Psalm 37.1-9; Luke 17.5-10
Today’s sermon is the third in a series called “The Three C’s” - Creation, Covenant, and Christ.
Creation is the beginning … God is the beginning …
The second C - covenant … covenant is the focused energy of God’s love … the covenant of creation, the covenant with Noah and the earth, the covenant with Sarah and Abraham … and their descendants after them … the Wilderness People set free from slavery … the people of the Promised Land in quest of a home … Mary and Joseph, and the Bethlehem Child, with shepherds from the hills and wise men from the east.
Down through the ages … generation to generation … family to family … blessed to be a blessing …
The mark of the covenant, circumcision … on the 8th day, the male child, circumcised … blood shed … a way of saying what we all know to be true … life is costly, life demands sacrifice … life requires all that we are, and then some.
When Christ comes, a shift …
The baptism of Jesus, by John in the Jordan …
Water used in ancient rituals, but now with Christ, water gains a new focus … it’s no longer blood given, but now, baptism received …
The covenant remains in place … and grows larger … baptism for all children … baptism for all who hunger and thirst for righteousness …
The word Christ means “anointed” …
Upon Jesus rests the mantle of faith, hope, and love - in a dramatic and compelling way … Elijah’s mantle, the call of Moses … the 23rd Psalm, thou anointest my head with oil …
Christ, the anointed one, the Son of God … Immanuel, God with us …
Christ, the anointed one, the Son of Mary … a human being in all regards, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone -
Many years ago, I preached a sermon in which I said, “Jesus is the face of God” …
If we want to see God, we look to Jesus - not a literal picture, for none exists … but to the words of Jesus … the Gospel stories … what he taught, what he did.
His call to the disciples, his regard for the children, his care for the outcast … a gentle touch to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf … a gentle word to give hope to the weary, and life to the lost …
In our reading from Luke this morning, one of the great lessons of life … comfort and encouragement.
The disciples ask of Jesus, “increase our faith!”
Who hasn’t asked that of God? - Increase my faith! … and that’s ok, but it can be misleading … as if we’re not up to the tasks at hand … we doubt ourselves, we doubt our gifts, we doubt our abilities … and, yes, there’s some humility in all of that … but we have to be careful, lest we overlook what God has already done in our lives, what gifts God has given to us, from the moment of our birth, throughout the years of lives … the gifts of God.
Jesus quickly corrects the disciples - you already have what you need … it may be the size of mustard seed, and if you wanna know the truth, that’s all you need … the gifts of God are just that … small to our eyes … small enough that we might overlook them.
History is filled with the stories of mustard-seed faith turning the world upside down … mustard-seed faith going to work and making a difference … mustard-seed faith brings us here … mustard-seed faith stops to pay attention to a child … mustard-seed faith refuses to take the back seat of the bus … mustard-seed faith offers a prayer for a friend.
Jesus says to us: you have what it takes … don’t worry about it … don’t ask for more, but ask for the eyes to see what you already have … the eyes to see the gifts of God that are uniquely yours, arranged with form and purpose that belongs uniquely to you … you have enough, more than enough, to make it through life … to weather the storms, face the challenges, endure the long hard roads that we must sometimes travel …
Years ago, living in Michigan, I did a lot of bicycling … we had access to great trails … state, county and city parks … good bicycling … but on many a day, I rode through two large Jewish cemeteries, just blocks away from our home … huge cemeteries … good roads, not much traffic … safe to bike …
And full of life, in a strange and fascinating way …
Life engraved on thousands of headstones … words of thanksgiving and love … words of sorrow for children gone too soon … for youth cut short in the brightness of life … words of gratitude for fulness of life and many years …
The human story … travail and treasure, sorrow and glory, achievement and setback … loss and gain … it’s all there, in a cemetery … and then, what I heard … yes, you heard me right, because in those cemeteries, I heard their voices …
Don’t worry, not literally, but close … their voices, singing … quietly, “We did it, and so will you” …
“We endured, we lived, we loved, we died … some of us were cut short in our time … some were endowed with many years; some did well, and some had a rough go of it … there were good times and there were bad times … but we did it … and so will you.”
This is the message of Christ to those disciples.
You have what it takes, and it will take what you have … but go for it … you will make it.
At the center of our faith, Christ …
Other traditions of faith have their own centers … and God be praised for all of it …
For us here, it’s the Christian story that shapes us … but God uses all the other stories to give life to the world.
Some years back, a mother came to me distressed and fearful - her daughter had fallen in love with a man of the Islamic Faith … and she converted … her mother believed that her daughter was now lost, and would go to hell when she died.
The mother echoed many a Christian sermon - that we’re the only ones going to heaven, with everyone else going to hell.
But I say to you this day: Christ is more than that … the love of God is more than that … we need not fear another faith … but we would do well to look to our own faith, to live that faith as best we can.
I spent time with that mother, encouraging her to embrace the fullness of God’s love for the world … a love at work in all the great traditions of faith … that she and her daughter would always love one another … and never be afraid that one would be lost, and the other be saved … no, it doesn’t work that way … God is the Savor of the world … and what we see in Christ, God has done a thousand times over in every culture, time and place, long before any of us showed up, and long after we’re gone … because God is the God of creation …
God is the God of the covenant …
And God is the God and Father of the Christ … believe me when I say, this Christ is everywhere … with different names, different images, different meanings … different music, different philosophies and theologies … and finally, and always, the same message.
You have what it takes.
Don’t be afraid.
You are loved.
Say “Yes” as often as you can.
Be kind in your ways.
Overlook the sins of others, and rejoice in goodness when you see it.
Work for justice, and seek peace.
Tell the truth, and bear the sorrows of the world.
Cry with those in distress.
Count your days … don’t get carried away with stuff.
Laugh often at yourself … laugh with others, too.
Have fun along the way.
Don’t overlook your mustard seed.
In the end, you will return to the earth, one way or the other.
In the end, there’s God … kind and loving, good and great.
In the end, your voice will be heard by others,
You will sing to the world, “I did it, and so will you.”
Creation, Covenant, and Christ.
Amen and Amen!
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