(Homily for Gayton Road Christian Church's Sunday Worship on October 2, 2016, Proper 22
and World Communion Sunday)
and World Communion Sunday)
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Moving Mountains
The father pushes hurriedly through the crowd of people. “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me,” he repeats, bumping from shoulder to shoulder like a frenetic pinball. People stare at him, muttering complaints under their breath, but he presses on, frantic to reach his destination. The swarm of people becomes denser as he nears the front. So he pushes harder.
Finally he breaks through, and he collapses before the man at the front of the crowd: “Master,” he says, speaking between heavy breaths, “have mercy on my son. He suffers from seizures, sometimes falling in the water or the fire. I brought him to your followers, but they couldn’t heal him.” “Bring him here to me,” says the man in front. The father retrieves his son, and the man talks to the young boy. Nobody can hear what he says, but they can see the man smiling, then frowning, and then smiling once more. The boy returns to his father in an air of happiness. He is healed.
Hours later, the man’s followers come to him alone. “Jesus,” they ask, “why could we not heal the boy?”
Jesus replies, “Have a little faith. If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could move mountains.”[1]
The First Mustard Seed:
A Little Faith Can Go a Long Way
There are three different mustard seeds in the Bible.
And my hunch is that this mountain-moving mustard seed is the one that we all know and love. This mustard seed means that a little faith can go a long way. When Jesus tells his followers that a mustard seed faith can move mountains, he’s suggesting that they in fact have no faith.[2] If they had a little, even faith the size of a mustard seed, then they would have been able to heal the suffering child.
This mustard seed is a celebrated image in America, the land of opportunity, the home of the American dream. According to our national mythology, it all starts in your heart. If you have the seed of a dream, then you can achieve it. You can accomplish anything if you have faith in yourself and work hard.
I imagine that this is part of the reason America loves an underdog story. The underdog appears powerless—whether it is money that they lack, or strength, or popularity. But whatever worldly power that the underdog lacks, he or she makes up for it with faith, with the power of the heart. In the end, the underdog’s faith moves mountains. Just think of all the movies you’ve seen where an underdog defies the odds: Rocky, Rudy, Remember the Titans, Karate Kid, The Mighty Ducks—the underdog genre is nearly endless.
Just to be clear, I think these underdog stories and our national appreciation for the power of the heart is a good thing. I think it’s pointed in a good direction.
But today’s scripture suggests that this way of thinking—that a little faith can go a long way—can also lead us the wrong way.
The Second Mustard Seed:
Is There Such a Thing as “More Faith”?
In today’s story, Jesus’ followers beg him, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5), as if to say, “A little faith is not enough; we need more.” In response, Jesus says, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell this mulberry tree to plant itself in the sea, and it would obey you” (17:6). In effect, Jesus seems to say, “You want more faith? A mustard seed is enough.”
Whereas before, Jesus told his followers, “Have a little faith!” here he tells them, “Have a little faith.”
On the face of things, this seems a bit counterintuitive, a bit upside-down.[3] Why would Jesus brush off his followers’ request for more faith? Isn’t that as holy a request as you could make?
It helps to remember, though, that the disciples who make this request are the same disciples who have argued about who among them is the greatest (9:46-48), the same disciples who have fought over who will sit on the right and left of Jesus in glory (Mark 10:35-45), the same disciples who have kept little children from Jesus because Jesus couldn’t possibly be bothered with concerns as small as theirs (18:15-17). In other words, these disciples often have their hearts in the wrong place, worrying as they do about power and prestige and money, about being the greatest or the first. And so I cannot help but wonder if here they’re asking for more faith in the same way that a person might ask a genie for more magic powers.
If that were the case, then it would make sense for Jesus to say, “No, a mustard seed is all you need.” It would make sense for Jesus to say, “Have a little faith.”
When I consider who the disciples are, how much they resemble us in their desire for power and security, here’s what I hear Jesus really saying:
“If you’re asking for an increase in faith, it’s not actually faith that you’re asking for. It’s control. If a person’s faith is as big as a fortress, it’s no longer faith but a foregone conclusion, a self-fulfilling certainty. A faith as big as a fortress is more concerned with protecting what’s inside than sharing life with what’s outside.
“A little faith is not a fortress but a seed. Which is to say, it does not close things off but opens things up; it’s not the end but the beginning. Faith is not a big, final word that finishes the conversation. Faith is the first word, a small word, like the ‘I do’ that begins a journey.”
A Little Faith
If Jesus’ first “mustard seed” told the disciples that a little faith goes a long way, then his second “mustard seed” warns them that anything more than a little faith is not really faith. In other words, the danger of the American dream and our love for underdog stories, is that they may act like steroids for our faith, unnaturally enlarging it to the point that it is no longer trust but certainty and control.
When I think of faith as something that I need more of, something that will help me achieve my goals, I’m no longer really thinking about faith in the way of Christ. “If only I had more faith,” I might say, “I could be the person I’ve always wanted to be—I could be more dynamic and charismatic; I could always have the right words.” “If only I had more faith,” I might say, “I would never feel sad or lonely or inadequate.”
The danger of desiring more faith, Jesus suggests, is that we might actually be exchanging faith for our own selfish success story. We might be exchanging faith for control and power and certainty. In contrast to the “never say die” motto that rules our land, a little faith always says die: die to self, die to power, die to privilege.
A little faith is not about control or certainty or getting what we want. Faith is not big and overpowering. Faith is little and trusting, like a little child crying out for help, like a man on one knee, like a servant setting a table and putting others first, like a seed that falls to the ground and dies (cf. John 12:24).
The Meanings of a Mustard Seed
A little faith sounds weak and foolish. How will something so small secure our safety and self-interest? If the example of Jesus is anything to go by, it will not. A little faith led him to the cross. A little faith can be frightening.
But we’ve still got one more mustard seed left. Jesus once said, “The kingdom of God…is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches” (13:18-19). Which is to say, a little faith does not secure our safety and self-interest because it is seeking something much greater: the kingdom of God.
The mustard seed means many things. It means that a little faith can go a long way. It means that anything more than a little faith is not faith. And it means that the kingdom of God comes not by a divine finger snap; rather, it grows from seeds of little faith. It means that the kingdom of God is growing every time we have a little faith: every time we entrust someone else with a second chance, every time we give a gift without return, every time we give others the benefit of the doubt, every time we welcome the stranger, every time we look beyond the bad in order to bless the seed of goodness that dwells deep down in this world.
Prayer
God of mustard seeds
And kernels of trust:
Plant your kingdom in our hearts,
So that it might grow in our world.
Encourage us to remain faithful,
Especially when we are tempted by power
And its empty promises of our own success.
In the name of Jesus,
Who called himself servant and friend.
Amen.
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[1] Adapted from Matt 17:14-20.
[2] Cf. the “faithless” generation of Matt 17:17.
[3] Which is just to say, it has the mark of the kingdom of God, which is in the habit of overturning our way of doing things.
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