What if Faith is Just the Size of a Mustard Seed?

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Lectionary 11, Year B – June 14, 2015

Marks of Discipleship: Bible Study

Texts: 1 Corinthians 13; Mark 4:30-34

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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Here we are in our second week of looking at 1 Corinthians 13. As I said last week, though this chapter has been co-opted to refer to romantic love and is used at many weddings, Paul wrote this chapter as part of a larger letter to the church in Corinth, addressing the division that had crept into that church’s life together.

Corinth was a crossroads in the First Century largely because it was on a major trade route between Italy and Asia Minor (what we now call Turkey). Lots of different cultures mixed there – lots of different types of people – lots of different religions, too. In Corinth, they didn’t just worship one god, they worshipped many gods, and into this hodge-podge of religious life arrived the Gospel of Jesus Christ, thanks to Paul and others missionarie, such as Peter and another man named Apollos.

As a missionary to Corinth, Paul was most successful in reaching the Gentiles with the good news of Jesus Christ. Over time, house churches formed, largely centered around whichever missionary had shared the gospel with any particular household. So, one house church would follow Paul’s teachings – another would follow the teachings of Apollos – another the teachings of Peter, etc. And while the basic message of the love of Christ was there, there was disagreement in how that love was lived out.

These disparate groups would meet all together periodically to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together, and in these larger meetings is when the division was really apparent. The more “moral” believers would shame the “immoral” believers. Gossip prevailed. Some members wanted to disallow others from being a part of the Lord’s Supper.

And so, Paul writes this epistle, lambasting them at the beginning for their divisiveness, asking them to remember who it is that their faith is based upon - not Paul, not Apollos, not Peter – but their faith is based upon Jesus Christ.

Knowing this background makes 1 Corinthians 13 all the more meaningful. When Paul says that love is patient and kind, he is calling them out for bad behavior – for their lack of patience and kindness with one another. When Paul says that love rejoices with the truth, he is encouraging them to speak words of truth (as opposed to gossip) about one another. When Paul says that faith, hope, and love abide, he is reminding them that faith, hope, and love - these three - are the lasting parts that really matter.

Moving forward from here, we will look at these three lasting parts of the Christian life: faith, hope, and love, focusing today upon faith. And if we want to talk about faith, there are plenty of examples in the Bible, and today we have a great example in Jesus’ Parable of the Mustard Seed.

Here, I read an excerpt from a sermon of my mother's (The Rev. Diane W. Bragg), preached in 1996 in Houston:

Faith is like a mustard seed. It begins as something very tiny, and takes time to grow, and eventually leaf out, blossom, and produce fruit; as well as spreading its branches and providing a place for others to come and build their nests, within those branches of faith.

As we live out our daily lives, we may see our faith as being minuscule, like a mustard seed. When we go through touch times, through challenges, through pain and loneliness, these can be times of growth for our seed of faith.

Faith is more than something which 'gets us through a moment or a couple of days, or even a few months,' though. It is a trust that says, I believe God will bring about good, and I wasn't to be a part of that.

Story: The gorge was one thousand feet deep with jagged protruding rocks anchored in its walls. A thin strong wire was tightly stretched across the three hundred-foot span which separated the two banks. A tense crowd watched an cheered as an acrobat walked the slightly swaying wire. Then, putting on a blindfold, he walked back along the wire and the crowd cheered even louder. They gasped in astonishment as they saw him cross the gorge again, pushing a wheelbarrow full of sand, with the wire sagging almost to the point of breaking. The moment his feet touched solid ground, the terrified people went wild with excitement.

One young mans threw his arms around him. "You are the greatest!" he shouted. "I've never seen anyone like you."

"So, you have faith in me?" said the acrobat, emptying the wheelbarrow with a shovel.

"Faith in you?" exclaimed the young man. "I'd depend my life on you!"

"Well then," replied the acrobat, "Why don't you sit in the wheelbarrow and we'll cross the gorge together?"

The young man's faith immediately evaporated.

Mature faith does not evaporate, rather, it holds firm. However, the Parable of the Mustard Seed reminds us that mature faith is not something we are born with and it does not happen quickly. It wakes time to nurture our faith, which is a gift from God, and like all gifts from God we can choose to refuse it or we can choose to accept it, and if we choose to accept it, then, in order to facilitate its growth, we must nurture it through prayer and Christian worship, such as we are doing here this morning. We can nurture our faith through using opportunities for Bible Study and fellowship with other Christians -- that is, providing an environment which fosters growth and fruitfulness.

So, the Parable of the Mustard Seed teaches us that we born with a "seed of faith" which must be nurtured in order to sprout and grow, and eventually to bloom and be fruitful. And, that, somewhere after that, when our faith has grown mature like a tree with branches, others may even find solace and strengthening in the midst of our faith. Such is the ultimate goal of our growth in faith -- sharing it with others.

As I said last week, the main goal of Bible Study is for us to learn how we can better love God and love our neighbor. When Paul writes about faith, hope, and love, he’s not simply talking about abstract concepts that mean nothing for our day-to-day lives. Paul is encouraging us to bring faith, hope, and love into every relationship, every decision, every action, and even – here’s the tough one – every thought we have.

May God take that which begins so small in us – the size of a mustard seed – and make that grow. May God grow our faith. And may we be open to this growth, trusting the Spirit’s work within us.

Amen.

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