The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
October 7, 2007
Vol. 10 no. 36

Everything But...
           It is fairly safe to say that none of you has ever done anything for 125 years. For this 125th anniversary of Knox-Metropolitan United Church that is precisely the point. We are here because of what we have been given. We have not earned it, but we have this community as an inheritance and a gift, so it does matter what we do with it.
           It doesn’t matter how many years we have been here, we are no different than those disciples who begged Jesus to “give us greater faith.” Faith does increase, but you never are able to bank it or store it up. All you can do is keep faith, keep it alive and there is no resting with faith.
           Jesus knew this was not the right question, a question of quantity, so he responded with quantity. That little mustard seed, if you only had that amount of faith, well, there is no stopping what you can do. But for those super athletes of faith a mustard seed is rather demeaning. Are you saying that I don’t even have that little bit of faith yet? What about us after all these 125 years in this church, how many grains of mustard seed have we accumulated? Very few mountains have been moved anywhere, though in Saskatchewan maybe a bunch of faithful people moved them out a few millennia ago. Faith cannot be counted or weighed.
           I listen to CBC and hear so many pundits bellyache over how little faith they have, that they have never been able to muster much as if it is the fault of Christianity or the church or God for not supplying them the right stuff. Stop counting. Resume living and serving for in the process of loving and serving you will be overwhelmed by the substance of faith. All it does take is a mustard seed’s worth.