Sermon from The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 10/5/2025
Proper 22 | 10-4-25 | Luke 17: 5-10
Once upon a time there was a cleric named Rabbi Akieba!
He lived a long time ago in Eastern Europe and, one day, decided to take a trip to a strange land.
He rode along, on his donkey, brought his rooster, and a kerosene lamp.
Soon he came to a town. He found a nice hotel, but he was refused lodging because he was Jewish.
Nonetheless, he said, "All that God does, God does well."
And he made his way out to the woods where he set up camp.
Wanting to study his holy books before going to bed, he lit his kerosene lamp.
But the wind had kicked up and kept blowing out his lamp.
So he said, "All that God does, God does well." and decided to just go to bed.
During the night, some wild animals came to his camp and woke up the Rabbi and scared away the rooster. "All that God does, God does well." said the Rabbi, and went back to sleep.
Then he heard thieves wrestling in the woods, the Rabbi woke up again, just in time to see the them steal his donkey. The Rabbi said, "All that God does, God does well" shrugged his shoulders, and went back to sleep.
In the morning Rabbi Akieba went back into the town that had refused him lodging, and learned that enemy soldiers had invaded during the night and killed all the inhabitants.
Those same soldiers had gone rummaging through the woods looking for more victims.
Had not his lamp blown out the Rabbi would have been seen. Had not the rooster run away it would have crowed and given him away. Had not the donkey been stolen, it would have brayed. So once again the Rabbi said, "All that God does, God does well."
I know it's a simple message - and I realize we live complicated lives.
But the reminder that God loves us and will take care of us, cuts through all kinds of complexity.
We may not face marauding enemies pillaging our villages but we do have:
Ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine,
A government shutdown,
Relentless violence in places of worship - most recently, Yom Kippur killings in the U.K.
These things can, and often are, simply overwhelming.
Life is difficult and confusing.
And we aren't the only ones who know that:
Take a look at the disciples in this morning's Gospel...
Right before our reading, they had just been dealing with life's difficulties - and been upbraided to forgive 7 times 70!
So the disciples said what so many of us taxed and overwhelmed say when we come to church, Lord, "Increase our faith!" - with an explanation point!
"Help me get through this -
"Help me remember that life has meaning and purpose
"Help me take the high road of forgiveness, not retribution
"Help me believe that you have not abandoned us, but are with me.
"Help me see life in the midst of death!"
And Jesus assures them with that funny saying about telling a mulberry tree to plant itself into the sea - you may remember that Matthew says the same about a mustard seed, only he says you can move a mountain - both of which are kinda weird - especially because I had no idea that mulbery trees could grow at the bottom of the ocean...
Anyway, this is all to say that these are really just other ways of communicating that: with God all things are possible:
Bring what you can - no matter how much or how little - and God will meet us there: It's not about having great faith, it's about having faith in a great God.
Just think, 50 years ago, what was deemed impossible?
What did no one see coming because it was just too far-fetched?
The concept of pervasive internet and the worldwide web - which gives us a global, instantaneous, decentralized network connecting billions of people and devices: 50 years ago the notion that a single person could carry all human knowledge in their pocket was utterly unimaginable.
What about cloning of animals? Creating a viable, live clone of a mammal from an adult, somatic cell nucleus was thought to be biologically impossible - but then Dolly the sheep came along in 1996...
And how about reusable rockets? Or self-driving cars? Creating an artificial intelligence system capable of real-time perception, complex decision-making, and safe navigation in the dynamic, unpredictable environments of public roads - and while still imperfect - it's coming and it's here.
Things once deemed impossible aren't always so:
SO: Do you think your messed up finances, your erratic dating life, your medical challenges, and your relationship issues at school are too big for God?
Do we really think that we are destined to live isolated, fearful and anxious lives, that, at every turn, the universe is actively conspiring against us?
Do we really think that it's impossible to find peace in the midst of chaos?
God doesn't - and answers our plea to 'Increase our faith!'
And... what is faith?
Faith is trusting God.
It's trusting that little voice within you that comes from God - the Holy Spirit - your conscience - your good angel - that says that the difficult and impossible thing that's on your mind, is not too difficult or impossible.
Faith is trusting that little voice that is firmly connected to God - when it says: "Have patience. Don't be afraid. Relax. Take the high road. Be joyful. All will be well. Trust in the light."
Maybe your spirit self has just such a message for you this morning? We'll ask in a moment. But first...
Theologian Paul Tillich once defined faith as, "the courage to accept our acceptance."
We touched on this last week - that the heart of so much of the bad behavior, division, and strife going on in society can be traced to the fact that we don't think very much of ourselves.
We do bad things and feel bad because of it - so we do more bad things - and convince ourselves we're bad people - or that we're good people, but others deserve it - and they're bad people - thus we project our self-hatred onto them.
We fail to see that just because we do bad things doesn't mean we're bad people - it means we're human. And we can recover. We can do better. We can forgive others and ourselves.
And if we can reclaim our goodness, remember God made you - the Holy Spirit lives inside of you - both, pretty good - and if we can reclaim this, amidst the myriad of ways we miss the mark - and if we can forgive ourselves - how much further along might we be?
Can we have faith to accept our acceptance?
To realize that life is not happening to us, but life is happening for us?
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"Increase our faith!"
Christians have been asking and answering this plea for centuries.
It means trusting the light not the dark.
It means improving our ability to lean away from the darkness and into the light.
This is the underlying theology of things like prayer.
And what is prayer but giving time for our spiritual selves to intentionally and substantially connect with God, who is our source.
It's the underlying theology behind regularly reading and even studying the vocabulary of our spiritual selves, which is Holy Scripture.
It's the underlying theology that brings us here - to regularly meet with like-minded people, who are on the journey with us - imperfect, frail, fragile, yet reaching out to love - as we ask and answer our united plea to 'Increase our faith!'
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While laying around the pool in Bermuda this summer - have you noticed how much I am milking this tan? I haven't showered in weeks...
But around that pool my wife and I would frequently see chameleons - those little lizards that are able to change their appearance to match the color of their surroundings -
Obviously chameleons do this to evade predators.
But they have this amazing ability to become just like their surroundings... ...which is just like you and me.
We all know that we are what we surround ourselves with - and this is another important aspect of increasing our faith - because we have a choice here in what we choose to entertain.
So, what dark-side surroundings are we permitting to color us - and to occlude our light?
I love this saying by Rabbi Oliver Sacks - and I'll quote it for our choir this morning, Sacks said - 'Faith is the music behind the noise'
Once we get rid of all that noise - that comes from outside stimuli that's trying to sell us something or make money off of us -
Once we get rid of those inside voices, of our bodies, emotions, and intellects - that constantly clamor for our attention -
Then we are alone with our spirit selves - often a still, small voice looking to be heard and heeded.
We can increase our faith by taking time to listen to our still, small voice
In fact, let's try that right now.
I'm going to ask you to close your eyes - knowing that some of you have been wanting to do that for the whole sermon...
But I want us to realize that God is here -
Did you notice our Collect this morning when it said - God is always more willing to hear than we are to pray –
So take a moment and take God up on that.
Close your eyes - and let's sit in silence for a moment: does that spirit self inside of you have a message for you this morning?
Lord, speak to us with the words you want us to hear.
Let's take just 30 seconds and ask: what message do you have for me this morning?
----- take 30 seconds -------
You may open your eyes - and consider that message - was it to release something or to grab hold of something?
Was it to accept something or leave something behind?
What do we need to say or do when we leave this place?
And may the God, who is always ready to guide, increase our faith - by giving us strength not just to hear, but to obey!
Amen.