The riddle of faith
7 October 2013 | Proper 22
Luke 17:5-10
“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.” (Luke 17:5-6)
Tonight I want to do something unusual with a Bible passage – something we don’t usually do with Scripture.
I don’t want to ask “Why IS this true?” I want to ask “Why ISN’T this true?”
Because I really think that’s what Jesus had in mind in this parable. Parables, you know, are an ancient form of teaching in the Middle East. The word parable means “riddle.” The parable isn’t supposed to make sense. It’s a riddle. It’s supposed to puzzle us. When we nod our heads like it makes sense, we just aren’t listening.
“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.”
We nod our heads. Yes preacher. I just need more faith. Then I could send a mulberry tree into the James River. Maybe if I got good enough I could send an elm or an oak into the Atlantic Ocean. Nod your head. Good sermon, Pastor.
Really. How come the mountains aren’t moving. How come there are any mulberry trees left. At least you’d think the Christian disciples would be practicing in their formation retreats. Virginia Seminary, Union Presbyterian, the School of Theology at Virginia Union – and if they can’t do it, how about the Pentecostals? You know they are trying. Aren’t there any faithful people? Haven’t there ever been any real Christians?
But if this is a riddle, the question is not “Why is this true?” but “Why isn’t this true? What conditions would it take for this to be true?”
And this is what I’m going to explore with you tonight. I’ll come up with three thoughts I have in response to the riddle. And perhaps you’ll spend your evening coming up with some more for yourself.
- This isn’t true – mulberry trees aren’t flying into the sea — because faith isn’t even as big as a mustard seed. It’s a way of seeing, an attitude, an on or off, yes or no thing.
- This isn’t true – mulberry trees aren’t flying into the sea — because faith has to be combined with love, and love has to be meaningful.
- This isn’t true – mulberry trees aren’t flying into the sea — because faith is not a human possession, but a yielding to the Holy Spirit and to God’s purposes.
1. Mulberry trees aren’t flying into the sea — because faith isn’t even as big as a mustard seed. It’s a way of seeing, an attitude, an on or off, yes or no thing.
We do talk about a lot of faith, — as if it were quantifiable – but that’s not the way Jesus is talking in this parable – otherwise there would be no unmoving mountains.
Maybe it’s a way of seeing – a way of knowing what God is doing and being a part of it.
Jesus talks in Luke’s Gospel about people whose faith has saved them – the blind man who calls out to Jesus for help, the tenth leper who returns to give thanks, the centurion who sees his own powerlessness and need for help, the woman who has been bleeding for twelve years and sees a chance, the woman who anoints Jesus with oil because she sees his need.
What is remarkable in these situations is not a stacked up, heartily practiced, pile of strong belief that could do anything. What is remarkable is that they see the possibility and hope of the particular moment, and somehow anticipate goodness and life. These are not people with a sense of spiritual power trying to make something happen in the world. These are people who know their own weakness – their emptiness – but are looking and hoping daily for revelation and healing. They are not tense and tied up. They are attentive and aware, present to the moment.
What we are talking about is not what we usually call spiritual “power.” It is not magic. It is a way of seeing, an attitude, a waiting, It is not control, it is surrender. It is the opposite of what people think when they try to be spiritual.
Mulberry trees aren’t flying into the sea — because faith isn’t even as big as a mustard seed. It’s a way of seeing, an attitude, an on or off, yes or no thing. It is not control, — it is surrender.
2. Mulberry trees aren’t flying into the sea — because faith has to be combined with love, and love has to be meaningful.
This idea comes from Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. It seems likely that Paul was familiar with the version of this teaching which is recorded in Matthew and Mark, where Jesus says, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.” [Mt. 17:20]
You will recall that in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul says, “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. “[I Cor. 15:2]
Faith by itself, Paul suggests, is useless. It is an energy, a kind of human power akin to determination or dedication, to desire or drive. But absent of value or purpose or meaning, it is useless. Faith can be faith in oneself. Faith can be faith in the wrong thing. It really matters what you have faith in. Faith by itself can crucify Jesus and bring about the persecution of the Crusades, or of 9/11.
A mustard seed of faith might move mountains and drown mulberry trees, but so what? There is a higher goal – the love of God and of human beings – and without this, faith has no value. Faith must have meaning, or it has no value.
Mulberry trees aren’t flying into the sea — because faith has to be combined with love, and love has to be meaningful.
3. Mulberry trees aren’t flying into the sea — because faith is not a human possession, but a yielding to the Holy Spirit and to God’s purposes.
So much of our teaching about faith suggests that it is something which I create, a spiritual possession, something which I develop. If that were true, I guess I could get enough to do something I wanted to do, such as create a mulberry forest off the Outer Banks.
But suppose faith is something created in me, a coming through me of God’s holy spirit, lifting me to God, making me attentive to God’s action and presence in the world.
Suppose faith isn’t a human virtue at all, but God in me being beckoned by God in God. If that is true, then my faith is in God and in God’s leading – and the only time I would be calling a mulberry tree into the sea or a mountain to move would be if God was doing that.
So faith would be very specific – not a piece of power I keep in my pocket, but a way of seeing and doing what God is seeing and doing now.
I believe that God is calling for a public transportation system for metropolitan Richmond. I don’t know how to bring that about. I’m listening, and looking for any step I am supposed to be taking. I am praying for it to happen. I am trying to see, and trying to be alert, and trying to see through the veil.
But I have no special knowledge, and I have no illusion that my faith – or even the combined faith of thousands – will create a metro BRT system. I do, however, believe that God can use people of faith to see and build a metro BRT system if that is what he sees. And I believe that if we pursue this, we will be surprised by whatever turn of events occurs.
Faith is a matter of unknowing, not simply of knowing. We get further and further from magical results, from mountains moving and mulberry trees cast into the sea. We get closer and closer to emptiness and surrender and above all, to hope and love. And then we get into the particularities which God is showing us today.
Today he hasn’t show me a mulberry tree or a sea he wants it in. He has, however, shown me this riddle, and he has shown me this pulpit, and he has given me the desire to tell you that this parable makes a far different kind of sense than we thought. It doesn’t make any sense the way it is stated, and that is intentional. Why not?
For me, the answer is that faith is not control, it is surrender. Faith has to be combined with love, and love has to be meaningful. And finally, faith is not a human possession, but a yielding to the Holy Spirit and to God’s purposes.
AMEN.
The Rev. B. P. Campbell
Richmond, Virginia
