Hi everyone,

Welcome to worship for this 17th Sunday after Pentecost, which lands on October 5, 2025!

The bulletin for this service can be found here. You can use it to follow along with this service as it has the worship order and words as well as the sermon, or alternatively the words that you need to know will appear on your screen. The sermon is also posted here at the bottom of this page.

For an enhanced online worship experience, you can have a candle in your space, lit in a safe way for most of the service and extinguished near the end, after the sending hymn. You are also welcome to participate in communion if you are comfortable, by having something small to eat and drink prepared for consumption before the service begins. Further instruction will be given at the appropriate time.

May God’s love shine in and through you, that the world might see God’s light, this day and always!

Holy God, through your Son Jesus the light of your gospel was revealed. May it illumine our hearts, minds, and lives, that we might proclaim its truth and love with that same Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg…?

I’m actually asking… because I have no idea.

That’s the thing about this age-old question, right?  None of really know.  We might have our opinions and reasons that range all over the map, but really, we just don’t know.  We weren’t there.  We didn’t witness it.  There are no medical records we can refer to.  It just isn’t possible to have the correct answer with 100% certainty.   

But people ask it anyway.

Why?  Because it’s a philosophical conundrum.  It’s an infinitely circular cause-and-effect argument.  It’s something that will truly bake our noodles as we try and try to figure it out.

Every answer we come up with will have a counter.  Every theory will hit a snag.  Everything we think of can be disproven.  And I guess that’s the fun in it?  But one thing seems to be set in our minds, it was one or the other.   One of the two choices had to have been created before the other one.  One of them begat while the other was begotten.

And so to tie this mildly amusing debate to the themes for today, let me pose this different but similar question: which comes first, faith or works?  This is something we may have asked or been asked in the past, and like the chicken/egg question, it’s a tough one to crack, but for different reasons.  This one because our source material, the bible, seems to support either answer.  Paul tells us that we’re saved by faith and not by works.  So that sounds like we have our answer.  But then James tells us that faith without works is dead.  And we’re back at square one. 

But even with seemingly contradictory passages, I think practically speaking we as Lutherans tend to lean toward the notion that it’s actually faith that comes first.  I mean, faith is what motivates us, right?  Faith strengthens us, helps us see things differently, and reminds us of who we are and whose we are, right?  Faith is the reason why we even have any works to do, right?

Sure, while there will always be exceptions to the rule, like there will be good people out there who don’t hold any religious affiliation.  Like really good people who have been role models for so many and pillars of morality and compassion.  People like Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, and Cyclops from the X-Men (the original comic version not that watered-down movie version). 

But even with those exceptions, I think we as church goers will just naturally be team faith.  It’s what speaks to us the most, it’s what we’ve been taught and experienced, it is the example that we’ve been given by the disciples even, when they asked for Jesus to increase their faith.

Relatable, right?  Their request is the same one that we make, their hope is what we also hope in, their prayer is just like ours because they and we all know that we can’t get through this crazy thing called life on our own.  We need help.  We need God.  We need faith.  So we totally get where the disciples are coming from.  They’re not so different from us, so it seems.

And so it’s that relatability of the first part of this passage that makes Jesus’ response so confusing, to the point that we might wonder if we’re even right about this faith stuff.  In an almost mockingly challenging way, Jesus says that if they only had just a tiny, eensy weensy bit of faith, like the size of a mustard seed, they could do some crazy supernatural things that we only see in movies.  Like being able to recognise what a mulberry tree even is in the wild, for goodness sake.  Talk about the X-men, that’s some amazing mutant ability right there.  And then after recognising it, using your Jedi powers to force lift it up and toss it in the ocean?  Could you imagine?  It’d make raking up those leaves that will soon cover our front yard child’s play.  And all we need an iota of faith?  Bet.

Except… we can’t do that, can we?  At least, I’ve never seen any of us doing that.  And believe me, I’d pay good money to see that and also just to get some help to clear up our yard because it really can get ridiculous out there.  So this makes it sound like Jesus might not be on team faith like us.  The disciples are just asking for a bit more of that faith juice to be able to do the things that Jesus asks of them in the few verses before today’s selection.  And this is Jesus’ answer?

Then to confuse matters even more, he goes on this discourse about slaves and how they should be treated and how we should admit that we’re but slaves.  What does he mean?  What could he mean?  All this just leaves us scratching our heads, almost wishing our faith be increased just to help us understand it.  I mean, it’s pretty confusing.

But maybe that’s the point.  Maybe that’s what Jesus is trying to show them and us.  Maybe he’s saying that it isn’t about our faith, how big or how strong it is, or how wide and far reaching.  Nor is it about works, because Jesus doesn’t tell them to do or do not or anything, but he just makes up these crazy and impossible scenarios.

So this leads me to believe that it’s not about faith or works at all.  But rather, it’s about who we are in God’s family.  Who we are not by our own doing or making or will, but by how God creates us, forms us, and saves us to be.

And then we might think, but don’t we still need faith to even believe that?  Well, I guess so because let’s be real, some of us are really hard to love.  Really though, our belief in anything isn’t what makes it true or not.  Rather, it is all God.  It is God who chooses us, calls us by name, and lifts us up with healing and love. 

I mean, this bible is full of stories of these faithful characters that don’t start with faith at all.  Like Abraham, Moses, David, Esther, all those prophets, the different Marys, the apostles, and the epistle writers.  And while all of them had faith and did some amazing things, that’s not where their greatness came from.  Their works didn’t come from their faith nor did their faith come from their works.  But all that they are and were able to do cam from God.  It is always God who first reaches out, anoints, and empowers them, us, and all people to be God’s children in the world.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t need faith.  It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to do good works.  But it means that who we are, our salvation, and our place in this community isn’t because of that.  But it’s by God’s own doing, God’s own calling, God’s own gracious love for us and all the saints of all times and places.

The past few weeks I’ve been talking about how difficult the world is to live in.  Any one who watched the news, opened a newspaper, or even got on the internet has heard about the awful state that the nations, the relationships between them, and just people in general are in.  And it is sometimes so overwhelming.  We might shake our heads and think that we can’t even.  We might raise our eyes to heaven and cry out “why” and wonder how we can ever make it in this mess.  We might even ask for our faith to be increased.

But through it all, we are reminded of who holds our future.  We are reminded of who has knit us together to live in community and relationship.  We are reminded of who calls us, empowers us, and sends us out to be, to do, and to love.  Still, it isn’t easy.  There is so much we want to do but are unsure if we can.  We worry that we might not be strong enough, good enough, or faithful enough to make a difference.  But again, it isn’t by our strength, our morality, or our faith that makes things happen.  Rather, it’s God.

It’s God who is worthy of our trust and gives us faith and hope.  It’s God who calls us to follow and strengthens us to pray and be answers to prayer.  It’s God who created us to be not perfect in faith and works, but beloved and forgiven and accurate reflections of this unending and steadfast love in the world.

So as we continue through this season after Pentecost, may we always see God working in us, through us, and in spite of us in our community and world, bringing to light our welcome, our salvation, and this gospel that joins us all together to be the body of Christ in love and peace.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.