The Possibility of the Impossible

Luke 17:5-10New International Version (NIV)

5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

I recently read an article on the world-wide impact that tithing could have.  I am not going to talk to you guys about tithing today, however, I am going to speak with you about the impossibilities that faith makes possible.  That article said that if congregations and churches tithed, it would generate $165 billion for churches to use and distribute.  The article went onto suggest some uses for that kind of funding:  

• $25 billion could relieve global hunger, starvation and deaths from preventable diseases in five years.
• $12 billion could eliminate illiteracy in five years.
• $15 billion could solve the world’s water and sanitation issues, specifically at places in the world where 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day.
• $1 billion could fully fund all overseas mission work.
• $100 – $110 billion would still be left over for additional ministry expansion.

Again, not speaking on tithing today but look at some of the things that seem impossible in the very moment we are living in right now.  Within five years global hunger, starvation and deaths from preventable diseases could be wiped off the map.  Everyone in the world could be reading in 5 years.  Mission work, clean water and sanitation needs could be taken care of.  We so often feel overwhelmed when looking into society and the world and think that there is no way we can make a dent into the social injustices, poverty and starvation going on today.  We can quickly feel insignificant and be filled with despair.  This is when we might approach God, just like the apostles in our scripture for this morning, and ask for more faith to take on the challenges we are facing.  I have done this before and I am sure many of you have as well.  As a kid, I remember Wile E. Coyote chasing the roadrunner and one time he ran through a construction site on the road and as the concrete dried he became slower and slower until his feet were in solid blocks of concrete and inevitably the piece of dynamite he was holding blew up somehow dislodging his feet but not hurting him.  By that time, the road-runner was long gone.  I think a lot of Christians feel this way.  Just like Wile E. Coyote, we start off ministries with the excitement that we can bring people into the flock, much like catching the road-runner, but we often get weighed down and stressed out.  Our feet get caught in the concrete blocks.  

It is this feeling, and perhaps the apostles were feeling similar to this as they continued their ministry with Jesus, that causes us to demand God to give us more faith.  I think if you told the disciples that Christianity would have the kind of impact it does 2000 years after they walked the earth, they would not believe you.  They may even say that it is impossible.  It wasn’t the extra faith that they demanded from God that has gotten us where we are today.  It was the faith that they already had.  Jesus just had to make them understand that the faith they had was enough.  In way, Jesus had to convince them that they were worth it.  How many of us do currently, or did at some time, feel like we weren’t worth it.  Someone may have said or done something to make us feel that way or the circumstances of life may have caused us to demand more faith from God as we faced the impossible.  Our faith may not have seemed sufficient for whatever the reason.  When asking for more faith, we are really asking for better faith because we all know someone who we think has this faith thing completely figured out.  We have come up with a politically correct way of asking God to have the faith of someone else that we look up to and admire because we think our faith isn’t good enough.  We ask God for more faith when we really want God to give us the faith of person X.  

Using our sense of humor, chasing this imaginary thing we call faith is shockingly similar to that silly coyote chasing the roadrunner.  Our best laid plan for ministries often blow up in our face much like that pesky stick of dynamite.  The paths of faith sometimes lead us off of metaphorical cliffs.  We run into mountains, get ran over by trains, and sometimes that roadrunner is right beside us and fail to see it because we are too focused on chasing more faith.  When we spend our energy chasing more faith, we lose sight of the faith we already have.  If our faith is as small as the mustard seed, we can make a mulberry tree plant itself in the sea.  Other scriptures tell us that this same sized faith can move mountains.  Should we continually be searching for ways to be more like Christ?  Yes, of course.  But becoming more like Christ does not mean an increase in faith.  It means a revolution of sorts against the things in this world that keep us from getting closer to God.  Faith is either something you have or something you don’t have.  The amount of faith is immeasurable.  The amount of one’s faith is not relevant.  Faith manifests itself in many ways, by a variety of people.  

The takeaway from today is this: instead of worrying about the size of our faith, perhaps we should just get on with living out Jesus’ commands.  Our faith is sufficient enough to move mountains and plant trees in the sea.  YOU are good enough to be died for.  YOU are loved.  Once we realize this, we cannot contain our willingness to help others to also realize this.  This realization of God’s love and grace is what truly makes the impossible, possible. God’s love and grace is what allows us to shed those concrete blocks from our feet and get to work.  Looking at the state of our country and world today may make us feel like Wile E. Coyote chasing the roadrunner but living out our faith is enough to move the mountains of poverty, injustice, racism, fear and hatred and replace them with trees of love, forgiveness, respect, justice and peace.  Amen.