“More of this isn’t better”
2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10
OT 27C
6 October 2013
You have no doubt seen those AT&T commercials featuring an adult man sitting in what appears to be a first grade classroom, getting input from some kids about topics which sort of loosely have something to do with cell phone wireless plans. The man’s stiff and serious, and the kids are smart and cute but say some pretty outrageous things.
One of those commercials, which has gotten a lot of air, has a little girl making this answer to the man’s question, “Who thinks more is better than less?”:
More is better than less because if there's more less stuff, then you might want to have some more.
But then, your parents won't let you because there's only a little.
If you really like something, you'll want more of it.
We want more,
We want more,
Like, you really like it, ya want more.
What a perfect illustration for our texts today!
The disciples want more … they want more faith. It’s a typical request from typical people who could be saying and praying the same words today. We say and pray the same words today, as we face situations in our personal lives, in our community and world, in our faith communities … “Jesus, just give me more faith.”
More is better than less …
We want more,
We want more …
And Jesus’ response … Jesus’ response seems rather cold-hearted, doesn’t it? Like he thinks they don’t have any faith at all … if they had even a smidge of faith, they should be able to Harry Potter-like order a tree to be uprooted and thrown into the sea.
Ah, but what’s really going on here?
In reality, it’s another of those strange exchanges going on, between the disciples and Jesus, if the disciples would pay attention to what they are saying, and what Jesus is saying, they’d get it … ah, but they don’t, once more.
Increase our faith!
The word they use, even if we don’t know the Greek of the New Testament, we can understand it. Prostheis. Like our word, “prosthetic,” or “prosthesis.” Something added on to what already exists, like a prosthetic leg or arm added on to a body. Something added on to what already exists.
And Jesus’ response …
If you had faith the size of a mustard seed …
And one more language note … the sense of Jesus’ “if” is less “if” and more “since” … Since you have faith the size of a mustard seed …
So both disciples, and Jesus, recognize that they … disciples … have faith already.
They have faith already.
But they want more.
More is better than less because if there's more less stuff, then you might want to have some more.
If you really like something, you'll want more of it.
We want more,
We want more …
The thing is, what Jesus is getting at here, is that faith is NOT like other earthly stuff, toys and money and cell phone plans. More of it isn’t better, because what we have already, what we’ve been given already, Jesus says, is enough.
This is the Word that Paul is giving to his young protégé, Timothy, in our New Testament reading. Timothy is like a new young pastor in her first call; Timothy’s out in the field, helping lead a fledgling Christian community; Paul founded it, then moved on, and Timothy is now the servant-leader who remains.
Timothy remains … but he’s got some misgivings about his qualifications, his credentials to carry out the task ahead of him. Most likely … probably … he wants more … more faith, more learning, more ability to pray, to worship, to quote Scripture.
But Paul reminds him in this letter that, indeed, Timothy has all he needs:
I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and how, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you … for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and love and of self-discipline.
Timothy has all he needs … faith enough to move forward in serving and leading this community of faith. God has given to Timothy as God has given to all who God claims, and Christ names as his own, through the gift of Baptism … a spirit of power and love and self-discipline.
In other words, Timothy doesn’t need more. He has all he needs.
For the disciples, too, it’s the same thing. They have all they need. Remember how, earlier this summer, earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus sent seventy of his followers out to cure and heal and cleanse and make new. And they did it. They did it well, so well that Jesus remarked about it when they came back.
But they want more.
It is their, it is our theology of scarcity that does this. The thinking, the believing, that there just isn’t enough … but if we had more … more house, more work, more money, more time … it would be better.
Churches get stuck in this theology too. If we just had more … more people, more kids, more stewardship, more programs to offer, more to attract people …
More is better than less because if there's more less stuff, then you might want to have some more.
If you really like something, you'll want more of it.
We want more,
We want more …
Most of you know that I came to Nativity from one of the most rural synods in our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America … Southwest Minnesota. Yes, it’s a large synod with nearly 250 congregations (in comparison, our synod, NW Washington, has just a few over 100 congregations) but many if not most of those congregations are small, family-sized (around 50 in worship), yoked together with 2, 3, 4 or more others into parishes, so they can afford to call a pastor.
SW Minnesota is a declining area of the country. It’s a farming area, and as the small farms go away and the large farms take over, the young people move away to find work in the Twin Cities, leaving the villages and towns with a disproportionate number of seniors, retirement homes and nursing facilities … and the younger people who remain are often very poor and need many services to survive.
And many of the problems we have in urban areas are exacerbated there because the population is so small … alcohol and drug abuse, depression and suicide rates are far higher than the national average.
It is a beautiful place, but it can also be a very depressing place to live. It’s very easy to get caught up in living in the past, looking back to the “glory days” of busy towns, each town having its own school … and full churches with big Sunday Schools, and not needing to “share a pastor” with another congregation or congregations spread out across miles and miles of Minnesota prairie.
And yet … and yet … the SW Minnesota Synod continues to be a place, a people full of hope … a synod birthing hope, with active congregations doing ministry, sending youth to servant trips and youth gatherings, students to seminaries to train to become pastors, and active, growing multicultural ministries among the synod’s growing population of Hispanics.
I believe this theology of abundance that’s evident there is best summed up by the synod’s mission statement:
By God’s grace, together we have what we need.
By God’s grace, together we have what we need.
Isn’t that a great word? A word of abundance, and joy, and hope. A word which so well sums up our text for today.
While the disciples want more, Jesus knows that they have enough … already … enough faith, enough power and love and self-discipline, in the words of Paul to Timothy … enough to live in, and into, the Word and work Jesus gives, the discipleship life, life lived in the shadow and shape of the cross, the servant life, the giving life, to and for others, in Jesus’ name, into the world God loves.
And the same is true of us. By God’s grace, together we have what we need. We have enough faith … faith given to us in our baptism, faith nurtured in us by family, like Timothy, by friends and faith friends, by companions along the discipleship way of following Jesus. We have enough faith … faith fed and strengthened in Holy Communion, faith sending us out from this table as servants, servants who know what we ought to do, what we are called to do, in Jesus’ name.
By God’s grace, together we have what we need.
We have enough faith.
Jesus says so.
He who gives you faith says so.
So go forth and live in, and into it, this faith, this life, Jesus calls us to live, in his name. Amen.
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