#7 It's Not A Mustard Seed Series

"Tell me a Story” is a simple and shorter way to reference Jesus' use of parables. A parable is a relatable way to share a moral or spiritual lesson. While some don’t like parables because they don’t get right to the point. Others love a good story because it forces us to think and question.

Like the story an old friend shared about his son. His son loved basketball but he was undersized for a basketball player. People encouraged him to try other sports. He was actually a great high school wrestler but basketball was the dream he wouldn’t let go of. He worked hard and played on a good high school team. He would get recruited by a div 1 college program and almost didn’t make it to his Junior year because of the lack of discipline off the court. Eventually he would play college ball and do well enough that he would get drafted. But at 5” 3” tall no one expected much. He played for 15 seasons in the NBA. His name was Tyrone Curtis Bogues but the basketball world knew him as Mugsy. A nickname given to him by a high school teammate for the way he played - Like he was mugging someone. He would go on to coach. After he went on to coaching, others asked what made him a success. He said, “If you can give kids confidence at an early age then that is huge because you can help be a positive influence on them. I try to give them that positive message every time I talk to them and tell them that the longer they keep onto that positive message, the longer they will stay on that right path.”

The moral of the story is simple - Practice daily, stay positive in adversity and the longer you do the closer you will become to your dream. In Mugsy's words, we must “always believe.”

Storytelling forges connections among people, between people and ideas, and they convey the culture, history, and values. You just have to love a well thought out short story. Jesus told 36 different short stories in the gospels.

Today, I’d like to tell you a story you can find in the beginning of Luke 17. Jesus was hanging out with the disciples. He had been rattling off a series of lessons that were directed at the leaders of the community. He then expanded this lesson to include those who followed Him. As he spoke the boys and the entourage were getting emotionally fired up. This is where we enter the story.

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

The first lesson from today’s scripture is often misunderstood. The message seems to be “Faith is all you need to do the impossible.” While true, no statement has created thousands of broken hearts and many people leaving the faith.

There was movie 10 years ago called Leap of faith. Steve Martin and Liam Nelson were in the movie. Its a movie about a swindler who masquerades as a Christian healer. There is one scene in the movie where the lead character a preacher is talking to a wheel chair bound boy. The boy, Boyd, tells the preacher, he had tried going healers before but all that happens when he doesn't walk is HE is told he doesn't have enough faith.

When a person longs for a miracle and it doesn't happen, “I guess you didn’t have enough faith.” are crippling words. They harm.

The scripture in context conveys a different message. True faith in Christ accomplishes God’s will in the here and now. While it is good to have faith in God’s ability to overcome the difficult and even the impossible, it is more important to exercise faith in our daily tasks. Faith is built on practicing trust in God in all things.

7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

The first word in this passage “suppose” could be better translated “Imagine if” instead of suppose. The word was to invoke an image of daily life. Jesus was trying to get the people to envision a situation they would have been familiar with. Coming in from the fields after a long day at work and having the owner say come on and have dinner with me. They knew this didn’t happen. There were different classes of people and workers/servants and slaves did not get equal treatment.