“One Day at a Time”

Luke 17:5-6

QUESTION: How do you eat an elephant? ANSWER: One bite at a time. QUESTION: How does one follow Jesus? ANSWER: One step at a time. QUESTION: How do we live our lives? ANSWER: One day at a time, or as someone once said in terms of his recovery from an addiction, one breath at a time. A related quote tells us the 90% of life is just showing up, being where we need to be when we need to be there.

The interchange between Jesus and his disciples recorded in today’s reading from Luke took place as he and they continued their journey toward Jerusalem and the cross. Jesus is trying to get across to these guys the enormity of the responsibilities of discipleship. And as usual, the disciples didn’t quite have a firm grasp of the obvious. Not only were they still unwilling to accept the coming reality of the cross, they weren’t able to comprehend the true meaning of faith.

The disciples asked Jesus for more faith – a bigger faith - a greater faith that would better enable them to do what Jesus was calling them to do. As he gave them the vividly absurd example of something the size of a mustard seed enabling someone to essentially tell a tree to uproot itself and go jump in the lake, he was trying to make the point that there is no such thing as more or less faith. Whatever faith they possessed was a gift from God that they were to use to its utmost limits.

The faith they had was the faith God had given them. As they lived their lives of discipleship by being where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be there, doing whatever it was God was calling them to do, they would have enough faith to do it. Maybe not all at once in some great big magical show of power – that rarely happens. They were to exercise their faith one day, one moment, one breath at a time, patiently leaving the results of their endeavors in God’s hands.

One of the favorite hymns of a small church I served in Virginia was “Little Is Much, if God Is in It.” As long as God is in whatever exercise of discipleship we’re undertaking, what needs to happen will happen, but always in God’s own time and in God’s own way. We cannot forget the biblical definition of faith as found in the 11^th chapter of Hebrews: [It] is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Or as one of the commentators on today’s text put it, [It is] the thrust of the soul into a future always hidden…”

A common saying in Christian circles is that we’re to grow where we’re planted. There’s that showing up thing again: being where we need to be, when we need to be there, doing what we need to do, even if the place we’re in isn’t really where we want to be. The exiled children of Israel referred to in today’s readings from Lamentations and the Psalms were definitely not in a place where they wanted to be. They were in a place of bitter defeat, full of sadness and even thoughts of horrible revenge. They most surely did not want to grow in that place in which their nation’s sinfulness had planted them.

Yet what other choice did they have? How much faith did they have? It was most likely of the extreme mustard seed-like variety. In the words of Gerald S. Sloyan in his commentary on Habakkuk, Waiting for God while [and then after] your lands and your family are destroyed before your eyes is a terrifying venture in faith. But as it is with all of us who seek to be the faithful people of God, they had to work with what they had. There was no more or less faith. What they had was what they had.

Faithfulness to God in any age is never an easy endeavor. Those enormous responsibilities of discipleship are always with us. Our present post-modern age has been referred to in terms of exile. We no longer live in a society that automatically supports our Judeo-Christian heritage. The clearest example we have of this is Sunday. No longer is it reserved for Christians. As it was in the infancy of the church, the church described in Acts and the Epistles, in the eyes of our modern American culture, Sunday is just another day of the week.

Lamenting the changing role of the church in today’s world won’t change a thing. Pity parties never do. Asking those who govern us to please put it back the way it used to be is, for the most part, an exercise in futility. In the words of Coach Bill Parcells, It is what it is. We have no choice but to follow Jesus in this time and under these circumstances in which we find ourselves, thrusting our souls toward an extremely well hidden future. It is still our task, regardless of circumstances, to show up: to be where Jesus needs us to be, when Jesus needs us to be there, doing whatever it is that needs doing in Jesus’ name. Eating that elephant we know as modern day discipleship one bite at a time. Living out whatever faith God has given us one day at a time, one breath at a time, always trusting that little is indeed much, if God is in it.

It always comes back to being the disciples we have answered a call to be, doing whatever it is that disciples are called by their Lord to do. Seeking whatever growth there is to find in this day and age in which we’re planted. Worshipping God, keeping the Sabbath, doing good, and avoiding evil. Forgiving seventy times seven, seeking peace, and working for justice. Being witnesses, evangelists, and missionaries to those around us. Immersing ourselves in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, Bible study, Christian fellowship, and stewardship. Using whatever gifts God has given us, including the gift of faith, in the service of Jesus and one another rather than wasting what we have in the vain pursuit of happiness as defined by our culture. Being who we’re called to be rather than what the world wants us to be.

This is one mighty big elephant that we’re called to consume. And we can only do it one bite at a time, one day at a time, one breath at a time. We do it by showing up for Sunday worship, Sunday school, Bible studies, and prayer meetings. We do it by disciplining ourselves to pray and read Scripture on a daily basis. We work as best we can at the difficult tasks of forgiving the unforgivable, touching the untouchable, accepting the unacceptable, and loving even the most unlovable people around us. We share our blessings with one another. We praise God and give him thanks by way of regular gifts, offerings, and tithes from our store of time, talents, and money. We are intentional about learning how to budget and manage our finances in ways that glorify God. We give God the first fruits of all our efforts and not the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel, the best of who we are and what we have instead of the leftovers.

None of this is accomplished all at once. Nor is our discipleship ever taken care of once and for all time. In the words of former GA Moderator, Frieda Gardner, we never retire from the vocation of discipleship. We keep eating that particular elephant until the day we die. We keep answering our Lord’s roll call, showing up when, where, and as we are needed, always trusting that whatever amount of faith, money, energy, or skill we have is enough. Little is much when God is in it. Amen.