Life Lessons from the Mustard Seed

I love mayonnaise. Always have. Smooth, comforting, dependable. Mustard? Fine on its day, but it’s not usually the star of my sandwich. Then one day, thanks to my man Luke, I found myself in the spice aisle wondering: How small are those mustard seeds, really?

Turns out: ridiculously tiny. I picked up a jar, gave it a shake, squinted at the little round things, paid for it, and took it home. I placed it on the top shelf of my kitchen spice cabinet — a secret little reminder that even the smallest things can matter.

My Nursing-Home Ministry & the Mustard-Seed Sermon

Once a week, I volunteer at a nursing home. I lead a short service, offer communion, and provide spiritual care. Many of the residents have dementia. Some forget who I am; others forget what I said five minutes earlier. I saw this in my grandmother, too, so I know how tender, patient, slow, and steady things have to be.

One Sunday, after preaching on faith the size of a mustard seed, I thought: “Why not bring the jar?” Let them see it. Touch it. Pass it around. Make it real.

They did. They shook the jar. They held some seeds in their hands. They passed it along. Then we got to the last resident. She looked completely innocent, nursing a handful of those tiny seeds … until she popped them into her mouth before saying, “I don’t remember M&M’s tasting like this.”

Thankfully, she spit them out! The seeds were scattered on the table, little flecks everywhere! It was a service I will never forget!

What Luke’s Gospel Taught Me

In the Gospel according to Luke, the disciples ask Jesus, “Increase our faith.” They’re worn, frazzled, and uncertain. They don’t always feel confident.

Jesus doesn’t say, “Come back when your faith is big enough or perfect enough.” Instead, he says something like: even faith the size of a tiny mustard seed can move things. It still matters. It still counts.

It’s not about how polished the faith looks. It’s about what you bring, even when what you have feels small or uncertain.

What I Learned (and What You Can Too)

• Small faith isn’t useless. Even when it feels tiny or weak, it can connect people, inspire hope, create laughter, and bring God’s presence.
• Props are helpful — until they aren’t. (Note: not everyone expects seeds in their mouth, or a seed-spitting moment at the end of a sermon.)
• Dementia doesn’t exclude anyone from spiritual life. In fact, it shows how gentleness, patience, physical objects, surprise, and humor can matter as much as “perfect words.”
• Our small gestures, our small faith, our presence, even when things go sideways, or seeds go flying, still matter.

What I Want You to Remember

If your faith feels fragile, uncertain, too small, too shaky, you are not alone. I get that.

But don’t dismiss what you do have. Don’t wait for your faith to look big enough or good enough. Start where you are.

Tiny-Faith Prayer:

God of the tiny and the mighty,
I bring what I have (even when it feels too small or messy.)
Use my little faith. Use even the unexpected moments, the laughs, the surprises.
Grow what seems small. Shine where things seem ordinary.
Let what seems tiny in my eyes matter in Yours.
Amen.