Sunday, October 5, 10:00 am

In the name of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, One God. Amen.

I came across a disturbing video on Instagram. An auditorium-style Church was playing a video on a large pull-down screen. AI generated saints - like Peter, Paul, Matthew, etc., - were talking about how they died for the sake of the Gospel.

Weird. But seemingly alright.

Until… It concluded with a particular political figure imploring the congregation to “pray for our enemies because of a spiritual battle” taking place, and to “overwhelm the world with Jesus.” The clear implication was if they are not with us, they are enemies to be done battle with.

The video ended with this particular political figure leading the saints.

The congregation burst into raucous applause.

I was disturbed. The current state of Protestantism is grim.

A friend of mine mentioned that an Episcopal Bishop believes that much of the Church in the United States is lost, and that we find ourselves entering a “remnant” season.

A faithful remnant. 

A faithful few who continue to cling to the ideals and demands of Jesus Christ.

A faithful remnant which does not strive to overwhelm a world filled with enemies.

A faithful remnant which seeks to bring the love of Jesus Christ to a broken and hurting world.

Our faith compels us to act.

Faith and action are two central aspects of what it means to be a Christian.

Today’s Gospel reading starts us off immediately with faith. The apostles are crying out to Jesus, “Increase our faith!” But why? Why are they asking this?

The lectionary’s passage skips vv. 1-4. In it, Jesus tells us that “if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says “I repent,” you must forgive.” (Luke 17:4).

Jesus’ shocking call to repentance and forgiveness is why our beloved Apostles are crying out to Jesus, “increase our faith!”

To repent. And to forgive are both profound acts of faith in a God who forgives us and loves us and asks us to change our ways.

This is the demand of our faith. And what a marvelous and profoundly challenging demand that Christ asks of us. Repent to one another. Forgive one another.

So we cry alongside with the disciples.

Increase our faith.

Increase our faith because repentance is hard.

Increase our faith because forgiveness is, perhaps, even harder

Increase our faith, Lord, because we see what you ask of us and it is a bitter cross indeed.

Does not Jesus model this for us? While crucified on the cross, in Luke 23:34, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” To the very one’s who drove nails through his body, he begs their forgiveness.

So, the apostles ask for more faith.

And Jesus’ response? If only you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you could… move a tree and plant it in the ocean. 

You could do something… seemingly pointless, but quite miraculous. How on earth is this a response to the request for increased faith?

While miracles happen, of this I firmly believe, they are rare, and seemingly sporadic. God acts as God acts. 

Perhaps Jesus is saying here - the answer is - to perpetually ask for more faith. Our faith is never “complete” - at least not in this life. We aren’t levitating trees these days, so keep asking for more faith.

Faith is a trust, given from God to each and everyone of us. With our hands outstretched and hearts yearning and desiring God to give us that which we do not yet have. 

Faith is a gift.

Faith is a gift obtained in every Mass, hands outstretched as we receive the very Body and Blood of Christ to be sustained and renewed in Christ.

Faith is, as St. Paul writes in Hebrews 11:1, “... the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” 

So we cry, “Increase our faith Lord” for what a gift it is to have faith.

So, faith is a gift received from God, and hoped for in God, and trusted in God. It all revolves around God.

Faith… and action!

The Epistle of St. James reminds us that "faith by itself, apart from works, is dead” (James 2:17). So a living faith is one which has works as part of it. Living faith does something. Living faith then leads to, compels, action.

So, Jesus tells us a story of a master with slaves.

He commends the disciples to think of themselves as “worthless slaves” and to say “we have done only what we ought to have done.”

This is slightly unnerving, until we recognize that Jesus Himself dramatically flips the script of human relationships within this parable by His very life.

In Luke 22:27, Jesus asks the disciples, “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:27). Jesus places Himself as the slave and servant  in this very parable.

And in Matthew, Jesus reminds us, “whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many,” (Matthew 20:26-28).

Faith and action, according to Jesus, is not self-flattering and self-congratulating, overpowering and manipulative. Faith and action does not understand the world as filled with enemies which we need to overpower and overwhelm.

Jesus Christ did not come to the earth as a King among enemies, leading a charge of war against those enemies.

Jesus Christ, the eternal Logos and second person of the Trinity, incarnated as a human being, shedding immortality and glory and power and honor due His name to be born of Holy Mary and to live and suffer and die a lowly human, as one of us.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17.

The action which our faith propels towards is not to overwhelm and fight. It is to serve those in need. It is to strive to be Christ to one another and to the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow. It is to see Christ in all people, for all people bear the very image of God.

In faith we pray that we may become more Christlike. In faith we act, imperfectly, slowly, more like our savior. In faith, as we are transformed, we are drawn up into that very life of the Holy Trinity.

My friends.

We find ourselves in a time when the faith of Christ is being distorted. Where false prophets come to us “in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). We are in a time when being a Christian in popular culture looks something dramatically different than what Jesus is proclaiming in the Gospel.

What are we to do?

Faith and action make up two indispensable aspects of what it means to follow Jesus Christ. 

I see it happen here every week. 

I see how you care for one another. How you welcome those in need.

I see how you wrap newcomers in welcome and hugs and kindness during the Peace and at Coffee Hour. 

I see how you give to support the ongoing work of this little Church. 

I see how you support the ministry of Neighbors Feeding Neighbors, which pumps out 1,200 meals a month for homebound seniors and the homeless. 

I see how you offer paints and canvas for La Ristra which supports over 15 families a month with care, fellowship, and emotional support.

I see this church, St. Andrew’s, striving to bring the love of Jesus Christ to a broken and hurting world in whatever ways we can.

And what a wonder this is.

And what a gift it is to be here as your Vicar. I am given such hope by you all that, in the midst of these dark times, the God who we worship and adore is yet working in and through us to be, imperfectly, a light to the world.

And I’m given hope that we have a Pope who cares for the plight of the poor and creation. And I am given hope that we have a new, female Archbishop-elect of Canterbury, who was a cancer nurse before becoming a priest, who knows what it means to walk with the downtrodden of the world.

I see your faith. And I see the action which follows. This is a place with a living faith indeed.

So may we continue asking like the Apostles, for more faith. And with our faith in Jesus Christ, let us then go out refreshed and empowered and truly be the servants which the world needs right now.

As St. Paul so tenderly writes writes today, “Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”

May the Holy Spirit help us guard this good treasure indeed.

Amen.