Faith Building in the Body Luke 17:1-10, 1 Corinthians 11:17-29

I’ve been thinking recently about “patience.”
Thinking about patience makes me think of overnight campouts with the Boy Scouts.
My Scout patrol wasn’t very creative when it came to menu planning.
Every time we camped, for dinner we would have what we called “Hobo Stew.”
Hobo Stew consists of wrapping ground beef in aluminum foil
along with cubed raw potatoes and carrots.
You then bury the foil pouch in the coals of a camp fire,
wait an hour for the beef to cook and the vegetables to soften,
and voila! A dinner fit for a king.

Of course, who among us could wait an hour?
After ten minutes we were fishing out our individual pouches
and gingerly opening them to see how it was going.
Invariably the meat would still be undercooked.
We’d wrap it back up, but not without first kicking some ashes into the mix.
After ten more minutes we’d all be STARVING
and we’d fish the pouch out again, open it up,
find the meat cooked enough and declare it done.
Of course, the carrots and potatoes were still as crunchy as when they were first put in.
“That’s OK,” we’d each exclaim, “I LIKE raw potatoes!”

I’ve been thinking about patience – about time
about the wisdom that’s required to sort out the difference
between the time to act and the time to wait,
the time to take charge and the time to sit back,
the time to go ahead and eat and the time to let things simmer.

It seems like IMPATIENCE is what we tend to reward these days.
If you’re IMPATIENT you’re likely going to want to force the issue,
whatever THE ISSUE happens to be -
put things in motion,
quit messing around,
take your stand.
It’s the impatient person, we’re told who is not content to accept the way things are;
who’s always looking for an edge,
He or she is the driving force behind advances in technology,
always looking for a faster, cheaper way to do things,
always striving to eliminate steps,
minimize effort, maximize efficiency.
To the impatient person, patience looks like just another way of avoiding the issue,
another way of ducking responsibility.
Patience doesn’t make for good sound bites on the evening news.
Is PATIENCE a thing of the past?
Is IMPATIENCE what we need more of these days?

I’ve been thinking recently about patience,
whether it’s a vice or a virtue,
the last refuge of the lazy and apathetic
or the necessary incubator of lasting change.

The older I get, it seems more and more evident to me
that patience is at the heart of faith.

The impatient person says to herself,
“I’ve got to get this done, it all depends on me.
The patient person says, “Hmmm, this is getting interesting,
let’s just wait and see what God has in store.”

The Bible has its stories of impatient people.
Jacob, King David,
Even Jesus seems impatient at times,
always on the move from one town to the next.
But for each story in the Bible that calls for immediate action,
there seem to be five in which patience is counseled or required.

It is with a note of IMPATIENCE that Jesus’ followers, his “apostles” come to him
and ask him to increase their faith.
They sound a bit overwhelmed in Luke’s account,
a tad daunted by the challenge ahead of them,
and even though they’d had previous success being sent out to do God’s work
the demands Jesus lays on them just seem to get harder and harder.

Look at what Jesus was telling them!
“If anyone of you causes a little one (meaning a new recruit, someone young in the faith) -
If anyone of you causes a little one who looks up to you to STUMBLE,
it would be better if you were fitted with a granite necklace
and thrown into the deepest hole in the bay!
FURTHERMORE! If one of your best friends messes up,
it’s up to YOU to go to him,
confront him in his error and urge him to get straight with God.
FURTHERMORE! If someone you DON’T like,
someone who talks about you behind your back,
or puts you down in public
or poisons your dog
or backs over your petunias
comes to you and repents –
No! Wait! If he does any one or all of those things seven times in one day
and comes to you and says he’s SORRY
it’s up to you to forgive him!

You can see why each apostle’s confidence was shaken,
why none of them felt up to the job of being a captain in Jesus’ outfit.
Jesus expected a lot from them.
He challenged them to heights they’d never reached before.
But you’ve got to admire their pluck, their willingness to give it a shot.
They were willing to TRY to do what Jesus was asking,
but in turn they felt they needed another heaping helping of faith.
“Increase our faith!” they demand.

The apostles were thinking of faith in terms of a commodity,
like a sweet bouquet of roses Jesus could lay in their arms.
But, in fact, faith is not something you can order from a catalogue
or buy off the rack.
It is not an END product, but instead a BY-product,
a by-product of the very activities Jesus was prescribing
a by-product that is achieved, not in a moment, but PATIENTLY over a lifetime.

What Jesus was telling them is that faith is not measured by how BIG it is.
Even faith the size of a mustard seed can pack a powerful punch.
Faith is not measured in inches or pounds.
It is, instead measured in minutes and hours, in days and years.
I once thought I wanted to play the piano. I still do, in fact.
but I don’t want to have to practice to do it.
I don’t want to go through the hours plinking out sour notes
to one day be able to play like Van Cliburn.

Faith is like the skill of playing the piano.
It only grows over time
over time that is devoted to practicing, time committed to ACTING faithfully.
It’s not easy but Jesus tells you and me exactly how to do it.
- He tells us that growing in faith means thinking about how our actions affect others;
choosing to modify our behavior, discipline ourselves even
so that how you and I behave doesn’t negatively affect someone
who doesn’t yet understand some of the more subtle nuances of the faith.

- He tells us that growing in faith means choosing the uncomfortable path sometimes.
Seeing ourselves not as a lone rangers, but as those in community with others,
those who are accountable to others and vice versa.
If we see a brother or a sister engaged in destructive behavior
we grow in faith by caring enough to speak a work of rebuke and encouragement.

- Jesus tells you and me that we will only grow in faith when we choose forgiveness
as our primary stance;
when we choose to forgive instead of seek revenge,
even when we have to forgive seven times a day.

The truth is, faith cannot develop in isolation. Nor can it develop quickly.
Faith only remains an abstract concept, never a concrete reality
UNTIL we practice it in the context of a community of faith.

I can say I trust God or I love humanity all I want
but until I put myself in a position where I have to practice that trust, that love
I’m only blowing smoke.

Today is World Communion Sunday,
a day we remember our connection to Christians the world over
who follow Jesus and who celebrate the Lord’s supper.
We pay special attention today to the fact that we sit at the same table as
brothers and sisters in Iraq, the Congo, Bethlehem, Korea, Venezuela.

We sit at this table not because we HAVE great faith,
but because it is the only way we can grow in faith.
We sit here even though we may feel animosity toward some of these countries
and they toward us
but we are willing to be patient as God’s Spirit works among them and us.
It’s like Paul tells his friends in Corinth -
when you eat and drink, if you do not perceive the BODY of Christ,
if you do not acknowledge your unity in Christ,
It is of no benefit to you.

In a few moments we will stand in a circle to symbolize our planet Earth.
We will pass the elements around the circle and remember our connection
to God’s people everywhere.
As we eat and drink we will allow God’s patience with us
to be translated into our patience with others and our patience with ourselves.
We are not done yet.
but by God’s grace we are growing,
growing toward that time when people will come from East and West,
from North and South and sit down together at God’s banquet table.