The following sermon was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on October 2nd, 1983. The title is, Increase Our Faith, and the scripture reference is the Gospel of Luke, chapter 17, verses 5 through 10. 

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. I'm reading from the 17th chapter, beginning of the 5th verse. The apostles said to Jesus, Increase our faith.

And he said to them, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, Be rooted up and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you. Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and sit down at my table. Will he not rather say to him, Prepare supper for me and gird yourself and serve me till I eat and drink, and afterward you shall eat and drink?

Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, We are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty.

The Gospel of the Lord. We come this morning to what is certainly one of the most important comments that Jesus ever made, but I submit to you that it may be also one of the most seriously misunderstood in all the Scriptures. the apostles cry out in a moment of abject need as does every Christian sooner or later Lord increase our faith have you ever cried that?

anybody here that ever? Lord increase my faith I've got some but not enough one thinks immediately of the father of the demoniac boy and he said Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief I believe and I disbelieve at the same time I have some faith but not enough Lord increase my faith a plea for help a cry perhaps of despair a cry of great need and yet Jesus' answer seems an astonishing rebuke. If you had the faith of a single grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, which is a form of mulberry tree, you could say to this tree, be cast into the sea, and it would be cast into the sea.

In Matthew's version, it's even more astonishing than that. He says, you could say to this mountain, be moved and it would be moved aside. If you had the faith of a single grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, be moved and it would be moved.

The problem is, I look at myself and I suspect you look at yourself and we say, no way am I going to move that mountain. I can't even move a sycamine tree. And the conclusion is, I must not have the faith of a single grain of mustard seed.

And the problem is, where do you go from there? Where do you go from there? If the key to everything is faith, and I don't have enough faith, where do you go from there?

Some folks try harder, like Avis. they try harder to believe they try to convince themselves that they believe they'll search through the scriptures and they'll find relevant passages and they'll quote them and they'll claim them and tell them I believe that I believe that they'll deny the unbelief part they'll just affirm the belief maybe you've run into folks who whatever the problem is they'll deny the problem if they're sick. They'll say, I'm not sick.

I'm healed. These are just symptoms. No, I'm not laughing at that.

As a matter of fact, I wouldn't dismiss that out of hand. I think that's taking the power of a positive attitude to its logical extreme. And any psychologist, any doctor will tell you that that can sometimes be very important to our total well-being.

But I don't think that that's what biblical faith is all about. I don't think that biblical faith is a matter of denying what you know to be so or affirming what you don't believe that's not what we're talking about other people just plain give up they say well I don't have that kind of faith I can't move mountains I can't move sycamine trees I can't do that I thought I had faith I guess I don't I want to suggest to you that that whole line of thinking is dead wrong in at least three specific ways. And I want you to look at the passage with me.

I hope this will be a tremendous encouragement to you. We're looking at Luke 17. And I think we have basically missed the point in at least three separate ways.

First thing is you need to notice the context in which Jesus makes this statement. You see, for two and a half chapters, He's been on one theme. It's the theme of forgiveness.

And we've touched on this in various sermons over the past few weeks, as these Scriptures have been before us. He's been talking about seeking the lost and restoring the offender and canceling indebtedness. He's been talking about forgiveness, forgiveness, forgiveness.

Now as He moves into chapter 17, He sums up what he's been saying, and the words are very reminiscent of another conversation that he had with Simon Peter one day. You remember when Peter suddenly really got the point, and he said, do you mean to tell me that I've got to forgive my brother as many as seven times? And Jesus said what?

Not seven times, but 70 times seven times. Not 70 times. Seventy times.

Seven times. And it's worse than that, as a matter of fact. That's really a euphemism, a Jewish figure of speech for saying an infinite number of times.

It's not 488, 489, 499. I'm not going to kill him. No. An infinite number of times.

He's saying exactly the same thing here. He says, I tell you that if your brother sins against you seven times in a single day, forgive him. Not seven times in his whole life.

