Seed

Luke 17:3-6 (The Message)

3-4"Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him.

Even if it's personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, 'I'm sorry, I won't do it again,' forgive him."

5The apostles came up and said to the Master, "Give us more faith."

6But the Master said, "You don't need more faith. There is no 'more' or 'less' in faith.

If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, 'Go jump in the lake,' and it would do it."

Would you like to have "more faith?"

I know that there are times that I've prayed that prayer. It's a way to express an honest longing in our hearts --- to know God more completely, to believe more fully, and to better experience the power of God in our lives.

But look what Jesus says in this translation of Luke 17: "there is no 'more' or 'less' in faith."

What?

Surely I can think of people who have more faith than me, right?

If I'm being honest, and feeling particularly judgmental, I probably think that I could name those who have less, too.

Well, maybe what Jesus is saying is that you can't have a "little" faith...if faith is understood as connection to the very power and presence of God himself.

How do you have just a "little" of that?

Go outside and find the nearest sycamore tree. Can you tell it to jump in the lake and watch it obey? Jesus tells us that a poppy seed's worth of his presence and power made known in our own lives holds that kind of possibility.

It seems impossible. And maybe he didn't mean it literally. I don't know.

What I do know is this. It isn't too easy to forgive someone either. And restoring relationships that have hit hard times...that might be even more impressive and important than sycamore-moving.

So do we need "more" faith? According to Jesus, what we need is not more...what we need is to nurture and trust the tiny seeds that we may have...forgiveness lies just around the corner.

Prayer: We pray that the seeds of faith within us might blossom into restored relationships and real forgiveness. May we see you move that sycamore tree of brokenness from our lives.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.