Excerpt of a Sermon:
O, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porches,
I Must make amends
Worked hard all my life, with no help from my friends.
So, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?”
We know this song by Janis Joplin. A funny song, and yet a significant song by a significant singer in a significant time. A song questioning how we live and how we consume and what we think we need for happiness.
It is a rock song. But it is also a prayer. A plea. A plea for more. Give me more, please. Increase my pleasure, my privilege, my position, and my wealth.
Increase my salary, my benefits, my retirement or medical, we pray when we negotiate our salary.
O, Lord, won’t you increase my income, my benefits, my position? O, Lord please give me more….
The apostle in today’s Gospel is asking Jesus: O Lord increases our faith….” O, lord, won’t you give us more and stronger faith.?
How do we increase faith? How do we measure faith?
How do measure faith, hope, love, trust, gratitude, kindness, and friendship? How do you measure what you cannot within pounds, cannot measure in length, cannot measure by time or cost
A poem says:
How do you measure?
How do you measure courage? courage
Do you measure it in deeds,
in words, in worth, in turmoil moments?
In failures or victories?
How do you measure a man?
Do you determine him by his place,
his rank, his works the grip of his hand?
By his reputation or his face?
How do you judge a stranger?
in the first few seconds, you meet,
by their, names, their looks, their airs, their tenure
by their clothes or the way they speak?
how can you measure yourself?
Is it by all the above,
by your mind, your heart, your dream, your health
or by the depth of your love?
How do we measure faith? When do we have too little or maybe even too much?
Faith should never and could never be measured in quantity. Faith is not measured in weakness or strength. Faith is trust. Faith is a fundamental trust and relationship. Faith is a hope, a trust, an anchor a ship. Faith is a trusting surrender.
Jesus makes it clear in the Gospel. He points to the tiny tiny mustard seed, which does not seem of much. But Jesus said that if we had faith the size of that tiny seed, we would be able to do remarkable things. It means that God looks for the presence of an ongoing, growing, living, daring faith, not the size of it.
Like us, the disples think that more is better. More is the measurement to use. If they could just have a little bit more faith, everything would be right.
O Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz….
Jesus counters their question and pleas by pointing at the tiny seed. It is not about size or quantity. It is about having faith. And being faithful in that faith. There has been a long deep history in American Churches emphasizing faith as a decision and a choice. From the Puritan and evangelical ancestors, through Billy Graham and to Pentecostal churches today….. “I have decided to follow Jesus. I have found Jesus… have you ?” But this is not the biblical meaning of faith.
God found us. God made us. God planted the seed of faith in us.
So, God calls s to be faithful with what we already received: to witness the grace and mercy of Jesus: to trust in Gods faithfulness, even when our faith is wavering. We are faithful when we proclaim the good news and do acts of compassion, even on those days when our faith seems small.
Faith isn’t about capacity: it is a movement, a journey, an orientation.
Faith is trust. A relaxed attitude toward receiving what God has given us in the first place.
Or as Theologian James Alison refers to faith as “ relaxing in the presence of someone whom we are confident is fond of us.” That kind of faith is a fundamental trust.