“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” (Luke 17:5).
In nomine, etc..
This chapter of Luke’s Gospel, chapter 17, is a collection of sayings and stories that appear not to be related to one another. It is as though Luke had to put these sayings and stories together somehow, and so he chose this particular order without considering any possible connections among them. It is possible that the arrangement was as casual as that, but, I don’t think that it was casual. I would like to bring to the surface some connections between the two parts of today’s reading, the saying about faith and the mustard seed, and the story about the slaves.
“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” The apostles are the Twelve, the inner circle of Jesus’s followers, the leadership of the disciples and other followers of Jesus. What the apostles learn from Jesus is the core of his teaching, which they pass on to others. So what we are hearing in this saying is an inner teaching of Jesus, which will become part of the public teaching of the apostles.
Consider the demand, “increase our faith!” It isn’t a request; it’s a demand, at least in the abbreviated form we have it. It’s almost bullying, at least in my hearing. The apostles are taking for granted that faith is something that Jesus and they can quantify, that it is possible to have more of it in one person than in another. The apostles expect Jesus to top them up with it, like filling a container with grain or wine or water. The apostles want more of what they perceive Jesus to have, and they assume that he can give it to them.
What Jesus actually gives them is a way of understanding faith that takes the faith-as-quantity idea and turns it upside down. He reduces the quantity of faith to the size of a mustard seed and says that the apostles don’t need any more faith than that. There is very little, almost nothing, to quantify, nothing to increase in size or amount. There is almost nothing, no-thing, to be “had” at all, to be accumulated or possessed.
What there is, is something that Jesus expects to grow, expects the apostles to grow, and, furthermore, he expects them to transplant it once it grows. Faith is a seed, something organic, that is capable of growing into something much larger than itself. And, like the mulberry tree, the other plant in our story, it can be transplanted.
The seed-and-plant analogy reveals what Jesus is getting at: the faith that the apostles already have is sufficient. It is the seed that will grow and spread. The mulberry tree, an image of the faith that will grow around the apostles, will spread into many places, including some that will seem very unlikely indeed. That is what Jesus means when he says of the tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea.” Jesus is not presenting faith as a kind of magic to move trees around; he is uprooting the idea of faith as a quantity, something to be accumulated, and planting in the apostles an awareness of faith as growth.
What the two plants have in common, of course, is that they can grow and spread; the seed of faith that the apostles have, will do the same. That is the faith that Jesus wants to increase in the apostles: the awareness that faith is growing, living, spreading, and that growth begins from the seed of faith that they already have. They don’t need any more, any "increase". Faith, properly planted and nurtured, will grow and spread.
Today’s reading lurches rather abruptly to the story of the supposedly worthless slaves. “Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? The answer is supposed to be, no one would do that, there are other things that the slaves have to do first. This is a glimpse into the hard world of Jesus’s time, a subsistence economy dependent on slavery and relentless, thankless work. But even in this sobering tale, so different from the previous saying, there are clues to understanding faith, and what the increase of faith means.
We’ve moved on from mustard seeds and mulberry trees, to plowing fields and tending sheep. We’re still in the agrarian world of plants, and now animals. The seeds of faith have grown into fields to be tended, and the community of faith, represented here by sheep, has grown up around them. The apostles are the slaves in this story, and Jesus is their master. This reading sounds harsh to modern American ears, perhaps, but the implied teaching is about listening. If the apostles want to increase their faith, they will do it by listening to their master, and by doing what he requires of them. “Faith comes through hearing,” as Paul writes in his letter to the Christians in Rome. When the apostles really hear what Jesus is saying, then their faith will increase, the mustard seeds will sprout, and mulberry orchards will need tending, as will the flock of the faithful. Then the apostles will take their places at the table, with their master and all the faithful, past, present, and future. Their faith and ours will increase, as we listen, really listen, to our master. Let us listen to our master, as we gather at his table.
“The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”
In nomine, etc.. (1-2 X 16 Adv)
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