The first thing that popped into my head when I was preparing this sermon was a scene from the old classic Princess Bride. The hero of the story has been killed, and Fezzik the Giant and Inigo Montoya take him to Miracle Max, a man who sells miracles, and gives them a giant pill to give to the hero to bring him back to life when the time is right. But the time was obviously not right now, as Miracle Max was known to be a bit of a cheat sometimes. As they are leaving, Miracle Max and his wife are standing out by the door, waving and smiling at the hero and his friends. And his wife leans over to him and whispers, “Think it’ll work.” And through a fake smile, Max says, “It would take a miracle.”
What’s not included in the Gospel passage today, but comes immediately before the words we heard today is Jesus telling his disciples that they would find all sorts of opportunities to sin, and that they needed to protect themselves from that possibility. But then, he says that if someone sins against you, but then comes and repents and asks forgiveness, that you are to forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times a day, and then repent seven times a day, you need to keep on forgiving them.
And the disciples said, “Oh dear Lord! That would take a miracle.”
Well, actually, that’s not really what they said. What they said was, “Lord, Increase our faith!” And they said this in response to Jesus telling them that they need to forgive, and keep on forgiving those people who keep on making mistakes. But the disciples looked inside themselves and saw that they did not have the strength to forgive this often. They looked inside, and saw that they did not have the ability to do this on their own. And this is why they said to Jesus: “Lord, give us more faith.”
And Jesus turns to them, pinches his thumb and index finger together and says, “All you need is this much faith.” In fact, it’s not just that they need this much, but even this little bit of faith is more than enough to tell trees to throw themselves into the sea. He’s pinching his fingers together because the mustard seed that he was talking about is the smallest seed, but when the mustard plant grows, it becomes a home to birds, and provides great shade, and. And Jesus is saying that consistently drawing upon a faith that is as small as this seed is enough to give the disciples the strength to forgive, to move mountains, and tell a tree to jump into the sea.
I’m sure the disciples were thoroughly confused at that point. Because, after all, they have looked inside and seen that they don’t have the strength to make it work on their own, and they can’t understand how even just a little bit of faith is supposed to make all of this work. They’re probably thinking, “You just told us we have to keep forgiving someone we would rather punch in the face? We have to restrain ourselves from getting even? We have to love them and forgive them? And you’re saying we already have enough faith to do that?” One of them is probably scratching his beard, and the other is hyperventilating into a paper bag, and they’re all probably looking at each other and thinking, “This is hard! How can we already have enough faith?”
And then things get even weirder. Instead of responding to their fear and confusion, Jesus gives them a scenario about a slave and a master. He says, “If you had a slave, and they had just come back from plowing the field or tending the sheep would say to him, ‘Hey, come and sit down. Take a load off. Join me at the table?’ I’m sure you would rather say to him, ‘Hey, make me supper. You can eat after I’m done.’ Are you going to then thank the slave for doing what you asked of him? You should also do as you’re asked, so that you can say ‘We have only done what was asked of us – we were good slaves.’”
And the disciples looked at each other and said, “Huh?” And I’m sure we could hear the crinkling of paper as one of them reaches for his paper bag again and bends over and puts his hands on his knees – breathing heavily. Because Jesus has basically told them, “Hey, I have commanded you to forgive people who wrong you. Over and over again. If people are truly sorry, then you must forgive them over and over and over again.” And the disciples are again thinking, “I don’t have that kind of faith! How on earth am I going to be able to do this?”
This whole parable, this story of a master and slave begs the question, “What exactly is faith?” To answer this question, we need to recognize something that the disciples already understood. They didn’t say, “Hey guys, let’s go to the gym and work out, so we can build our faith muscle!” No, instead they turned to Jesus and said, “Give us more faith!” Because they understood that faith is a gift from God. Jesus had said that all you need is this much – the size of the smallest seed – the mustard seed. And if you have that much, you could tell the mulberry tree to uproot itself and plant itself in the sea. To the disciples, telling the mulberry tree to uproot itself seems like wishful thinking – a miracle. And now Jesus is telling them, “You have enough faith not only to tell the mulberry tree to throw itself into the sea, but to forgive and forgive and forgive…”
By now you’ve probably figured out who the master and slave in this scenario are. The slaves are the disciples, and the master is Jesus. In this scenario, Jesus is saying, “I have commanded you to forgive. So do as you’re told.” But he is also being kind and telling them that they already have enough faith within them to do what he is asking them. It’s with a twinkle in his eye that says, “You have enough faith already, because you believe in me, and you know where your faith comes from because you are asking me for more faith. And I have commanded you to forgive and to forgive, and to forgive… So go and do it.”
