Last Sunday after Pentecost - November 24

Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle

Today is the Last Sunday after Pentecost, the last Sunday of the church year. It is also informally known as Christ the King Sunday. Hence the references in the Gospel to Christ as King and to the Kingdom.

Thinking about the church calendar led me to think about time in general. There is a book by Stephen Jay Gould which is titled: “Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle.” Two great images or metaphors for time. Time as arrow. Time as cycle. Gould died just a few years ago. By training, he was a paleontologist, but he wrote extensively for both popular and scientific audiences.

Time as arrow; time as cycle. We recognize and experience both of these qualities of time in our life in the church. Time as cycle. A cycle, of course, is a pattern that repeats itself over and over again.

We experience time’s cycle in the Daily Office as it is offered to us in the Book of Common Prayer. Daily Morning and Evening prayer. As we pray the dawning and setting of each day, day after day, we experience time as cycle. And there is comfort and a sort of anchor in the routine of the cycle. And reassurance that each new dawn will come. Another book I like the title of is a book about Benedictine spirituality entitled “Always We Begin Again.” Renewal, reconciliation… are offered to us again and again and again.

Our weekly celebration of the Holy Eucharist on the Lord’s Day is a manifestation of time’s cycle. You may know that in the church, the number eight signifies fulfillment. The full cycle of Sunday through to the next Sunday. We celebrate the octave of Easter. Easter through the next Sunday, a sign of the fulfillment offered in the resurrection hope.

And, of course, there is the yearly cycle of the church calendar. One cycle ends today but another begins next Sunday. The cycle of seasons in the church calendar… Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost… remind us of the great cycles of life and remind us that we are connected to God throughout all of the seasons of our lives.

By definition, cycles are infinitely repetitive. An arrow, on the other hand, has direction. It has a beginning and an end. It starts in one place and ends in another. We all experience time as arrow, of course, as we age, living our lives as a former priest of mine used to say from the death we did not request to the death we cannot escape. But for us as Christians, time as arrow is particularly important because we affirm the arrow’s trajectory is in God’s hand. The purpose and destination of time’s arrow are in God’s hands. We move from creation to kingdom, in our individual lives and in all that is. We are headed for something. God’s kingdom.

Our diocesan convention was Friday and yesterday. Bishop Lee talked about time’s arrow a lot. In a way, it was the theme of the convention. He didn’t use the language of time’s arrow, but it was what he was talking about in his sermon at the Eucharist and in his address to convention. His sermon was all about the positive nature of change. Change is an inevitable aspect of time as arrow.

The theme of creation was “Behold, I make all things new.” Thinking about time’s arrow, listen to this excerpt from Bishop Lee’s address to convention:

The theme for this 176th convention is that we are doing a new thing. Actually, I think that's not quite the title I want to use. I think I'd rather say, and I'll proclaim it here right now: God is doing a new thing. God is always doing new things. Our scriptures, the vast sweep of the contemplative tradition, the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection itself and the sending of the Holy Spirit -- they all testify to the truth of it. God is always doing a new thing, in creation and its ongoing renewal, in the evolution of human culture, in the community of faith, in our own individual lives. God is the prime mover, the creator and sustainer of all that is or every will be, and God's mission is the repair, the restoration, the re-newing of that creation into a right relationship with himself. The new thing is God's project and we who have been redeemed by God's unexpected action in Jesus, we have the staggering invitation to join in God's mission of making all things new. That's what we're for, that's what all of this is all about. There's a phrase ascribed to everyone from Abraham Lincoln to the management guru Peter Drucker, "The best way to predict the future is to create it." The Christian faith proclaims that God invites us to be nothing less than co-creators....

A friend of this diocese, the author Diana Butler Bass said to me once that out of all sins nostalgia may be one of the most pernicious. Nostalgia says that the best has already happened. But the God we worship, the God made known to us in Christ, the God who has not and never will leave us, that God is the one who makes all things eternally new. The best is always yet to be. I give thanks to serve with you as a people who are daring to believe that the future belongs to God and so do we.

The Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost - November 17

What We Can Become
Isaiah 65:17-25
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19

As a girl, I occasionally watched the original “Let’s Make a Deal,” with Monty Hall. I haven’t seen any of the more recent spin offs. Memories of the show popped into my head as I was considering this week’s sermon. On a day when our collect commends “all holy Scripture” to us for our learning, I was not excited about preaching on any of the lessons. Between the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah, the epistle from second Thessalonians and Luke’s gospel I felt like the contestants randomly picked Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3.

