Sermon by the Rev. Sandy Montgomerie

There is story about Michelangelo as he worked on a statue, a crowd had gathered including a child who was fascinated by the sight of chips flying and the sound of mallet on chisel. Michelangelo was shaping a large block of white marble. Unable to contain her curiosity, the little girl asked, "What are you making?" He replied, "There is an angel in there and I must set it free."

For me that story kind of describes a journey of faith. Each Christian at their confirmation or conversion is handed a large cold white marble block called religion.

Then it’s up to each person to take the mallet in hand and set to work.

Religion is not our goal but it’s a good place to start. There are many names for religion, at times we do call it that but we often use other words and images to describe it.

We say we are the Church, the Christian community, or Disciples of Christ. Other times we call it our faith. Jesus himself spoke in terms of the Kingdom of God.

There are many more names with varying nuances of meaning but in the end they all describe the same thing.

We are a people of Faith, faith in God and faith in Jesus.

One of the great controversies of the Reformation period centred on the relationship between faith and good works, and in many circles it is still there with us.

The question to ask is this, what really puts someone into a good relationship with God?

Well the answer is not always clear, and in the New Testament the issue flickers between the writings of Paul, who kept pushing his proclamation about the primacy of faith over the law, and then James who said he could top those who appealed to faith without works by demonstrating faith by works.

Maybe you remember what James wrote in his letter, (ch.2 v.14-17),

"What good is it my brothers and sisters if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can that faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ’Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet don't give them the necessities of life? What is the good of that? So Faith by itself without actions is dead.

Who would have thought that in the 21^st century we would experience food banks in our towns and cities and it is often the Christian community who are called upon to organise them to help those less fortunate people.

But I am also acutely aware that there are times when helping others you might not get much thanks for it, that I am afraid is part of the joy of being a follower of Christ.

Their is a natural instinct in us that wants recognition or thanks for a job well done and some employers even run schemes to this end, encouraging their employees to nominate someone who has in their opinion done a good job.

And good luck to them we might say!

We kind of think that good deeds deserve reward, but not so says Jesus in a very strikingly blunt parable of a servant’s duty.

If we turn his parable around it means something like this.

God is no more impressed by our good behaviour than an employer would be by his employee completing some assigned work. After all it is only what the employee was hired to do.

What is expected? A medal, for doing your job?

So Jesus says it’s the same with his followers: you were created for service, do get on with it!

Hard words aren’t they?

From a very early date the church demanded a certain standard of behaviour of its members and disciplined those who failed to meet it.

The drive to enforce discipline became even stronger when the church became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and masses of people wanted to join.

These were people who took an easier approach to the faith than the heroes of the age when the church was under persecution.

Eventually being good or at least being pious was seen as the way to a good relationship with God.

The Reformation was in some way a reaction to this point of view. The reformers proclaimed that justification, (that means a right relationship with God) is given on the basis of faith alone. It is a free gift; it is grace as we find it described and emphasized in our reading from Timothy.

Unfortunately their emphasis on faith introduced a new level of works, for getting the right degree and quality of faith seemed to become something that human’s could do to merit God’s grace.

Such that material prosperity, earned by works of another kind, was often treated as a sign of God’s blessing on those who were truly faithful.

Well the reading from Luke’s gospel cuts right across this whole mess.

Remember it is the apostles and not Jesus who introduce the subject of faith.

They like the good reformers of old, ask for more of it.

Jesus says that if they had faith that amounted to a grain of mustard seed they would be able to move a mulberry tree.

Well have you moved any mulberry trees lately? No, well neither have I, nor any mountains for that matter.

So what kind of faith do we see the disciples asking for?

The size of faith doesn’t matter because God is the one doing the moving.

If it is my faith that moved the mountain, then the bigger the mountain the more faith I would need to move it.

The bigger the obstacle the more strength I’d need to climb it.

The more serious the illness a faith even greater would be required to overcome it.

The more serious the sin the more faith I would need in order to have it forgiven.

That kind of thinking kind of makes sense, but that’s not how faith works.

In fact, faith doesn’t do the work at all. And thank God for that.

God is the one doing the work through faith.

Think of faith as the key that opens the door to God acting in our lives. The key is attached to a key ring and if I have a bigger key ring than you do, does it matter? The size of a key ring doesn’t matter - key rings don’t open doors but it’s that little key on the ring that opens doors.

Even a little faith opens the door for God to move the mountains and trees and even our hearts.

Faith for Luke is not a matter of growing and developing a kind of personal belief system until miracles just seem to happen, rather, his is a kind of “hands off” faith which gives space to others, without imposing my beliefs, my way of doing things, my morality, my charity, my helpfulness even.

Jesus in his response doesn’t say they have to acquire that even tiny bit of faith, instead he implies that he accepts them and that God accepts them as they are.

The theologian Paul Tillich used to say, "Accept the fact that you're accepted." And we might add, "When you do, you will accept all others and serve them”.

This is truly good news, especially for those of us who aren’t at all sure how much faith we have.

Very often our faith is all that we have to hang on to in a crisis and maybe that is the point that we recognise best the power of what faith we do have, the mustard seed is tiny, maybe just like our faith, the mulberry tree has deep, well-developed roots, yes hard to move but the faith that can open within people and communities the concern that God has for others, and his unlimited forgiveness will have a great impact, just like being able to move this deep rooted tree.

Faith can be immensely powerful far beyond our wildest dreams and the presence of faith in our attitude to certain challenges and problems in life can sometimes make all the difference between something being possible or impossible.

Faith fluctuates, sometimes it is strong and confident, other times it can be shaken to its roots. Faith can be lost, making us frightened and disheartened.

We can call out in prayer and ask Jesus to increase our faith just like the disciples, but just like them he will certainly not do it for us. His response will always be to do it with us.

Faith reminds us that we are only servants who are doing what we ought to do, healing, forgiving, removing obstacles, loving, thanking, and above all serving.

The teaching of Jesus can be so hard to grasp but just like love, faith has to grow and deepen within us.

Karl Barth the theologian wrote “If a man believes and knows God, he can no longer ask, ‘What is the meaning of my life?’ but by believing, he actually lives the meaning of his life.”

Jesus in the gospel seems to imply that the whole of your life is a gift, and so is the possibility of newness, of wholeness, of relationship with God.

You didn’t earn your birth, nor can you earn this gift of life and life renewed.

You don’t have to pull your faith out of the ground and see if the roots are growing.

Accept the gift and get on with being fully human, fully alive. Amen.