Luke 17:5-10; Psalm 137

In the Gospel lesson today, the disciples made their plea to the Lord: “Increase our faith.”  The Lord replied, “If you had 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.”  Wow! … only if you had faith the size of a mustard seed! 

Do you believe it?  Do I believe it?  Of course, I believe it.  (But), there is a more essential question to be answered.  The real question is: How do you believe it?  To answer to this question, we have to understand what this text means first. 

It always helps in interpreting the Scripture to look at what comes before and what comes after the passage we are thinking about.  In other words, we need to look at the context first.  Last Sunday we reflected on a difficult teaching of Jesus in Luke 16: the story of the rich man and Lazarus.  I told you that Jesus’ emphasis there is NOT on the fate of people after death, BUT the absolute imperative of caring for the needy while we are still alive.   In chapter 17, Jesus’ concern and his teachings related to the little ones in his world are continued.

In this context, in other words, facing these huge challenges, the disciples said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”  I am wondering if OUR world is any better than the disciples’ world.  There are so many needs in our world.  There is so much conflict and so many problems.  This morning, along with the disciples, I want to request to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

I know if we consider what is going on in our world, we might be tempted to say, with the disciples, “Increase our faith.”  What else would we say?  We are overwhelmed.  “Increase our faith.”  Well, there might be other options.  One is to borrow from the psalm that was read earlier:

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.”  Nostalgia, isn’t it?…, remembering the past, longing for yesterday when everything was going well.  And yet we sometimes think that we are living in some kind of Babylon, don’t we?  Babylon is no longer in Iraq, Babylon has moved west!

If our eyes are open to the world around us, we have these options: we can ask for more faith, or we can return to the past, clinging to it.  Are these all the options we have?  How about praxsis?  (It means) Practice!  Practice of our faith.  Yes…, not just faith, but practice: How are we going to live in this world?

This is a world where millions of children die each year, many of them from preventable diseases.  Even today, people are dying everywhere.  Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease.  What is sadder and more tragic is the fact that it is a completely avoidable. 

A couple of months ago, I watched a documentary, Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates from Netflex.  In this three-part series, Gates opens up about his childhood, business career, and shares his passion for improving the lives of people in the developing world.  I knew that Gates already gave more than 90 billion dollars for philanthropy, but I didn’t know that millions of children die just from diarrhea every year.  Nowadays, he is trying to solve this problem.  I believe he truly cares for urgent fundamental human needs across the globe.

More people died violent deaths in the twentieth century than in any century prior to the last one.  According to the United Nations, about 250,000 civilians had died in Syrian civil war and there are more than 6 million Syrian refugees.

The world is in peril.  “Increase our faith,” along with the disciples, we also ask Jesus.  Our Lord responds, (let me read) Matthew’s version:  “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘from here to there,’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.”  Wow.  I asked earlier how we understand this text.  The following is HOW I understand it:

Malaria used to kill one child every 30 seconds in Africa until several years ago.  That’s about 3000 children every day; over one million each year.  But as of 2018, the increased prevention and control measures, like Nothing But Net, have led to a 90% reduction in malaria mortality rates…, mainly because of Nothing But Net Mission Project of UMC.  Almost one million lives are saved each year.  It is still a lot of death, but aren’t we moving the Mountain of Malaria away with our faith and practice?

I agree (100%) with Mother Teresa.  She said, “Our calling is not to do great things, but to do small things with great love.”  The scripture might be saying something similar to us: we do not need more faith; rather, we need to use the faith that we have!

Today churches around the globe observe World Communion Sunday.  On World Communion Sunday, we reflect on the faith that we have.  Surely, this faith helps us to see a power that can overcome any obstacles.  Surely, this faith helps us to know a love that can overcome any divisions.  Surely, this faith helps us to discover an abundance that can overcome any scarcity. 

Yes, sometimes we see mostly obstacles, divisions, scarcity.  Sometimes it is like we are sitting by the rivers of Babylon, weeping over these obstacles, divisions, and scarcity.  Or, sometimes, it is like we are just asking, “Increase our faith,” just as the disciples did.

And Jesus says to us, gently, confidently, “You already have enough faith.  Put it into practice.”  There is a wonderful comment by Thomas Merton (I think) that applies here.  He said:

“We are indoctrinated into means and ends….  But that is not the way to build a life of prayer.  In prayer we discover what we already have.  You start where you are, and you deepen what you already have, and you realize that you are already there.  We already have everything, but we don’t know it and we don’t experience it.  Everything has been given to us in Christ.  All we need is to experience what we already possess.  The trouble is, we aren’t taking the time to do so.”

How does this relate to World Communion Sunday?  The needs of the world are so vast, beginning right where we are, and yet the world extends beyond us, from wherever we live to those who are among the neediest of our brothers and sisters in Christ across this planet, from Africa to our inner city, from Palestein to Israel, from Pakistan to Afghanistan, to Iran and Iraq, and from Syria, Yemen…, to North Korea.  We think this morning of those who are hungry and (those who are) oppressed.  We think of those who suffer the ravages of warfare, and we think of families who mourn the deaths of their loved ones by terrorist attacks. 

Somehow, on World Communion Sunday, we think more deeply about our connection with the churches across the world, in cathedrals and house churches and persecuted congregations and state churches, Pentecostal and Catholic and Evangelical and Orthodox, all expressions of Christ’s body, all the fruit of the great commission, that Jesus would be with us to the end of the earth.  And so he is. 

He is with us wherever there is even the faith the size of a mustard seed.  Jesus is with us wherever there is even the faith the size of a mustard seed. 
Let me say that again.  Jesus is alive wherever Christians practice the faith that they already have.  It is not so much that we need more!  It is that we need to use what we already have!

On this World Communion Sunday, let the Christians across this planet pledge themselves to saving the lives of children. 

On this World Communion Sunday, let the Christians across this planet pledge themselves to sharing the message of the gospel with all people, that is the message of love, hope, peace and justice. 

On this World Communion Sunday, let the Christians of this world let go of divisions, nationalism and ethnocentrism.   Let go of sexism, racism and classism as well.

On this World Communion Sunday, let the Christians of this world change the world through their mission (through their practice of faith) to love and serve their neighbors as Jesus did.

We don’t need to do great things… but small things with great love.  
We don’t need more faith…  We need to use the faith that we have!  My brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s keep moving the mountain.  Amen.