10/05/2025 ~ Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost ~ Proper 22 ~ Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137; Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4; Psalm 37:1-9; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10 ~ YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701?video=1125576483
VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701?video=1125576483

Having Faith

“Jesus gave this answer: ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and plant yourself in the sea,’ and it would obey you.’” — Luke 17:6.

You may have noticed I was not in the pulpit last week. So what did this pastor and spouse do on a scheduled Sunday away?

Bonnie and I indulged in a little nostalgia as we visited the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk. It was nostalgic because the last time we visited it was on our abbreviated four day honeymoon (the pastor mumbles a number) years ago.

It was nostalgic for me, personally, on one other count. I do have a memory of riding on a New York City trolley when I was very young.

Speaking of nostalgia, the museum had what it called a 2000 World Series Subway car. It was labeled that way because the Mets and the Yankees played in the series that year.

It was the first Subway series since the New York Yankees played the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. But, native New Yorker that I am, I recognized it as a car from the number 7 train, the Flushing line, before I even saw the World Series banner displayed in front of it.

Right now the museum is celebrating Pumpkin Patch days with special things for children to do. So a trolley ride includes a stop at a pumpkin patch— really just pumpkins sitting in a field where the children can retrieve their own pumpkin.

That ensured a multitude of youngsters were there. And so we sat in the second row on the trolley ride we took, an open air trolley with just seats, no doors or windows. In the first row along with parents were four children, probably age five or younger, staring down the track and watching every move the trolley operator made.

Each youngster was dressed in a super-hero costume, capes and all, from Captain America to Spider-Man. Perhaps it was the nostalgia bubbling up in me but I was suddenly projected into my childhood.

I remembered as a kid, despite being from the city, my brother and I would dress up as cowboys trying to be like Gene Autry or Hopalong Cassidy. As I reflected on that I realized we were just trying to emulate the super-heros of our time. Indeed, the youngsters last week and my brother and myself years ago, they are and we were merely reflecting the fantasies created and broadcast by the cultures in the era in which we live. (Slight pause.)

I’ve said this before, we often have a hard time recognizing the influence the presiding culture has on our lives, on our thinking, even on our faith. So in order to not be swept up in whatever fad is current in the culture, we ourselves need to be prepared, educated enough to separate reality from fantasy, fact from fiction, real information from mere spin, certainty from contrivance.

But it’s also true that no one has the time, patience, energy or God-like omni-presence to fully accomplish that. Society can be exhausting. (Slight pause.)

These words are from the section of Scripture known as Luke/Acts: “Jesus gave this answer: ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and plant yourself in the sea,’ and it would obey you.’” (Slight pause.)

Question: is faith about having answers or asking questions? Clearly, one of the bywords in popular culture, one of the tribal beliefs in the folk ways of American life, is that someone with a deep faith never questions. But is that accurate, or is it merely a rallying cry of the parochial tribalism rampant in our culture, a position without substance, without a credible basis in Scripture or Christian tradition or Christian history?

Certainly our culture is fond of predictable messages and easy answers, fond of slogans like “Be who you are!” “Don’t forget where you came from!” or “Stay the course!” These are not necessarily examples of bad advice. They can be even comfortable places to rest when we are weary.

But these messages can readily become a dominant way of thinking, especially when they are heard incessantly, insisted on and because of that perpetuated. That’s when platitudes deteriorate into exercises of questionable judgement.

But these catch phrases are just slogans, not solid, grounding principles. Hence, when abused, this kind of populist, cultural sloganeering serves not to inform choices but to limit choices.

Indeed, I think when it comes to the ways of popular culture, we need to be quite wary about and watchful of its often intimidating force. When we ignore reality because of being intimidated by the culture I call that position willful ignorance.

Let’s look at the words of Jesus. Contrary to what the slogan of the popular culture suggests, that faith is an unmovable rock, the plea for faith in this passage conveys the recognition that faith is a dynamic process. Hence, one can become mature in faith by understanding that faith is a process.

In today’s reading the disciples have bought into the popular culture of their time. They thereby give guidance for our time. In asking for an increase in faith, they seem to indicate faith is something you can quantify: if only you get more faith, they will be all right. Everything will be all right.

Jesus shatters their cultural illusions about faith and, perhaps, ours. The point is not that they need more faith; rather, they need to understand faith enables God to work in the life of a person in ways which can defy ordinary human experience. Faith does not increase; faith learns, faith matures, and it is hence empowered to become discerning.

This passage about the mustard seed is, therefore, not about doing miraculous works or spectacular tricks like throwing a mulberry tree into the sea because one has increased faith. On the contrary, the assurance of Jesus is that with even a little faith the disciples can live by the teachings Jesus offers on discipleship. [1] (Slight pause.)

Faith, you see, is a journey, a process which includes being unsure, taking risks. Theologian Søren Kierkegaard said this (quote:), “Without risk, faith is an impossibility.”— “Without risk, faith is an impossibility.”

It’s understandable that popular culture carries in it some definitive positions and directions like take no risks. But sloganeering is not life sustaining; it is merely popular.

I maintain faith which is life sustaining, which can uproot trees, is harder to understand than that for which popular culture allows. I think that’s because our popular culture is not open to a God who might defy our expectations.

Further, faith does make all things possible when it is tempered by and intertwined with the inclusive nature of unconditional love. Faith intertwined with the inclusive nature of unconditional love can steer us in wonderful directions.

That’s because faith without the anchor known as love has lost its moral compass. And love is not only dynamic and alive but needs to be at the center of all moral judgments. Unless love shows us the way, the moral compass is broken— our moral compass is broken. (Slight pause.)

To come back to the youngsters at the trolley museum and to the days of my youth, super heros are fine when you’re young and simple explanations suffice. But super heros— and it does not matter if they wear capes or 10 gallon hats— super heros don’t exist. They are cartoons, fantasies.

Or as Bonnie puts it, adult-ing is hard and tiring but we need to do it. Since adults need to work constantly on the process I call mature faith, the process of mature faith needs to be intertwined with and happens only when unconditional love is practiced. Amen.

Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine
10/05/20254

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “We opened this service with the hymn Great Is Your Faithfulness. Here’s the paradox the hymn presents: it does not speak of our faithfulness. It speaks of the faithfulness of God. So, here’s a one sentence précis of the hymn: God trusts us and entrusts to us the care of the world. Isn’t that amazing? Only after that initial, unwavering trust is offered to us, does God invite us, not demand but invite us, to offer our trust back to God. Trusting us while demanding nothing in return is a definition of unconditional love.”

BENEDICTION: We are called by God to serve faithfully, trusting in God’s grace. May the gifts of God be rekindled within and among us. May our trust grow as we are empowered to do God’s work in this, God’s dominion. And may the peace of Christ which surpasses our understanding keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and companionship of God’s Spirit this day and forevermore. Amen.

[1] This analysis is found in The New Interpreter’s Bible, the Electronic Edition.