And I might ask you, for your sermon today would you like Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3? On the game show, the contestants don’t know, of course, what’s hidden behind the doors. We have equally little control over the readings that are presented to us by the lectionary on a given Sunday. A lot of thought has gone into the development of the lectionary, however. And I have said before, and would say again even today, one of the great strengths of a set lectionary is that it forces us to deal with passages in Scripture we might rather avoid. So let’s look behind each of the doors.

Behind door #1 we have a reading from what is often called Third Isaiah. The Biblical book we call Isaiah is a compilation of several writers. It’s a glorious image of new heavens and a new earth: Jerusalem (!) a joy with no more weeping. No more infant mortality or premature death. No more hunger. No more hurtfulness or destruction. And the wolf and the lamb will feed together. Glorious, yes, but about a realistic as me winning the grand prize on a game show. How can I preach this vision when it is so far from the reality of the world we live in?

Behind door #2 is a doozy of a stewardship sermon. Maybe it’s a good thing the vestry did not specifically charge me with a stewardship sermon this year. This isn’t one I’d really like to preach. Writing to the Christians in Thessalonica, Paul is very critical of people whom he calls idle busybodies. And to the Christian community, he says: “keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.” In this passage, Paul is not talking about withholding government entitlements, although some have interpreted it that way. He’s talking about people who don’t pledge… The context is the common life and mission of the Christian community. Paul is talking about folks who do not offer their talents and the fruits of their labor for the support and mission of the Christian community.

Moving on to door #3. This passage from Luke’s gospel is meant to be reassuring. People are worried about the end times. And Luke offers Jesus’ words of assurance. You don’t need to worry about the end of time. Before it comes there will be wars and insurrections, great earthquakes, famines and plagues, and dreadful portents from heaven. Don’t worry. Before the end times, you will be arrested and persecuted and betrayed by your family… Don’t worry.

We’ve got one more week of this before Advent!

So which sermon would you like? Door #1, door #2, or door #3?

On a day when the collect does encourage us to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest Holy Scripture, let’s spend a little more time with each lesson.

There is a theme. The future determines how we live in the present. That’s hard to put into practice, but it’s the Christian perspective. God’s hope for us, God’s promise to us affects how we live today. We are sustained and motivated, in the present, not by what we have been, but by what we can become.

In reading on these passages I learned something that helps with the Isaiah passage. It is a hymn exalting the temple rather than strict prophecy. One commentator writes: “The motifs in the text are ones found in other ancient Near Eastern texts that exalted temples. Temples were viewed as the residence of the deity; in other words, built metaphors that symbolized their belief that their god was in their midst. Temple hymns viewed the earthly temple as a derivative of the deity’s true residence in heaven.” Worshiping in the temple, people encounter the heavenly vision. Within worship they see and experience God’s desire for God’s people and for creation.

So, looking again at Isaiah, people know that when they are working to reduce hunger and infant mortality, they are doing God’s work, they are helping God’s desire come to fruition.

The wolf and the lamb may never feed together in the natural world around us, but whenever we work for reconciliation between people for whom enmity has become a seemingly inevitable way of life, we are working for the fulfillment of God’s desire, bringing wolf and lamb together. I can think of quite a few examples of people in our contemporary world for whom enmity has become a way of life:

• Israeli and Palestinian. 
• Al Qaida and American. 
• (This is not a joke.) Tea party and liberal democrat. 
• Rival gangs in Chicago. 
• Estrangements within some families. 

There are things we can do. We may not have a place at international negotiating tables, but we can be thoughtful in the way we filter the news. In the way we speak of others. We can help the heavenly vision shine beyond the temple and into the world.

Moving on to Second Thessalonians. We don’t really know who the idle busybodies were or why they were disrupting and/or not contributing to the mission of the Christian community. Maybe they thought the end was near and assumed there was no need to tend to the present. Paul is very clear: the end is not an excuse for idleness; it is motivation to greater intensity. An awareness of the future end or fulfillment of time should encourage Christians to take more seriously the Christian life and community. If the future on our horizon is not about juggling this week’s calendar or the stresses of the holiday, but rather is about the second coming… well all of a sudden the Christian life and supporting and living that life within the Christian community shoots up quite a few notches on the priority scale. And the thing is, for us today, making the Christian life and support of the Christian community higher priorities will help with all of those other things.

