Being Faithful

Text: Luke 17:5-10
Other texts: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

You cannot plant a bush in the sea. Jesus does not suggest you can. Or that you should. This is a not a story about super powers and impossible feats. The disciples asked a silly question. Jesus gave them a silly answer in return. Disciples are students. Jesus is the teacher. This is a way he teaches. He is mocking them. Just a little. In a nice way.

The disciples want more faith. What does that mean? Faith is not something you can put in your pocket. Faith is not something you can store in a drawer. Faith is a gift, as it says in the Second Letter to Timothy that we just heard. But it is not something you would get in a package. It is not an infusion you can put in your tea or a coat you can wear on your back. It is not a thing at all. You cannot get more of it. As one Bible translation says of this passage: “the Master said, ‘You don't need more faith. There is no “more” or “less” in faith.’ Faith is not something you have. It is something you do. People say of their especially faithful friends: you have so much faith. They mean: I see by what you do that you have a close relationship with God. I see that you are tight with God.

The disciples asked a silly question. But it was not a stupid question. The disciples need something from Jesus. There is something missing in them that they ask Jesus to supply. There is some void in them that they are asking Jesus to fill. Jesus, help us!

What do they want? What is it we want in a faithful relationship. What do we mean when we say someone is faithful? A faithful spouse, say. Or a faithful friend. Or a faithful employee.With people we can say what a faithful relationship means. What being in a faithful relationship gives us, why it is valuable, and why we seek it out, and even why it is so tragic when it falls apart. Or feels like it is about to. And when, in that case, we cry out: Give us more faith. Something is not working. Help us. That’s how it is with God, too.

A faithful relationship gives us at least three things. First, it gives us courage in the face of an uncertain future. The future is both exciting and scary. We both rush into it and we hesitate. No one knows what is going to happen. The disciples have hooked their wagon to this star that is Jesus. What an adventure! What a risk! God did not give you cowardice, it says in Timothy. But we are all cowards. Another translation says: God did not give you timidity. That’s easier to take. We are all timid. A faithful relationship—with God, with someone you love—gives us courage.

And second, it gives us the humility not to feel we have to do everything ourselves. We need partners in life that we can count on. We do not have enough time, energy, or even skills to do all the important things we have to do. In the world, in our families, our jobs, in our selves. Who can give us a hand? Someone who knows us well enough to do what we hope for. Someone who loves us well enough not to intentionally hurt us or betray us or let us down. Someone who will let us put aside our protective pride and to whom we are willing to hand things over a bit. A faithful relationship—with God, with someone you love—gives us humility.

And third, it gives us the satisfaction of wholehearted engagement with someone else besides us. We are often alone, tentative, private, and careful. We have to do that, but it does not mean we like to. We long to be totally present for another, to be present for them. Probably satisfaction is too weak a word. Maybe thrill plus contentment would be a better way to describe it. Fulfillment would work. And engagement: maybe entanglement would be better. A faithful relationship—with God, with someone you love—gives the thrill plus contentment of wholehearted entanglement.

These gifts of a faithful relationship are ours because we count on the faithfulness of another and have in turn promised our own. The word for that counting-on is trust. It is not a coincidence that the word for faith in the Bible is exactly the word for trust. What the disciples want to know is whether they can trust Jesus. They want to know—in the face of all the hardships and hard work that following Jesus entails—whether they should stay with Jesus or leave him. They see the gifts of faith. They are asking Jesus whether they can trust him to be faithful. And they are asking themselves whether they can be faithful to Jesus.

The Second Letter to Timothy has been called practical ecclesiology. That is, a letter about what churches and church goers should do. It is unlikely that the letter was written by Paul, but it certainly shares some of Paul’s concerns. And one of Paul’s most pressing concerns was the health and future of the churches that he started. You can detect in this passage a worry about whether Timothy is going to hang in there. So it, like the passage in Luke, is not so much about theology as about how to live. Timothy and the disciples know what to believe—they no doubt believe the right things—they are just not sure they can do the right things. The writer says to them: You can.

In Luke, the disciples ask for more faith and Jesus tells them about service. Our doubts, questions, and demands do not diminish our faithful relationship with God. They strengthen it as much as our prayers and praises and song and thanksgivings do. Just as in relationships with people. Our call as Christians is not to win arguments with others or even with ourselves. It is, as Jesus taught in a few verses earlier in Luke, to forgive others seventy times seven times. To love our neighbors and our enemies as ourselves. To act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God.

Help us! cry the students of Jesus. They—we—are advised in Timothy to rekindle the gift of God which is within you. To rekindle the flame. That’s a good word for relationships. Rekindling the flame is a modest task that keeps relationships faithful in times of trouble and doubt. With God and with those you love. It is task that requires only patience, delicacy, and attention. Not even belief or hope. Start small, protect the flame and nurture it, give it space and air, fan it when it becomes more robust. That’s how it goes with God and with people.

There is no need for superpowers. Instead, remember, it says in Timothy. Remember what it means to be faithful. Remember the one in whom you trust. And who trusts you. And keep up the good work.