I wonder how we compare to Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was desperately eager to just see Jesus. He so wanted to see him that Luke says he ran on ahead of the crowd so he could find a place where he could get an unobstructed view of this traveling Rabbi.
It must have been very important for him to see Jesus if he ran. Because that would have meant that he had to lift up his robe or skirt so his clothes wouldn’t trip him up as he ran. It just wasn’t good manners to show such a lack of proper decorum. But that’s exactly what he did. He didn’t care.
Zacchaeus got what he wanted and so much more. When Jesus arrived at the spot where he was perched in the tree, he stopped and told him to hurry down because he was going to be a guest at his house. Jesus invited himself to dinner.
That didn’t bother Zacchaeus in the least. He was so excited by the fact that Jesus was coming to his house that he probably scraped his knees and elbows getting out of the tree. He never imagined in his wildest dreams that the Master would notice him, let alone come to his house. And so with great joy and delight he took him to his house.
Of course there were those in the crowd who couldn’t allow Zacchaeus this one kernel of grace. You can probably hear their voices. In fact you may have heard their voices before.
They were grumping because this scoundrel tax collector had the good fortune to have the most popular rabbi in Israel coming to his house for dinner. They were surely so jealous and envious because it would have been a great social coup to have Jesus come to your house. What’s he doing going to this crook’s house when he could be coming to my place? After all I keep all of God’s laws and he doesn’t. He doesn’t deserve to have this most important person visiting in his house. It’s just not fair! Can’t you hear the conversations? It probably wouldn’t be too much different today.
So, have you ever asked yourself, “Why did Jesus pick Zacchaeus to go visit?” Why did Luke put it in his gospel? What is the significance of this story for us? Was it all a coincidence that Jesus saw Zacchaeus up there in the tree? Was he just looking for a good place to eat or was he looking for something that would upset the learned and religious people of Jericho? Why did God choose Zacchaeus for Jesus to visit on that particular day? It doesn’t seem fair that he would go to have dinner with such a low down cheat!
What was Zacchaeus’ response to all those nasty comments about him being a crook? Stunned disbelief would be a good way to put it. “Why,” he said, “I give away half of my earnings to the poor—and if I’m caught cheating, I pay four times the damages.”
I wonder if those who heard Zacchaeus say that believed him. He probably gave away half of his earnings without any fanfare. That’s probably why no one knew anything about it. So even though he collected more tax than was needed by the Romans what he earned and took home he gave half of it away. He must have been rich.
I don’t know any one today who does that. This is truly extravagant generosity. It was way beyond what he was required by law to give for the support of the poor. Even his peers weren’t doing as much as he was. Those who didn’t really know Zacchaeus were judging him unfairly and harshly.
Jesus saw immediately that he was truly a Son of Abraham. The religious of the day certainly wouldn’t have classified him as a good Jew. In fact they wouldn’t even think of associating with him.
Zacchaeus was being judged by others for being a tax collector. No one knew the real Zacchaeus. They didn’t know about his contributions to the poor.
How many folks have we misjudged without taking the risk to get to know them? How many have we talked about only to find out we were wrong in our assessment of them?
Was Zacchaeus a different man after Jesus ate at his house? Or were those who had misjudged him different after Jesus had dinner at his house? Who are we misjudging today? And what should we do about that?
Maybe we should invite ourselves to dinner at their house or, better yet, invite them to dinner at ours.
All of us have fallen short of God’s desire for us. We are all sinners in need of God’s grace. Maybe that’s the lesson for us today. Don’t worry about what our neighbors are doing or whom they are having to dinner. Maybe we should just concern ourselves with the log in our own eye before we judge our neighbor. Maybe we need extend an invitation to the Lord to come to our house for dinner. Maybe then we will receive the gift of God’s salvation and grace.
Thanks be to God for his loving grace. Amen.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Faithful Prayer
What is Jesus talking about and who is he talking about? Who is this judge supposed to be? And this nagging, whining, widow woman, who is she?
Just when we think we understand what Jesus is saying he tells us this parable about a judge who doesn’t care one whit for God or people, a real curmudgeon. But yet he has his limits and because of this widow’s persistent nagging, day in and day out, he relents and grants her the justice she has been badgering him for.
So, do you suppose that means that we are to badger God with our prayers in the same way? There are times we might just do that but that’s probably not what Jesus intended us to learn from this parable.
Well, we do know that the parable is about prayer because that’s what Luke says in the beginning verse, “Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit.”
