Hosted each week by the Faith To Go team in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, David Tremaine, Maya Little-Sana and Charlette Preslar, the Faith To Go Podcast highlight themes from the Sunday Gospel reading for you to take into your faith discussions and reflections throughout the week.
From NPR
Questions:
1. Who has faith in this story?
2. How do they put their faith into action?
3. Where do you see faith the size of a mustard seed planted? Who does the planting?
4. What grows out of the small efforts of the people in the town?
5. How does something small lead to something big?
Views and Qs: A Few Dollars of Faith
Watch this video together and then use the discussion questions below to reflect as a family.
Discussion Questions:
1) Who had faith in this story?
2) What was expected of Marcus in his job?
3) How did he go beyond those expectations?
4) How did something small grow into something big?
5) Where do you see God moving in this story?
Feast and Faith: A "Small" Faith
For this week’s dinner discussion, we are talking about how Jesus calls us to faith the size of a mustard seed, and to live out that faith in an ever deepening spiritual journey.
Prayer -
Dear God,
Sometimes our weekly path takes unexpected turns. Unexpected challenges. Surprising joys. Give us strength, wisdom, and courage to respond with humility to today's challenges. Make our hearts light to delight in joy. Guide us through this week's twists and turns.
Amen.
(adapted from Call on Me: A Prayer Book for Young People)
Discussion – For this week’s dinner discussion, we are talking about how Jesus his disciples, and us, to have faith the size of a mustard seed, and to continue to go deeper and deeper in our spiritual journey of self discovery. In the Gospel, the disciples say to Jesus, "Increase our faith." And Jesus replies that they do not require an increase in faith, but the simple and small faith of a mustard seed. A small faith does not mean a small amount, but a faith that is humble, adaptable, flexible and curious. In his story about those serving their master who do not get congratulated for doing what is expected, Jesus invites us to both be at peace with this "small" faith, but to also recognize that we are on a lifelong journey of deepening our relationship with ourselves, other people, and God. This requires this small, humble faith, that continues to be curious without getting stuck in certainty.
Questions
1. What do you think Jesus means by "faith the size of a mustard seed?"
2. What does it mean to you to be "humble?"
3. What role does humility play in our lifelong spiritual journey and our relationship with God and one another?
4. Can we be humble in our relationship with ourselves?
5. How do you know when you are stuck? What helps you keep moving?
Final nugget – Often we think of humility as making ourselves lower than other people in some way. The words humility and humble, though, share the same Latin root humus with the word humanity. In Latin, humus means "soil, ground, dirt," which, in our Christian tradition, is not a sign of lowliness, but blessedness as we were all formed from the dust of the earth by God, or the stardust as we know now. Humility, then, is not thinking of ourselves as lower than others, but recognizing our humanity as being equally blessed as everyone else's, not better or worse, but the same. In this way, we are able to live into who we actually are, no better and no worse.
Stay and Pray: A Devotion for Families at the Close of the Day Each week we feature a way for your family to reflect and pray together. For families with older children this is an at home liturgy for your family to participate in together. It is a daily devotion for families adapted from The Book of Common Prayer.
Before you begin, take a few moments to decide who will read the scripture reading and who will read the collect and closing.
Read the Psalm and Lord's Prayer in unison.
After a moment of silence, begin with the Psalm.
Psalm 137
(Read in unison)
1 By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, *
when we remembered you, O Zion.
2 As for our harps, we hung them up *
on the trees in the midst of that land.
3 For those who led us away captive asked us for a song,
and our oppressors called for mirth: *
"Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
4 How shall we sing the Lord'S song *
upon an alien soil.
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, *
let my right hand forget its skill.
6 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you, *
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.
7 Remember the day of Jerusalem, O Lord,
against the people of Edom, *
who said, "Down with it! down with it!
even to the ground!"
8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, *
happy the one who pays you back
for what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall he be who takes your little ones, *
and dashes them against the rock!
Gospel Luke 17:5-10
(read by assigned person)
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, `Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.
"Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, `Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, `Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
Prayers for Ourselves and For Others
(take this time to each offer one person/event that you would like to hold in prayer as well as one thing you are thankful for)
Dear God, tonight I ask your prayers for.......
and I give you thanks for ..........
Amen
The Lord’s Prayer
(read in unison)
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen
The Collect
(read by assigned person)
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Share some of your conversations in the comments below: