Sermon on October 5, 2025
“Increase Our Faith”
By: Kimo Kimokeo
Ann Lamott, American novelist, non-fiction writer and New York Times bestselling author has penned several books chronicling the struggles and challenges of her Christian faith. Her writing is bold and to the point. In her book titled Dusk-Night-Dawn she says, “Taking kids outside to love God in nature is just about the most J E S U S Y thing we can do.” She goes on to point out that Jesus was nearly always outside with his disciples.
As an Interpretive Naturalist with the USDA-Forest Service for nearly a decade on the Oregon coast I had many opportunities to take not just kids but also adults out into nature. For me at that time it wasn’t so much a Jesusy moment, but it was one of the most enjoyable and satisfying jobs that I ever had. As a Naturalist my job involved connecting people with nature everyday. It was fascinating and delightful to see children and adults make that connection with plants and animals of the natural environment whether it was just feeling the stickiness of the tentacles of a sea anemone in a tide pool or watching brown pelicans just off shore feeding.
Which meant watching these 10-12 pound birds with at least a 6-foot wingspan plummet headfirst from 30 or 40 feet in the air into the ocean…which always seemed to prompt the question of why or what are they doing. Of which I would joyfully reply….they’re fishing! And they’re having lunch too!
Of course my fascination with the natural world was only deepened and expanded when in scripture passages I would find Jesus interacting and using elements of the natural world of creation to teach, guide, calm, console or direct his followers. Sometimes it was a simple action like calming the stormy waters on a lake, or when Jesus called on Peter and Andrew, two Brothers, as well as John and James, another set of brothers, who were all fishermen and saying to them come and follow me and you’ll be fishing for people. In another instance Jesus illustrates God’s Divine providence and care for creation directing attention to the birds of the air and the flowers of the field while at the same time reminding his followers how much more God values them than those birds or flowers. There are other times when we learn about a fig tree, soils, sowing seeds, lost sheep, wheat and weeds. In all these situations, Jesus marvelously provides opportunities for his followers, for us here in the physical realm to make a connection with the spiritual kingdom of heaven.
In today’s Gospel reading, Luke opens with the Apostles saying to Jesus , “increase our faith “……increase our faith (exclamation point). As I read between the lines here, I notice there is no courtesy, respectful, “OH PLEASE LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH. I am sensing perhaps the stress and anxiety the Apostles are feeling because in earlier verses Jesus had given the Apostles some advice and warnings that possible lay in their future, which evidently was unsettling. Unsettling enough to make them plea and or demand to Jesus to INCREASE OUR FAITH!
I don’t quite get how unsettled the Apostles were, but I know for me and maybe for you, there are times when we all get overwhelmed and would echo the Apostles plea of Increase our faith, oh God. Increase my Faith. Even though I try to manage and filter my news intake as well as scrolling through social media posts. I get a chill maybe a painful poke when I learn of yet another attack on a synagogue this time in England, then another attack of a church in Michigan and my cousins tell me about some dying coral reefs of Kauai or the subtle changes in weather patterns that are affecting Hawaii. Oh increase my faith Jesus, increase my faith.
Then there is Jesus’ reply to the Apostles, and to me to you to all of us Jesus says, “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 .” Wait.W H A T …well if you say so Jesus.
It’s interesting that Jesus uses for an example not just any old seed like an olive seed, a date or a carob…all of which Jesus could have used, but Jesus specifically used a mustard seed. It’s a tiny seed, significantly smaller than the other seeds…this particular species of mustard in the Middle East is a different species of mustard than we see blooming in fields and roadsides in our area. This particular species in the Middle East can eventually grow into a large shrub from a tiny seed. There is a powerful symbolism of the large bush or large shrub that does and can grow from such a tiny seed.
Theologians have pointed out that by using a tiny mustard seed Jesus was pointing out to the Apostles, pointing out to me, to all of us that their faith our faith isn’t dependent on volume or quantity not how much but more on the source of our faith, what is our faith based on.
I think that it is oh so human for the Apostles, for us to plea for more faith. And God understands that, but God wants us to really understand that with Jesus we are rooted in FAITH, growing in HOPE and reaching out in LOVE as we all work to expand and grow the beloved community of the Kingdom of God. Amen.
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