And that’s the point we don’t want to lose sight of here. This parable is about prayer. So what is it about prayer that we humans have trouble with? Is it that we don’t know how to pray? Is it that we don’t have the time to pray? Or, is it that we don’t really believe that God will hear and answer our prayers? Maybe it’s all of these.
This story is about a judge who is the most obnoxious person in the world. You wonder how he ever got appointed to the bench. He makes no bones that he doesn’t believe in God and he really doesn’t like people.
And this widow had the unlucky misfortune to draw this particular judge, the one who hates God and people. This poor widow woman has nothing. She has no money with which to influence the judge. She doesn’t have a husband or any other male family member to speak for her in court. All she has is her tenacity and determination to get the justice she believes she deserves.
We shouldn’t say that she doesn’t have anything. She does have a determined spirit and, apparently, no fear that this judge may kick her out and bar her from his court forever. Nope, she comes everyday to the court and demands that he award her what she has coming to her. And it might even be that she follows him home or sends him letters or posts things about him on Facebook about how bad a judge he is. Who knows?
Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. If he didn’t give in she was going to leave him black and blue. Can’t you just see her standing at his bench in the court room hammering her fist on the bench demanding justice? The judge may have feared for his well being if he didn’t give in to her demands.
So, friends, what’s Jesus saying to us? What do you think he’s saying? How do you interpret the Word to us today?
It sounds to me that if we are persistently faithful in our praying God will hear our prayers and answer them. But some might say, and they may be absolutely right, that they pray every day, all day, and still God doesn’t answer their prayers. How do we answer that?
As I read this passage a couple words stood out for me, persistence, consistent, and faith. This brings us back to the story I told the children. About this boy who wanted a musical instrument so he could learn to play in the band. Mom and Dad didn’t give in right away; in fact they didn’t even give in the second time he asked. It wasn’t until he had found out the cost of a used instrument and brought that information to their attention that they decided maybe he was ready.
It’s kind of like a story I read that Rev. Tom Long used in a sermon about two boys, a raft, and an island in the middle of the river. One of the boys was floating down the river on a raft and his friend saw him and asked, “What are you doing?” He said that he was trying to get to the island in the middle of the river. Well his friend dove in and swam to the raft so he could help him.
The current in the middle of the river was strong and it wasn’t doing the raft any favors as the boys struggled to get to the island. They did make it to the island but just as they did the raft completely fell apart and there they were stranded in the middle of the river with no way to get off the island.
It just so happens that a paddle boat is coming down the river and the second boy starts to jump up and down, hollering and waving at the boat. His friend tells him they can’t hear you and even if they could they’re not going to come over here and pick us up.
Well, the boat begins to turn toward the island and they can tell it’s coming to rescue them. The other boy wanted to know how he knew the boat would come and get them. He said, “My father is the captain. I knew he’d come and get me.”
I think that’s what Jesus is trying to teach us in the parable. God is our Father and he loves us so much he won’t leave us stranded.
As children we talked to our parents all the time, every day. Sometimes they probably wished for some peace and quiet because we never stopped talking. But didn’t they usually listen to us. And didn’t they usually give us what we needed.
God loves us way more than our parents and doesn’t want any of us to suffer. God is all about having an intimate relationship with us. And the way that happens is by praying to him all the time, consistently, persistently, all the time. When we do that we soon realize that we know God and he knows us.
The point that we don’t want to lose sight of is we are to pray continuously and don’t give up hope.
Thanks be to God for his loving grace. Amen.
Just when we think we understand what Jesus is saying he tells us this parable about a judge who doesn’t care one whit for God or people, a real curmudgeon. But yet he has his limits and because of this widow’s persistent nagging, day in and day out, he relents and grants her the justice she has been badgering him for.
So, do you suppose that means that we are to badger God with our prayers in the same way? There are times we might just do that but that’s probably not what Jesus intended us to learn from this parable.
Well, we do know that the parable is about prayer because that’s what Luke says in the beginning verse, “Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit.”
And that’s the point we don’t want to lose sight of here. This parable is about prayer. So what is it about prayer that we humans have trouble with? Is it that we don’t know how to pray? Is it that we don’t have the time to pray? Or, is it that we don’t really believe that God will hear and answer our prayers? Maybe it’s all of these.
This story is about a judge who is the most obnoxious person in the world. You wonder how he ever got appointed to the bench. He makes no bones that he doesn’t believe in God and he really doesn’t like people.
