“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."
I don’t know about you – I don’t feel like I have faith to command trees to be uprooted and replanted. Yet Jesus says the tiniest amount of real faith could effect such a thing.
Jesus demonstrated a sometimes disconcerting authority over the natural order – winds and waves, water and wine, fevers and diseased cells, and, yes, trees, yielded to his command. He suggests that we share this authority by virtue of our participation in the Life of God. I know of one person with strong healing gifts who took that authority at face value and began to pray that fearsome weather systems would weaken and turn, and seismic events settle.
Here’s the thing: Jesus suggests we don’t have to have a LOT of faith to allow God to work miracles through us. We just need real faith. Perhaps Jesus’ somewhat cranky reply to his disciples’ request to “increase our faith” is to say that, where faith is concerned, it’s not quantity but quality that counts. We don’t have to whip ourselves into a frenzy of faith over “big” things – we are invited to bring our faith, however strong or weak it feels, to bear on any situation that challenges us.
And then we are to trust that the power and love of God that flows through us as children of God can do mighty things, far more than we can do, or even imagine. And when we join our faith with others in prayer, the flow of power is even greater.
So what’s a BIG thing you’d like to invite the power and love of God to affect today? Say, government shut-down? Civil wars and famines? Cancer in a beloved? Your own mood?
What’s a small thing you’d like to invite the power and love of God to affect today? It’s always good to exercise our faith on the small things. As with muscles, faith gets stronger when exercised.
We don't really have to worry about how much faith we have – just step out with what you got. Jesus promised that “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Mt 18:20) That means that when we invoke Jesus’ name in prayer, we are invoking his presence through his Spirit. That means He is praying with us – and that means one person in the group is praying with perfect faith. Whatever we add to that is sufficient, even if it’s only a tiny little mustard seed.
The quality of faith you mention, Kate, how does we know it?
ReplyDeleteDoes quality prayer come with earnestness, diligent reading, penitent manual labor, or exquisite concentration during quiet time? Will we know it by ethereal peace, ecstatic experience or miraculous signs?
Maybe the second part of this week's reading is meant as a clue:
" ... 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!’”
I don't think we are meant to take the call for self-abasement literally (besides, I can't imagine where in Toronto to find a cat-of-nine-tails or a hair shirt). Instead, isn't this analogy? Doesn't it compare the life of servants of God at prayer to the work of household servants?
Just as workers in the house go about their business simply without expecting a hero's welcome, so it should be with those who pray by faith. We pray because it is the allotted task for which we are created. Our role is to witness to the movement of God. As we join the chorus of prayer and catch God's groove, we pour out blessing too.
I suspect that such participation does not require feats of manual or mental exertion, nothing to which we can point and ask for applause. This quality of faith is to accept God's invitation to participate by showing up and listening with the heart of faith.
If we choose to accept our assignment, then I believe every speck of faith is amplified and every concern of the church in prayer is exposed to the working of the Spirit. That same speck of faith is enough to give hope for change and keep us awake to watch, wait and listen to witness God's continued movement.
May God's movement be plain today in your ministry!