[Propertalk] Tidbits for Oct. 3 gospel sermons - Part 2

[Joe Parrish]

If we were to amplify the meaning of verse six in our gospel reading and include the best sense of Jesus' overall teaching in the gospels, it would come out something like this:
"It is not a matter of needing more faith, it is a matter of having correct faith.  Place your trust in God's ability not your own.  If God wanted a tree or a mountain to jump into the sea -- it would jump into the sea!  Nothing is impossible with God.  Faith is not something within your folio of skills and abilities that you need more of -- faith is trusting God's ability."
The genuine life of faith consists of trusting God's ability. Our prayers in the face of tremendous burdens are our attempt to direct God's ability to the problem and trust God for the outcome.  It is not so much, "God give me more faith," as it is "God help me to trust you in this!"
The faith that is enough is faith that trusts in God's ability.

http://www.lectionarysermons.com/Oct0498.html

John Jewell, 1998
- - - - -

Once upon a time it was a mother's fiftieth birthday (oh, horror of horrors!). Her children who loved her very much were determined to make the birthday party truly spectacular. The rented a hall, hired an orchestra, invited a huge crowd, and ordered dinner from the best caterer in the neighborhood. Each one of them presented a little speech about how wonderful their mother was. So hard did they work to make the party a complete success that they wore themselves and bickered through the whole evening. 

Each one tried to outdo the others in professing love for their wonderful mother.  The mother cried through the whole party she was so happy. Well, said her husband, after it was all over, now you know how much your children love you. Oh, she said, with a sigh, I knew that all along. They didn't have to prove it to me. I'm very grateful to them. Still, wouldn't it have been much nicer if was only you and me and them sitting around a table and enjoying ourselves and the love we all have for one another.

http://www.agreeley.com/hom10/oct03.htm

Andrew M. Greeley, 1998
- - - - -

Luke has combined a Q saying concerning mustard seed faith (see Matthew 17:20) with Mark's tradition concerning the fig tree and prayer. Mark's story dramatizes Jesus' conflict with the Jerusalem Temple and the authorities who run it. 
<>
May I digress for a word of personal testimony? Though raised in the church-centered Bible Belt, I did not grow up in church. When I was twelve, I spent a week in the hospital with a hip injury. I received two visits, one from my aunt and uncle's part-time pastor and one from a church youth group. (The youth group brought a cutely packaged soap and washcloth.) Just a few years later, when I could embrace my faith, I remembered both of those visits. That's the kind of thing Christians do.

Unfortunately, our culture has acquired a taste for spectacular spirituality. By the grace of God, mustard seed faith and ordinary discipleship more often suffice.

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=10/3/2010

Greg Carey
- - - - -

The twelve ("the apostles", v. 5) now speak to him, asking him to give them enough faith to remain faithful. (The "mustard seed", v. 6, is very small. The "mulberry tree" is large with an extensive root system, making it hard to uproot. It would not normally take root in the sea.) Jesus tells them that with genuine faith, however small, anything is possible. Quality of faith matters more than quantity.

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/cpr27m.shtml

Chris Haslam 
- - - - -

Verses 1-6: These sayings are found in a different sequence and in different settings in Mark 9:42; Matthew 17:20; 18:6-7, 15. 

http://montreal.anglican.org/comments/archive/cpr27l.shtml

Chris Haslam 
- - - - -

Then comes verse 10. We are so used to hearing it that it is hard to appreciate its effect. It turns the prejudice back on the hearer: so you, when you have done all you needed to do, don't make special claims! You have done only what ought to have been expected!
The sudden shift would have been unsettling, shocking. There we were enjoying the profound, shared insights of the movers and shakers, and now we are being reduced to the status of slaves! It is not unlike the tension created in Colossians and Ephesians in the passage which affirms slavery. It includes the stark reminder that masters will be called to give account for themselves: they have a master! So the story works by subverting the self satisfaction of the superiors. It brings everyone down to the same level. It deconstructs hierarchy or it can.
It debunks the idea that we achieve value by achieving the good, as though we deserve a bonus for being decent, caring human beings. It does not let us play the game. We can't claim: you ought to love me, because look at how good I am! Look at what I have done! The passage is probably deliberately offensive in flooring aspirations to human worth based on achievement capital. It is annoying and frustrating, and even seems mean. It gives us no credit.
<>
We are surrounded by many systems and structures of violence. Sometimes like the hearers of this story we find solidarity in our superiority and wisdom about our preferred order. Jesus crashes our pretensions to the ground and, if we make it, we find ourselves reaching out and touching the hands of all whom terror violates, whether in the barbarism of bombings timed for maximum viewing on the TV screen or in the creeping disadvantage of marginalised groups, victims of corruption and economic exploitation. Seeds of hope and change are scattered here and there. Mountains wait to be moved. The world does not need prized achievements so much as an assertion of humanity, of being what are made to be and reflecting in that the true image and glory of God, which is its own reward.

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkPentecost19.htm

William Loader
- - - - -
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20101002/c6efd295/attachment.htm>