And this widow had the unlucky misfortune to draw this particular judge, the one who hates God and people. This poor widow woman has nothing. She has no money with which to influence the judge. She doesn’t have a husband or any other male family member to speak for her in court. All she has is her tenacity and determination to get the justice she believes she deserves.
We shouldn’t say that she doesn’t have anything. She does have a determined spirit and, apparently, no fear that this judge may kick her out and bar her from his court forever. Nope, she comes everyday to the court and demands that he award her what she has coming to her. And it might even be that she follows him home or sends him letters or posts things about him on Facebook about how bad a judge he is. Who knows?
Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. If he didn’t give in she was going to leave him black and blue. Can’t you just see her standing at his bench in the court room hammering her fist on the bench demanding justice? The judge may have feared for his well being if he didn’t give in to her demands.
So, friends, what’s Jesus saying to us? What do you think he’s saying? How do you interpret the Word to us today?
It sounds to me that if we are persistently faithful in our praying God will hear our prayers and answer them. But some might say, and they may be absolutely right, that they pray every day, all day, and still God doesn’t answer their prayers. How do we answer that?
As I read this passage a couple words stood out for me, persistence, consistent, and faith. This brings us back to the story I told the children. About this boy who wanted a musical instrument so he could learn to play in the band. Mom and Dad didn’t give in right away; in fact they didn’t even give in the second time he asked. It wasn’t until he had found out the cost of a used instrument and brought that information to their attention that they decided maybe he was ready.
It’s kind of like a story I read that Rev. Tom Long used in a sermon about two boys, a raft, and an island in the middle of the river. One of the boys was floating down the river on a raft and his friend saw him and asked, “What are you doing?” He said that he was trying to get to the island in the middle of the river. Well his friend dove in and swam to the raft so he could help him.
The current in the middle of the river was strong and it wasn’t doing the raft any favors as the boys struggled to get to the island. They did make it to the island but just as they did the raft completely fell apart and there they were stranded in the middle of the river with no way to get off the island.
It just so happens that a paddle boat is coming down the river and the second boy starts to jump up and down, hollering and waving at the boat. His friend tells him they can’t hear you and even if they could they’re not going to come over here and pick us up.
Well, the boat begins to turn toward the island and they can tell it’s coming to rescue them. The other boy wanted to know how he knew the boat would come and get them. He said, “My father is the captain. I knew he’d come and get me.”
I think that’s what Jesus is trying to teach us in the parable. God is our Father and he loves us so much he won’t leave us stranded.
As children we talked to our parents all the time, every day. Sometimes they probably wished for some peace and quiet because we never stopped talking. But didn’t they usually listen to us. And didn’t they usually give us what we needed.
God loves us way more than our parents and doesn’t want any of us to suffer. God is all about having an intimate relationship with us. And the way that happens is by praying to him all the time, consistently, persistently, all the time. When we do that we soon realize that we know God and he knows us.
The point that we don’t want to lose sight of is we are to pray continuously and don’t give up hope.
Thanks be to God for his loving grace. Amen.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Being in Exile; Saying Thank You
Have you been listening to the news reports about the men trapped in the mine in Chile? Just for a little while this morning, imagine that you’re one of those miners. You’re alive and not injured but you’ve just learned that you’re not going to see day light, or your family, for awhile yet.
You’re in exile. You’ve received messages from above telling you that help is on the way. You might even be able to hear the sounds of the drill. And you remember God’s word that says, “Give thanks in all things.” And you hear God’s word through the prophet Jeremiah to make the best of the situation where you are because God is there too.
Okay, your there, it’s hot, it’s dirty, and you’ve been with the same smelly people for 67 days. How are you doing? How is your faith? Do you believe that God is with you in this foreign place? Are you really thankful for God’s blessings?
Good friends, you’re not really in that mine but imagine what that must be like for those miners, and their families. Do they really trust those who are doing the drilling? Are they still hopeful? Do they believe that God is there with them?
It’s hard to be thankful in situations like this. None of us are in that mine in Chile but we may, never the less, be in exile. Where we are right now today may not be the place that we really want to be; this may not be our home. And even if we are home we might not be physically able to enjoy it like we used to. Are we still able to remain thankful for God’s providence?
Even when we find it so very difficult to find the good in bad situations what happens to our soul when we are thankful for the infinitesimal blessings that come our way. Does our outlook change? Is the sun just little brighter? Does God seem a little closer?
