And now for something
completely impossible....
Mustard Seed – Mulberry
Tree
Disciples request: “Increase our
Faith”. Why? To do the impossible? To forgive 7 times in one day. The same person.The same thing? Same injury. Really?
What is faith then?
Heb 11:1 says it is the “assurance of things hoped for” - , i.e things that
there can be no assurance about. “evidence of things unseen” -
i.e. a picture of something invisible. J B Phillips has “putting
our full confidence in the things we hope for”. Faith is not
something we feel, primarily, it is something we do.
- Faith does not come
in kilograms. One seed will produce a great bush that will
produce a million seeds. You can't have more faith than you can use
right now. Walking across Spain – you can't carry water and food
for tomorrow, its far too heavy. You have to go with just enough for
now. There may be 1001 questions that you can't answer about
Christianity, about the future. There always will be. It's not more
faith that you need. Just say “I don't understand, but I trust
you.” “I don't know how I'll cope. But I'll go.”
- Faith is not limited
by what's possible. Jesus' cartoon is meant to be nonsensical.
Why would anyone ever want to plant a Mulberry Tree in the sea? It
would die. It would be a senseless piece of showing off. (I bet
someone has tried!!!). What Jesus is saying is that God is not
limited. I mean that sounds good, doesn't it? It sounds faithful?
You could – but why would you? Its a perturbing
truth. If God is not limited; if our prayer is not limited; then why
all this mayhem in the world? How do we cope with that “Mulberry
Tree” that seems so huge, so fixed an obstacle? Faith is only limited by what
we know of the will of God. Does God want the Mulberry tree removed?
Do I have a saw? Faith is not an intellectual assent to a
proposition about the existence of a supernatural power. Js2:19 It
is saying “yes” to God's purposes. Don't be distracted by your
own “Mulberry tree”.
- Faith is only seen in
action. There is difference between the person who approaches
the latest ride a Alton Towers with confidence saying “I'm going
on Turbovomit” (or whatever its called) and eggs on those around,
pouring scorn on the lilly livered whilst recalled former deeds of
derring-do; only to opt out at the last minute “because the queue
is too long”. And the person who is dragged along by the new
boyfriend saying “OMG I don't want to do it, I'm going to die.
Arrgh!” but lets herself be strapped in anyway till its too late.
One is full of confidence (well that's one word for it). The other
is full of trepidation. But that's faith. It's the stepping out of
the boat – as we thought about recently. What is God asking of
you? Do you want to wait till you can move a Mulberry? Or just take one seed out of the packet?
- Faith comes from God
– it's not a badge of honour. There are not Christians with a Bronze badge of faith (OK on a good day unless hard questions or difficult
situations arise), Silver Badge (able to cope with minor
disappointments and unanswered prayers, able to think of get out
bible verses for harder cases) or Gold Badges (absolutely
unwavering, unquestioning confidence, never knowingly let down by
God). For Christians, faith is not like Magic Potion or Antibiotics:
more or less powerful depending on circumstances. For us faith is in
Jesus Christ. That is, we believe that the one true and only God is
fully revealed in Jesus. Nothing more – nothing less. “The
fullness of the godhead dwells bodily in my Lord” says Paul. You
sometimes hear people say “I believe in Jesus – but not in God”
or vice versa. It is nonsense in Christianity. For us Jesus embodies
God. Just as the Father does. Just as the Spirit does. At the
incarnation, at the crucifixion, in his dying, in his rising again,
God is assuming, bearing, overcoming sin and death. God: Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. Otherwise you have the obscenity of a supposedly
loving Father sacrificing his own Son to save you and me. It's
trinity not modalism or docetism. 1 Cor 15:17 “And
if Christ is not risen, your faith is
futile;
you are still in your sins!”
But He is. He is living in you. Don't be blinded by the Mulberry
Tree.
Faith means living life as if this were true and that
God himself, through the spirit of Jesus, lives in you. Now. Today.
Really. He is taking on sin, overcoming sin and giving life back to
those who have lost it. And He is doing that in and through you and
me.
So
don't get distracted by the Mulberry Trees.
Use
the mustard seed.
“If
you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it
would obey you.
Luke 17:11-21 8, 10
Allesley 16/10/13 “Faith & Thanksgiving”
INTRO: It doesn't matter
where you have come from – it matters where you go to.
