Sermon: Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Luke 17:5-10
October 5, 2025
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church
Pastor Jonathan Linman
The apostles said to the Lord Jesus, “Increase our faith!” What prompted them to say that? Well, right before that exclamation, as Luke tells the story, Jesus had just instructed the apostles to forgive again and again and again those who sin against them. As we know from our own experience the work of forgiveness is daunting and difficult. Hence their exclamation, “Increase our faith!”
There are lots of reasons for us to cry out, “Increase our faith!” Indeed, daily crises in our ever-crazier world can challenge our faith, our trust in the Lord. And faith is primarily about trust. And the erosions of trust are a major problem in our society right now. We don’t trust institutions much anymore – government, business, education, media, science, the church. We don’t trust each other. And often for good reasons when our trust is betrayed by others, even in the church. When trust in the church is compromised, that can even erode our trust in God.
So, we cry out, “increase our faith” in reaction to the constant chaos from Washington that provokes our anxiety and uncertainty about the future. Life is hard enough as it is without all these other daily assaults on our sense of stability and security.
We cry out, “increase our faith,” as the world order that we’ve known for a couple of generations seems to be collapsing.
We cry out, “increase our faith” when our ideals are compromised.
We cry out, “increase our faith” when confronted by health crises and other challenges at home.
Most all of you can name other events and circumstances in your lives that have provoked crises of faith. Take a moment to recall some of those times….
Our 80th anniversary year gives us occasion to wonder about the name of our church: Faith-La Fe. I wonder why our forebears gave this name to our congregation. Maybe one of the reasons is that they decided to build a church in what was an almost completely undeveloped part of Phoenix in the 1940’s – so they took a huge leap of faith to begin Faith Church in the middle of nowhere, trusting that if they built it people would come….
So, here we are, people of faith, at Faith Church. How do we live up to our name? I continue to find it compelling that at the likely end of my career, I am called to serve and to lead at a church called Faith. There’s something about that name: Faith/La Fe. When it’s all said and done, I believe that all our Lord asks of me is my faith, my trust in him…. And God beckons the same from you: faith, which is trust in God.
So, just what are the contours of faith? Today’s readings certainly invite such consideration, for they shed a lot of light on the meanings of faith. Let’s take a look.
In the gospel reading from Luke, Jesus spoke about having faith the size of a mustard seed. You may know that mustard seeds are tiny, little specks, seemingly inconsequential. Yet contained in the tiniest of seeds is all of the genetic material necessary to grow to become what it is meant by God to be – a huge plant, an oak tree, a sequoia. Think of it. It’s a marvel. Which is to say, a little bit of faith over time can go a long way.
Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus seems to chastise his disciples saying, “O ye of little faith.” Well, considering faith the size of a mustard seed, a tiny thing, having only a little faith may not be such a bad thing!
Having only a little faith in God is not a sin. In fact, one of the classic Lutheran definitions of sin is that sin is misplaced trust – trusting or having faith in people and things that are not God. That’s the sin, trusting in that which is not God. Which is to say, Jesus is not so concerned, it seems, with the quantity of faith, or even its strength, because in Christ a little bit goes a long way! We may doubt, we may waver, but faith sufficient is there, even the size of a mustard seed. So, it’s not the quantity of our faith, or perhaps even its quality, but that we have faith in God in Christ in the first place – that’s what makes all the difference!
God plants such seeds of such faith in us in the proclamation of the word. God plants the seeds of faith in the word and water active in baptism. God plants the seeds of faith in the bread and wine of the communion meal. God plants the seeds of faith in the grace-filled, compassionate holy conversations among us fledgling followers, when we say to each other, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” Think of the words of scripture as seeds implanted in us. Think of the waters of baptism and the font as sources of watering those seeds of faith. Think of the Holy Communion host as a seed which is being planted in your very body and being when you take it in your mouth.
And through these means, the Holy Spirit causes the seeds of faith to germinate and grow and mature and to come full flower and to bear fruit in the gradual unfolding of time in our lives. That’s the gospel truth. This is what it is to increase our faith: the Holy Spirit works in, with, and under what we do here every Sunday at church to cause our faith to grow.
There’s more about faith in today’s readings. For example, Habakkuk reveals what seems like a throwaway line, but it’s central to Lutheran identity. Today’s passage concludes: “but the righteous live by their faithfulness.” In an older translation, it’s this: the righteous shall live by their faith. That’s one of the biblical foundations for our Lutheran teaching about justification by faith, that God saves us by grace effective through faith, through our trusting reception of God’s gracious gifts to us. Thus it is that we Lutherans proclaim sola fide, faith alone! For it’s the foundation of trusting in God’s grace on which our Christian lives, on which the church is built and stands or falls.
And when it’s faith alone – our simple, but profound, trust in God alone – we don’t have to try so hard to find our sense of worth in God. We simply trust that God’s grace is sufficient. In fact, when we’re busy trying hard, our works righteousness actually reveals a lack of faith or trust in God for our salvation and well-being. So, our gracious God beckons us: relax!
There’s still more about faith in today’s readings. We heard in our second reading that faith is something that is passed on from generation to generation. Faith is not an individual, solo act. God’s Spirit works through others with whom we are in relationship to help bring us to faith. Listen again to how the apostle addresses Timothy: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” (2 Timothy 1:5) You would not likely be here today if it weren’t for parents and grandparents, friends, and neighbors whom God has used as vessels to help bring you to faith.
Take a moment to think about those significant others who have nurtured you in faith…. Some of them may be the faithful who have gone before us here at Fatih-La Fe in years past, dating all the way back to 1945.
Thus, some musings on the meaning of faith from today’s readings. At Faith/La Fe, we continue on a journey of faith, not knowing exactly where God is leading us:
By faith, we begin living into our next years and decades as a congregation, not knowing what fate and what God have in store for us.
By faith, we go out with good courage not knowing if we’ll have ICE raids here to attempt to deport some of our faithful.
By faith, we continue our public welcome of folk from LGBTQIA communities, not knowing if we will be targeted and made to suffer because of our public stance of welcome alongside our other progressive commitments that can be charged with the so-called “sins” of diversity, equity and inclusion.
By faith, we journey on in our individual lives, wondering about our health and financial security, our jobs, our children, grandchildren, and more and more.
By faith, we soldier on, knowing that faith usually involves seeing only as far as the next few steps, but trusting that God in Christ will show us the way in the power of the Spirit.
Which is to say, here in this place our faith is enlivened week after week, year after year – by the proclamation of the word, in the celebration of the sacraments, in the love and nurture of God’s people in Christian community.
And then our faith is lived out when we leave this place to do, in humility, what God has commanded to do in showing forth God’s love for the world in our words and deeds, ever following Christ who invites us all to the table, taking the form of a servant to feed the world with his very, life-giving, grace-filled presence.
In faith, we trust that the Holy Spirit will give us the words we need to proclaim God’s love and mercy and justice. We trust that the Spirit will give us the courage we need to act and to take bold stands during such a time as this.
So, as ever, we cry out with those original apostles: “Increase our faith!”
And we pray: “O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that you hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