What if every day when your eyes opened after a night’s rest you still didn’t feel God’s presence, would you still be thankful for God’s blessings? Would you still have hope if every day you prayed for just a little bit of joy and it never came? Can we still feel love when our prayers don’t seem to be answered the way we think they should? Someone we love dearly is still in pain and there’s absolutely nothing we can do for them but pray, do we still have hope, are we still thankful?
How did Paul and the other apostles keep their faith when they were in chains in jail, beaten and ridiculed for being followers of the Way of Jesus? How is it possible for any of us to relate to what that must have been like?
Friends, we are so blessed because we live where we do and have the advantages that many in the world have never experienced. And we take it all for granted. Do we remember to say thanks? How do we share our blessings? How are we encountering God where we are? Where’s the healing for us in all this? Have we been healed and haven’t noticed?
Do we sing praises to God everyday like the psalmist? I don’t know about you but I think we’re more like the nine lepers who were healed and never turned around and thanked Jesus. Yes, the leprosy was gone but what was the condition of their souls?
We may be blessed, we may be healed, but what’s the condition of our souls? Have we remembered to thank Jesus?
Jesus and Paul have both given us words to meditate on for this week. Paul said, “10 So I patiently accept all these troubles so that those whom God has chosen can have the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. With that salvation comes glory that never ends.
11 This teaching is true:
If we died with him, we will also live with him.
12 If we accept suffering, we will also rule with him.
If we say we don't know him, he will say he doesn't know us.
13 If we are not faithful, he will still be faithful,
because he must be true to who he is.
A Worker Pleasing to God
14 Continue teaching these things, warning people in God's presence not to argue about words. It does not help anyone, and it ruins those who listen. 15 Make every effort to give yourself to God as the kind of person he will approve. Be a worker who is not ashamed and who uses the true teaching in the right way.”
And Jesus told the Samaritan leper, "Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.”
We are here to do the work God has called us to do. We are to accept what we’ve been given and continue sharing God’s love with everyone we meet so that they are able to experience salvation through Jesus Christ. May our little faith build up someone else’s faith so they can be healed and have joy in their hearts.
Friends, let’s decide this day to return to Jesus and fall on our knees and give him thanks for our healing. Let’s decide today to continue to teach people about Jesus and God and what salvation means to us. Let’s work to free them from their exile
Thanks be to God for his loving, forgiving grace. Amen.
You’re in exile. You’ve received messages from above telling you that help is on the way. You might even be able to hear the sounds of the drill. And you remember God’s word that says, “Give thanks in all things.” And you hear God’s word through the prophet Jeremiah to make the best of the situation where you are because God is there too.
Okay, your there, it’s hot, it’s dirty, and you’ve been with the same smelly people for 67 days. How are you doing? How is your faith? Do you believe that God is with you in this foreign place? Are you really thankful for God’s blessings?
Good friends, you’re not really in that mine but imagine what that must be like for those miners, and their families. Do they really trust those who are doing the drilling? Are they still hopeful? Do they believe that God is there with them?
It’s hard to be thankful in situations like this. None of us are in that mine in Chile but we may, never the less, be in exile. Where we are right now today may not be the place that we really want to be; this may not be our home. And even if we are home we might not be physically able to enjoy it like we used to. Are we still able to remain thankful for God’s providence?
Even when we find it so very difficult to find the good in bad situations what happens to our soul when we are thankful for the infinitesimal blessings that come our way. Does our outlook change? Is the sun just little brighter? Does God seem a little closer?
What if every day when your eyes opened after a night’s rest you still didn’t feel God’s presence, would you still be thankful for God’s blessings? Would you still have hope if every day you prayed for just a little bit of joy and it never came? Can we still feel love when our prayers don’t seem to be answered the way we think they should? Someone we love dearly is still in pain and there’s absolutely nothing we can do for them but pray, do we still have hope, are we still thankful?
How did Paul and the other apostles keep their faith when they were in chains in jail, beaten and ridiculed for being followers of the Way of Jesus? How is it possible for any of us to relate to what that must have been like?
Friends, we are so blessed because we live where we do and have the advantages that many in the world have never experienced. And we take it all for granted. Do we remember to say thanks? How do we share our blessings? How are we encountering God where we are? Where’s the healing for us in all this? Have we been healed and haven’t noticed?
