There are times as a teacher that you have a series of parent conferences, and they all start to sound the same. I will tell you a pattern I found in the conferences when I was in Tennessee teaching Geometry at Smyrna High School.
I would have this meeting with the parents, and we would talk about how the student was not doing homework. So as a teacher you ask all the questions about the environment and pretty soon determine that the family sits around in front of the TV all night, and Jr. sits there with his Geometry book not doing homework.
So then you talk to them about a good study environment and suggest that the whole family as a show of solidarity turn off the TV for one hour each night and read or sew or work a puzzle while Jr. does HW.
Every time I had this conversation, I would get these looks of disbelief. It would turn out there were must-see shows in every time slot from the time the bus stopped at the driveway and bedtime. You think I am kidding.
In our Gospel lesson, the disciples came to Jesus saying, “Increase our faith.” I have this picture in my head of Jesus sitting at the disciple conference telling them to turn their TV’s off for an hour a day and the disciples look at him like he is from outer space. This is not quite what Jesus says, but I do think he gets the blank look when he tells people what they need to do. “Love our neighbors as ourselves? Oh please… Like that is ever going to happen…”
Let’s talk about “Increase our faith.” I know there have been times when I have thought this, and I am sure you have as well. You folks may remember the narrative in Mark 9 when the father brings Jesus the child who is having seizures and Jesus says all things are possible for the one who believes. The father replies “I believe. Help my disbelief.”
If there was ever an “increase our faith” moment in the Bible I could relate to, this is it. It is not that the guy doesn’t believe or doesn’t want to. He just wants some help to increase his faith.
The disciples were thinking of faith as a gift from God, and I believe on some level that is true. God dispenses many gifts to us, and a great deal depends on how we manage those gifts.
God gives some people the gift of athleticism. They are dealt the right combination of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers. They have the extra aerobic capacity or the height. To take advantage of that gift though, they have to train hard and work hard. Nobody becomes a great athlete without hard work.
The same is true for other gifts. When I was a child, my parents had me take piano lessons. I did not practice very much, and I can’t play the piano today. Going to piano lessons does not have much impact on your life if you don’t practice. These piano lessons were a gift. They were an opportunity I just did not do much with.
The author Flannery O’Connor said, “If you want your faith, you have to work for it. It’s a gift, but for very few is it a gift given without any demand for equal time devoted to its cultivation.”
The time devoted to the cultivation of faith is the practice. We have to practice free throws and practice the piano or we are not going to be any good.
So the next question is, how can we cultivate our faith? What can we do to make the best use of the faith that God has given us? How can we nurture our faith-gift so that it will be there when we need it? How can we grow the seed of faith that God has planted in our hearts?
In his book, Gracias, the late Henri Nouwen told of meeting Mother Teresa. In his great regard for her spiritual depth, he began to bare his heart to her, telling her all his problems and struggles. She listened for awhile, and then gave this prescription. She said: “If you spend one hour a day in prayer and never do anything which you know is wrong, you will be all right.”
Nouwen thought about Mother Teresa’s answer, and realized that she had tossed the ball back into his court. She had not solved any of his problems, but she had given him the keys to the kingdom. It was now up to him to do what she had suggested. It was up to him to pray and to practice ethical behavior. Basically she had handed him a practice plan for the practice of his faith.
Back to the story about the parent conferences… Mother Teresa had a plan for Nouwen. Just like my plan for success in Geometry, it involved an hour a day, and that hour will have to come at the expense of something. The question really is if it is worth it to you. Are you going to practice and make the most of the gifts God has given you or are you going to waste them?
Don’t have an hour to practice your spiritual free throws? Do it for 15 minutes then. Fifteen minutes a day for a month shooting from the free throw line will improve your percentages if you are a basketball player. Maybe this would be a place to should start with the practice of our faith.
There are plenty of spiritual disciplines, but I am going to suggest prayer is the place to start. If you want to add something, reading the Bible is the next step. If you want to increase your level of physical fitness, you start where you are and add something you were not doing before. You will notice Mother Teresa’s advice had two parts. One was prayer, and the other involved ethical behavior. One has to do with our relationship with God. The other has to do with our relationship with our brothers and sisters. Jesus did both these things himself. He prayed, and He always had time for people that nobody else even noticed. He had time and compassion for the beggar, the leper, and the blind man. He reached out to them. He listened to them. He loved them. And, often, he healed them.
You might or might not have the gift of healing, but you can certainly reach out to needy people. You can listen to them. You can love them. You can use the gifts God has given you to help them.
In Matthew 25, Jesus gives us the Parable of the Talents. You remember that parable, but I am going to remind you. God gave one person five talents, and blessed him when he used them well. Then God gave another person two talents, and blessed him when he used them well. Then God gave another person one talent, and cursed him when he buried his talent in the ground and did not use it in any way. The lesson was that God will hold us accountable for using the gifts that he has given us.
The disciples came to Jesus saying, “Lord, increase our faith.” That’s a good prayer, and we should pray it. But we must also take responsibility for increasing our own faith. Pray. Read the Bible. Get more involved here at the church. Reach out to needy people. All those things are faith-builders. When you do them, you will not only grow the seed of faith that God has planted in your heart. You will also make your little corner of the world a little better place to live.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Sermon preached by Fr. Tom at St. Thomas Episcopal – Plymouth
October 6, 2019: Seventeenth Sunday of Pentecost – Proper 22
Lamentations 1:1-6
Psalm 137
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10