The same guy, the same sin, seven times a day, day after day, and I've got to keep forgiving him. That's what Jesus is saying. And it's at that point that the apostles say, Lord, increase our faith.

do you see the point I wonder if you do they are not looking for the kind of faith that will somehow coerce God to do what they want him to do they're looking for the kind of faith that will enable them to do what God wants them to do you catch it it's totally different most people's idea of faith is somehow I get the right formula I push the right button I say the right words I do whatever it is that gets God to do whatever I want Him to do that's faith that has very little to do with biblical faith biblical faith is a matter of depending on God to enable me to do what He wants me to do and that's where they quail Lord, increase our faith but secondly I suggest to you that Jesus' answer far from being a rebuke far from being a matter of ridicule or a put down that's not how Jesus ever dealt with people he didn't rebuke them and just leave them there if he had a rebuke he rebuked and corrected I submit to you Jesus' answer is in no way a rebuke He is not saying, you dummies, you don't even have the faith of a grain of mustard seed. He's saying exactly the opposite. That even if you had only the faith of a single grain of mustard seed, it would be enough.

You see, the whole biblical teaching from cover to cover is that it's not a matter of how much faith you have, but it's what you do with the amount of faith that you have, however much it may be. The apostles say, Lord, increase our faith, and Jesus is saying, that's not the issue. You don't need more faith.

You've got enough faith. Do something with it. Listen, if you had only the faith of one single grain of mustard seed, that would be enough.

He's saying you've got much more than that. I mean, did you ever stop and think, how much faith does a grain of mustard seed have? I mean it's not that much I mean even you have more than that praise God even you, even I have more than that listen, listen to this word Paul wrote to the Romans chapter 12 verse 3 he said by the grace given to me I bid every one of you to think with sober judgment each according to the measure faith which God has assigned him.

Did you hear that? That says two things at once. That says there is a difference in the amount of faith.

God may have given some great faith and others lesser faith. There is a difference in the measure of faith, but it also says he has given some faith to each one of us, every single one of us, each according to the measure of faith which God has given him. Faith is a gift.

There's no question about it. There's no question that some are given the gift of great faith, but the point is each has been given some and that some is enough, enough to do what God is requiring of us. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, it says, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man.

And God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength. Do you believe that this morning? God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted, or tested, or tried, or proven beyond your strength.

Now look, you look at somebody who is going through a disaster. and you say, I couldn't go through that. You know what? You're absolutely right.

Unless God called you to go through that and if He calls you to go through it, He's going to give you enough grace and He's going to give you enough mercy and He's going to give you enough faith to cope. Do you follow what I'm saying? That's a promise of God.

He is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond what you're able to bear. Now, I may be able to bear more than you, or I may not be able to bear as much of you, but neither one of us is ever going to be asked by God to face more than we can face. That's His promise.

It says He will, with the temptation, provide a way of escape that you may be able to bear it, that you may be able to endure it. It's not how much you've been given. It's what do you do with what you've been given, and you have been given enough.

this business about faith is not, I think, a matter of learning how to snap my fingers and make sycamine trees jump into the ocean. It's a matter of facing up to what God calls me to do and even if there's a mountain in my way to dare to believe that by His grace He's going to get me over it, under it, around it, or through it. Nothing's going to stand in the way of God enabling me to do what He calls me to do.

Now thirdly, and I think most importantly, the whole key to what faith is about is that it has to grow. It has to grow. That's what we do with it.

We let it grow. That's what's so powerful about the illustration of the mustard seed. Elsewhere, Jesus says that the mustard seed when sown is the smallest of all the seeds and yet when it grows up it becomes the greatest of all the shrubs with large branches for the birds to nest in.

But how does it do that? By being itself. By allowing God to work in and through it to accomplish His purposes.

By trusting that God is able, even in little old me, to do what He wants to do. And by being patient. Because it takes a long time to go from a grain of mustard seed into a great large shrub.