Do we sing praises to God everyday like the psalmist? I don’t know about you but I think we’re more like the nine lepers who were healed and never turned around and thanked Jesus. Yes, the leprosy was gone but what was the condition of their souls?
We may be blessed, we may be healed, but what’s the condition of our souls? Have we remembered to thank Jesus?
Jesus and Paul have both given us words to meditate on for this week. Paul said, “10 So I patiently accept all these troubles so that those whom God has chosen can have the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. With that salvation comes glory that never ends.
11 This teaching is true:
If we died with him, we will also live with him.
12 If we accept suffering, we will also rule with him.
If we say we don't know him, he will say he doesn't know us.
13 If we are not faithful, he will still be faithful,
because he must be true to who he is.
A Worker Pleasing to God
14 Continue teaching these things, warning people in God's presence not to argue about words. It does not help anyone, and it ruins those who listen. 15 Make every effort to give yourself to God as the kind of person he will approve. Be a worker who is not ashamed and who uses the true teaching in the right way.”
And Jesus told the Samaritan leper, "Get up. On your way. Your faith has healed and saved you.”
We are here to do the work God has called us to do. We are to accept what we’ve been given and continue sharing God’s love with everyone we meet so that they are able to experience salvation through Jesus Christ. May our little faith build up someone else’s faith so they can be healed and have joy in their hearts.
Friends, let’s decide this day to return to Jesus and fall on our knees and give him thanks for our healing. Let’s decide today to continue to teach people about Jesus and God and what salvation means to us. Let’s work to free them from their exile
Thanks be to God for his loving, forgiving grace. Amen.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
A Life of Faith
It’s not easy trying to live a life of faith. In the first place we tend to believe that there is nothing we can’t do or fix, and we don’t need God or anyone else to give us a hand. That might prove to be true until we get stuck in a quagmire of our own doing and no matter what we try we can’t fix it. We’re stuck. Everything we try fails and it’s not until we realize that we can’t do it alone that we cry for help.
We cry to God for help or relief or maybe just a lifeline because we’ve tried everything else and nothing helped.
The writer of Lamentations is in that spot. God had warned the people through the prophets that he was not happy with them following other idols and doing things that he had explicitly warned them against doing. When God gave the Law to Moses he told them that if they did what he commanded them then they would be blessed but if they didn’t they would be cursed. It seems that they didn’t hear that last part.
You know I can understand that. There are times when people tell me something and I hear the first part but I don’t hear the last part. Then, when whatever I’ve been trying to do doesn’t come out right it’s usually because I didn’t hear all the instructions. I could write a book about all the times I’ve messed up because I didn’t follow all the directions that were given to me. Or I didn’t hear all the directions given to me.
Maybe that’s why it’s so important for us to hear the Word read and proclaimed every Sunday, even though we’ve heard this particular passage a gazillion times before. Maybe we’ve missed hearing the most important part.
In the Hebrew Bible it sounds as if you keep all the commandments then you will be richly blessed and if you don’t then you will receive God’s discipline. Many of us believe today that if we keep God’s rules then we’ll be blessed. So, if we see someone who is struggling with life we assume that they’ve not been keeping God’s rules and he has punished them. We forget the words that talk about blessings falling on the just and the unjust.
We seem to forget Jesus’ words about believing in him, loving God and neighbor, and we completely missed the part about being servants. We think that if we just do this or that then God will bless us. Friends, it doesn’t work that way.
These lives we are living today in this place and at this time aren’t easy. There seems to be a great chasm between those who have and those who don’t. The ones who have are fearful that what they have will soon be gone. The ones who don’t have much are fearful that they will never, ever be able to have anything. They don’t see anyway out. No one has much faith, either in the society in which they live or in God.
The pastoral letter to Timothy sounds like the writer is afraid that Timothy may give up on his faith when things get tough and suffering comes. He is told to stay at it, keep his faith and love rooted in Christ just as he was taught.
Jesus had just told his disciples that hard times and temptations would come their way. And pity the one who gave any of the little ones a hard time. It would be better to have a boulder tied around their neck and tossed into the ocean than to do that. That’s when they realized that what Jesus was asking them to do was going to be more difficult than they imagined. They weren’t sure they could do it with the faith they had. They weren’t sure they would be successful walking in Jesus’ footsteps, living lives serving God’s children. So, they asked him to give them more faith.
I imagine Jesus looking at them with love in his eyes and saying, “More faith? You have all you need right now.”
