Increase Our Faith

INCREASE OUR FAITH

Last Wednesday I called and saw Eric, a former parishioner of some 25 years ago. I had not seen him for at least ten years, although we have corresponded regularly.

It was marvellous to meet up again and catch up with each other’s news.

I was particularly interested to learn that he had recently completed a period of seven years as Churchwarden of his local church. This had been something of a baptism of fire. No sooner had he been appointed than the Vicar left, and so he found himself involved in the process of appointing a successor. But that was not all.

The PCC had also just decided to enlarge the church to meet the needs of the growing congregation. Plans had been drawn up and approved. A contract had been awarded and work had commenced. However, there was still one major problem to be faced. That was money. The parish had raised about £40,000 but the contract was for £104,000. It was too late to turn back. The new foundations were already being dug and the bricks, cement and sand were already on site. No wonder the Vicar had decided to leave for pastures new!

However, once the walls began to rise the money came in and within six months they had raised the necessary funds to complete the job. It was indeed an act of faith.

Eric reminded me of an old Chinese proverb which says: "If you do before you get it what you would do if you had it, then you've got it".

The building of the extension to that church in Suffolk is a living witness to that proverb. They started to build before they had the money. That is what they would normally have done once the money had been raised. And by starting before they had all the money, they finished up with an enlarged church and fully paid for by the time of completion.

Let me repeat that proverb: "If you do before you get it what you would do if you had it, then you've got it".

And got it they had, both an enlarged church and the money.

Now many people would suggest that they were being irresponsible. After all, they were courting disaster. It was not just a question of sailing close to the wind. They had sailed deliberately into the eye of the hurricane. To many people they would be judged to have acted recklessly by commencing building before the money was raised.

Although they had about 40% of the cost, they had one additional asset, unseen to the human eye and their bank manager. And that one additional asset was faith.

They positively believed that the God who had led them so far would not desert them and acted accordingly.

Whilst we may admire such a bold display of faith, I suspect that you are like me and the apostles in our second lesson this evening. We have faith but we think it is not enough. We want more. So we say with the apostles, "Increase our faith" as if faith is a commodity like petrol and that all we have to do is to go along to the celestial filling station and top up our tank of faith.

But Jesus replies "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".

In the Greek New Testament, called the Septuagint the word mulberry is used for the word sycamore, and this is no doubt the sense intended here. The sycamore was regarded as a particularly deep rooted tree; thus to uproot a sycamore tree and transplant it in the sea was a double impossibility. But faith in God is a power that is able to take impossibilities in its stride.

In other words, it is not a question of the quantity of faith. It is not a question of having a little faith or a lot of faith. The people in Eric's parish merely had faith. They believed in the power of the unseen God and acted accordingly.

In doing this, they were following in the steps of those who had gone before.

Do you recall the words of the writer to the Hebrews?

"By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac....By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future upon Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph.....By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his burial". And so I could go on, as does the writer of the epistle when he says: "And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephah, of David, Samuel and the prophets – who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight".

None of these asked for more faith. The faith they had in the providence of God proved sufficient for the task ahead.

There is an awful danger that we sit back and refuse to respond to the promptings of God in our lives, because we consider we have insufficient faith. We sit back and carefully count the cost and wait until we are absolutely sure.

This is not the Christian way. If Jesus had acted in such a calculating fashion, he would never have left the safe confines of his home in Nazareth.

As Christians, we are called to live dangerously. To take risks which to others may appear foolish. We are called to venture forth into the dark unknown. In short, we are called to make our faith a living reality by going forward, knowing that the God who has led us so far will not forsake us in the future.

Our prayer is therefore not "Increase our faith" but "Give us the courage to live by the faith we already have" as did Eric and his PCC when they launched out into the deep to build their church extension.