The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost; 2 October 2022; Proper 22C (RCL); Lamentations 1:1-6; Lamentations 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10.
The “parable” of the mulberry tree is confusing. Why would anyone want to plant a mulberry tree in the middle of the sea, anyway? I think Luke may be mixing sayings here; both Mark and Matthew have Jesus make a statement about having faith and saying to this mountain be cast into the sea and it would obey. That at least makes a little sense — but planting trees in the sea?
The parable is confusing in other respects as well. The first have of the conditional statement is in the indicative, meaning that it is to be read as a factual statement: Since you do have faith like a mustard seed . . . (the translation provides ‘the size of’). The second half of the conditional statement is in the subjunctive, implying a statement counter to fact: “You could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you (but you can’t).” And all the yous in this statement are plural — this is not about any one of us having faith like a mustard seed, but us together.
The lectionary does us no favor by leaving off the verses at the beginning of this passage. Jesus warns the disciples about being a stumbling block for other Christians, and then say that each of us is to warn anyone who sins, and then be ready to accept repentance and forgive the same person for the same sin seven times in a day. Perhaps that’s why the disciples cry, “Increase our faith!” It seems impossible. Transplanting mulberry trees seems equally impossible (the Greek has a sycamine tree — rather bigger than what we think of as mulberry).
And then the saying about slaves preparing dinner seems to imply that when we have done the impossible (forgiving seven times in a day), we are not to pat ourselves on the back, because we have only done what for doing what has been commanded.
Why the mix of factual conditional with counterfactual conditional? Luke is not a sloppy grammarian. What did he intend? We do have faith like a mustard seed, but we don’t use it? In other contexts, the Kingdom is compared to a mustard seed. Mustard is an aggressive weed, if not carefully controlled. The scrappy kingdom is going to take over. Is the mulberry tree the conflict within the Christian community, the sin that needs forgiven seven times in one day? We have the faith to deal with it, but we don’t. And when we do, don’t expect a pat on the back. We’ve only done the minimum.
In Track 1, we’ve now reached the point that Jerusalem has been sacked, and the poet is mourning the devastation of the city. Lamentations holds out very little hope — just that little bit in chapter 3, that we use as a canticle in place of the psalm for the day. If we used the faithfulness we already have, might we have avoided the devastation? And the way we use that faith is by reconciliation within the community, forgiving each other seven times in a day, if necessary.