PROPER 22-C, October 7, 2007

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have faith so strong to be able to look at a mulberry tree, say to it, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it would do just that? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if I could turn and look at our organ that is giving us all kinds of trouble because it is so old and say, "Be repaired and work like a brand new organ"? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could go to Mercy or St. Luke’s, lay hands on everyone there and tell each person to rise whole and healed and each would do just that? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have faith so strong to be able to do all of that and even more?

Of course, when we think of possessing that kind of faith, we immediately deem it to be impossible. No one, we say to ourselves, has that strong a faith. No one has faith enough to literally move a mountain, heal the sick, raise the dead. Yes, there are times in our lives when we only wish we had such faith, or sometimes think we wish we had. For if and when we do think about having such a great faith, we tend to want to think again.

It’s a frightening thought, is it not, possessing a mountain-moving, mulberry-tree-moving, cancer-healing faith? Such faith would require so much from us and we are not so sure we want to give that much, are we? If we could move mountains, what else would others demand of us? What else would we demand of ourselves? And so when we hear Jesus’ words about faith and what faith can do, we immediately know we fall short of having that strong a faith. Yet we also know that that kind of faith somehow frightens us.

The faith to move mountains and mulberry trees, truly move them, must be very, very strong. I suspect the only one who ever had such faith was the one who uttered those words, who made winds to cease and bread to multiply and wounds to heal and the dead to rise. He could do all that and did all that because of his total, uncompromising, undoubting faith in God and in himself. Why he could even walk on water. When we compare ourselves to Jesus, we come up short, very, very short.

But we are not called to move mountains or mulberry bushes, to heal the sick and raise the dead. We are called simply to live out our daily lives as best we can, doing the ministry we are called to do in the best way we can. Need I say it again? We are called, both individually and together, to use whatever gifts we have been given to see and seek and serve Jesus in everyone we meet wherever we meet him or her.

Think about that, and then think about it again. The truth is sometimes fulfilling the demands of our particular vocations demands a great deal of faith, not the faith to move mountains to be sure, but certainly the faith to simply go to work and do the job as best we can, believing that is what God wants us to do. The job may not be easy. The people we are called to serve may be ungrateful. The ministry may at times be drudgery. But we do our best. We give it our best because we believe that that is what God wants us to do, what our faith calls us to do and what we deep in our hearts also want to do.

So often it is the little things in life that demand the most from us, not the big things because we are not called to do big things, most of us. We are not called to move mountains, real or proverbial. The truth is all the faith we need and the grace to live out that faith is always there for the asking. If God needs us to move a mulberry tree simply by word of mouth, God will give us the grace and strength and faith to do it. More likely, though, God wants us to live this day as faithfully and as fully as we possibly can, come what may.

All that, however, is only the first half of Jesus’ point in today’s Gospel reading, that point being that we are to do the best we can and that if we have enough faith, we may be asked to work miracles and we will be able to do that as well. Jesus’ second point is that we really should not get bigheaded about it. In fact, after we have moved that mountain, aced that exam, completed our job, made that big sale, we should say simply, humbly and honestly, "I am only a worthless slave; I have done only what I ought to have done." Ouch!

Me, a worthless slave? You, a worthless slave? Isn’t Jesus being just a little hyperbolic here just as he was about moving mountains and mulberry trees? We can’t move mountains, you and I, and we certainly are not worthless slaves. Isn’t Jesus just trying to get our attention by using an exaggerated vocabulary to make a point? Well, yes Jesus is attempting to make the point that we can work miracles if need be, but – and this is his other point – it should be no big deal. We are just doing what our faith demands. What is more, and what is the bottom line, is that we do what we do as Christians out of love. Thus, we really don’t need any reward or praise, do we?

Let me give you an example about what I mean. This morning we are going to bless our pets. A friend of mine told me she had seen a t-short that read, "Dogs have masters. Cats have staff." My sister has a cat. The cat runs the house. My sister is Marmalade Eugene’s staff – that’s the cat’s name: Marmalade Eugene. Of course, when we had Albert, we were his staff. He let us pretend we were his master, but that was a joke. Like my sister’s cat, Albert ran the house. We served him. We were worthless slaves; we did only what we ought to have done.

And we did not bat an eye or register a complaint or feel put upon. We did what we did out of love, love for Albert and because of Albert’s unconditional love for us. Same for my sister. Same for anyone owned by a pet – for they do own us and they know it, and so do we. I blessed Albert. I prayed for Albert when he was so sick. I just wish I had had enough faith, that mulberry-tree-moving faith, to have healed him. We will figuratively move mountains for those we love. There are times when we wish we could literally as well, wish we had enough faith to do so. If I had that faith, Albert might have been here this morning in person rather than in spirit and memory.

Yet today’s Gospel and the blessing of our pets is a reminder that we do not need to ask God to increase our faith as the Apostles did at the beginning of today’s Gospel. We already have a strong faith. What we need, first of all, is to be reminded that it is our faith that calls us to see and seek and serve Jesus everywhere and at all times, especially when the times are trying and difficult. We serve out of duty but we serve out of love as well.

Secondly, what we may also often need is what Paul says Timothy needed. We may need to have our faith rekindled. Our faith, being what faith is, often seems to ebb and flow. It is strong and then it fades and grows weak only to grow stronger again. There are times in our lives when our faith is so strong we believe we could literally move a mulberry tree and at times when it is so weak that we couldn’t pick a leaf off that tree. That is why we need one another, you and I. When our faith is strong, we can support those who are having a crises in faith. And when our faith is weak, there are those who will be there to hold and uplift us.

Paul’s words about the sometimes need to rekindle our faith serve as reminder that growing in our faith is a lifetime undertaking and that we need one another if our faith is to grow and remain strong. Our pets and Jesus’ words about being only worthless slaves should remind us that everything our faith prompts us to do, we should do because of our unconditional love of God because of God’s unconditional love of us. Worthless slaves we may be, we are merely doing what faith and love demand. And as we Men of Mediocrity say, "That’s okay."