Christ the King Epiphany Church, Wilbraham

The Rev. Martha S. Sipe

October 5, 2025 / 17th Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 27C

Psalm 37:1-9; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10

The mustard seed.  It appears in two slightly different parables in three of the four gospels.  But always the mustard seed represents faith – a tiny amount of it, just like a mustard seed is tiny – and what even a tiny amount of faith can do.  

It’s so easy to focus on the mustard seed.  It’s a relatable image that everyone instinctively understands.  That’s why I suspect a fair number of us had mustard seed necklaces when we were younger.  I know I did.  It was a tiny seed encased in a plastic pendant and hung on a chain.  I looked up “mustard seed jewelry” online to see if it was just a ‘70’s thing, and found to my surprise that you can still buy necklaces and charms with mustard seeds – priced from anywhere between a few bucks on Amazon to over $500 at Kay Jewelers.  See what I mean?  Merchandisers recognize that the mustard seed is a relatable – and therefore sellable – image.

But just for today, I’d like to rebrand this parable as the parable of the mulberry tree.  For two reasons.

First, I’d like to think of this as the parable of the mulberry tree because I want to draw your attention away from the mustard seed.  Because what I believe Jesus is saying here is that the disciples are barking up the wrong tree when they ask for more faith.  Asking for more means you’re measuring the quantity of your faith.  And the more pressing question, in my mind, is about the quality of your faith.  The object of your faith.  Faith is all about our relationship with God – a relationship of trust.  And we are all given the gift of faith when we were baptized, when our relationship with God began.  So instead of seeking more faith, why not spend our energy seeking to know the one in whom we have faith?  St. Paul writes “I know the one in whom I have put my trust.”  And when we come to know God in the same way that St. Paul knew God, we will discover that God cannot fail us.  A father’s arms can grow weak – our heavenly Father’s cannot.  A mother’s love and patience and forgiveness can run out – God’s cannot.  A human being can go back on a promise – God cannot.  Get to know the Lord more deeply, and you will find one in whom you can safely put all your trust.  Forget about the itty bitty mustard seed!  The size of your faith doesn’t matter.  What matters is the one in whom we trust!

The second reason I’d like to rebrand this parable as the parable of the mulberry tree is because the idea of a mulberry tree uprooting itself and planting itself in the sea is . . . well . . . preposterous!  Even if we could get beyond the fact that, let’s be honest, trees can’t uproot themselves; even if we could get past the craziness of a tree planted in the middle of the ocean – not on an island mind you, but in the water, the salt water; even aside from all of that, the particular tree that Jesus names is the sycamine tree – sometimes known as a fig-mulberry because it has leaves like a mulberry but fruit more like figs – the sycamine tree, which reportedly has very deep roots.  Which of course, would make it even harder to uproot.  I can’t help but think about our efforts to thin out the ironweed in our pollinator garden yesterday so that we could share it with others . . . thank you to the Creation Cared Advocates, by the way – it was a nice gesture to share our bountiful flowers with others – but not the ironweed.  We eventually gave up because the roots were too deep.  I guess we know now why it’s called ironweed!  But back to the tree Jesus was talking about:  can you imagine a task more seemingly impossible to accomplish than a deeply rooted tree pulling itself out of the ground and planting itself in the sea?  I can.  How about solving the problem of hunger?  Or eradicating racism?  Or, dare I say it, bridging the political divide?  These, and all of the other intractable problems we face – by ourselves, we have just about as much hope of solving them by our own power as we do levitating and transplanting a tree by our own power.  It’s preposterous!  But, as the psalmist says, “Put your trust in the Lord, and see what God will do.”

Remember, though, that God doesn’t act in a vacuum.  God works through us.  And this is where the mustard seed image, I think, can be helpful.  Because our mustard-seed acts of faithfulness, even though tiny, can make a difference.  We can’t solve the problem of hunger by ourselves.  But you and I can buy food for the Survival Center and we can write to our congressional representatives and ask them to restore funding to food pantries and we can contribute to global hunger programs.  And all of our efforts together – with the help of the Holy Spirit – can feed the world.  We can’t eradicate racism by ourselves.  But those of us who are white can examine our privilege and we can name the injustices still being perpetrated on people of color and we can support the work of atonement that our diocese is undertaking.  All of our efforts together – with the help of the Holy Spirit – can make our society look a little more like the Kingdom of God.  And you and I can’t fix the political climate we’re in.  But we can talk to one another and listen to one another and love one another without exception.  And with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can strengthen all the communities of which we are a part.

We’ve got mulberry tree-sized problems, it’s true.  But what is also true is that we’ve got mustard-seed sized faith, multiplied by an infinitely large God.  So live deeply into your relationship with God – who cannot grow weak and will not lose patience with us and is incapable of betraying us.  Live deeply into that relationship, follow Jesus, and –

Put your trust in the Lord and do good;

         dwell in the land and find safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,

          who shall give you your heart’s desire.

Commit your way to the Lord;

put your trust in the Lord,

          and see what God will do.