17th Sunday after Trinity 2025 St Andrew’s
Today we celebrated 17th Sunday after Trinity.
Yesterday several of us gathered for the church walk. Fair weather accompanied us as we trolled up to the Dirty Dam. This was a three hour expedition. It was a beautiful walk enhanced by glorious autumn colours. We were then rewarded with a typical St Andrew’s tea in Friendship House. Thank you to all who supported this and to Tim and Jane for organising it.
The AGM will be held after the service next Sunday 19th October. Please do support.
This Week
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House.
Sunday 10am – Sung Eucharist followed by AGM
Readings for next Sunday – 18th Sunday after Trinity – Genesis 32:22-31 2 Timothy 3:14:-4:5 Luke 18:1-8
Today’s readings – 2 Kings 5:1-3,7-15, 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19
“Get up and go on your way – your faith has made you well” Luke 17:19
Faith is a word that we often use and particularly in a spiritual context. We talk about having faith, we talk about living by faith, we pray about our faith. Jesus often uses the word faith in the gospels.
In Mark’s gospel he says to the women who had been haemorrhaging for 12 years “Daughter your faith has healed you go in peace…..” Mark 5:34
In chapter 10 he says to Bartimaeus as he restores his sight “Go, your faith has healed you” Mark 10:52
And in Matthew he says to the Canaanite woman “women, you have great faith” Matthew 15:28
And last Sunday in the set gospel reading the apostles cry “increase our faith” Luke 17:5
How many times have we all prayed for that – if I just had more faith!
I think most of us struggle with this issue at various times: if I just had more faith, I wouldn’t have so many questions or doubts; if I just had more faith God would answer my prayers; if I just had more faith I would be a better person; if I just had more faith life would be different.
It is the same angst that many have shared throughout the ages even the apostles.
“Increase our faith ,” they ask Jesus.
Jesus has just warned them in the previous text not to become stumbling blocks to others and to forgive as often as an offender repents even if it is seven times in one day. It’s a challenge to live that way.
So “Increase our faith,” is their response and it seems like a reasonable request. If a little is good a lot must be better. But the request to increase our faith, the belief that if I had more faith things would be different, is misguided. Jesus is very clear that faithfulness is not about size or quantity. “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed,” he says, “you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Luke 17:6
Faith is not a thing we have or get. Faith is a relationship of trust and love. It means opening ourselves to receive another’s life and giving our life to another. That other one in this case is Jesus – that one relationship which influences who we are and how we live.
And it doesn’t have to be complicated as we so often try to make things. In the OT reading today Naaman was looking for a more complex and up market solution to his leprosy, not recognising our Lord’s simpler solution.
So, faith is not about giving intellectual agreement to a particular doctrine or idea. Faith is not even about how much or how strongly we believe Jesus’s words or actions.
Faith will not change the circumstances of our lives. Instead, it changes us. Living in faith does not shield us from the pain and difficulties of life, it does not undo the past, and it will not guarantee a particular future. Rather, faith is how we face and deal with the circumstances of life – the difficulties and losses, the joys and successes, the opportunities and possibilities.
Faith, however, is not lived out in the abstract. It is practiced day after day in ordinary everyday circumstances. There are days when we do feel powerless, lost, and do not know the way forward. By faith we sit in silence and wait. Faith, then, is how we live; the lens through which we see ourselves, others, and the world; the criteria by which we act and speak.
Faithfulness means that no matter where we go, no matter what circumstances we face, we do so in relationship with the One who created, loves, sustains, and redeems us, the One who as Paul said in the letter to Timothy “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).
We live by faith not because we have enough faith but because we have faith, any faith, even mustard seed sized faith.
That is all we need. Jesus believes that. And so should we.
Today’s gospel story high lights the importance of being thankful. Jesus heals the ten lepers and only one stops to give thanks. Giving thanks and being thankful forms an important part of our sense of well being and particularly so in times of uncertainty and anxiety. If we can hold onto that which is good in our lives, and be thankful for it, then it helps us cope with the areas we are less sure about.
In a moment we will share The Eucharist – the word itself meaning thanksgiving. The ultimate expression of God’s love for us, the sharing of the bread and wine – the sacrament that through faith, thanksgiving and Holy Mystery, truly brings us home.
Amen