For Sunday, October 6, 2013 – Luke 17:5-10
I wonder if they were surprised when Jesus said we didn’t need more faith, that even the tiniest seed of faith is enough. What matters now is to put faith into practice, to do what is ours to do. Like bookends at the start and finish of this passage, “increase our faith” and “we have done what was ours to do,” are a way to think about our own passages in life, reminding us to journey in simple faith and obedience.
Much happens between the beginnings and the endings. Life builds us up and then wears us down. Love happens. Loss happens. The illusions of happily-ever-after move out and conflicted feelings move in—feelings of hope for what the journey can be and despair that we stumble again and again. We seem to accomplish so little. Will we seek comfort by returning to what has been, to memories of easier days when God seemed near—or will we pray once more for an increase of faith and then get up and do what is ours to do?
Jesus reminds us that we are not the masters of God’s purposes, but the slaves. We are bondservants of a cause beyond us. We can gnaw for hours on the would have, could have, should have disappointments of life, but peace will never be found there. Peace waits in the right here, right now, what is. This set of circumstances. These people. This degree of understanding and support. We have enough faith to do what is ours to do, to serve the purposes that matter. What part of our world’s pain calls to the depths of our own brokenness? Where does creation’s struggle for life and meaning touch our own longing? We show our faith in God, in all creation, each time we step toward this place. The journey to the really Real—to our salvation—depends on it.
In earlier centuries, an altar call was a personal invitation to express one’s faith by signing on to work for the common good, whether abolishing slavery or creating child labor laws or relieving poverty. In the little rural church I grew up in, an altar call came at the close of every service. “If one among us today has heard the call to place your faith in Jesus and follow him with your life, come forward as we sing.” My heart stirred every Sunday. I wanted more faith. I wanted to follow Jesus. My mom said it probably wasn’t necessary to walk down the aisle every Sunday, but I have never forgotten how much I wanted to sign up, again and again.
We seek more faith, yes; this is always the beginning, and the beginning again. Then we get going. Thanks be to God, we do what is ours to do.
