“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

I’ve been thinking about swimming lately. The subject has appeared in a few books I’ve read.

I’ve been reflecting on my inability to swim. I can certainly ‘swim’ across a pool, and I can float, but these are at a very basic level. I cannot seriously swim, nor could I tread water for any significant period of time.

I was at Mystic this summer, and a certain theme keeps coming up —“ something I learned there. Most sailors refused to learn how to swim. If their ship were to sink, they preferred a quick death.

Now, I would think that all of us have enough desire for life so as to struggle should we fall in, even if we couldn’t swim. Having said that, I would wonder how many of us carry enough faith so as to pick ourselves up and walk across the water.

You recall the passage from the Gospel according to St. Matthew:

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.
But immediately he spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”
And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus;
but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”
Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Do we have the faith to move mountains, uproot trees, and walk on water?

The interesting thing about faith is that for a few it is intuitive. Most of us struggle with faith because in light of our experience it is counter-intuitive.

We might react to God in much the same way Habakkuk did:

Why do you let me see ruin;
why must I look at misery?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and clamorous discord.

We know God’s promises —“ He Himself told us how things would be. Yet…

Yet He threw up a huge roadblock to easy faith. The cross.

Today our Bishop is visiting in order to bless our newly installed cross, the cross that is front and center, on the peak of the church’s roof.

He blesses the cross which is the stumbling block for so many; the cross, which is a contradiction to those who claim wisdom.

Brothers and sisters,

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that the servant’s life is not easy.

“Who among you would say to your servant
who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field,
‘Come here immediately and take your place at table’?
Would he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare something for me to eat.
Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink.
You may eat and drink when I am finished’?

It is easy to look at the master and say, ‘What a jerk.’ The servant worked all day —“ in the hot sun, out in the fields. The servant no sooner returns than he is told to wash up, put on his apron, and get right back to work. We feel sorry for the servant. We pity him.

We are wrong.

My friends,

That is the mystery of the cross.

Jesus stood His ground before the cross. He accepted it and took it up.

We are to do the same.

Our sinful inclination is to say ‘non serviam.’ I will not serve. I will not bow down.

It happens in big and small ways. Everything from abortion —“ I will not bear this child, to marriage —“ I will marry who I want regardless of Church teaching, to service in the Holy Church —“ Well Holy Orders should be open to me too, to eating those extra carbs you and I do not need.

In the face of the cross faith asks us to say yes, I accept suffering, loss, sadness, pain, loneliness, difficulties, and discomfort for the sake of my salvation and the Kingdom. I accept my place on the cross.

St. Paul reminds us, as he sits in his prison cell:

For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.
So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord

Our testimony is the cross, and our courageous acceptance of it.

Faith in the Holy Cross and its meaning in our lives is the prerequisite to moving mountains, transplanting trees, and walking on water.

Faith in the Holy Cross gives us what the world cannot give, true power, true love, true self-control.

That faith in the cross may be the size of a mustard seed, but as Jesus told us:

—…a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches—

With that seed of faith and our acceptance of the cross we will be victorious.

Amen.