And Jesus in Luke’s Gospel simply says, persevere. Perseverance is a Christian virtue. The Gospel was written after the fall of the temple in a time of trial for the early Christians. What Jesus predicts in Luke has already happened. Jesus says: I have not abandoned you. Persevere. “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” At least for me, this phrase does not mean that by enduring we will earn salvation. It is based in the presence. As we endure, we will grow our souls. Endurance nurtures and strengthens the soul. But a vision and promise of God’s future kingdom helps motivate endurance.

These weeks at the end of the church year have the potential to powerfully inspire us. They urge us to look forward, and to live in ways that bring God’s future into the present. That’s really what living faithfully is all about. To be sustained and motivated, in the present, not by what we have been, but by what we can become.

All Saints' Sunday - November 3

People the Lights Shine Through

We are celebrating All Saints’ Day today. Of the seven Principal Feasts in our calendar, it is the only one that the Prayer Book allows us to transfer from its appointed day—November 1—to the following Sunday.

Reading from Holy Women, Holy Men, our book for the calendar of saints: The Church is “the communion of saints”, that is, a people made holy through their mutual participation in the mystery of Christ. This communion exists through history, continues in the present, and endures beyond the grave and gate of death into heaven, for God is not a God of the dead but of the living, and those still on their earthly pilgrimage continue to have fellowship with those whose work is done. The pilgrim Church and the Church at rest join in watching and praying for that great day when Christ shall come again to change and make perfect our common humanity in the image of Christ’s risen glory.

The Church, us, is the communion of saints. We are saints. Made holy, by God, through our mutual participation in the mystery of Christ. All the way back to the Old Testament, although sainthood would have been described a bit differently, the faithful, the saints were all those who are in relationship with God. God makes God’s people saints.

For another different, but complementary definition of sainthood, I want to share a story. This story has circulated around the church for a while. You’ve either heard a hundred times or maybe none. In any case, it bears repeating.

It takes place in a church like ours, where we are surrounded every time we gather for worship by saints depicted in stained glass windows. The Rector calls children forward to talk about saints and she asks them: Who are the saints? She probably hopes they will say: “We are!” or, “All of us in the church are the saints.” Those are good answers. But one child says: “Saints are people the light shines through.” Saints are people the light… shines… through… Saints are people God’s light shines through.

Last night at the All Souls’ Day service I talked about the faithful departed being part of the glorious company of the saints in light. Today I’m talking about the faithful living. The faithful alive are part of the glorious company of saints whom “the light shines through.”

We are saints by virtue of our baptism and our participation in the fellowship and communion of the church. But to live more saintly… If we want to live better as saints, it seems to me it’s not about developing more heroic spirituality or faith; it’s about letting the light, God’s light shine through. It’s not about how we can become stronger or more heroic; it’s about how we can become better at letting God’s light shine through.

So to carry this metaphor a bit further, it seems to me we need to do two basic things if we are to live as saints, as people who let God’s light shine through us into the world, into the lives of others. If we are to be people who transmit and share God’s light with other people, two things need to happen.

First, we need to stand in the light. For the light to shine through us, it needs to shine on us. We need to stand near the light. And second, we need to be transparent.

So there are all sorts of ways to stand in the light of God.

• We can study and learn from these saints around us in our windows. They shine God’s light on us. We can learn from and seek inspiration from their stories and their example.
  
• Or you can stand next to, spend time with other living saints in your lives. You know who they are. Maybe some are here in this church today. Stand next to the people who shine with God’s light for you.
  
• Participate in the Body of Christ. Christ’s light shines here. In the fellowship and sacraments of the church.
  
• Read the Bible. The light of God shines brightly from the words of Scripture.
  
• Stay close to God and close to God’s people. Stand near the light of God. 

And how do we be transparent, so that the light of God that shines on us may shine through us to bring God’s light to others?

• Sin is what darkens us, makes us opaque. Confession and reconciliation are the antidote to sin, the process by which the dark, opaque places within us become transparent windows through which God’s light may shine. Confess your sins and seek reconciliation.
  
• And pray. Prayer in general, I think, creates transparency. Maybe this is the best reason to pray. All sorts of prayer—intercession, thanksgiving, adoration. Whenever we pray, we open ourselves to God. We open up patches of transparency where God can get into us and shine through us. When we pray, we become transparent 

Saints are people the light shines through. So stay near the light and be transparent, so that God’s light may shine through you and into the world.

All Faithful Departed (All Souls' Day) - November 2

The Glorious Company of the Saints in Light

All sorts of cultural traditions, liturgical traditions and superstitions are associated with this day, November 2, known as All Souls’ Day. In our calendar it is called All Faithful Departed. I have resisted celebrating it in the parish in part because I don’t like to differentiate between saints. Why should the famous saints get their own day, All Saints’ Day, and the rest of us are shunted off like a postscript to the next day? We are ALL saints, so ALL SAINTS’ DAY should be enough.

A number of things led me to reconsider that position. As I have said, I’ve come to think that All Souls’ Day presents an opportunity to do powerful pastoral liturgy.

As a liturgical celebration, it’s new to me, so I’ve been reading up. Any commemoration of this day was abolished at the time of the Reformation because it was associated with Roman Catholic abuses of masses for the dead. But it has found its way back into our calendar. It seems to meet a need. Guidelines for liturgical rituals for this day vary. Some stress this service as a Requiem. Others emphasize its association with All Saints’ Day. It is both.

And it seems to me that may be the most important message of this day. This day, this commemoration, is both requiem for the dead and celebration of the communion of all saints. And it reminds us that every Requiem service is a Saints’ day service. A service commemorating the saint who has died. We talk a lot about burial services as Easter services, and of course they are primarily services of the resurrection. But every burial service is also a saints’ day service. We remind ourselves of that today. You know we celebrate the famous saints on their death days… the day they entered into the “glorious company of the saints in light.”

The glorious company of the saints in light. That phrase is from the commendation that we say at every burial service. “Into your hands we commend your servant: Receive her in the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and in to the glorious company of the saints in light.”

All the faithful departed are now among the saints in light. And tonight we surround our memories of them with light to help us remember that they are among the glorious company of the saints in light. Saints and light go together.

Light is powerful. Literally and metaphorically. Light brings hope, casting out darkness. Even the tiniest candle cannot be defeated by the dark. Light is unconquerable. Light illuminates, making the truth of God’s love clear and radiant. Light guides, showing the path that is steady and safe. Light warms and enfolds. And I’m not sure why, but light celebrates. Light’s shimmering brightness enkindles rejoicing.

Today we remember that all of the faithful departed are the glorious company of the saints in light.

The Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost - October 20

Perseverance
Jeremiah 31:27-34
Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5
Luke 18:1-8

Perseverance seems to be the word of the day throughout today’s propers. Perseverance is a theme in the collect and in all of the Scripture readings for this Sunday. Perseverance.

It’s in the collect: Almighty and everlasting God… preserve the works of your mercy, that your Church throughout the world may persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your Name…

The prophet Jeremiah is all about perseverance. As gloomy as he often is, his fundamental message is all about persevering in hope and in the confidence of God’s love for God’s people. He lived and prophesied in difficult times for the Hebrew people, and he certainly didn’t shy away from laying bare their plight or threatening the dire consequences of their lack of faithfulness or righteousness. But he never lost his conviction of God’s love for God’s own people. And in today’s reading he encourages them to persevere in hope. For the days are SURELY coming when a new covenant will be restored. The days are SURELY coming when God will plant seeds and God’s people will grow and flourish again. Persevere in hope.

At first glance, you may not see the theme of perseverance in the psalm. But I would say it embodied in the very psalm itself. Note that we read verses 97 – 104. It continues on through verse 176. Psalm 119 is the longest of the psalms and the longest chapter in the entire Hebrew Bible. It is an acrostic. Each letter of the Hebrew Bible, and there are 22, is given 8 lines of poetry, each of the 8 lines beginning with that letter. The eight verses we read together this morning are actually four lines of Hebrew poetry. So we read one half of one of the 22 sections in the acrostic.

Furthermore, one scholar writes: “The poetic language is highly formulaic and rather routine. It also should be said that some of the acrostic composition is mechanical… the text is repetitious and the language stereotypical…” Praying this psalm is an act of perseverance. And remember, the psalms have always been a part of worship. The people pray them together in worship.

We’ve been reading our way through 2 Timothy for several weeks. In today’s passage the author is winding up with final exhortations, including the charge: “Proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable…” Be persistent in proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ. Persevere no matter what.

And the Gospel parable provides encouragement to persevere in prayer. Be persistent even in the face of disappointment. Do not hesitate to “bother” God with your prayers over and over and over again. Remember, Jesus says, God cares for you so much more than some atheist, unjust judge. God IS listening. The efficacy of your prayers may not come in the way or time that you might wish. But persevere in prayer.