Healthy or Leper, Jew or
Samaritan, Native or Immigrant, Saint or Sinner. Old hand or
newcomer.
The same.
Faith and trust.
Ten lepers waylay Jesus on
the edge of a village that they must not enter. They shout – from a
safe distance - “Jesus, master, have mercy on us”. A good prayer
when your trouble is so obvious and your expectation perhaps a bit
thin or when you feel unworthy to ask – or a bit far away from God.
Some a Jews, but not all of them. It doesn't matter where they come
from. But where they come to:-
JESUS - a name, face to
face, they come to Him, to what He is doing.
MASTER – they acknowledge
His authority over them.
MERCY – they stand in the
way of GRACE. Self abandonment. Undeserved request. Not fit –
but.....
Jesus has compassion. He does
pray for their healing.
1.What will you do with ten
lepers, ten aids victims, ten asylum seekers, ten prostitutes?
2. What will you do with your
disease, your unworthiness, your problem?
3. Can we dare to hope that
this God who is our creator as Father, our redeemer as Son, our
comforter as Holy Spirit – will listen to us?
Faith and obedience.
Jesus says “Go and show
yourself to the priests” - He uses their understanding of
Levitical ceremonial Law, maybe it offers psychosomatic help to the
sufferer but its also a challenge to obey and risk official refusal.
In 2 Kings 5:10, when Naaman the Syrian was told by Elisha to “go
and wash in the Jordan” he was put out “Haven’t we got better
rivers at home to wash in?” but obedience brought results. Here
Jesus is applying the procedure set out in the law for cured lepers.
They had to risk obedience. Some might know the law, some don't. It
doesn't matter where they come from. But where they come to:-
JESUS – obeying when Jesus
is there is one thing, what about when you are back in the real
world?
MASTER – do you see
yourself as a servant, one under authority – or is He primarily
there to care for you? For we will often hear His voice challenging
us: Love one another, wash the feet, feed my lambs....
MERCY – obedience to Jesus
might lead you into confrontation or challenge. Will your pride allow
you to trust Him enough to keep trying once you have failed – and
failed again – like Peter?
All of the ten are healed.
They all trusted Him enough to ask. They were all obedient to what he
says. They all exercise faith however doubtful they felt..
When we come to Jesus in
faith then it is much more than a feeling of confidence, it is a
commitment to obedience.
Faith and thanksgiving.
Several lessons hide here.
Luke is keen to show that Christian faith is universal – the
lesson of the Samaritan leper. Jesus approves the leper’s
thanksgiving and points to the failure of contemporary Jewish ritual
and practice and to the superseding of these by His gospel. Jesus
says “Your faith has made you well”, it is the man’s faith in
Jesus which is decisive. His faith is evidenced not only in the
removal of his disease, but because his overwhelming urge is to come
to Jesus in thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is an exercise in faith. Not
everyone remembers to give thanks it seems. Sometimes its as if
people can look down on Jesus, lying on the cross, with nails
piercing his hands, a crown of thorns on his hear, in agony and say
“Yes Lord. That's all very well. But if you really loved me you'd
give me a job, a wife, a child, a friend, healing, faith, peace.....”
Where are you coming from today?
It doesn't matter where we
come from. But where we come to:-
JESUS – give Jesus His due
always. Jesus says “The Kingdom of God is within you” Luke 17:21.
Where those rivers of living water flow. The indwelling spirit of
Jesus. Can we live in the daily,
conscious, thankful knowledge that Jesus, the King, is within me?
MASTER– a servant enters
the master's joy. Jesus’ joy is to see the Kingdom coming. He
enjoys the healing of the ten. He enjoys the response of the leper!
He enjoys our healing and our thanksgiving too. As Christians we will
only be truly happy when we are pleasing our Lord.
MERCY – the Samaritan knows
that he is not worthy of this healing. He's an outsider twice over.
Stranger and Unclean. He has not right to this healing. He only
relies upon the mercy of Jesus. And he is never to be disappointed.
What does Jesus ask of him in return? Absolutely nothing. “Arise.
Go your way.” Jesus makes no claim on his life. So how much do you
think he would want to give him?
All of it! Wouldn't we? I
hope I would. I hope I will. Jesus, Master, Have Mercy on me.
