The angle from which we view things makes a big difference. Lord Chesterfield once pointed out that a horse looks pretty much like a horse when viewed from ground level, but when you climb up in the loft and look down on a horse from the top, it looks a good deal like a violin. Your perspective is the difference.
It is not unusual, in the Gospels, for the same story to be told by two different authors from two different perspectives. The result is often a much richer interpretation.
For example, in Matthew ™s Gospel we read about the time the disciples failed in an attempt to heal an epileptic youth. When they asked Jesus why they had failed, he responded by saying it was their lack of faith. Then he added, "...if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, `Move from here to there, ™ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." (Matthew
17: 2021 RSV) Wow! That story makes us hunger. I want that kind of faith!
Now compare that story in Matthew to one in Luke. The disciples make a request of Jesus: "Increase our faith!" We can sympathize with their request. Who has not cried out with that man of old, "I believe, help thou my unbelief." But notice Jesus ™ response to the disciples ™ request. "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, `Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea, ™ and it would obey you." Notice how similar the words are to those in Matthew. But there is a difference. This time Jesus launches into a discourse on the importance of being an obedient servant. IN OTHER WORDS, HE SEEMS TO BE SAYING TO HIS DISCIPLES THAT THEIR PROBLEM IS NOT THEIR LACK OF FAITH. JUST A TINY BIT OF FAITH WILL WORK WONDERS. THE PROBLEM IS THEIR LACK OF ACTION! IF THEY WERE DOING WHAT THEY OUGHT TO BE DOING, THEY WOULD SEE THE RESULTS THEY ARE SEEKING.
Do you see the difference in emphasis? In Luke ™s account Jesus is saying to us that it is deadly to sit around twiddling our thumbs asking that God give us more faith so that we will do the things that need to be done. What we need is to start doing what we know we ought to be doing and then watch our faith grow as a result of our faithfulness.
FAITH IS A GIFT FROM GOD. That is an important theological truth that many Christians do not understand. You probably think that your faith is something you earned by your superior intellectual or spiritual endeavor. Wrong! Such a faith breeds pride and even arrogance. Or you may think that if faith is not something you arrived at on your own, it must be the proper reward for your parents ™ attentativeness to your spiritual needs. Wrong again. God has no grandchildren. We are grateful for Christian parents and teachers who nurtured us, but if our faith is merely blind acceptance of what we have been taught, we could just as easily have been atheists or pagans if our parents had been. Go home and study Romans 12:3: "For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith which God assigned him." (RSV) Did you get that? "The faith which God assigned Him."
Our faith is a gift from God! Doesn ™t that mean that we already possess all the faith we need? And if at a later time we need more faith, He will give us more.
St. Paul was the most committed follower of Jesus Christ who ever lived. Still, he didn ™t have enough faith to have his thorn in the flesh removed. God did give him the grace to endure that thorn. Still, both faith and grace are gifts from God. The problem is not our lack of faith. God has given us all the faith we need.
This brings us to the second thing that needs to be said. IT IS THE NATURE OF FAITH TO EXPAND TO FIT OUR NEEDS. Because faith is a gift, not something we earn, God will never put us in a position where we do not have enough faith to be triumphant. Whatever we lack, He will supply.
That has always been true for God ™s people. The year was 1660. John Bunyan was thrown into jail for preaching an unpopular Gospel. For 12 years he lingered there entirely cut off from the rest of the world except for his family and a few friends who visited him. Yet if John Bunyan were here to testify this morning, he would say that this was a time of deepening faith. Why? Because, God gave him faith equal to his needs. It was during a second imprisonment that Bunyan wrote one of the most influential books ever written the spiritual classic, PILGRIM ™S PROGRESS.
Could Bunyan have written this deep and meaningful classic without his prison experience? Who knows? But we do know that it is a clear spiritual principle that God increases our faith according to our needs. People who live only surface lives facing no great challenges, following no great purpose, carrying no great burdens never become deeply rooted in the grace of God. They need no great faith and thus they never know a great faith. It is the nature of faith to expand to fit our needs. And there is always enough. We draw upon an inexhaustible resource when we draw from God ™s well.
John D. Rockefeller was one of the richest people who has ever lived. There is probably nothing of material value in this world that John D. Rockefeller could not provide for his children. Did you know, however, that he had a daughter who became obsessed with the fear that she would die penniless? Her years were haunted with the fear that she would die destitute. Can you imagine such a thing a Rockefeller worried sick about money? Can you imagine a child of God worried sick that he or she will go to God ™s well for spiritual resources in a time of need and find that well dry? God ™s resources are inexhaustible. Did you know that there are even churches that never venture out to do great works for God because they fear that God may let them down. Unbelievable! Our faith is a gift from God. He gives us faith according to our needs the greater the need, the greater the faith. This brings us to the final thing to be said.
