It strikes me (and I may be wrong) that our society has witnessed a loss of faith over the last years and decades. For instance, many people no longer trust mainstream news media such as the BBC as they believe they’re peddling the “fake news” which the Government would like us to hear, What’s strange is that they then turn to social media and seem willing to believe things which are unsubstantiated or bizarre! We have also lost our faith in politicians, whether to give straight answers to questions, to keep their promises, or to “deliver” on their policies. I’d suggest that the behaviour of some – not all! – politicians hasn’t made it easy for us to put our trust in them.

We’ve also lost faith in economists and their predictions, although I think it’s fair to say not only that Covid and the Ukraine war have turned the world’s finances upside-down but also that economics is by nature an inexact science. Many people have sadly lost faith in the police and the justice system – both criminal and civil – which don’t appear to be as effective or impartial as they should be. And, although the late Queen was widely admired and respected, King Charles has not yet earned our loyalty and trust: although we know what he’s said and done in the past, we must wait and see what he’ll do now he’s on throne. Those are just a few thoughts; you can probably think of other areas of society in which our faith seems to have drained away.

Of course the area which immediately jumps to mind when we hear the word “faith” is religion. Here we perhaps face a mixed picture. It’s clearly true that Britain is a less religious society than it used to be. We don’t like to admit it, but church attendance is in freefall, especially in the traditional denominations: yes, there are some so-called “new churches” which attract large crowds, and some churches have been swelled by Christians moving to Britain from other countries, but that doesn’t alter the overall picture. Some other religions, such as Hinduism and Islam, seem to be holding their ground. That, I think, is because they are often bound up with ethnic identity and culture. But history shows that they too will slowly decline as their members “marry out” or become more aligned to mainstream (and secular) British society.

Things were very different in Jesus’ day where religion was part and parcel of daily life; every group in society, Jewish, Samaritan, Roman, Greek or whatever had its own specific brand. I’m sure that some people took their religion very seriously and were often at their temple or shrine, while others had a more nominal faith which they couldn’t really define or explain. Nevertheless faith permeated society and it was almost unheard of for someone to say, “Actually, I don’t believe”.

It’s in this setting that Jesus’ disciples come to him and ask, “Lord, increase our faith”. At first sight this request seems to be quite reasonable. For have people been saying that they’re backing a false Messiah, so they want to have greater confidence in who Jesus is? Or have they seen him perform mighty miracles and exorcisms, and want a big enough dollop of faith to do them too? That’s what we might surmise, but we’d be wrong, as the context of this little discussion takes us in a different direction. For, unless Luke has just plugged it randomly into his Gospel (which seems unlikely), it directly follows a section in which Jesus has told the disciples that they must forgive an errant colleague even if they’ve upset them repeatedly and kept crawling back to say, “I’m sorry”. The disciples seem to be shocked by this command and say to Jesus, “That’s too hard for us; you’ll have to give us the faith if we’re to do it”. It’s a plea to have faith for forgiving.

I’ll come back to that specific request in a few moments. But first I want us to ask ourselves this question: how often have we read one of Jesus’ commands in the Bible, or perhaps listened to a request in church for volunteers, and said, “Hmm; I really want to obey (or help), but I don’t have the faith for it; some Christians do, but I don’t”? And have we even gone further and said, “If God wants me to do that, he’ll have to give me a faith boost first” – while (let’s be honest) secretly hoping that he won’t give us that boost because obeying the command or carrying out the task sound as if they could be time-consuming, unpleasant or just plain inconvenient! In other words, is our real problem not a lack of faith, but a lack of dedication or willingness?

Now I do believe that God can give us special faith to do remarkable things. Indeed St Paul lists “faith” as one of the so-called “gifts of the Spirit”; although he (annoyingly) doesn’t explain what that is, it seems clear that he’s talking about something which goes above and beyond the everyday faith in God possessed by every Christian. And we all know that Christianity’s history is studded with examples of ordinary believers who accomplished extraordinary deeds although they do all seem to have lived either a long time ago or a long way away or both! Although there are Pentecostal preachers in Britain who claim to be able to work amazing miracles of healing, I tend to be sceptical of their claims. Hard evidence of this gift of “special faith” is in short supply. Does this mean that God is no longer handing it out? Or does it mean that we live in a questioning age which makes it’s hard for us to have a simple and confident faith? Perhaps that’s the answer.

