The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost - October 5, 2025

Summary

Mother Suzanne teaches that faith isn't meant to be heroic or complicated, but instead consists of the ordinary, everyday actions we do consistently. Using Jesus's teaching about the mustard seed and mulberry tree, she explains that faith is simply doing what God has called us to do - loving others, caring for those in need, and showing up daily with intention and open hearts. True faith looks like being God's partner in the world through small, faithful steps that, when blessed by God, can become extraordinary.

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                                              Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

"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'? 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'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? 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!'" 

Artwork: Parable of the Mustard Seed, etching by Jan Luyken (16 April 1649 – 5 April 1712)

Transcript

Mother Suzanne:

Put your trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on its riches. Take delight in the Lord and he shall give you your heart's desire. In the name of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated. From where does faith come? Where in the world do we get our faith and how? Oh goodness. How does it grow within us? These are questions I hope each of us care enough to ask, maybe from time to time. The disciples are concerned about it here demanding an increase. But Jesus in his Jesusy way chooses to answer with trees, a mustard tree and a mulberry tree. Special trees which help to point to things of faith. One tree, regarded for how it grew from seemingly nothing, growing and producing from tiny seed to an encompassing tree. And the other tree, impressive for its surprisingly intricate and fortified root system.

Consequently, both plants, they are both associated with faith, one tree known to go from meek to mighty, the other known to be strong and sturdy at the base.

Well, faith, as Jesus describes it, isn't meant to be tricky. It's not meant to be untenable, nor does it have to be heroic. But it is essential and oftentimes so ordinary. By calling to mind two trees, simply existing and doing their work as trees, growing, producing, providing shade, making the land better. In essence, they are doing what trees are meant to do. And I think that's how it is with faith for us as well. It's doing your job. It's going to school. It's doing your duty not because of any sense of reward, but simply because that is what we are to do.

Jesus tells the disciples that faith is simple. You just need a little to move mountains. Now, that's not to say there isn't room to grow and develop faith, but it's not a competition either. Faith in other words is doing what needs to be done right in front of you. And this, Jesus says the disciples can already do, meaning we can do it. Faith can be pretty ordinary. That's what Jesus means, I think, by saying that if they have the faith of even a mustard seed, they can uproot and move a mulberry tree. It doesn't take all that much to be, well, faithful.

But what is important it seems to Jesus is to keep at it, to just do it, to have the mindset of doing it day after day. Do what God has called you to do. Love well those people and places that he has placed you among, striving to make better where you are and who God has called you to be. Because when we all do this, for even the simplest things done in faith can have a huge impact. And so Jesus reminds his disciples, both then and now us, that we've got all that we need to be faithful and that being faithful finally is about recognizing all the God given opportunities just to show up and do what needs to be done. Everyday faith.

And at the core of that is what Jesus lived out and taught again and again. And that is love God and love one another. Maybe said a different way, it could be translated as doing your work well, caring for those in need, protecting those that have no one to protect them. Reaching out to those who are lonely and alone. Keeping the world going, contributing to the common good. It's all the ordinary stuff we do all the time and taken together and blessed by God can become pretty darn extraordinary. Faith is also taking those small steps when we don't feel like we can or want to, but we choose in the moment to take those small steps towards a future. We don't see fully yet how can we, but we trust that God is somehow fashioning it.

Faith is heading out the door every day, looking for opportunities to be God's partner and coworker in the world. Faith is imagining that the various challenges that are put in front of us, whether solving a problem at work or forgiving someone who's wronged us are actually opportunities that invite us to grow as disciples and witness to God's presence and goodness in the world. It's you and me moving about the world with intention, with eyes and hearts open to God's moving and directing us. It's being available and knowing that saying yes oftentimes means entering into something way bigger than ourselves, which can be way scarier than we'd like it to be, but we do it anyways.

It's welcoming those dad gum interruptions that often would otherwise be annoyances, but welcoming them instead as opportunities to interact with the world. And for all of us busy people, I'm going to say this now because it needs to be said first to me. It's about slowing down, taking a breath and slowing down, being curious and courageous in how we see the world. And I will say this, knowing that with every step towards God's creation, that is a step closer to our creator and a life in which faith guides rather than follows. It's all the ordinary stuff we do all the time, taken together and blessed and fashioned by God for his purposes.

Everyday faith, simply trusting that by enjoining in what is before me, it is believing and trusting that that is what God has for me. Not balking at it, not dismissing it, not saying something better is going to come, but instead recognizing that what is before you is how you are being formed. Stretching our faith muscles and believing that faith is really quite ordinary, but done consistently over time. It adds up and makes us more faithful. Funny how that works. And it also makes us strong. It increases our belief and this then translates to everything that we do and say.

We are built up, made more confident. St. Francis, who we will celebrate after church and our beloved and beautiful pumpkin patch, as we bless our pets today, this saint reminds me that following Jesus isn't meant to be complicated, it's just not. But as poet TS Elliot puts it, it is a condition of complete simplicity, costing no less than everything. Faith calls us to live out certain questions. Do you act in faith as though it's your everyday occurrence? Do you love and protect and care out of sheer muscle memory because you've practiced it so much, it's your only response.

Does your faith allow others to stand under your wonderfully protective canopy like a full-grown mustard tree? The way to increase faith is acting in faith, never stifling the commodities of God's great gift economy, keeping love, grace, and mercy ever flowing. Get out of the way. Don't stagnate it, but be a part of the flow. But I do say it also means not being a stumbling block or a scandal to those who depend on you to be kind and loving. So at the end of our gospel, Jesus refers to a slave and that's not language that many of us are comfortable with, but it was very much a part of the first century world. And I will end with this. What then does a thriving faith look like?

Well, Jesus says it looks like a slave who is forced to do double duty, working as both the farmhand out in the field, plowing all day, tending the sheep. He then is told to come into the house for the domestic half of the dinner planning, makes all the arrangements for his master to enjoy his meal and expects nothing in return. No thank you for his hard work. My friends, he has simply done what his master has asked him to do, what this servant does every day to the best of his ability. That is what faith looks like. Faith is what we do every day. Being faithful to what he has called us to, doing it well and with excellence, entering into the great economy of God, believing that when we receive man, we just can't help but give back. And what we humbly gift, I promise we then receive back in greater measure, including faith.

Amen.