The greatest of all the shrubs, it's virtually a tree. But that's how it does it. If it's patient.

And allows God to work. You know, if you planted a single grain of mustard seed in exactly the right place, and if you were patient long enough, that mustard seed could eventually uproot a sycamine tree. Do you ever think about that?

I had the most marvelous illustration of this until yesterday. There's a great azalea bush on the side of the rectory, and growing up right in the middle of it was this incredible weed. you never saw such a weed I mean it's three times bigger than I am that's a big weed and it was uprooting the azalea it was a perfect illustration I was going to say go out and look on the side of the rectory and you'll see just picture that as a mustard seed uprooting the sycamine and I said Maria you got to tell me what kind of a weed that is well she told me what kind of a weed it was and she pulled it out so I got no illustration left But that would happen if you let that mustard seed grow long enough in the right place, it could uproot the sycamine tree.

Do you know that if you planted a single grain of mustard seed in the right place, it could dislodge a boulder? And that boulder could start an avalanche and the avalanche could move a mountain? Do you ever think about that?

The seed of faith is the Word of God. Paul says again to the Romans, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The preaching of Christ, that's the seed of faith.

But that seed has to grow. And I submit to you that the strengthening, the growing of our faith does not occur primarily when our prayers are answered instantly. well that helps but faith grows primarily when we choose to trust God in spite of the fact that our prayers are apparently frustrated can anybody bear witness to that?

you look around you at the folks who have been called to go through the toughest things and you see what God is doing in their lives as they choose to trust Him. They can choose not to and it can become bitterness, but if they choose to trust God in spite of the fact that they're not getting instant answers, you see what vibrant faith is all about. I'm going to say something I don't think you've ever heard anybody say.

I've never heard anybody say this. It does not take great faith to heal the sick. It does not take great faith to heal the sick.

I have prayed for the sick and I've laid hands on them. And do you know that I've seen tumors disappear in a matter of days? I've seen sight restored to the blind at this communion rail.

It happened one Friday night. I've seen twisted limbs grow straight and strong again. I've seen a tied tongue loosed by the power of God in Africa.

I've seen ulcers disappear overnight, and on and on and on, and some of you have seen those things, and I tell you, it does not take great faith to heal the sick. All it takes is a willingness to be used. What takes great faith is to trust God when you don't see those things happening.

Did you hear this word? God allows trials and temptations to come into your life to strengthen your faith. He allows it to come so that you can trust Him.

That's what the whole book of Habakkuk is about. He says, how can these things be happening? How can the Chaldeans be swooping down on us?

We're more righteous than they are. How can you be allowing this to happen? You're the pure and holy one.

And God says, be patient. Though the vision tarry, it will not fail. Be patient.

Trust me. And the closing words of the book of Habakkuk are, though the wicked are flourishing, though the righteous are being crushed, though the fig tree doesn't blossom, though there's no fruit on the vine, though the olives fail, though the fields are barren, though the flocks are cut off, though there are no herds in the stall, yet I will trust God. I will joy in the God of my salvation.

that's faith I will joy in the God of my salvation even though at this moment it looks like my prayers are being frustrated and I don't understand that's what Jesus calls us to it's wonderful when the prayers are immediately answered praise God praise God praise God but I can't reduce that to a formula Catherine Kuhlman every single time I ever heard her preach said I don't know why some are healed and some aren't there is no formula but faith is a matter of choosing to joy in the God of my salvation even when everything in my circumstances is going the wrong way and Jesus said you've got enough faith to do that use what you've got and God will cause it to grow and as you trust Him it will uproot every sycamine tree and every mountain that stays in the way not to your praise but to His let's bow our heads together Lord Jesus Christ thank you for giving me the gift of faith I choose to trust you this day I choose to joy God of my salvation and the joy of the Lord is my strength. Be exalted this day for your own namesake. Amen.