Sometimes the Gospel challenges us, sometimes the Gospel confuses us, sometimes the Gospel scolds us for our sin. And sometimes the Gospel just reassures us. Like it does this morning. Reassures us when we are being too hard on ourselves.

People who are self-confident in all other areas, are often secretly self-conscious about how little faith they have. Those of us who are shamelessly satisfied with ourselves in all other areas, are ashamed of ourselves when we reckon up how much pure, genuine, unconditional faith we have.

We may be unaccountably pleased with ourselves about so much in our lives but we are rarely thrilled with the amount of faith we have. It is the number one worry, and number one admission, I hear from Christians: "I just wish I had more faith. I wish my faith were stronger. I worry that I seem to have so little faith."

It's one thing we are not very secure about. There may be other things as well, but this one seems especially prevalent among serious Christians. We think, we worry, we fear, that we don' have enough faith for the long haul.

The Bible, like God, says, "Don't you believe it! Don't be discouraged! If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, it is enough. If your faith is so insignificant that it is hardly noticeable, it is enough. That is all God needs. He will do the rest."

Today's Gospel notes just how tentative a thing faith is, how tenuous, but how tenacious as well.

The Bible, the Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ, are all perfectly comfortable viewing faith as an endeavor with only the most inauspicious beginning, a hesitant start with a mysterious, incomprehensible and slow development.

"It is like 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, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."

"Faith is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how."

This is certainly not the usual, popular description of faith - tiny, insignificant, unnoticeable at first, growing and developing, no one knows how. And then comes the day when the final product is there, and who knows how it came about? Faith, full grown, with large branches and much shade, faith in full flower. Without all the effort we thought we needed to make, without the good works we thought we had to do. Without even any promising potential obvious at the outset. just rising nad resting, confident in God and in his love. Just a seed at first, a tiny, little seed, smallest of all seeds in fact. And then there it is. Faith. Full-blown. Like nothing else. No longer insignificant, no longer unnoticeable. The greatest of all shrubs.

For serious Christians, those periods when faith is weak, or it seems so small, can cause the most worry and embarrassment. We are ready to throw in the towel, ready to dismiss the little faith we do have, ready and more than willing to apologize for it, to God and to others.

. . . However. And by now I bet you have gotten used to hearing me say however. However, while it doesn't take much faith to start a little bit of faith is one thing, a phony faith quite another. When the Bible endorses little faith - mustard seed faith - it is not excusing fake faith, a hypocritical, lukewarm faith. That kind of little faith is condemned consistently. Complacency, and satisfaction with that kind of little faith is not what the parable means, what God means. He means small, but real faith.

The Bible is not saying faith is unimportant. Faith is essential. But no set amount of faith is required - as small as a mustard seed will do - smallest seed known in the Palestine of the time. In the realm of faith, as in no other, the most insignificant amount is sufficient - unlike love, where a minuscule amount may just not be enough. You will run into real trouble, you will experience, and you will cause, unimaginable heartbreak and hurt if you don't have enough love, you will cause so much damage if you do not have enough honor or courage or comittment. Insufficiency, inadequacy in all of those areas is a disaster.

But you don't need to worry about that in regard to your faith. Anything is enough. Anything. Even if it is no more than mustard seed size.

Because we are reassured this morning, faith, if insufficient, will grow. That is the wonderful good news of the Gospel. You don't need to know how it grows, and in fact you can't know how, and you never will. You just "sleep and rise". God will do the rest.

A mustard seed amount of faith is fine, but it does need to grow. The seed is fine at the start, as long as there is a bush by the end. And in between is our Christian life. That's where the going to Church, the praying, the meditating, the talking, and listening, and sharing together all come in. That's the sleeping and the rising. And we are promised this morning and every morning that we rise, that God will do the rest.