Increase Our Faith

Luke 17:5-10

Father Mark’s sermon begins with the apostles’ plea, “Increase our faith,” a request born from their fear that Jesus’s call to endless forgiveness and compassion was too difficult to live out. In a world that prizes revenge and retaliation, Jesus’s teaching seems foolish — even weak — but He challenges that instinct by reminding His followers that they already possess the faith they need. Faith, He says, need not be grand or dramatic; even the tiniest amount — the size of a mustard seed — holds the divine power to transform hearts and the world itself.

Father Mark goes on to show that Jesus never grants His disciples “more faith” because faith isn’t a commodity to acquire; it’s a partnership between divine power and human willingness. He recalls the story of the feeding of the multitude — how the disciples thought they lacked resources, but Jesus urged them to look within, to recognize that what they already had, offered in faith, was enough. Jesus sees more in His followers than they see in themselves. Faith, therefore, is the quiet courage to open one’s heart, to trust that even the smallest gesture done in love can become part of God’s great work.

The sermon closes with an invitation: to notice how faith shows up in the ordinary. Acts of care, service, and forgiveness — the unseen, everyday things — are the real evidence of faith at work. When multiplied across a community, these small acts of grace create light in a world darkened by anger and vengeance. Father Mark ends with a striking image: if every believer opened their heart just a little more, the Spirit of Christ would ripple through the earth — and we would see “mulberry trees marching toward the sea.”

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.