Mustard Seed Moments

Habakkuk 1-2 and Luke 17                                                                            

Habakkuk has been complaining to God… and for good reason, it seems like. Here are some of the words from chapter one that give context to the parts we read… 

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you "Violence!" and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous— therefore judgment comes forth perverted.  – Habakkuk 1: 2-4

Not one but two people came to me this week with stories of people from their circles of family and friends who lit into them because they attempted to speak words of justice & mercy, love on behalf of the neighbor… and the speakers could not hold back their harsh & violent words of judgement. In both cases, the conversation had to be stopped by the listener… and the person had to seek safety. It is not easy in these times to speak up for our most vulnerable neighbors – the migrant, the poor, the trafficked…

Habakkuk cries out to God for help in making God’s vision crystal clear to people… a vision of God’s involvement with those who most need our neighborliness… a vision that even runners can read as they trod on in this marathon of life, and this vision is to NOT GIVE UP in God’s never-ending love, to not lose faith. Although the arc of the universe seems incredibly long, we can have faith that it bends toward mercy for all those pressed down. Oppression will cease!

Jesus speaks the same language in the gospel of Luke – although it can be hard to find it in this complicated little chunk of the story. Just before the part we read, Jesus is telling followers that there will always be plenty of ways to sin. So, when others ask for our forgiveness, we need to be ready to repeatedly forgive them.

That sounds so incredibly hard that the disciples say, “Increase our faith.” 

How often we worry that what we have is not sufficient!

Jesus responds with a couple of metaphors – the first is to say that we don’t need more faith. Faith doesn't work like that. You don’t think you have enough? You don’t think you’re capable? But this is God – God who creates out of nothing! The tiniest seed grows into a massive bushy tree… all you need is right here. You have within you the power to forgive… but maybe accessing that power, that faith is the biggest challenge.

Why? Well, maybe it’s because we have been so ingrained to work for the reward. I will give a certain amount of service and hopefully, hopefully that will add up to favor with God and people. We’ve earned the weekend. We’ve earned this vacation. We want to hear words of thanks (or we don’t…). We want to be congratulated in our accomplishments. We want to believe that we have earned all the good in our life…

(and worse, that others have earned the bad in their life)… 

Even though this is all myth, we can get caught up in it because it’s been around in the human family maybe since the very beginning. Our nation is built on it. Our church is not immune to it.

However, this spirit can block us from seeing the gifts Christ has given us. It can block us from extending grace and forgiveness toward others. It can make us judgmental, overtly saying our judgments out loud or passively holding judgement in our hearts toward others… that usually comes out… eventually.

In view of all this—the injustice of our history, the injustice all around, the inability to forgive that lies within us, the conscious or unconscious desire for rewards & punishments – we cry out to God with Habakkuk, “How long?” We cry out to Jesus with the disciples, “Give us more faith!”

God’s Holy Spirit, who lovingly surrounds and lives within us at all times – as close and as nourishing as the breath we need to live – reminds us how we have enough. All we need is here. The resources we need for life are present within and in community. There is enough for each and enough for all.

This is a very, very challenging word from God because we face a barrage of counter messages. We hear that we are not good enough, not smart enough, not rich enough, not capable enough, not working hard enough, not beautiful enough… and to this whole barrage, Jesus says, “No. You are enough.” Look at this tiny seed, notice your immediate judgement at how insignificant it is… but within it is potential life and growth that we actually have experienced...

We have seen how weak our faith has been, how close we have been to giving up, how we have failed, how fragile we are… and yet, how God has accomplished so much through and within and sometimes in spite of us. 

We are serving food & warm drinks to our neighbors as I speak!

We are beginning re-construction of the kitchen because together, we have raised funds we didn’t know were there already…  and because there is trust (however small) that God will provide through us for the work God wants to accomplish in and through this community… And God will keep providing as long as we have even a seed of faith, the seed that allows us to release what God has first given us—our time, our money, ourselves—in offering to God’s mission and vision here and now.

It is an incredible gift and challenge to be invited into Christian community, a group of people attempting to listen for God’s voice together, a group of people attempting to practice God’s ways, a community failing and forgiving, trying again and again to be re-oriented in the way that the Holy Spirit leads… and we are impatient, often, with God’s timing and how much waiting there is for God’s love and mercy and justice to fully appear. We pray for it and hope for it… and still, it is hard to wait. It is hard to grasp God’s way… we feel like all we’ve got is this little seed, but with this seed, Jesus promises to do amazing things. Watch for them—mustard seed moments—when you notice someone exercise great humility, compassion, faith, leadership. And watch for how within you, within us, this seed is ready to grow.