Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
October 7, 2007 – World Communion Sunday
Lamentations 1:1-6
2nd Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

The Little that We Have

We drove up to Salem yesterday, and on the way noticed a wind powered generator in South Boston.  I was kind of envious – fantasizing about what it would be like to have one in the backyard … and tell Narragansett Electric to leave me alone.  Sure, the turbine is pretty obtrusive … but one step in cleaning up the environment and in cutting back on dependence on foreign oil.

I also read this week that each of us are little power plants … that each time we take a step, we generate six to eight watts of energy.  But then – poof – it is gone.  If only that could be captured.

There is an architectural firm in London that is looking into ways of doing just that.

Thirty-four thousand people walk through Victoria Station in one hour.  Theoretically, that is over a quarter million watts every time they take a step.  If that energy could be harnessed, you would have a very useful power plant … one step at a time.

There is power in each step.

In today’s Gospel passage, the disciples are complaining that they need more faith.  Have you ever done that … prayed for more faith? 

Jesus responds to the disciples, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain …”  Too often this has been understood as a chastisement of the disciples – somehow reflecting that as they were, they didn’t even have that much.

What Jesus was actually saying is that if they were only willing to use the faith they already had … even if it is as small as a mustard seed!

We live in a culture that is all about getting more, about getting bigger – “super-sized” life … as if bigger is better.

What Jesus would have us know is that we already have enough faith.  It isn’t how much we have, but what we are willing to do with it that counts.

I would challenge each of us to do one thing this week that we didn’t think we had enough courage / strength to do / enough faith to do:

• Forgive.
• Serve.
• Give. 

I am only I, but I AM one!

I cannot do much, but I can do SOMETHING!

What I can do, by God’s grace I WILL do!

The question isn’t how to get more faith.  It is “What are we going to do with the seemingly little bit we have?”

NOTE:  Much of today’s sermon is credited to “Homiletics on Line” Sept./ Oct. 2007, Vol. 19, No. 3.

SERMON IN A SACK:  Kraft “Mac & Cheese” … Talk about Mr. Kraft’s faith journey from making money to serving others.