Faithfulness, not faith, will be how you change the world in Christ.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 27 C
Texts: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; Luke 17:5-10 (with ref. to Matthew 8:23-27)

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The storm terrified even these experienced sailors.

This couldn’t be the first storm they’d seen on the Sea of Galilee. These were home waters, but winds rose so high they feared they’d be swamped and all would drown. Meanwhile their beloved Teacher is sound asleep on a nice cushion, oblivious to the chaos and their terror. They wake him up, charging that he doesn’t even care if they perish.

And Jesus says, “Why are you afraid, ‘Littlefaiths’? and calms the storm. (Matthew 8:23-27, with some detail from Mark 4)

Normally translated “you of little faith,” it’s just one word, like a nickname: “Littlefaiths.” Maybe it’s a nickname he’s used before. It could be insulting. Except for Jesus’ words today.

He says the size of your faith isn’t relevant.

Maybe you are good old “Littlefaith,” afraid most days, doubting yourself, wondering if God cares about your life, this world. But today Jesus says “Littlefaith” is just enough.

With just a little faith you could move a mountain, Jesus says, as Matthew tells this story. Here, in Luke, Jesus says with just a little faith you could uproot a mulberry tree and fling it into the sea. When Jesus calls you “Littlefaith,” it’s a term of endearment, a nickname of hope: because if you had even a little faith, you could do amazing things.

Thing is, we’re in a world where a massive storm threatens to overwhelm everything, and it sometimes feels we’re in this mess alone, God isn’t doing anything. “Don’t you care that we’re perishing?” many of us have cried out to God in these days. Healing this world’s pain feels far more serious than tossing trees into the ocean.

Habakkuk agrees.

Habakkuk cries out just like the disciples did in the boat, wondering how long he has to call for help while God doesn’t listen. Destruction and violence are everywhere, he says, the law is slack, and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous. And Habakkuk is frightened. Tired of asking God for help that never comes.

Once again it’s stunning that words written thousands of years ago seem to have been written and saved up for just this time, our world, this pain and oppression and violence and injustice we know. So we tiredly wait alongside a prophet most of us hardly remember is in the Bible, wondering what God will say.

And God’s answer sounds a lot like our Gospel reading.

There is a vision for the healing, God says to Habakkuk. If it seems to be delayed, wait for it, because it’s surely coming. And then God says this: the righteous will live by their faithfulness.

Now, Martin Luther loved this verse, and understood it to say the righteous will live by faith. He tied that into his deep insight that we are saved, made whole with God through faith alone, by God’s grace alone.

But the word is better translated faithfulness. That is, it’s not whether you have enough faith. It’s whether you’re being faithful. Which is exactly Jesus’ point today. It doesn’t matter what the master does or doesn’t do. All that matters is that you are faithful in your serving.

So for you and me, Littlefaiths all, it’s not about asking to have our faith increased, as the disciples did today. God’s answer is that we find just enough faith to be faithful. To do our calling in this world. Even if the storm is still raging. The mountain standing. The tree rooted.

See, that’s the challenging part. There’s no promise the storm will calm right away.

God tells the prophet that God’s healing is coming, but he might have to wait. The mountain of evil and oppression and injustice that we hope to remove from our world is a mountain. It will take time. The roots of racism, sexism, prejudice, self-centeredness grow deep into the heart of our world, and our hearts. That tree will not easily be uprooted and thrown out.

And worst, Jesus seems to treat slavery as normative here. Nothing in the parable says “end slavery now.” Words like these became powerful ways for white slaveholders to keep their feet on the backs and necks of the people they abused and oppressed.

But that’s not the end of the story.

The Way of Christ, the way of faithfulness, has changed the world profoundly.

Slaves certainly heard this parable when Jesus said it. He attracted people at the margins and loved them in God’s name. The early church drew heavily from people who were slaves, impoverished, oppressed. They found hope in a God who cared for them enough to become one of them, who called them beloved even if others saw them as dirt.

And those followers of the Way, with their faithfulness, eventually broke slavery around the world in most places where they lived. It took centuries. Far too long, many would say, and they’d be right. But the tree was uprooted nonetheless.

So you look at a deeply rooted tree and say “how could anyone make that come out of the ground and fly into the ocean?” But notice: Jesus never says you can’t use tools. He never says how much time it will take or how much patience it will need. He just says with a little faith you can do amazing things with your faithfulness.

God’s way of healing the world needs God’s people. That’s how God works.

And if you have just a little trust, enough faith to say, “I’ll try to be faithful as Christ today, work at those roots, dig at the problems however I can,” you will see things change. Even if very slowly.

But you know that already. Over hundreds of years, so many mountains have been moved, so many trees uprooted for the life of the world.

Now we’re facing our own. And when you focus on faithfulness as your way you will find hope. And you, beloved Littlefaith, will be a hope that others can cling to.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

The Triune God loves you and welcomes you and invites you into the feast of love that is in God’s life. Come and see.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
Texts: Matthew 9:9-13 (and referencing Matthew 11:2-6)

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Jesus just said, “Follow me.”

He didn’t ask Matthew to confess his dirty tax collecting secrets. He didn’t ask Matthew to promise never to cheat again. He didn’t give a talk on honesty.

