Sometimes a Bible passage leaves us puzzled, and this is one of them.  The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” Now, many of us would echo the apostles’ request: Increase our faith.  But the reply of Jesus is a little confusing: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. “

Now, I can’t find any reference to anyone doing this! Not in the New Testament, and not in the history of the Church.  And I don’t think that’s because no-one has had great faith – the apostles did some mighty things.  
But just before this Jesus has said:  If your brother sins.  And he repents, forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, “I repent”, forgive him”.  So perhaps it’s no wonder that the disciples say “Increase our faith.”  Perhaps none of them felt up to that.   They needed an increase of faith.
But when Jesus answers, he’s not really talking about mulberry trees.  He talks about the duties of a servant to do whatever the master asks, and says the servants would not be thanked.  This seems a strange story but I think Jesus is saying that they will be confronted with many challenging situations – forgiving other people is just the start – and yet if they kept faith, even as small as mustard seed, then they would find courage to do the impossible.

Being a Christian makes demands – whether it’s learning to forgive, or loving your neighbour. Sometimes life knocks us off our feet.  In a “Thought for the Day” a man spoke about how his life was changed when his son was born with Downs Syndrome.  Sometimes the challenges of our Christian life will seem like saying to a tree “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”

Have you heard the statement: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!”  It was the theme of a sermon preached in 1792 by William Carey, a cobbler from this county, who became convinced that the British Church had a duty for overseas mission.  The following year this cobbler sailed for India and stayed there for the remaining 41 years of his life, suffering the loss of family members and many personal tribulations.  But he translated the entire Bible into Bengali, then supervised others in translating it into five other main languages and parts of 209 other languages and dialects.  If anyone had faith it was William Carey. That was uprooting a mulberry tree!

How do people have such faith?   

Another reading set for today is Psalm 37:1-8. This Psalm has the secret of faith – it’s there in the verbs of each sentence. I add the passage for further reflection – especially reflect on the verbs, in bold print.