"Faith Like a Mustard Seed"

A Sermon by the Rev. Charles Caskey
Interim Rector
St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Battle Creek, Michigan

Date: October 7, 2007

Today we are called to ponder the meaning of faith in our lives. The Gospel addresses a pastoral issue that is very much with all of us:  Is the degree and depth of our faith adequate for each of us?  This concern is voiced by the disciples of Jesus as he has warned them to beware of causing little ones to stumble, but at the same time they have known him to be very generous in extending forgiveness to sinners.  

      Earlier in the summer we were reminded by the author of the Letter to the Hebrews that faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.”  Then followed a family tree of their forbears --for faith in God was identified as a common thread in Israel’s family history, even as sinful and as sordid as their life together became at times. Faith was always to live life by entrusting oneself to God’s promises, never something one earned or deserved by their assent to certain beliefs.

 Faith is something that you either have, or you don’t. It is beyond our measurement. Or as Archbishop William Temple said:  “It is a great mistake to think that God is chiefly concerned about our being religious.”  Instead, faith is the miracle of a God-given trust that defies life’s questions and circumstances.

      John Rollefson, a Lutheran pastor, describes how deeply engrained in the American psyche is what has become known as the “decision character of faith.”  He says that from Jonathan Edwards to Charles Finney to Billy Sunday through Billy Graham and their successors, faith, as encountered in the idiom both of born-again revivalism and of religious “progressives,” has served as shorthand for ‘I have decided to follow Jesus.’”  However the biblical meaning of faith cannot be reduced to this individualist volunteerism even for those twelve disciples who “follow Jesus.”  The author of second Timothy sees that the depths of faith have family connections as he says that “lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice,” a faith that only then can be said to “live in you.”  Faith is a gift from God that is embodied in human relationships, that is nourished and grows in community. Through word and sacraments God bestows faith-creating gifts for young and old alike—for grandson and grandmother.

      In a moment we will recite the Nicene Creed as Christians have done as a statement of faith since the fourth century. To believe in terms of giving our mental assent to a set of statements, however, is not the same as putting one‘s trust in God. Marcus Borg has described the contrast between “belief of the head” and “belief of the heart” in his book “The Heart of Christianity.”  In the last few centuries, Borg says, we have shifted from a biblical understand of belief of the heart to a modern, post-Enlightenment understanding of belief of the head. Credo rather that being a statement of belief is literally to what we give our hearts. Biblical faith has more to do with trusting God, being faithful to God, and the experience of t faith in a wider context than “just me,” which is exactly were where the head takes us in simply giving our assent to a set of statements about God or Christ. For example, the traditional translation of verse 12 of the passage from 2^nd Timothy says, “I know whom I have believed.”  The New Revised Standard Version renders it more precisely:  “I know the one in whom I have put my trust.”

      Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism all encourage followers to know and experience the divine, not believe a set of doctrines. If we turn to Islam, in place of a doctrinal statement is simply “Allah is God, and Mohammad is his prophet.”  Those early followers of “The Way” in the New Testament also simply proclaimed “Jesus is Lord” and put their trust in God. Believing in the doctrine of the Trinity, if one could fully grasp its meaning, does not provide the strength for living that putting our trust in God does.

      This past week the clergy of the four Michigan Dioceses as well as their spouses and significant others, were blessed by the presence s of our Presiding Bishop and her husband on Mackinac Island. Many of us participated in a drawing to have a meal with them that required a donation to the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund. Thayer and I were not among the lucky ones invited to dinner.

      As much as I was moved by Katharine’s leadership of the church during this time of great stress within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, I was moved even more by her deep faith that guides her to place her trust in God which then challenges her to trust even those of deep faith with whom she may disagree. While all Episcopalians may not share the same beliefs regarding Scripture and doctrine, Katherine believes with her heart that we can all share a deep trust in God. All of the bishops present from Michigan agreed with her that working together to share God’s love with the people in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast deepened the House of Bishops resolve to work together and open their hearts to listen to one another.

      One of those invited to dinner with his partner, brought concerns about their place in the church, particularly in light of the movement of some of our churches to align themselves with Bishops in Africa who share similar doctrinal views. When he asked what he could do to help promote understanding on both sides, Katharine simply and forthrightly told him to build a school in central Tanganyika. This is his response as he reflected on the experience after the conference:

“Katharine was easy to be with. She’s just my sister. She’s just another person at the table. She’s just this person who I happened to run into at a clergy conference—the way we run into people on busses or at coffee hours or in the draperies section of Bed Bath and Beyond strangers and wayfarers who suddenly say something that changes how we think and perhaps change the direction of our lives.”

”She just happened to say, “Build a school in Central Tanganyika.” Perhaps we should take her challenge and build a school in Haiti, or Africa, or join in rebuilding lives along the Gulf Coast or with JONAH here in Battle Creek.

 -- Charlie+