NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST -- 07 OCTOBER 2007

St Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM -- The Rev. P. L. Holman

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4; Psalm 37; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10

"It's About God' Fruitful Possibilities"

Mother Teresa once said, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love." It came as great surprise to many people especially to people of faith that this strong woman of faith appears to have endured an even stronger more persistent crisis of faith; it was a crisis that persisted for most of the time she was caring for the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. In a recently published book, Come Be My Light, the editor, a friend of Mother Teresa's for over 20 years, shares excerpts of letters to various Father confessors over the years that reveal a woman who lived in the deepest of spiritual voids. For most of the last five decades of her life God was painfully absent from Mother Teresa, absent in her work and absent from her in the Eucharist.

The reaction to this book has been strong, with atheists declaring it to be evidence that Teresa discovered the truth and was afraid to claim it lest it make her life meaningless, and faithful Roman Catholics calling it further evidence of her qualification for sainthood. While I've only read a few reviews and skimmed the book itself, one thing is clear: this amazing woman of faith, whom I had the opportunity to hear in person in Denver some years ago, is even more amazing than I thought.

Mother Teresa turned often to spiritual advisors throughout these years, and those letters are what have given us insight into her struggles. Sometime in the 1960s one spiritual adviser suggested to her following her repeated confessions of darkness that there were three things she should keep in mind: there is no human remedy for it so she should not feel responsible for trying to find one; that "feeling" Jesus' presence is not the only proof of his being with her -- in fact the degree to which she was "craving for God" was a sure sign of God's hidden presence in her life; and that the absence was in fact part of the "spiritual side" of her work for Jesus. The torments continued, but according to her letters this insight gave Mother Teresa a tremendous sense of release: in a way this identification with Jesus' cry in the garden of Gethsemane, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" helped her makes sense of her spiritual pain. "[F]or the first time in … years -- I have come to love the darkness." Teresa was able to integrate the spiritual struggle into the heart of her ministry, making it the organizing center of her personality and in a way making this darkness the light for her spiritual life.

This has profound implications for those of us who find ourselves crying like the leaders in today's Gospel, “Jesus increase our faith!” What Mother Teresa experienced is what you and I and countless of faithful followers along the way have experienced -- doubt, confusion, a sense that this church stuff is simply irrelevant or that somehow for some reason God has chosen to abandon us. And to us in these times Jesus responds: It's not about more or less, this faith, only believe. A mustard seed's worth is more than enough of an opening for God' fruitful possibilities. This is an important corrective for those of us who live in this "super-size it" world, surrounded by messages and temptations to have and get more and more.

Let's put the apostles' words in context. Just a few verses earlier in Luke's Gospel the disciples had been talking with Jesus about forgiveness, and Jesus was worried about the many occasions these followers would have to stumble. He warned them about causing the ones of weaker faith, the more vulnerable among them to stumble. It'd be better for them if they were dumped in the river wearing a cement necklace. If any sin you must rebuke them and if they repent you must forgive them – even if that means seven times a day you must forgive them. That got a rise out of the leaders among those followers: "Lord have mercy! If we MUST set that example you MUST super-size our faith." And Jesus responds: “Land sakes, children, you already have enough -- you just MUST use what you already have.”

We have enough faith -- all we need to do is exercise the trust we already have. Mother Teresa did, in her prayers and steadfast struggle with God. We can too, whether our faith has been handed down to us from our mother Eunice and our grandmother Lois, our father Paul and our grandfather Patrick, or handed over to us from a friend. The will is God's and the work is the Spirit's. All we need to do is open our hands. Look at the image Jesus gives: If you had even a seed's worth of faith you could trust that a mulberry tree uprooted could still produce its fruit in the sea and know it as a sign of God's handiwork. For God is always uprooting what is known to root us deeper in faith, always planting fruitful possibilities in unexpected places -- everywhere and especially where it doesn't make any sense.

We remember that amazing grace today as we welcome little Noah Patrick Smith to the family of God through holy baptism. He isn't old enough to makes these promises, and to some it seems presumptuous that his parents and sponsors should make such a commitment for him. Yet through their example, and the support and example of this community of faith, he will grow in faith and God will tend to the details.

Right now the metro Denver area is being targeted with an advertising pilot project sponsored by the ELCA. The theme is simple "God's work. Our hands." A poster of one of the billboards is in the foyer. All the images show some form of the cross -- band aids applied by a disaster volunteer, noodles in a bowl of soup served to the homeless, loaves of bread offered to the hungry in Peru and pencils on the notebook of a Senegalese woman. It's a powerful reminder to us of what blessings God can effect if we but open our hands and share our abundance with the world. On this World Communion Sunday -- a day recognized by Reformed churches and virtually unheard of in our tradition – we remember that throughout the world God is doing amazing things with the open hands of folks who have heard the call to be God's hands and have responded. In Madagascar we see it manifest in the work of Manna for Madagascar, an emerging woman's cooperative that networks resources around the world with women in the north region of that 8th poorest country in the world who long for health, safety and integrity for themselves and their families. In the North Region of Ghana this past February I saw it in the eyes of Anufo people reading the New Testament in their mother tongue for the first time ever.

This mustard-seed sized faith is not even as big as the yellow seed we know for the mustard seed of Jesus' day was smaller than a poppy seed! That's all it takes to see God's great love unfold. And we can see it right here -- in the healing of lives after an untimely death by suicide, in the healing of love after a painful divorce, in the healing of families even while a loved one is terribly sick or is dying of cancer.

The power of life is in God. And we have access to that power -- to that amazing grace -- through faith. Even a little is enough -- all you need to do is use it. How are you being called to use the faith that is in you? Hear the call. It may come in surprising ways -- who knows, maybe it WILL come over your cell phone. Hear God's call. Answer it. And trust God to work the surprising details. Amen.