Sermon for Proper 22 C Luke 17 Harvest at Coventry Cathedral

What do you have faith in today?

We seem to be living at a society that can no longer trust many of the institutions and roles that we had formerly relied on, a society in which promises are made and broken on an almost hourly basis. Deep divisions have surfaced, unexpectedly, and we find ourselves in a very different world from the one in which we’ve spent much of our lives.

Can we have faith in anything, and if so, what?

That may seem a bizarre question to be asking from a cathedral pulpit...so let me reassure you, before I go any further, that I am confident that we can have faith in God and in God’s limitless, unconditional love for each one of us. That is the foundation of everything for me – and I’m guessing, because you’re here this morning, that you may share that view.

We believe God loves us.

Alleluia!

Let’s celebrate that and then go home…

Except – that’s not actually what it’s about

There’s another layer that we need to explore

Faith is not an intellectual property – something that is very nice if you like that kind of thing. It is, or it should be, the basis for every aspect of our lives and behaviour.

So, the question is, what difference does our faith make.

What do we actually DO with it?

In our gospel the disciples are clear that they’re going to need more faith than they can currently muster, to get them through the tough times ahead. Ever since Jesus turned his face towards Jerusalem, they’ve been conscious of storm clouds gathering and they’ve just been given a terrible warning to “be on their guard” constantly. So, their request for more faith seems utterly reasonable. They NEED to know they’re going to get through this somehow.

But Jesus doesn’t see it that way.

In a disconcertingly hard-edged response, he says unequivocally that if they had any faith worthy of the name

they could do amazing things, including offer the bottomless forgiveness Jesus demands of his followers.

Ouch.

In the absence of any visibly mobile mountains, it might be easy to retire crushed at this point. But to do so would be the miss the point completely. We don’t need colossal supplies of faith in order to cope. We simply need enough faith to recognise that God can do great things.

Tom Wright puts it this way

Faith is like a window through which you can see something. What matters is not whether the window is six inches or six feet high; what matters is the God that your faith is looking out on. If it’s the Creator-God, the God active in Jesus, then the tiniest little peep-hole will give you access to power like you have never dreamed of

Of course, that power is not to be used to satisfy our own pleasure or boost our own prestige – it’s there to further the work of the Kingdom…That’s what we’re all called to – and though it might seem at first that the message of the latter part of the gospel is that being a faithful servant won’t get you anywhere, to see it that way is to miss the point. No, we can’t expect a standing ovation for simply living out our calling – but there’s good news here all the same.

We aren’t awarded God’s grace in response to the service we offer...Our relationship with God is not about transaction – but about transformation.

We are loved and we are blessed to BE A BLESSING.

So – what does that actually mean, right here and right now?

An understanding of God’s overwhelming, undeserved grace must, surely, produce some sort of response from us...and on this Harvest Sunday, we are invited to give in response to all that we’ve been given. If everything, EVERYTHING, is gift then we can and we must open our hands and our hearts to give in return. That is both duty and joy. It’s the principle behind tithing – planning to give 10% of your income to further God’s Kingdom, whether through giving to the church or some other gift in the service of others.

“All things come from you, and of your own do we give you” we say...but to actually do it can feel rather more challenging.

I think we might just be back to the question of faith. It can be tempting to think “I’ll give what I can afford” - to shift our perspective as if we somehow have a right to all the blessings we enjoy, and only need to share what we feel we can do without. I speak from an all-too-well-established personal experience. Left to myself, I’d much sooner squirrel away everything I imagine I’ll need – and only THEN contemplate giving anything back to God. And that’s never going to work – because, of course, fears and anxieties expand to fill the space you allow them. To head down that path would mean miserly misery.

But I choose to live a life ruled not by fear but by faith. I choose to look through that window and to see how great and generous is the God from whom all blessings flow. I’m challenging myself this morning – in the presence of all of you – to actually act on this, here and now. So I choose, therefore, to give in response to so very many blessings...to use what I AM given to bless others so that, perhaps, my faith may in turn enable them to live lives dominated by thankfulness instead of fear. Will you do the same?