He just said “follow me.” No preconditions. No lecture. No criticism. Just welcome.

That’s what made the leaders angry. Jesus didn’t just eat with tax collectors and that group lumped together as “sinners.” He welcomed them, spent time with them. Treated them as God’s beloved. No preconditions. No lectures. No criticism.

And when the leaders challenge Jesus, he can’t hide his irritation. He brusquely dismisses them, basically saying “go do your homework before wasting my time talking about what God wants.” See, he quotes Hosea 6 to these biblical scholars (who should have known it), and says “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” And he turns away from them and goes back to the party.

But it wasn’t just Jesus’ opponents who were unsettled by his open welcome and love.

John the Baptist was pretty concerned. In prison, nearing execution, John sent some of his own disciples to ask Jesus if he really was the One from God, or whether they should look for another. John’s whole job was to point out God’s Christ, and at the end he’s worried he messed that up.

Because John preached with heat and anger. He talked about axes ready to chop down fruitless trees, and fires ready to burn those branches. He preached repentance first, and never seemed to get to God’s welcome. He assumed the religious leaders who came for baptism were hypocrites because he couldn’t imagine they’d be repentant. So he called them a family of venomous snakes.

But Jesus offered love and welcome. He healed people. Proclaimed a reign of God that was here now and that was for all. Invited people to follow, commanded people to love, even their enemies. Welcomed all kinds of people, even ones others thought sinful. Ate with them. Often broke God’s law. How could Jesus be the One? John fretted.

Jesus’ reply? Tell John what you see here – blind people now see, deaf people can hear, lame people walk again, and the poor find Good News from God. Don’t be offended at me, John, Jesus said. If I’m doing these things, who do you think I am?

Know this, though: your life depends on Jesus being who he says and how he acts.

You can only be certain of God’s love for you if it’s given to you freely. Your only chance is to stand with Matthew and realize the Son of God is looking you in the eyes, loving you, and saying “follow me.” No preconditions, no lectures, no criticism.

Maybe you never feel you’re good enough. A lot of us are in that boat. But God loves you fully and sees you as more than good enough. Even if you can recount your failures and your sins and assume God does. God sees you and loves you, period. Not in spite of you.

Others of us feel as if they’re different from everyone else and no one can understand them. Well, God does and God loves you, period. Some of us need lots of affirmation to feel as if they’re good, and God affirms you every moment of the day with love. Others fear the challenges of the world, whether they’ll be able to withstand them, and God promises to walk with you through fire and flood always, you’re never alone.

Whatever it is that makes you feel you can’t be loved by God, God doesn’t even see that. God looks at you and says, “I love you so much. You are my child and I am well pleased with you.”

Most of us have been sold a bill of goods about this.

We’ve been taught by Christians who feared that Jesus could just sit down with sinners and eat with them, laugh with them, love them. Even well-meaning Christians fear that open welcome with no preconditions, lectures, or criticisms just leads to people keeping on doing bad. No one learns, they say, if you don’t first tell them to straighten up.

Don’t believe that for a minute. Look, it’s a normal human fear. We especially bring it out when we think of others. We offer Jesus’ welcome, but with preconditions, lectures, criticisms.

Well, I’m going to take my stand with Jesus. My only hope of God’s love is that God loves me for who God sees I am, no matter what I’ve done or what I haven’t done. So I’m going to the party. I’m going to eat with Jesus here today and rejoice that he welcomes everyone, even ones others label as “sinners.” I’m going to trust God’s love can never be taken from me, and I’m going to try to offer God’s love as freely to others. Because frankly, the other way is death. And I’ll take Jesus’ way of life every time. Christ who died and rose from the dead to show me and all of you God’s love. Christ who loves me and doesn’t see sinner. Just beloved child of God.

Here’s my challenge to you: try trusting that joy for just two hours.

For two hours just keep repeating “I am God’s beloved, I am in God’s welcome” without asking “what about how I live and act? What about sin?” Just take Jesus at his word and actions without the fear and the judgment and the other stuff. Then if you can do that, see if you can learn to hold it for longer and longer.

It’s not that Jesus doesn’t call you to love, to be Christ. To love enemies and persecutors, to care for those who are hungry and sick and thirsty and naked and imprisoned and strangers. Jesus just has no interest in lecturing you into that, or making that a precondition to God loving you.

What the Triune God trusts is that if you start trusting you’re a beloved child of God, feeling God’s welcome, eating with God at your side, embraced by God who sees you as precious, when you actually trust that, the rest will come, the loving as Christ.

Jesus says to you, “follow me.” “Come to me.” “Let’s have dinner together.”

If you need any love from God, rejoice! You’re invited to the party. God doesn’t see “sinner” when looking at you, and God isn’t holding the divine nose over your stink when God embraces you.

The Triune God simply loves you. As you are. Sees only beloved and good. And says, come to me. Be with me. Follow me.

So, what if you ignored all the Christians and their piety and just listened to Christ for once? Might it change your life? Transform you into God’s powerful love in this frightened, broken, hate-filled world? God thinks so. And what do you have to lose? Only your fear and anxiety.

Get up and follow. And see for yourself.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen