Increase Our Faith! Lamentations 3: 19-26; Luke 17: 5-6
If you want an example of the greatest faith on the planet, look no further than a dog. They are always sad to see you go. They welcome you home with the biggest welcome you can imagine. No matter how bad you might have messed up in your work or personal life they always love you and come to be near you. They never hold grudges. And they will always be by your side and on your side. The reason a dog is so faithful is because their love is unending and their commitment is unwavering. God also provides this same faithfulness to us. I often wonder if that is why God spelled backwards is dog. As humans, we’re not so good at this. Our love can be or can feel conditional at times. Our commitments are sometimes wishy-washy and subject to our general mood.
I think the perfect definition of faith is this: love that is unending, and commitment that is unwavering. It’s exactly what God does for us—loves us no matter what and sometimes in spite of ourselves, and is committed to us and our redemption no matter how messy we sometimes are. Both Lamentations and Luke talk about the struggle to maintain and even grow faith even in times that are difficult and lead to struggle.
Lamentations is a difficult book. Very few preachers tend to use it or preach from it for a variety of reasons. It is depressing for one, and life is depressing enough these days on its own. It also grotesque in its description of the suffering of Judah. The laments cover Babylon’s conquering of Judah, dragging off the people into slavery, and ending centuries of worship. The famine, the war, the oppression, all are horrendous in their own right. But this is also where we get some of the greatest reminders that in dark times all hope is not lost.
Even in the midst of suffering that is bitter beyond words, these words ring out from the writer, “Yet I still dare to hope.” The reason for this powerful “in spite of” hope is because the “faithful love of the Lord never ends…[God’s] mercies never cease.” Even in your darkest and most difficult hour, when you feel most alone, most abandoned, most tried and troubled, God’s faithful love never ends, and God’s mercies never cease. We are never promised that we get to avoid the trials of life. What we are promised is that God is with us with love and with commitment to us.
This scripture also gives us the basis of one of the greatest hymns, “Great is [Thy] faithfulness, [God’s] mercies begin afresh every morning.” Many times, we have sung, “Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed, thy hand has provided, Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.” Though the hymn gives us this beautiful poetry of God’s faithfulness, the background of the words are set in hardship and suffering.
In those times, we must pray like the apostles, “show us how to increase our faith.” Jesus’s answer is a bit harsh. He tells them that their faith is smaller than a mustard seed, which is a way of saying its undiscernible it is so small. Oof. That’s hard to hear…and this is the very disciples who were with Jesus. Now, let’s be clear, this is not a relative comparison. God is ALWAYS faithful to us, even in life’s trials. We do not always have faith. The promise and response is always there for us, even if we are not so good at the commitment on our side.
Take for instance when we get a devastating medical diagnosis. It is easy to lose our faith because we feel hopeless, abandoned, suffering, we cry out our own lamentations just like the oppressed people of Judah. We, too, will endure our awful time. But the test of our faith—that love and that commitment, is whether we still dare to hope, and whether we still declare the faithfulness of God, even in the midst of the trial.
God will be faithful, for God’s commitment never fails, and God’s love never runs out. Even when we lose faith, God is still faithful. When Peter tried to walk on water, he lost faith and sank after seeing the wind and wave. But Jesus still caught him by the hand and pulled him up. For us that might be a miracle here and now in our time of trouble. Or it may be the miracle of eternal deliverance. Either way God is faithful in life, in death, and in life after death.
Take also for example when you feel abandoned and forsaken by friends and family. The loss of either due to hatefulness, misunderstanding, trauma, or even misapplied theology can leave us hurt and broken. Approximately 52 million adults in the United States say they struggle with loneliness. When humans abandon us, it is also easy to believe God has abandoned us as well. Lamentations has a reminder here as well, “The Lord is good to those who depend [on the Lord], to those who search for [God].” And then the toughest lesson of all, “So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.” Wait quietly. That isn’t something modern society does well, is it?
People may abandon us, treat us poorly. Politicians may fail us…constantly…and our houses of worship often do their best, bless their hearts, but sometimes, all comes up short, and we still suffer. The hardest part of Lamentations and Luke is that often the only way to grow in faith is to live through trials and struggles. If you want to refine something like gold, silver, or other precious metals, you have to shove it in the fire, and sometimes you have to beat the fool out of it. That’s a horrible example, but it’s unfortunately true. Unrefined gold is pretty ugly. But it takes the fire, the chemicals, and a little hard reshaping to make something beautiful and high in value.
We have to remember that, even when our faith waivers, God is still faithful. Faith and faithfulness are not the same. Faith is the act or call. Faithfulness is the response. Both come from a place of love and commitment, but direction both of those goes changes. Even when we fail the trial, even when we feel unable to move forward, even when we sink into the depths like Peter because we took our eyes of Jesus, our Savior is still faithful. Just as Peter was snatched out of the water, Jesus will snatch us to safety or to an eternal hope.
One commentator on Lamentations wrote, “The struggle between unbelief and faith is often severe.” Those are indeed true words. It’s easy when we suffer and struggle to lose hope and lose faith in God’s faithfulness. But we must remember to pray like the apostles, “Increase our faith!” In the background of World War II, in 1943, and all the dread and peril that came with that war, Ruth Caye Jones, known as “Mother Jones,” wrote a hymn of assurance. She was a self-taught pianist and organist, and a pastor’s wife. Her hymn was very simple, and entitled, “In Times Like These.” The final verse of it is a prayer for greater faith, just like our gospel: “In times like these, I have a Savior. In times like these, I have an anchor. I’m very sure my anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock. The Rock is Jesus, the only one. I’m very sure my anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock.”
Friends, if you want an example of solid faith, watch a dog. It will love you unconditionally with kisses and tail wags. It will be committed to you with out hesitation and question, sticking by your side and protecting you. And if you want to know what faithfulness looks like, look to God. God is the one who loves us always, with nothing separating us from that love, and God is the one who is committed to us here and now, and forever in hope’s eternity. So, as Mother Jones says in her hymn, “Be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock.”
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