Small Steps
Pentecost 19
October 7, 2007
Luke 17:5-10
By Pastor Tom Kadel
With the news flowing constantly to us that we are approaching – if not actually in – an energy crisis, there’s interesting news coming out of London, England. There’s an architectural firm there working on a brand new idea for generating electricity. Their idea is based upon the measurable principle that every time you and I take a step, we generate six to eight watts of energy. Of course, the moment you generate that energy, poof! It goes away. This London firm is looking into ways to capture that energy on a large scale and turn it into electricity. “If you harness that energy,” says the firm’s director, “you can actually generate a very useful power source.” So, this firm is working to develop vibration-harvesting sensors. These sensors would be implanted into the structure of train stations, bridges, factories or any other structures frequently rattled by people walking, or vehicles moving, or machines rumbling. Maybe one day even churches will have such a thing and instead of having worshippers sit still during a service, they will encourage them to walk around to help with the electric bill. Interesting to ponder, don’t you think? There’s power in small steps.
Good morning, brothers and sisters, today let’s think about the power in small steps. In the first part of the passage I just read to you from Luke’s gospel, there’s an interesting thing going on, though it’s buried under many layers of our own assumptions about this passage.
The disciples, having now been with Jesus for about three years, come up with a solution for their repeated difficulties in following him and his teachings. “Increase our faith!” they said. Well, hey, that sounds not only reasonable, but very much like prayers I have prayed again and again in my own life. “Increase my faith, Jesus, so that I can be a more faithful and a more powerful follower.” “Increase my faith, Jesus, so that I can preach better, serve better, pray better, live better, do everything better.” Yep, I’ve prayed those kinds of prayers a lot in my life and I’ll bet you have, too.
But did you notice what happened when the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith. Basically, he replied that he’s not buying in on their request. He’s not got some magic wand to wave to make faith easier for them. And, he’s pretty much saying that even if he had that magic wand, he wouldn’t wave it anyway. Did you catch his reply to their request? “If you have 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.”
Instead of waiting around to get more faith, Jesus is telling them to go and put to use the faith they already have. It’s not about needing more faith. It is about using what we already have! In matters of faith, Jesus is pointing out, the world is changed by small steps, almost never by huge ones. Waiting for more faith actually turns out to be a pretty convenient excuse for doing nothing, doesn’t it? It’s like me waiting until I have enough skill at golf before I go out and play golf. It just won’t happen. Greater skill grows from my use of my lesser skill. Greater faith grows from our use of our lesser faith. There’s power in mustard seed-sized faith. And you can get in on it.
I think that one of the greatest callings we have from God is to stir the world’s imagination by boldly doing little things that can become big things. Christ Lutheran Church has stirred this community’s imagination through the Shepherd’s Shelf. Did you know that the Shelf began as a way of supporting one single mom and her two kids? It wasn’t a big thing we set out to do. One single mom and her two kids! We didn’t wait until we could relieve world hunger. If we had, nothing would have been done. But somehow that mustard seed-sized act of faith stirred some imaginations and people wanted to get in on it. Members stepped up, Scouts and their families stepped up. Other churches stepped up. The Post Office stepped up. The Penn Foundation stepped up. Funding foundations stepped up. All stirred by a mustard seed-sized act of faith. People who would have done nothing, have stepped up to help stock, equip and fund this ministry and that number is growing. Our small step in faith is growing because we’ve modeled that small ministries can grow into great mulberry trees and take root in surprising places. Using mustard seed-sized faith, imaginations have been stirred and God is growing something good here on Sumneytown Pike.
Exactly the same thing happened with our Katrina relief. At the beginning, we had no idea of how to get supplies to send to the Coast, how we could afford a truck if we did have the supplies, where we’d find a driver if we could afford the truck. But people’s imaginations got stirred and hundreds of people stepped up because they wanted to get in on it. We are now working on sending our ninth truck. That’s a big deal, but it didn’t start big. We simply stirred imaginations.
A year ago in Lancaster County, a gunman slaughtered five young girls in their schoolhouse. Can you remember your own amazement at the Amish community’s response? They reached out with support to the gunman’s widow and children. They didn’t wait until they had sufficient faith to end the world’s madness for violence. They stirred our imaginations by using the faith they had and the whole world took notice and I’ll bet there are parts of the world that are somehow different now for what they witnessed in that small community.
If we have faith the size of a mustard seed and act on it, big things can happen that make uprooting a mulberry tree into the sea look like child’s play.
I don’t know how many people have helped the Shepherd’s Shelf or Katrina relief, but I’ll bet that almost all of them jumped in because they witnessed someone else making a little bit of a difference with their volunteering or their gifts and they just wanted to get in on it. That’s Jesus’ point about this mustard seed-sized faith.
Soon, you’ll receive a letter from our Stewardship Ministry Team with an equally stirring revelation. They’ve developed a step chart of financial giving. This many people give this much. That many people give that much and so on. In the letter you’ll discover that if every one of us took the mustard seed-sized faith move of just increasing our giving by one step, the giving to this congregation would increase by an enormous amount. There would be $120,000 per year more to do ministry in this community. And that would be after we gave the first 10% of those increases away to others! Imagine the way those ministries could stir the imaginations of our neighbors in working for justice, for peace, for reconciliation. “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed,” said Jesus, “you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” None of us needs more faith, but all of us need to commit to using the mustard seed-sized faith we already have and we’d stir the imagination of this community and maybe even the world.
Isn’t that something you’d like to get in on? Thought so.
Amen
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
