17th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 21), October 5th, 2025
Luke 17:5-10
Rev. Misa Furumoto
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” When do you find yourself making the same request? I feel that I often bring this prayer to God—when the things I have been doing no longer go well, when I lose my confidence, or when I no longer even know what I am doing.
Jesus replied to the apostles:“If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and plant yourself in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
The mulberry tree has deep and wide roots. No one can pull it out from the ground. And since it is a land tree, it is impossible for it to put down roots in the sea. This is a double impossibility. Yet Jesus teaches us that even faith as small as a mustard seed makes this double impossibility possible.
At this point we might begin to wonder: perhaps I do not even have faith as small as a mustard seed, or perhaps I have misunderstood what true faith really is.
Maybe the problem is that we confuse the purpose of faith itself. Faith is not given so that we can perform great miracles—because the one who works miracles is God, not us.
Faith means entrusting everything to God and living as servants of the Creator.
And as the short parable Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel reminds us, we are only servants, or slaves called to do what we ought to do.
Let me share one experience with you.
Some of you may know that our church has continued to offer online worship in Japanese through YouTube. Just yesterday, a local newspaper in Nara carried an article about it. My husband and I were appointed to Nara Christ Church in the Easter season of 2020, right at the time when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented us from gathering for worship. With the simple conviction that “the gospel must still be shared,” we began recording and uploading services online.
At first, we were anxious and even embarrassed. It was not smooth. We faced criticism, low ratings, and even nights when we cried together saying, “Maybe we should stop.”
Yet strangely, in those very moments, we would receive a letter from someone bedridden, telling us how much strength the video had given them. We received gifts of thanksgiving from people we had never met. We heard from those who had been away from church for years: “I watch every week.”
I will never forget one occasion. In one video I mentioned that we were thinking of ending the broadcasts. Not long after, we received a desperate phone call from someone far away, pleading, “Please don’t stop!” Later that person came with their family to visit us in Nara. Our hearts were full. And we realized again: even an imperfect sermon can be used by the Holy Spirit for God’s work.
Our sermons are not great works of eloquence. There are mistakes in exegesis, moments when our words fail, times when our own selves come forward instead of Christ. And yet, the Spirit still works, bringing the Word to those who long to hear it.
So why do we have faith? Not so that we may accomplish great things, but so that God may accomplish great things through us. We are only “worthless slaves,” who have done only what we ought to have done.
Mother Teresa once said, “I am a little pencil in the hand of God, who is writing a love letter to the world.”
When she became known worldwide for her work in the slums of India, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and many other honors, she was often praised. But she would always respond, “I am only God’s little pencil. If you see anything beautiful, praise not me but God, the artist.”
I confess that I am still someone who longs to be praised, and who feels discouraged when criticized. Yet I, too, wish to draw a little closer to Mother Teresa’s heart.
We are nothing more than small vessels, worthless slaves.
And yet, through these small vessels, God reaches each person who longs for the Word.
Let us believe this truth, and with faith—faith as small as a mustard seed—share the gifts we have received with others, trusting that God will use them for His glory.
In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
