Mustard Seed Faith

Jesus said, probably many times, that if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell a tree to jump in a lake, or a mountain to move to the sea, and it would.

He wasn’t making a case for having a positive mental disposition, as good as that may be.

He was saying that it’s not the size of your faith that matters – it’s the size of your God.

Countless characters in the Bible and outside of it have encountered situations that were well beyond their faith’s capacity.  A lifetime of faith development wouldn’t be enough to pull off what God was calling them to do.  Because it’s not about the size of their faith – what they can control – it’s about the size of God – out of our control.

Noah certainly experienced this reality when God told him to build an ark in the middle of a desert.  People certainly must have thought he was nuts.  But why is it that when people experience God, others think they’re nuts? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?  If God is omnipresent, shouldn’t we feel a little off if we rarely or never experience God?

Since the Enlightenment, humanity has struggled with this. Especially in the West.  Perhaps we have been conditioned into blindness.  We have decided that we must understand (control) everything, and that which is beyond our understanding is suspect until we can.  That’s a problem, because we’ll never be able to fully understand God, who is so much greater than those who God created.  Noah had to come to grips with that reality early if he was going to pull off the ark building project.

Which sort of nuts are you – the type that doesn’t see God or the kind that does?

To make matters worse (and better), our ever-present God calls us to invest ourselves in work that advances the redemption of humanity – a work that sometimes does not jibe with the way many people think.  And the work can be very difficult.  The ark, legend has it, took 100 years to build.  A century of being mocked, laughed at, cartooned in the NY Times, the butt of jokes on late night TV.  A strain on relationships for sure.

I think the hard work is part of it, because it seems that the work is often counter-intuitive and counter-cultural.  And yet, according to Paul, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strengths (1 Cor. 1:24-25).  We would never experience it apart from the challenge of doing what we're called to do.

The good news is that God is with us in the journey.  In the good times and bad times.  And if we embrace it, God’s presence is palpable more often than not, which gives us great confidence that our faith is not in vain.  Paul goes so far as to say that the worst of our struggle here in this life is nothing compared to the joy we will one day experience – when we are fully with God, and when we can see how God was using us in the redemption story (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

It is interesting where this quote from Jesus shows up.  It never shows up after an easy task is depicted, but rather after a difficult task is met by the disciples.  When they were trying to heal a tough case, they were reminded that it wasn’t the size of their faith, but the size of their God that heals.  When challenged to be forgiving, they were reminded of the same thing.

As we face the challenges God is calling us toward, may we remember to trust God more to be God, to look for God more who promised to be with us, and lean on God more who promised to never let us go. 

May we let God be big.

Because it’s not about the size of our faith, it’s about the size of our God.