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There is an old story, a legend really, about a traveler making his way to a large city. 

"When Some is More Than Enough"                    Cicero United Methodist Church

                     10/3/10 World Communion Day             Jack Keating

There is an old story, a legend really, about a traveler making his way to a large city. One night he meets two other travelers along the road --- Plague and Fear.

Plague explains to the traveler that, once they arrive, they are expected to
kill 10,000 people in the city.

The traveler asks if Plague would do all the killing.

"Oh no", Plague replies. "I will kill only a few hundred. My friend Fear will kill the rest."

It seems Fear, whether it is real or imagined, can discourage us, overwhelm us, and strangle us. And fear is widespread in our society, from the personal --- fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of not being loved. To the social- fear that war and disasters will go on forever, fear that society will collapse, fear that pollution will kill us, and on and on and on.

            And in the church there too is fear. The personal fears. The social fears. And the spiritual fears.

There are a lot of people you know who feel:

that they aren't able to do anything important

that they can not and do not make a difference to anyone

that they are unable even to do a part of what it is that God asks them
to do

and that the great work that obviously needs to be done will never be done, and that they will let God down, and that God will let them down.

            Many Christian folk are in a mess, they have forgotten what their faith is all about, and they have forgotten what it is that God can accomplish.

Do these feelings describe your life - your fear, despair, sense of futility, a sense of hopelessness? Do you feel unexcited by your worship of the Lord? Unsure of just what the Good News of the gospel is? Burdened by life and by what it is that God asks of you? And yet wanting to believe - wanting to do what is right - wanting to have the life that God has promised us even in the here and now?

Wanting and yet ..... .

How can I feed the hungry?
How can I clothe the naked?

How can I bring peace to those around me?
How can I spread the gospel of Jesus Christ?

How can I forgive the people who have hurt me so badly?

And it sometimes appears that too many of us look at ourselves instead of God.

We look at ourselves and we say - I can't do it. I am not strong enough, wise enough, loving enough, giving enough; I do not have enough money, the power, or the faith to succeed at what I'm doing.

And all of that, my friends, is completely true - we are not able! We do not have what it takes when it comes to dealing with what is truly important.

But, sisters and brothers in Christ, God has it - God is able! And when we take hold of God and believe in God, even a very little, God's power is able to flow through us- and God will work through us what is God's will to do.

We have all met people who have lived through very difficult times, and no doubt many of us have thought about them that they must have had a great deal of faith to come out of their trials and tribulations as they have.

We may even have said to them - with respect and admiration: "I don't think I could have faced what you have faced. Your faith must be very great."

I have heard this said to people, and I have heard the answer that they normally make. They reply almost always with words like ....

"My faith is no greater than anyone else's. I just didn't know what I had until I needed it. God helped me! ..... Why if it wasn't for God I never would have made it through."

Haven't you heard this kind of thing yourselves? Isn't it one of those occasions when we may have said to ourselves: "I wish I had faith like theirs?"

            You know those people of faith that we admire are so right in what they say. We so often do not realize just what we have. We let it lie dormant in us - asleep in us - and we go out looking for, something else. While all the while - God is there- and our faith in God is there - doing very little.

The Good News of Jesus Christ covers all these areas of life, it speaks of forgiveness and peace and eternal life, it addresses the problems of poverty and of war, it provides solutions to despair and answers to our human distress.

But most of all, my friends, it reminds us that alone we can do nothing, that we are, as many of us think, incapable, inadequate, sinners lost in a dark world. And then it reminds us that we are not alone, that God cares, that God works in the lives of those who believe in him, that God's purposes can't be blocked, that his word does not return to him empty,  that God desires to transform not just the human heart - but the world in which we live ..... and that all we need to do is reach down to that little kernel, that little seed within us and begin to do what it is that
we have been called to do and God will do the rest.

God will do the rest - that is God's promise, God will work in us and through us and bring his word to pass. God will pluck up the mountains and fill in the valleys. God will bring about the kingdom that we pray for.

What I am saying to you today is not ..... "have more faith" but rather .... "work with the faith that you already have." How can I experience the joy that is supposed to be part of life with God, let alone helping to bring it to others?

The disciples experienced 'all these feelings too, I think. In our Gospel reading today we hear them cry out to Jesus in a voice that perhaps you too have used at one time or another.

They felt that what they faced in life, let alone what they faced as ones who wanted to follow Jesus, was way too much for them, too much for their small faith to handle and so they cry out to the Lord--- "Lord, increase our faith."

                        "Lord, help us believe enough so that we can do what it is that you have commanded us to do - help us to trust enough so that we can live as you say we should be living. Lord, take away our fear."

And what does Jesus do - how does he answer their prayer?

Does he lay his hands on them and pray and give them more faith as they asked? Does he snap his fingers and grant them a double dose of his Spirit and his Faith?

NO, my friends - he does not - instead he says to them:

"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."

A strange answer - but really the best answer that could be made because you see the issue for all of us is not: "how much faith do we have?" but rather: "do we have any faith at all?"

Here's another story for you ...

Many years ago a shoe company sent one of its sales people to a far away country to start a business. After a few months he sent back a message: "Coming home ... nobody wears shoes here."

The same company sent another sales person to the same backward country in his place. After a few months she wrote the home office this note: "Send more order forms ... nobody wears shoes here."

That second salespersons saw the opportunity in her situation - not the difficulty - and more - she believed in her product - and because of that she succeeded where the first salesperson failed.

You know, faith I think is kind of like pregnancy. You simply can't make a valid distinction between having a little faith and a lot of faith anymore than you can claim that someone is a little bit pregnant but not really a lot pregnant.

If we believe - even a little - even the smallest amount - then, my friends, we are on the right track.

And I believe all of you here today are on the right track, all of you are asking - like the disciples asked - "increase our faith".

So having said that and having understood the distinction between having faith and not having faith - the question becomes for us not one of how much faith we have .... But what we have faith in. I purpose that when we start acting in faith my friends, the very first thing we will discover is that some is often more than enough.

That old Chinese proverb reminds us that the journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step.

'So I am saying ..... take that step: follow the commands of God - heed God's advice found throughout the scriptures .... And believe - that what God has promised will come about.

Remember that no matter how small that first step might be ... it takes you one step closer to your destination when you take it. But you have to take that step, you have to start claiming God's word as your own if you are to receive what God has promised and do what God has called you to do.

When you practice the faith, when you pray, when you believe and when you do, then, in the language of the story that I began with, you will overcome - God will overcome - Plague and his far more dangerous companion Fear ..... and the blessings of life will be completely yours, yours and the world's.

                                            Praise be to God, day by day.                     Amen.