THE CENTRAL PROBLEM IN OUR LIVES IS NOT OUR LACK OF FAITH BUT THAT WE DO NOT PUT THE FAITH WE HAVE INTO ACTION. We seem to vary between two extremes. Some of us are experiencing the "paralysis of analysis." Until God gives us some sign that He is real and in control we remain immobile. "Don ™t just do something, sit there!" is our credo. It is amazing how many truly passive Christians there are in this world. Two-thirds won ™t even bother to roll out of bed on the average Sunday morning. Most are decent law-abiding folks. But no one could accuse them of being spiritual workaholics.
Then there are a few blessed saints on the opposite extreme. They have a great deal of anxiety if they are not doing something constructive every moment of the day. Our Japanese friends seem to have this ethic built into their way of life. We are told that whenever you ask a Japanese how he is doing, he almost always replies, `Oh, I ™m quite busy. ™ Even if he has nothing to do, his response is the same. Rest and relaxation in the Japanese culture are almost looked on as sin. So people stay busy, even if it is with activities of little importance. (1) Some of us are like that. We are ready to jump into action at a moment ™s notice not because our faith compels us, but because we are uncomfortable being still.
The newspapers carried an intriguing story recently about a protest movement by students from Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, CA. Like many movements that emanate from California, this was a crusade with a difference. The protesting students carried blank signs and blank leaflets. Bryan Finch, who organized the protest, said that protests have become so common that no one reads the signs or the leaflets anyway. His group was protesting the meaninglessness of most protests. His was a protest against protests.
Two extremes-passivity and mindless activity. Neither is the way of the cross. The supreme need of our lives is to involve ourselves in meaningful service to God and humanity. We desperately need to be driven by a great cause.
The October 5th, 1988 issue of CHRISTIAN CENTURY carried the story of a couple who have found a meaningful way of expressing their faith.
Millard Fuller was a successful lawyer. But he was dissatisfied. He had it all, and he decided he had virtually nothing. One day he decided to do something about it.
He and Linda, his wife, walked out of the law practice, sold all their possessions, gave the money to the poor, and joined Clarence Jordon at Kolnonla Farms, a Christian Community outside Americus, Georgia. Together with other Christians of the community, they searched for a focus for their lives that would have meaning.
Eventually, they established an organization that has come to be called HABITAT FOR HUMANITY. You have read about them. President Carter has worked with them, pounding nails. The wonderful idea is simply, in Millard Fuller ™s words, that "all God ™s people ought to have simple, decent, affordable housing." So they work along with others, find some poor, decent folk who are willing to work to better their situations, and they work along with them to build a simple, decent house to live in. And when they ™re done, these folk have a house at a cost that is affordable. (2)
Habitat for Humanity is having a remarkable impact all over this country. It is miraculous how homes hundreds of homes are being built for families who need and deserve such housing because this couple put their faith into action. The result has been nothing short of miraculous. It is comparable to saying to a tree, "Be cast into the sea," and a moment later there is nothing but a hole in the ground.
Do you see? The problem is not our lack of faith. The problem is our lack of action. We need to give feet to our convictions. Then we will see miracles galore!
When we understand this principle the words of Albert Schweitzer take on new meaning for us. Schweitzer spoke to a graduating class in an English boys ™ school back in 1935. He said: "I do not know what your destiny will be. Some of you will perhaps occupy remarkable positions. Perhaps some of you will become famous by your pens, or as artists. But I know one thing: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." Those words are true. Mark them down. The unhappiness in our lives does not come from our lack of faith, but from our lack of service.
Do you see now a new dimension to Jesus ™ teaching about having the faith of a grain of mustard seed? It doesn ™t take a lot of faith to perform miracles. Even the tiniest bit of faith will do. What really matters is that we put the faith we have to work. Later if we need still more faith, God will supply it. When we commit our lives in service to God and humanity, we see our faith grow from a tiny seed to an enormous tree, and we witness miracles that we never thought could occur. "Increase our faith," the disciples begged Jesus. "Increase your service," Jesus replied, "and you will find faith you never knew you had."
1. Jean Fleming, BETWEEN WALDEN AND THE WHIRLWIND, (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Navpress, 1987).
2. As told by Dr. Norm Lawson