But there’s more to this comment by Jesus that meets the eye. The first thing that we realize is that Jesus is definitely not saying, “Each of you should say, ‘I am a worthless slave; I have done only what I ought to have done!’” Instead, Jesus is using the plural form, “We are worthless slaves.” What we learn from that is that this faith of ours is also not a solo endeavor. In fact, you could make the argument that our own belief in God is not even remotely related to faith unless it is confronted by the disbelief of other people. I’m going to say it another way: faith is only faith when it is questioned and challenged – and then keeps standing. And that takes other people – people who may not believe the same way you do, who may say horrible things to you, who may cause you harm or anger you. Belief is one thing – but faith takes action – and is lived out among other people.
The beautiful thing is that faith is also lived out with other people. We don’t have to do this alone. In a community bear one another’s burdens in the midst of struggles, and we forgive others when they have wronged us, and we continue to lift each other up as we strive to do just as Jesus has commanded us to do. Faith is not a mental exercise; it is not just a claim to believe one set of ideas and ideals over others. Faith requires action – based in our beliefs.
And it is in the doing that we find that the gift of “more faith” just keeps coming, and our faith continues to grow, so that we take bigger and bigger steps and larger and larger actions.
To give you an example, I’d like to share with you the story of Daryl Davis, a blues musician who, back in 1983, was playing music in a “Whites only” bar in Maryland, even though he himself is black. Someone came up to him at the break and said that this was the first time he had seen a black man play music as good as Jerry Lee Lewis. Daryl told him that Jerry Lee had learned to play that style of piano from black men, and that, moreover, Jerry Lee Lewis was one of Daryl’s friends. That started a conversation in which Daryl discovered that the patron at the bar was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. What’s amazing is that the two men became friends.
Over the years, Daryl Davis has befriended members of the KKK, from Imperial Wizards all the way down to lower members. Each time, after Daryl has become friends with these men, they have denounced their beliefs, left the KKK, and given Daryl the robes that they used to wear. He has collected about 25 robes over the years, and has been directly responsible for about 60 people leaving the KKK, and indirectly for over 200 giving up their beliefs and leaving the KKK.
Daryle Davis is a Christian. He wanted to understand why people hated him, even though they knew nothing about him. He wanted to understand what motivates people to demonize other people. What motivates people to cause harm to others through hateful words and actions. But most importantly, he wanted to follow the directive of his beliefs which required that he love his neighbor, that he love even his enemies, and that he pray for those that persecute him. And, most importantly, that he forgive those that have wronged him. And forgive, and forgive, and forgive…
This much. That’s all it takes, Jesus said. All you need is the faith the size of a mustard seed in order to tell trees to rip themselves out of the ground and be thrown into the sea. All you need is faith the size of a mustard seed, and you can move mountains.
Do you think that Daryl Davis started out that first conversation in the bar in Maryland thinking that all of this would happen? Do you think that he felt that his efforts to become friends with people in the KKK would result in so many people changing their minds and racist, hateful views and leaving the KKK?
I can only make the assumption that if anyone had told Daryl that he would be responsible for all these people leaving the KKK before he even had that first conversation in the bar in Maryland, he probably would have had the same reaction as the disciples, saying, “Oh dear Lord! That would take a miracle!” But he started out. One conversation at a time. And through these small steps, he moved mountains.
Faith is not just something we believe. Faith is belief in action.
Big problems might seem like they are insurmountable. They might seem like something as fantastical as telling a mountain to move from here to there, or telling a tree to jump into the ocean. But if we follow Jesus’ commandments, and take one small step at a time – then we will be surprised that at the end of that step lies a miracle. A miracle that seems as insane and unbelievable as telling a tree to rip itself up by the roots and plant itself in the ocean.
[This sermon was delivered at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Wickenburg, AZ on October 5, 2025.]
