During World War II, psychologist E. Paul Torrance made a study of United States aces flying in the Pacific theatre of operations. He reported that the most salient characteristic of the ace was his risk-taking ability. Throughout his life, he had kept testing the limits of his abilities. And the life histories of these men showed that they were highly resistant to accidents, and in combat they suffered fewer casualties than pilots who were inclined to play it safe. Dr. Torrance said, "Living itself is a risky business. If we spent half as much time learning how to take risks as we spend avoiding them, we wouldn't have nearly so much to fear in life."
Torrance wasn't suggesting that these people acted stupidly. Clearly, they were dependent on the regular service and maintenance of their aircraft. They had to trust themselves to the perceptiveness, skill and efficiency of others. Then they had to trust themselves to their aircraft. But then, so did all the other pilots. The difference is the extent to which the ace was prepared to live out that trust.
Faith isn't closing your eyes, taking a deep breath and wishing something to be true. It isn't pretending that something is true. Rather, it is depending on something true being true.
The disciples of Jesus could see that he was an ace at living. There was a calmness in the way he approached so many varied situations. So many different sorts of people came to him - to listen, to be healed, to criticise, to argue. He faced physical and emotional tiredness, the incessant demands of people's wants and needs. He constantly kept before himself the reason he had come - his mission from the Father. His time was so very short. His ministry of teaching and healing fitted into a mere three-and-a-half years! The realities of time and of priorities were before him more than any other person who has ever lived. Yet we read of him as one who was quite unpressured - giving his attention fully to those who needed him.
The disciples were, of course, impressed by the closeness and reality of his relationship with the Father. On an earlier occasion, they asked him, "Lord, teach us to pray…" (Lk.11.1). Prayer was so different and vital for him. Jesus would withdraw to pray, but he didn't withdraw from life. Prayer was a prelude to key decisions and intense activity. Jesus, the Son of God on earth, lived as a man of prayer - in close contact and relationship with the Father - and as a man of active faith - depending on the presence and help of the Father as he launched out vigorously into the commitments of each day.
Now the disciples are asking him, "Increase our faith" (17.5).
We need to be aware that this request is not unrelated to their earlier request concerning prayer. They are not talking in a vacuum about faith. They recognise the need for confidence in the reality, presence, love, goodness and power of God and the need for clarity, motivation, decision and action in their lives day by day. It was, as we have mentioned before, a matter of needing to have real faith within the real world.
Jesus, they could see, lived with that confidence in the Father and with that commitment to action.
Jesus replies, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you" (v.6).
Jesus is not talking here about personal power, but about the effective ability to do the will of God.
Remember the scene from Mary Poppins? The clothes folded and put away, the bed made, the room tidied - just at a simple command! Haven't you sometimes longed for that power? Wouldn't that solve all your problems of housework, homework, all work…? And there are people who try to study ways of gaining that sort of power. But they are not Christians, and such power as they seem to gain ends up controlling and destroying them.
No, Jesus is not talking here about personal power, but about the effective ability to do the will of God.
One writer puts it this way, "The word of our Lord does not urge or advise us to order trees to be transplanted into the sea, which would be a tempting of God. But it does assert that the power of faith is as unlimited as God's power itself. It can do anything and everything. But, of course, in order to have a faith which plants trees in the ocean one must have the assurance that it is God's will that such a miracle should occur. Where this assurance is lacking, true faith is lacking, too" (W.F. Arndt, The Gospel according to St. Luke, p.368).
And what was the big barrier that led to their question about faith? Jesus had just told them that, if their brother sinned against them, they were to be willing to forgive, forgive, forgive… (vv.3,4). Sometimes we would much rather picture a tree going up, up, up… then over, over, over… and splash! - than to forgive someone else what he/she may have done to us. Are you very good at forgiving? What is the big barrier in your life that God is waiting to remove?
So while we are so full of dreams of greatness and power, Jesus is saying, You need to forgive your brother, you need to forgive others! But we jib at that! Forgiving is a tall order! We would much rather cast the mulberry tree into the sea, than forgive somebody! That might show our power rather than God's power shown through our faith!
That is why Jesus goes on to talk about the servant coming in from ploughing and looking after the sheep. That servant has done his duty. He has done what he is paid for. He doesn't deserve or expect any special or different treatment because he has done what he was told. In fact, his duties don't end there! He still has to serve supper for his master!
You may remember a while ago we talked about "justice" as getting what we deserve. And a good servant who has faithfully done everything asked of him/her is justly treated by being given a fair wage.
But we mentioned two other words as well. "Mercy" is when we don't get what we deserve - when we have done wrong. And "grace" which goes much further and gives us what we don't deserve. Certainly, there are many bosses who treat their employees strictly (and minimally) on the basis of justice. But there are others who use a measure of grace.
Who among us today can honestly claim that we have always completely done all that God has expected of us? To have done all with cheerfulness and love would seem to make us extraordinary people - wow!!! Yet, Jesus says, we have done no more than was expected of us. This would still just make us "ordinary servants" who "have only done our duty"!
The reality is that not one of us has done all we have been told to do. All of us are sinners. It is just as well God forgives sin. It is just as well he deals with us on the basis of grace - on the basis of what we don't deserve!
And that is why, in the upper room, Jesus shocked them by washing their feet and then said, "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord', and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example for you that you should do just as I have done for you" (Jn 13.13-15).
You want a bigger faith? Then you must live on the basis of God's grace towards you - and the grace he expects you to show to others! You want the faith to do something really big? Then forgive your brother when he sins against you!
Back to Sermons