Give Us More Faith? Luke 17:1-10

The tone of the reading for today is different than it was last week. Last week we finished reading a series of parables directed to a group of people who have their own spirituality and beliefs making them feel they are better, more entitled, “more righter” about God’s world than the people around them. They are so much “righter” about their beliefs that they are unable to appreciate what Jesus is doing. They are upset about the way that Jesus is making friends with those unclean, unrighteous, “more wronger” people—the tax collectors and sinners.

Over the last three weeks, we learned a lot about losing things and finding them—a sheep, a coin, a child, a trusted manager, and community. In the midst of loss, we discovered God’s radical love that continues to search us out and teaches us new ways of knowing God’s righteousness or justice in the world. God’s radical love gives reasons for building bridges to span the gap between us and the people outside our gates of self-interest creating new community in God’s love.

You see, the focus group Jesus is talking about, the “more righter” people, think that God’s love and justice is reserved for people who do what is right. Their rightness makes it possible for them to show others that they are chosen by God. Those people with whom Jesus is trying to develop a relationship, those who are “more wronger”, can’t be part of God’s chosen people because … well … they are wrong! They are losers! They are icky! They are not very nice people.

Today, Jesus is speaking to his disciples (you know Peter, James, John, and the gang). So, let us listen in as they learn about faith and new community.

The Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you O Lord.

Luke 17:1-10.

This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you O Christ.

As I finally learned over these last few weeks, Jesus is speaking to me through the example of the Pharisees. I am part of the group who feels entitled by my faith, therefore I should be looking outside of myself to the world around me. So, okay, I am getting it, Jesus is now talking to his disciples, not just Peter, James, John and the gang, but to all of his disciples, that is you and me.

Now I have to tell you, some of the most frightening words in Scripture are spoken here. Recognizing that all of us will stumble is fine, but, “Woe to anyone by whom they come?” These words are a little scary. By the time you get to, “It would be better for you if a mill stone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea, than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble,” I am starting to sweat.

I wonder how many people have I caused to stumble. Is my stumbling around the cause of others’ stumbling? Do I even have the right to stand before you today? Maybe I should just sit down at this point and send you home. And if this was all that we had for a text today, I’d really consider it. But we are given more.

Yes, we will stumble. We will even cause people to stumble, and we will feel awful because of it. Thank God for the gift of forgiveness! And not only one time, but as many times as we need it.

I looked at the word for stumbling in Greek. The word is skandalon. It is the Greek word from which we get scandalous. But what is this scandalous word?

Skandalon is most oftentimes translated as stumbling stone or stumbling block, that is an intentional stone or block that is offset from the established pattern of paving stones or steps so as to cause someone to trip or stumble. In the Old Testament, skandalon is the trigger peddle on a trap. You might have seen this trigger peddle on a mouse trap or maybe even a hoop trap sometimes known as a bear trap.

Let’s read the text again. “Occasions for stepping in traps or stumbling on uneven sidewalks and unfamiliar staircases are bound to come. But shame on you, if you set up these conditions in your faith-life for others to stumble on. Instead, learn to live with the missteps of others, picking them up when they trip and fall or giving a hand of stabilization when they need it. In other words, forgiving them as many times as they make mistakes. Be a teacher when they make mistakes. Help them to learn how to avoid the problem in the future, understanding that we sometimes learn more slowly than we would like.

Wow! No wonder the disciples want more faith--more faith, more patience, and in the words of Tim the Toolman, “More power!”

But, faith, like love, is not able to be quantified. If faith is something with a quantity to it, then Jesus says, the quantity of faith equal to a mustard seed is more than enough to uproot a mulberry tree and plant it in the ocean. I mean, what is with this ocean or sea stuff. First I’m drowning and now this mulberry tree is drowning!

And now there is this other little scene of eating supper! Can’t we just order out or get a rotisserie chicken at the deli counter and then sit down together? Seriously, at the end of the day, I’m hungry and don’t want to argue about who is going to cook. Let’s eat and be done with it. I’ll wash the dishes or load the dishwasher when we’re done.

Then I remembered. Jesus is trying to teach his disciples something. What is it that I am supposed to learn here? What difference does this text make in the lives of Peter, James, and the gang that includes me? What difference does this make for the world?

This is what I came up with. Faith is about relationship with others to be shared not hoarded. Faith is faith. You can’t have some, enough, or too much. Faith is what we put our trust in and that is God’s word being spoken to us today.

When we live in relationship with one another, we need to forgive each other over and over again. To withhold that forgiveness is to create occasions for falling away from God and one another thus impeding our ability to reach out in love with support to stabilize and strengthen our communities. As we pray every day, “Forgive our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Our lives of relationship with God and one another can change the world, but it is more like sitting down to eat with one another than it is about uprooting innocent trees and plopping them in the ocean. We continue to be in relationship with God and one another because Christ calls for forgiveness, even from the cross, because Christ continues to forgive us, and because walking together in our faith relationship, Christ prepares the table for us.

So, instead of demanding more, let us celebrate the gift of faith we have been given, living in Christ’s forgiving love. Let us go to our closest friends and our fiercest enemies with Christ’s words of forgiveness.  And then, let’s come to the table, eating our meal of new covenant living, celebrating our worthy lives received in Christ, saying we have done only what we ought to do each and every day. Thanks be to God!