PENTECOST 17C 2025

THE REV. E. WAYNE ROLLINS

​ Let me begin by saying that if anyone wants to try out Jesus’ example of even the smallest amount of faith, the Property Committee has a dogwood tree they’d like to show you. 

Today’s Gospel lesson has a parallel in Matthew; there it comes in response to the disciples’ inability to heal a man’s epileptic son. That event comes earlier in Luke, and today the disciples’ request seems to come out of the blue. It follows a teaching about forgiveness, something to be given when asked for, no matter how many times the sin is repeated. 

It’s no wonder the disciples want more faith. It’s gonna take a lot of faith to forgive the same sin as much as seven times in one day! But it needs more than faith. It needs living faithfully, which means how we live in relationship to others and not just something we think we possess. 

You might be wondering what today’s lessons have to do with Francis of Assisi, whom we commemorate this day one day after his appointed feast day. If we could we might choose the lessons for that day and remember Francis’ story about giving up all worldly possessions and walking naked out on the street to the embarrassment of his bishop. 

Given that option, perhaps it’s best we dive more deeply into faithfulness. 

Francis, or at least stories about him, can help us with that. 

It was on his feast day several years ago that I got a reminder about faithfulness. I made a quick trip to pick up a few groceries before a scheduled pet blessing service. I pulled into my driveway, and as I got my items from the car, a still, small voice spoke to me. It said, “meow.” 

I turned and saw a gray tabby cat sitting at the end of my driveway. I later learned that the neighbors had named him “Bob.” Bob repeated his request as I walked up the steps and into my house. I had nothing suitable for a cat to eat, so I tore a slice of bread into small pieces, placed it on a plate, and took it out to the front porch. 

I set it down, whereupon it was sniffed and rejected. Bob looked up at me and again said, “meow.” This one had a slight inflection which I interpreted to say “cat does not live by bread alone." I had to get back to the appointed service, but returned to that grocery store and bought a bag of cat food. 

Some of you may have noticed how quickly word about certain parish events spreads from mouth to ear. Cats invented that process, and they’re still better at it than any of us try to be. To make a long story somewhat shorter, I probably was known as the strange cat guy on my block, with a small herd of them appearing each evening for sustenance. They did learn to space themselves out, for if a disagreement among them necessitated my intervention, food and water disappeared. My experience as a social worker providing in-home behavioral management to families has seen many interpretations.

All that, and more happened despite my lease forbidding pets inside or outside. And, I'm allergic to cats.

The point of all this is that I believe we are given companions of the four-legged, two-winged, swimming and slithering varieties to remind us of our capacity for faithful relationships. Sometimes the faith is ours, sometimes it is the pet’s.

The same goes for other human beings in our relationships. Sometimes they remind us of our need to be faithful and the wealth of real life found in it. Sometimes they help us remember that, yes, we are taught to forgive as often as it takes. And sometimes we might need to just say that it’s difficult to forgive because the repeated sin endangers our ability to remain in faithful relationship together. That helps us understand that faithfulness often means speaking the truth in love, and not being an enabler.

And maybe God puts us all together so that we remember the act of faithful forgiveness that gives us life as God’s children. So, as we offer blessings, we remember that we are at first blessed. That is, after all, part of our purpose. Blessed to be a blessing. It’s not ours to possess, and cannot live unless it is shared.
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You see, our faith is increased by living faithfully. With each other, with creation, with God. That's how faith works, and how it grows.