Perseverance has been identified as a Christian virtue. In the Roman Catholic accounting, it is one of the seven virtues, although often described as “diligence.” It is the opposite of sloth.

Perseverence. It’s about not giving up. Not losing heart. Not letting indifference overcome you.

Persevere! All of these readings and prayers encourage us today to persevere. Just as they encouraged earlier people of faith to persevere.

Which leads me to consider another message that these readings offer to us, along with the general call to persevere. These readings remind us that God’s people… faithful people have found themselves in situations requiring perseverance… for ever. That’s worth remembering.

Jeremiah lived in the 6th century BC. The psalms are difficult to date; it may possibly be older than Jeremiah’s words. 2 Timothy and Luke of course come from the early days of the Christian church. The collect is derived from a liturgical work known as the Gelasian sacramentary. The oldest manuscript dates from the 8th century.

All of which is to say: We should not expect the Christian life, the life of faith, to be free of situations calling for perseverance. It never has been before. God’s people have always needed to persevere. The life of faith is not about our individual comfort or immediate happiness. It is about more than me and more than now.

Throughout the recorded history of faithful people, there have been times that try women’s souls. There have been times of social or political upheaval that threaten God’s people.

On a lighter note, the psalm reminds us that there have always been times in corporate worship that at least some people find boring or not edifying. Sometimes worship requires perseverance.

 Proclaiming the Gospel has always been challenging. And even Jesus’ immediate followers needed encouragement to persevere in prayer.

So we should not expect our own faith journey to be at all times easy, cheery or joyous. These reminders are probably especially important for us. We live in a highly individualized society. It’s all about me… my wants, my choices, my hopes, my rights. And, probably more than in any other time, we live with the expectation of instant everything. Not just instant gratification, instant everything. It’s about me. Now.

These lessons, taken as a whole remind us, that we should not expect the Christian life, the life of faith, to be free of situations calling for perseverance. It never has been.

So persevere, trusting in God’s abiding, unfailing presence and care. Persevere in faith.

The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost - October 13

Healed, Cleansed and Whole
Luke 17:11-19

I should begin by saying I am not a Greek scholar. I took one year of Greek in seminary, but it didn’t really stick. I retained just enough, though, to be able to use some resource books on Greek. I’m going to talk a little bit about some of the words in today’s Gospel, which was originally written in Greek.

It’s the story of the ten lepers. Jesus is entering a town and on the outskirts of the town ten lepers cry out to him for compassion. He responds compassionately, telling them to go show themselves to the priests. As they obey, they are cured. One of the ten, a Samaritan, returns to Jesus giving thanks and praising God.

Three different Greek words describe what happened to the lepers. In our translation those words occur as “made clean,” “healed,” and the leper who returns to give thanks is “made well.”

As they obediently responded to Jesus’ instructions, all ten lepers were “healed.” The word is used in a medical sense. Certainly in Jesus’ day disease and healing and medicine were understood very differently than they are today. Nonetheless, this word indicates relief from the symptoms of a disease.

Because that disease was leprosy, to be healed also meant to be made clean. Interestingly, the Greek word translated “made clean” is the root of our words cathartic or catharsis, but in this context it refers specifically to ritual or cultic cleansing.

As you may know, in Jesus’ day to have leprosy meant you were labeled as “unclean” by the religious laws and authorities. Mistakenly, people at that time thought of leprosy as highly contagious. Lepers were forced to stay away from others and if anyone approached them, they were required to call out “unclean, unclean.” This meant, of course, that they were excluded from general society, excluded even from the lives of their families, and excluded from the meaning and comfort of all corporate worship. Excluded from family, societal and religious life.

To be made clean was to have a life lived with the company of others restored.

All ten lepers were healed and cleansed. One, seeing that he had been healed and cleansed, stopped, and returned to Jesus, doing two things. He offered himself, prostrating himself in thanksgiving and he gave praise to God. Praise and thanksgiving. Our words doxology and eucharist. Giving voice to praise and offering oneself in thanksgiving.

And the leper who spoke his praise and offered thanksgiving was made “well.” The Greek word translated “well” in this passage is a word that is sometimes translated “saved” or “made whole.” In the Gospels it is most frequently used to describe a result of Jesus’ healings and it clearly means more than a medical cure… it means wholeness of person. Being found or put right. Sometimes it refers to what will happen in the Kingdom of God. But most of the time, it refers to something that happens in the present tense to those who are healed by Jesus.

