A Poem a Sunday

Pentecost 20 – C

October 2, 2016

St. Luke 17:5-10 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Commentary:  Faith is potent.  No increase is needed.  A little goes a long way.  Faith does what it is created to do –acts in radical trust.  No credit is due having simply fulfilled its calling and mission.  People of faith live graciously in the midst of uncertainty.  That is simply what they do!

5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a[a] mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

7 “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? 8 Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? 9 Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

Footnotes:

1. Luke 17:6 Gk faith as a grain of

“Increase Our Faith”

Mulberry trees cast into the sea?

Servants of Christ worthy and free?

Imagine a faith that with reckless abandon

is ready to fly in the face of opposition.

Imagine a faith that is bold and challenges

the powers of this world making a commotion,

breaking in waves like tides from the ocean,

flooding the valleys and cutting canals;

baptismal waters creating deep canyons.

In all the uncertainty faith lives in the questions.

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