Faith as a mustard seed

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4 p. 762
The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.







Luke 17:5-10 p 852
The apostles said 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. “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God










Those of us who are a certain age can remember the jewelry- the mustard seed jewelry. A tiny glass bubble contained one, tiny, yellowy-brown mustard seed, and that was fashioned into a bracelet or a necklace. It was to be a visible reminder of what size of faith, what kind of faith we are to have.
“If you have faith as a grain of mustard” Jesus says to the disciples when they ask—no, demand—more faith. “Increase our faith” they say, as if faith were a commodity, something they could measure or weigh out, something we could somehow accumulate, somehow have more of.
This passage has often been preached to scold people—or we feel ashamed and guilty when we read it. We ask ourselves: Is my faith even smaller than a grain of mustard? Or, perhaps, we feel that is the truth of our life- we don’t have EVEN faith the size of a grain of mustard- that our faith is infinitesimal. We look at other people, and they seem so serene- because of faith. When they go through hard times, their faith doesn’t seem to waiver. When they are suffering, they do not complain—they have faith. They are pillars of faith, we might say. And we look at ourselves, our own internal life, and compare. We see ourselves as lacking in the faith department. We want that, we think. We want to be like that. Give me more faith, make my faith stronger, we pray, just like the disciples.
But what if, when Jesus was speaking to the disciples, holding his thumb and finger apart only this far, he was not scolding them? What if he was telling them: not, you don’t have even this much faith, but, this much faith, that you already have, is enough? In the original language, the “if” presumes a positive answer: Yes, you do have enough faith!
Earlier this year, we talked about “faith” as a verb—faithing is really a better translation of the word used for faith. And that is where we come to the parable of the slave. We are uncomfortable with language about slavery. And the story we heard sounds harsh to our ears. The slave in the story has just finished a hard day’s work in the fields, and now has to come home and prepare dinner and serve at the table, with no thanks at all. But slaves and masters were common in Jesus’ time, and are part of his world. Jesus says that we are to be like the slave: get to work! If faith is a verb, then “faithing” is the work we are called to do. The issue then becomes less about the amount of faith that we have, and more about what we are doing with that faith.
“Faithing” sometimes looks like the words we heard in Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a prophet, and he is speaking to God, lamenting to God—in a pretty bold way. “O Lord, how long shall I cry to you, and you will not listen? How long will there be violence, and injustice, and you don’t do a thing? I will stand here at my watchpost—I will stand right here and wait—I will watch to see what he will say to me” says the prophet. This is what faith looks like: Habakkuk, is a prophet in Jerusalem, probably in the Temple itself, in the 7th century BCE. He is, essentially, yelling at God: Don’t you see what I am seeing? God, come down and DO something!
Now, we might expect Habakkuk to get struck by lightning, or struck with boils and sores, or something- do we dare talk to God like this? But this IS faith talk, this is faith in action, because it is faith in a person, a relationship—with God! A God who is always trustworthy, who hears us, who listens to Habakkuk’s cry—because this is what God says:
“Write the vision, make it plain, so large that even a runner running by may read it. There is indeed a vision, which I, God, am creating. If it does not come as soon as you want it, then wait for it—it will surely come, it will not delay.” Then, there is this little blessing at the end—“the righteous live by their faith.”
The righteous live by their faith. When times are tough, we feel like we can barely breathe, much less live. But, God tells us, the righteous live by their faith. You already have enough faith—even when it is the size of a grain of mustard! It is enough because it is faith in Christ, the One who is among as one who serves, the One who calls us—and everyone—to Come here at once and take our place at the table. Amen