only time the tiny mustard seed is found in Luke’s Gospel. A few chapters earlier the immeasurable reign of God is compared to a mustard seed where it starts small and grows beyond all imagining.
Belief comes in all sizes and God doesn’t seek our belief. Rather God seeks our faithfulness lived out in how we treat God’s people and God’s creation. Here the disciples are asking for more because they are paying more attention to what they think they lack than what they already have. Jesus in and around this passage is teaching about what it takes to be a disciple. This is our call, our life’s work as Jesus followers. Here’s the gist of it:
- Don’t be the cause of other peoples’ sins – a word some of us have an aversion to but which the Greek word translates more accurately as “to stumble.” In other words help others be their best selves.
- Forgive – again and again and still again, just as we have each been forgiven over and over again.
- Tiny faith is enough. There is no right amount of faith and probably over the course of a lifetime the glass will seem half full or less and other times half empty or more but that little bit as a motivator can be powerful if we let it.
- Discipleship – following Jesus – isn’t about what we get but what we give. If we wait for a gold star we’ll waste a lot of precious time that could make a world of difference to someone else.
The someone else might just be those people we know or don’t know who are on the margins and who themselves feel lost and forgotten.
With all of this talk of faith, big and small, maybe it helps to give it some legs so we have a jumping off point. The great theologian and chaplain and teacher William Sloane Coffin described faith as “recognizing that what makes God is infinite mercy, not infinite control; not power, but love unending. Faith is recognizing that if at Christmas Jesus became like us, it was so that we might become more like him. We know what that means” he continues, “watching Jesus heal the sick, empower the poor, and scorn the powerful, we see transparently the power of God at work…we know that our lives too can become channels for divine mercy to flow out to save the lost and the suffering.” (Credo, p. 7-8)
On this World Communion Sunday our minds turn to this meal that we will soon share with possibly a billion other souls. We will all be empowered to move from the table out into the world because we have shared in this 2000 year old ritual of remembrance where the sustenance we need for the work of Kingdom building is offered freely and abundantly. If faith comes in all shapes and sizes and morphs at different times during our earthly journeys, perhaps we might envision the container with which we could share our faith. Earlier this week, in considering what we do with our faith and since we were also celebrating this sacrament that we share with the world’s Jesus followers today, these three serving pieces in front of me seemed to encapsulate some of what we can do with our faith.
The platter allows us to offer folks what it is they need and pass it on. Also, there are no sides on a platter so everything is visible. There is a transparency to what we offer so we are freely offering what we have. A spirit of generosity is passed on with whatever we have to give be that time, talent or treasure.
What we do with the sippy cup image of our faith with its removable top is to nurture others and help them grow. Sometimes that means helping folks who are in a period of transition or becoming. It means accepting their limits without judgment and meeting them where they’re at. Think of the times when you needed acceptance and someone to walk with you or listen with compassion. That’s what we have to share.
In considering how we share our faith with a gravy boat attitude we might consider pouring with abandon the love we’ve been given so freely and generously by God. We know when such a love is shared things do get better. As William Sloane Coffin also says, “I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.” (Credo, p. 7)
How much faith will it take to make the leap? How much do we need to do the right and good and just thing? However much we have because what we have is enough to change the world, one little bit at a time as God works in and through and with each of us.