October 5, 2025 "I'm gonna need more faith for that"

17th Sunday after Pentecost

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4

Psalm 37:1-9

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Luke 17:5-10

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ

 grace and peace to you

from the one who kindles in us the gift of faith. Amen

I identify strongly with the apostles today

who say to the Lord “Increase our faith!” 

Despite where the lectionary chose to start the reading,

 their request does not come out of nowhere.

Jesus tells them the story of the rich man and Lazarus that we heard last week, and then goes on:

Jesus said to his disciples, “Occasions for sin are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come!  It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard! If a brother or sister sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.” (Luke 17:1-4)

and the apostles respond

 ‘um Jesus we’re going to need a lot more faith

 if that’s what you want us to do’

 “increase our faith!”

Have you ever been faced with a situation and thought:

 ‘um yah I’m gonna need more faith for that.

Lord increase my faith!’ I’ve been there,

And it seems like that’s where most of our readings are for today as well,

 each in their own way

 working through what it means to be a person of faith

 facing a difficult situation,

 one that might cause us to say

‘um yah I’m gonna need more faith for that…’

The prophet Habakkuk is bringing some valid complaints before God:

 “O lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?”

 to the prophet facing violence and destruction,

 strife, contention and injustice ruling the day,

 God seems absent.

And then we hear God’s response to Habakkuk,

reassuring him that there is a

 “vision for the appointed time…if it seems to tarry wait for it”

I can almost hear the prophet’s reaction

 “wait for it? Patience? With all the awful that’s going on around me? 

‘um yah I’m gonna need more faith for that.’

Likewise the psalmist

 it seems is bringing the frustration of prospering evildoers to God

and again the response is…patience

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently. Do not be provoked by the one who prospers, the one who succeeds in evil schemes. Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; do not be provoked; it leads only to evil.”

 and I can just hear the psalmists’ reaction,

 ‘don’t be provoked? Do you see what they’re doing?

  ‘um yah I’m gonna need more faith for that’

And in 2 Timothy, Paul (or more likely someone writing using Paul’s name)

 invites Timothy to “not be ashamed, then of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel”

 this after acknowledging that Timothy may be at a low point in his faith,

 and I can just hear Timothy’s reaction 

 ‘um yah I’m gonna need more faith for that”

In each of these readings,

there is something that challenges faith,

and God’s recommended response seems just as,

 if not more,

 challenging,

especially if  that’s where we stop,

 but with God there’s always something more,

and sure enough when we look closer at each of these reading

 there is also a promise from God

- which usually boils down to a reminder

 that God is ultimately the one in charge/ has a plan—

which means we don’t have to be in charge/ have a plan

 we think we need more faith

 when we think it’s all up to us,

 and that’s the point,

it’s not up to us, it’s up to God,

if we are trying to be God

 or direct God like we know better than God,

 of course we’re going to get frustrated

 and feel like we need more,

but because we are not God

 but beloved children of God

we have enough because God has given us everything we need

to be who God created us to be.

To Habakkuk God acknowledges that the spirit is not right in the proud,

 but this doesn’t stop the righteous from living by their faithfulness,

in fact that’s the response,

while waiting for God’s vision to come to fruition

 go ahead and live the way of God,

 God has already given the people the right way to live,

there’s nothing stopping them,

 it might be harder,

it might not seem fair

 but that’s what they can do

while they wait for God to take care of the bigger picture.

This too is the promise to the psalmist

 Put your trust in the Lord and do good;

  dwell in the land and find safe pasture.

 ⁴ Take delight in the Lord,

  who shall give you your heart’s desire.

 ⁵ Commit your way to the Lord; put your trust in the Lord,

  and see what God will do.

 ⁶ The Lord will make your vindication as clear as the light

  and the justice of your case like the noonday sun.

Reaffirming that God is on the side of justice,

 and God will take care of it,

the psalmist’s role is to trust

and take delight in God

 while living in the land and doing good.

This is how we deal with the tough situations

By doing small faithful acts

While trusting God to take care of the big picture.

We’ve been talking about stewardship this last month

And that’s what the challenge to increase our giving by just a little bit is about

Taking small faithful steps while trusting God to take care of the big picture.

Live the life that God has given you,

that’s all I’m asking of you Jesus is telling the disciples,

 so often we hear the teaching of the mustard seed and the mulberry tree

as an indictment of their faith

(what you don’t even have faith the size of a mustard seed?

If you did you’d be doing amazing things!),

but this time around I hear it differently,

 Jesus isn’t asking the disciples to do heroic acts of faith,

he’s telling them that the little faith they have

- even smaller than a mustard seed, a poppy seed maybe- is enough,

it is enough for them to be who they were created to be

 and do what they are called to do-

 that’s what the teaching about the slave is about

 put in terms that may make us uncomfortable

 but timely for Jesus’ audience-

 it’s the role of the slave, the servant

to plow the fields and serve the meal

 and this is done without thanks

 because they are just doing what is expected of them,

 doing what you’re supposed to

 doesn’t gain you extra credit or special notice,

 you do it because that’s what you’re supposed to do.

 It would be an extraordinary master

who would invite the servant coming in from the fields

 to sit down at the table with the master says Jesus,

“Jesus who saved us and called us to a holy calling- not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus”

 faith that was given to us by grace, as a gift,

a gift that we can return to,

as the person writing at Paul reminds Timothy

  saying ‘I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.  For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you…’

 I love this image of rekindling faith-

 this is a fire image

 Say you’re camping and overnight your campfire goes out,

 looking at the ash before you in the morning

 it seems like you’re going to have to start all over,

but just on the off chance there is still something

 there you get down on your knees and blow on the ashes,

and wouldn’t you know it

 but there’s one little coal that glows up orange at the stirring of your breath,

so you get some small shavings of wood, or paper

something very flammable

 and you put them next to the coal to feed it

 and you blow again

 and again the coal flares up

and this time it catches the fuel placed nearby

 and a tiny flame emerges

 and quickly you feed the flame a little stick and blow again

 and again the stick catches

and the fire begins to grow

and breath after breath with increasingly larger sticks

 the fire grows stronger,

strong enough to put some small logs on it,

and now the fire is strong enough to cook with,

all from a little coal.

But you couldn’t start with a big log right off

 that would have smothered the coal put it out for good,

but with the right care it was enough.

Our faith is like this fire,

 there may be times when it feels like it has gone out,

 or it isn’t enough to do anything

and we think ‘God we’re gonna need more faith’

and Jesus tells us, what you have is sufficient,

even as Jesus the master

sees us coming in all sweaty and tired,

gets up and puts on an apron and greets us

saying come here at once and take your place at the table

and then serves us with his very self,

and having placed fuel near our coal of faith

 he blows the spirit on us

 so that the tiny bit of faith catches the fuel and grows stronger

 and if we’re patient and gradually feed our faith

with things like remembering the faith shared with us by loved ones,

 the words of scripture, the act of prayer,

gathering as a community our faith grows stronger,

and we find that indeed that faith Jesus kindled in us was enough after all

enough to be the beloved children of God

 that God created us to be. Amen