We Can Do That

Written by Ed Kauffman

“If I only had more faith!”  How often have we heard people say that, or perhaps you have been one of the unfortunates to whom that has been said as an explanation for why something hasn’t happened.  “Well, if you just had more faith it would have.”

 Today’s texts both speak of faith.  The disciples, having just been told that if a person sins against you seven times in a day, yet turns back to you and repents 7 times, you must forgive them, reply “Increase our faith!”  It sounds a bit like “Are you kidding?”  How could we do that?

 To which we have Jesus’ reply, “If you had the faith of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.”

 Now, we often read this and think, “ah yes, if only we had that much faith, think of what we could do.”  We take it as a sign that the disciples, and we, just don’t have enough faith.  But Jesus is actually telling his disciples that they already have plenty of faith.  Eugene Peterson in his paraphrase The Message, puts Jesus’ response this way.   “You don’t need more faith.  There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith.  If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake’ and it would do it.”  (The kind of tree it is doesn’t really matter here)

 Jesus clearly implies that, indeed, the disciples do have at least that much faith, so there are no excuses. 

 The prophet Habakkuk was a man of faith and his small book challenges us to consider what a life of faith means.  Habakkuk, like Jeremiah, lived in a time when it appeared that God’s people were going down to defeat.  The wicked were winning.  The Chaldeans were on the move and about to devour the whole world it seemed, and God didn’t seem to care, or at least wasn’t doing anything about it.  And so Habakkuk complained, “How long shall I cry for help and you will not listen?”  That’s the opening line!  “Or cry to you and you will not save?”

 The prophet brings his complaint to God and then says, OK, I’m going to stand here and watch and see if God will answer.  And, indeed, God does answer.  God says, “Write the vision; make it big enough so that a runner can read it.  It may not be here yet, so wait for it – it will come.  In the meantime, look at the proud. Things are not alright with them, and as for you, the righteous shall live by their faith!”  or I would suggest that the alternative reading is actually more accurate – the righteous shall live by their faithfulness. 

 Two words here that need some explanation, because they have come to mean something different in current usage than what they meant originally in the context of Scripture.

 First of all, “the righteous”.  In Biblical terms, the righteous are not those who are morally superior, although they may certainly strive for that, but rather the righteous are those who have a relationship with God.  It is a relational term, more than a moral one.  Those who have a relationship with God seek to do God’s will, and recognize their dependence on God.  They are not trying to make it on their own, but rather depend on God and God’s provision for whatever comes.

 So we find Habakkuk, at the end of his vision writing a powerful song of praise to God.  Anna Barbauld incorporated these verses from Habakkuk into her hymn/poem in 1772. We probably are familiar with the first part of her poem, we sing it as Praise to God, Immortal Praise (HWB 91), but we don’t very often sing the second part of her hymn, taken from Habakkuk: Lord, should rising whirlwinds (HWB 92)

 From Habakkuk: “Though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will exalt in the God of my salvation.”  (4:17-18)

 Or as Barbauld puts it:  Lord, should rising whirlwinds tear from the stem the ripening ear, should the fig trees blasted shoot drop her green untimely fruit; should the vine put forth no more, nor the olive yield her store, though the sickening flock should fall, and the herds depart the stall; should thine altered hand restrain th’early and the latter rain, blast each opening bud of joy, and the rising year destroy; yet to thee my soul shall raise grateful vows and solemn praise, and, when every blessing’s flown, love thee for thyself alone!”

 That is the cry of the righteous who recognizes their dependence on God.  And it is also the cry of the faithful, who live by their faithfulness, for faith in the Bible is not so much a belief in something, as it is a way of living.

 There is a famous scene in the movie, Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade where Indiana Jones is desperately seeking the holy grail in hopes of curing his father who has been shot.  As he follows the clues, he is suddenly faced with a chasm, seemingly impossible to cross.  But the clue talks of a step of faith, and so he steps out into space, and the way suddenly appears – a walkway of solid ground to cross. 

 Now, he could have stood on the cliff and believed with all his heart that the path was there, but until he stepped out, it would have meant nothing.  Faith is only faith when it becomes faithfulness, when it is acted upon.  We only know how much faith we have when we step out trusting that God is with us.

 And faith is not about ‘truly believing’.  Some people were scandalized when Mother Teresa's diaries were published, and it was revealed that she had doubts about God and about her work.  She joined with Habakkuk and all the prophets, and thousands of other people.  One of the quotes I have on my bulletin board says, “The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty”  None other than the theologian Paul Tillich said, “doubt is not the opposite of faith, but an integral element of faith.”

 If Habakkuk didn’t have faith in God, he wouldn’t have stuck around to see what God would answer.  It is when we truly have a relationship with God, and a faith in God, that we are free to question, complain, argue, and yes, even get mad at God, because we believe God hears us and will listen and answer.  Will it come out like we think it should?  Maybe not.  Will we see the results immediately?  Maybe not!  But, God assures us, it will come, wait for it, in the meantime, live by being faithful, you have at least as much faith as a mustard seed, and even that amount of faith can do amazing things.

 Today, we are invited with our brothers and sisters around the world to the Lord’s Table.  By participating in this ancient ritual, handed down since Jesus instituted it, we affirm many things, but two that I want to mention particularly in this context.

 First of all we remember the faithfulness of Jesus.  We don’t always use that language, but Jake Elias, NT professor at AMBS argues that most of the places in the NT where it talks about faith in Jesus, really should the translated as the faith of Jesus.  Jesus had faith in God, and trusted God enough to give himself up, even to death.  Jesus was bold to act, and as the Philippians hymn says, “therefore God has highly exalted him.”  And so we remember Christ’s broken body and shed blood to provide a means of our reconciliation with God, so that we might be righteous.

 And we affirm our faith, and our willingness to act in faith – to step out into that chasm where it appears there is nothing solid to step on.  I once heard a speaker say, “Faith is acting on what we believe God is calling us to, without regard for the consequences.”  We don’t know what God has in mind for us in the future.  There is a committee that has been thinking about that question and is making plans to come to you as a congregation after the first of the year to hear what you think God is calling us to. And even after all that, we may not be sure, but today I invite you to commit yourselves to step out in faithfulness, even if we have doubts, knowing that God is faithful and the vision that God has for the world, a vision God had even in the time of Habakkuk, will surely come to pass. In the meantime, we will live by our faithfulness.

 Let us pray:  Oh God, we’d like the answers, and preferably we’d like them now.  Give us the patience to wait and the courage to live by faith.   Amen

 As we prepare to share this communion meal, I invite you to turn to HWB #570 and join me in singing.  I understand this may be a new hymn to many of you, so join in when you can, and note that the last verse repeats the first.