eighteenth sunday after Trinity

The apostles said to the Lord: ‘Increase our faith’.

Who amongst us wouldn’t echo that? Who amongst us does not wish for more or greater faith? But what is faith?

In 1859 the French acrobat Charles Blondin walked across a tightrope suspended across Niagara Falls. Thousands watched him as he pushed a wheelbarrow full of sand along the wire fifty metres above the raging waters. There was a great cheer when he reached the other side. Then Blondin challenged a nearby reporter: ‘Do you think that I can do anything on a tightrope?’ He asked. ‘Oh yes’ he said enthusiastically ‘Anything’. However his enthusiasm waned when Blondin invited him to get into the wheelbarrow and he melted into the crowd. But there was a man who was prepared to trust him. He got into the wheel barrow and was pushed along the wire. But halfway across the 500 metre journey of trust a man with a heavy bet against Blondin’s success cut one of the guy ropes holding the wire in place. Suddenly the wire pitched crazily back and forth while Blondin fought for his balance only seconds away from certain death.  And the man in the wheelbarrow....?

'Stand up' ordered Blondin 'Stand up and grab my shoulders.' The man was to say the least reluctant to move if capable of any movement at all. ‘Do it or we die’ shouted Blondin at the man. Somehow the man managed to stand up. Blondin took hold of him took him in his arms and carried him as the wheel barrow fell into the raging torrent below. Blondin needed all his years of experience and every trained muscle to stay on the wire as inch by inch he made his way along the wire carrying the man like a babe in arms until he brought him, safely to the other side. The man’s trust in Blondin was complete and it was vindicated.

That is what faith is. Trust. Trust in God. Trust in God that he will see us through difficult, hard, bewildering and even dangerous times. If you think about it many of the most important and fundamental decisions we make in our lives are decisions which are based upon trust.  

Two people fall in love. They marry. They commit their lives their future their happiness their wellbeing to each other – and they do it in trust. You entrust yourself your life and your future to someone else. You have faith in them.

We entrust our children and our grandchildren to teachers and others whom we trust with their wellbeing to enrich their lives and to teach them all they need to know. And so any serious breach of trust in marriage or in those with a duty of care to children or to any people who are vulnerable is seen rightly as a serious moral failing and even a crime.

I’ve heard it said that the two most disbelieved or disregarded sentences at the moment are:

‘The cheque is in the post’

Or

‘Trust me I’m from the government’

One of the saddest features of recent times in the cynicism which has crept into our public life. The cynicism of bankers and financial fat-cats that have been reckless with our money causing untold damage to each and every one of us and to our national life and public services – they have abused the trust that we had a right to expect. That in turn has led us to be cynical not only towards them but also towards the government and politicians. If trust is lost completely it’s a slippery road to chaos. That is what happened in Germany in the 1920s and it led to the rise of Hitler. Trust is fundament to our individual, family national and global wellbeing, security and peace.

A major part of the problem between Israel and Palestine is the neither side trusts the other – there will not be peace until trust and trustworthiness is restored on both sides. Faith understood as trust is a fundamental part of our lives.

The disciples asked for more faith. ‘Lord Increase our faith’ they asked. But Jesus reply shows that it is not the amount of faith we have but the quality of that faith which counts. It is the quality and the tenacity of faith which matters. ‘Faith which has stood the test’ as the letter of Peter has it.

I remember once seeing a Christian poster which had a cat clinging to the top of a wall by just the tip its claws. Every sinew of its body was stretched as it just about held on for dear life. The caption underneath read: ‘Faith isn’t faith until it’s all you have to hang on to’.

And Jesus says:’ it doesn’t need to be much’ Just a little trust is enough. Faith just the size of a mustard seed - the smallest of all the seeds. It’s not the amount of faith it’s the quality of that faith. And he goes on to say: 

‘If you had that real faith small though it may seem yet you could move a mulberry tree and get it planted in the sea.’

Doesn’t seem like much of a job does it moving a Mulberry Tree? Except that a Mulberry tree has a very deep and a very extensive root system making it very difficult to move it. It was thought to be a permanent fixture wherever it took root. In other words it’s a very difficult job to move it. And yet says Jesus even the smallest amount of faith can do the job – difficult even impossible though it may seem to be.

You know there are times and circumstances in our lives when our faith in God is tested almost to the limits. Times even when faith in God seems to have deserted us. Maybe that is how we may feel. The illness or the death of someone whom we have loved. Someone who has shared our lives. Suffering especially the suffering of good and innocent people is the great question which seems to evade a satisfying answer. It’s presence in our lives and the life of those whom we love tests our faith. Or sometimes a breakdown in a relationship not only tests our faith in other people and in ourselves but also in God: ‘Why has this happened to me when I’ve done all that I can do and should do’?

Teenagers often search frantically for meaning and identity: Faith isn’t easy for them amidst all the bewildering challenges and opportunities and choices in their lives. People in mid–life wonder about the life choices they have made and where life has lead them so far – and where has God been in all of this?

Elderly people can feel that everything they held dear is either changing or slipping away in a fast changing world – the old certainties seem to be certainties no more.

Sometimes people find that the tedium of life can infect their faith life. Is it all true? Is God real? Does he care? Can he make any difference? In the face of all this our faith can seem as small as a Mustard Seed. The truth is that it is the quality of faith that counts. If you hang on and keep believing hard though it may be as you pass through the difficult times and the dry times then we find that God is true to his word and  faith is strengthened. To quote the first letter of Peter once more:

‘It is faith which has stood the test that is more precious than gold.

I used to be in the scouts. We used to have to tie Reef Knots. The thing about a reef knot is that it is very small and very simple. But – the more pressure you put on it.  The more you pull on it, the greater the weight you hang on it the stronger it becomes. Faith in God is the same. The more we trust him so much the more we find that we can trust him.

‘Lord increase our faith’.