So we come back to the disciples’ request: “Increase our faith”. It’s very blunt, isn’t it: not “How can we develop our faith?” or “How can we better understand what faith is about?” No: it’s a request which puts the onus for doling out faith fairly and squarely on Jesus. There are rifts and tensions in the disciples’ fellowship, they are finding it impossible to forgive each other and put past hurts behind them. They say that they need more faith to do that, and that it’s up to Jesus to give it to them. If they can’t to resolve their differences because Jesus doesn’t give them the necessary spiritual “top-up”, that will be his responsibility, won’t it? The disciples will come out of the situation totally without blame – or so they think!

Well, they are wrong. They’re sure that Jesus will produce a bottle full of faith and sprinkle it all over them – for surely he can’t refuse such a pious plea. But what they actually get is a put-down and a story. “The Message” version of this passage gives us the flavour:

The Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’or ‘less’ with faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake’ and it would do it”.

And Jesus goes on to talk about a slave coming in from outdoor work:

“Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’? Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; wait table until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? The servant get doesn’t get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him, and it’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, just say, ‘The work is done. We did what we were told to do’.”

In other words, the secret for doing what Jesus asks isn’t a special infilling of faith: it’s simply being ready to say, “yes”, to obey. The disciples, imply Jesus, have been making excuses for not forgiving each other. But there’s no divine remedy, secret formula or quick-fix for doing that: they’ve just to take the bull by the horns, swallow their pride, eat humble pie (or whatever) and make amends with each other.

Before I finish, I want to add a little “P.S.”. For there’s one aspect of this story which puzzles me.: why do the disciples ask for “faith” so they can forgive? I could understand them requesting “courage” or “strength” or even “grace” – that would make a lot of sense. But no, what they ask for is “faith”, which seems to be a little odd. None of the people who’ve written about this passage seem to have noticed it, so I must hazard a guess as to why it’s “faith” the disciples are asking for.

Might it in fact be that they don’t have much confidence that any gesture of forgiveness they make won’t be kicked back straight in their faces? Or, if they go to a friend’s house with the aim of making amends, that the front door won’t be opened and then immediately slammed shut? Or that any apology they may offer won’t improve the situation but make it ten times worse? Or that by simply mentioning some perceived slight they will open themselves up to a tirade of abuse? Or that they feel it’s better to “let sleeping dogs lie” – always with the underlying fear that they may wake up again in a time of stress – than to “bite the bullet” (some mixed metaphors there, I fear)? I suspect all of these things are possible: the disciples need to have faith that offering an olive branch or a hand of friendship will repair the damaged relationship permanently – but they’re not at all sure that it will. “Lord, increase our faith”, they pray. So must we.

I guess we all know that the Labour Party held its annual conference this week, and that the Conservatives are just starting theirs. I guess too that most of us saw snippets of Keir Starmer’s speech on television, or read about in your newspaper. In it he said this:

“What we’ve seen in the past few days has no precedent.
“The government has lost control of the British economy – and for what? They’ve crashed the pound – and for what?
“Higher interest rates. Higher inflation. Higher borrowing. And for what?
“Not for you. Not for working people. For tax cuts for the richest 1 per cent in our society.
“Don’t forget. Don’t forgive”.

Of course to him the solution to these problems was obvious: “The only way forward is to stop this, with a Labour government.”

I’ll leave you to agree or disagree with that final sentence; I’m not here to talk politics today! But there’s one phrase which stuck in my mind: “Don’t forget. Don’t forgive”. A speechwriter was probably proud of that and it may be excellent advice in politics. But it is surely terrible advice for individuals who have to rub along in society, in families, in churches. We must make sure that we truly forgive and genuinely forget – which we can only do with God’s help. “Lord, increase our faith”.