For me wholeness seems to be maybe the best translation.

As I was reading about this passage I came across a wonderful definition of wholeness. A little different from what I might have said before. In this definition wholeness is not so much a matter of restoration or repair or even healing. It is a state of being where everything unholy is pushed out. A state of total holiness. All else is shut out of our person except the holy context. We are at one with God and one another, in a sublime moment of grace. I can almost visualize it physically. Holiness within us expanding until we are wholly holy.

By God’s grace, this transformation to wholeness to holiness happens when we are actively engaged in singing praise to God and in offering ourselves to God in thanksgiving. These are the transformative acts that bring about wholeness. When we give ourselves to praise of God and thanksgiving for God’s grace and blessing and presence with us in Christ we become holy and whole.

And we have cause and opportunity to praise God and offer ourselves in thanksgiving. It is right to give God thanks and praise. Always and Everywhere. No matter what is going on in our lives or in the world around us. Sing praise. If you need words, whether you sing them or say them, check out the praise section of the Hymnal. And come to the Eucharist, offering ourselves, our souls and bodies, all that we are in this action of thanksgiving for Christ’s living presence with us.

The leper who gave voice to praise of God and offered himself in thanksgiving was made whole.

As we praise God and offer ourselves in thanksgiving, by God’s grace we, too, will be made whole.

The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost - October 6

You Can Do a Lot with a Little Faith
Luke 17:5-10

What would you do if you had more faith? If all of a sudden you were given a lot more faith, what would you do?

I imagine all of us have at least fleetingly considered the “if you won the lottery” question. (Do remember that the church has consistently opposed gambling as a means of church or government fund raising…) If all of a sudden I came into a heap of money, what would I do with it?

So what would you do with more faith if you had it? What would you do?

The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith. It’s hard to know exactly what prompted their request. In this portion of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has most recently been talking about forgiveness and the need to forgive the sins of a fellow disciple over and over again. Maybe the disciples just felt overwhelmed with the whole discipleship thing…

Regardless of the disciples’ motivation, most of us would probably join in their request. Increase our faith. Although I expect most of us would voice that request for more faith in the hope that it would bolster our belief. If I had more faith my belief or my trust in God would be more secure.

But faith is more than a body of belief; it is a verb. It is what we do. It is how we live our lives as disciples of Christ. Faith is what we do. At the very least asking the question: what would you do if you had more faith? reminds us that faith is about what we do.

 Jesus tells the disciples they really don’t need any more faith to do what disciples do.

He seems to say two related, but slightly different things. (1) You can do a lot with a little faith. And (2) the little things you do faithfully count for a lot.

It only takes faith the size of a mustard seed, the size of a pin head, to move mountains or mulberry trees. You can do a lot with a little faith. And by faithfully doing the little things of daily life, serving God and others obediently within the context of your daily life… by doing these little things, you are doing what disciples do, and that counts for a lot.

 As one commentator (David Lose) says, “Faith, in other words, is doing what needs to be done right in front of you and this, Jesus says, the disciples can already do. Folks who feel daunted by discipleship need to hear that sometimes faith can be pretty ordinary…. it really doesn’t take all that much faith to be, well, faithful.”

The little things of daily life, done faithfully, count for a lot.

• doing our work (The tasks or vocation of life. Doing them is good stewardship, and often the means of caring for others. That counts a lot.) 
• caring for those in need (Those near to us and more remote. That counts for a lot.) 
• protecting the vulnerable (Protecting those who are bullied or marginalized in any way. That’s the work of a disciple, and it counts for a lot.) 
• reaching out to the lonely 
• befriending the friendless (Doing those things counts for a lot.) 
• keeping the world going (Whatever that means in your life. Keeping God’s world going. That counts for a lot.) 
• contributing to the common good. 

 The little acts of daily living. Acts that any person can choose to do just by deciding to do them. But choosing to do them “faithfully” as a disciple makes a difference, I think. We “partner” ourselves with God in doing God’s work in the world. And that makes a difference at least for us. Then what we do is a part of God’s generosity, God’s love. And we have the resources and reserves of God to draw upon. And, for what it’s worth, when we do these little things faithfully, we’ll find that other aspects of faith—our belief and sense of relationship with God—will grow and increase.

 Like the disciples, we have the faith that we need to do what disciples do. With a little faith you can do a lot. And the little things of life, done faithfully, count for a lot when done as disciples of Christ.