Isn’t that how we all kind of feel when we step out on a new venture? Isn’t that how we feel when we decide to risk investing in a new career, or begin life together with the one God has chosen for us. We’re not sure we have enough of what’s needed to be successful.
But don’t we usually find, if we take the risk, that we had everything we needed. I think that’s what Jesus was saying to his disciples, “You have everything you need right now.” “You have just enough faith. Just live it.”
I think that’s the Message for us today. We have just enough faith. Just live it. Trust in the One who gave us this faith. It is sufficient for what He has called us to do.
I don’t believe he’s asking us to move trees or mountains but Jesus is asking us to trust him, to have faith in his Word and his love for us.
Our lives aren’t easy. Everyone, every family, has problems, everyone experiences some suffering. Jesus is telling us that our calling is to be ministers to each other using the gifts we have been given to serve others and to bring glory to Him. That is our calling; that is our purpose in this life. Just as those we work for expect us to give them an honest day’s work so God expects us to give him the same.
Do we expect a reward? Do we expect to be forgiven for our sins? Well maybe, but it all depends on God’s grace through Jesus’ sacrifice. And part of God’s grace is the faith we have received from him.
Friends, God sent his Son, Jesus, here because he loves us. He died for us because he loves us. He defeated death because he loves us. He gives us just enough faith because he loves us. All he asks us to do is just live it.
Friends, remember God does love you. Trust and believe. Have faith and then just live it.
Thanks be to God for his grace. Amen.
We cry to God for help or relief or maybe just a lifeline because we’ve tried everything else and nothing helped.
The writer of Lamentations is in that spot. God had warned the people through the prophets that he was not happy with them following other idols and doing things that he had explicitly warned them against doing. When God gave the Law to Moses he told them that if they did what he commanded them then they would be blessed but if they didn’t they would be cursed. It seems that they didn’t hear that last part.
You know I can understand that. There are times when people tell me something and I hear the first part but I don’t hear the last part. Then, when whatever I’ve been trying to do doesn’t come out right it’s usually because I didn’t hear all the instructions. I could write a book about all the times I’ve messed up because I didn’t follow all the directions that were given to me. Or I didn’t hear all the directions given to me.
Maybe that’s why it’s so important for us to hear the Word read and proclaimed every Sunday, even though we’ve heard this particular passage a gazillion times before. Maybe we’ve missed hearing the most important part.
In the Hebrew Bible it sounds as if you keep all the commandments then you will be richly blessed and if you don’t then you will receive God’s discipline. Many of us believe today that if we keep God’s rules then we’ll be blessed. So, if we see someone who is struggling with life we assume that they’ve not been keeping God’s rules and he has punished them. We forget the words that talk about blessings falling on the just and the unjust.
We seem to forget Jesus’ words about believing in him, loving God and neighbor, and we completely missed the part about being servants. We think that if we just do this or that then God will bless us. Friends, it doesn’t work that way.
These lives we are living today in this place and at this time aren’t easy. There seems to be a great chasm between those who have and those who don’t. The ones who have are fearful that what they have will soon be gone. The ones who don’t have much are fearful that they will never, ever be able to have anything. They don’t see anyway out. No one has much faith, either in the society in which they live or in God.
The pastoral letter to Timothy sounds like the writer is afraid that Timothy may give up on his faith when things get tough and suffering comes. He is told to stay at it, keep his faith and love rooted in Christ just as he was taught.
Jesus had just told his disciples that hard times and temptations would come their way. And pity the one who gave any of the little ones a hard time. It would be better to have a boulder tied around their neck and tossed into the ocean than to do that. That’s when they realized that what Jesus was asking them to do was going to be more difficult than they imagined. They weren’t sure they could do it with the faith they had. They weren’t sure they would be successful walking in Jesus’ footsteps, living lives serving God’s children. So, they asked him to give them more faith.
I imagine Jesus looking at them with love in his eyes and saying, “More faith? You have all you need right now.”
Isn’t that how we all kind of feel when we step out on a new venture? Isn’t that how we feel when we decide to risk investing in a new career, or begin life together with the one God has chosen for us. We’re not sure we have enough of what’s needed to be successful.
But don’t we usually find, if we take the risk, that we had everything we needed. I think that’s what Jesus was saying to his disciples, “You have everything you need right now.” “You have just enough faith. Just live it.”
I think that’s the Message for us today. We have just enough faith. Just live it. Trust in the One who gave us this faith. It is sufficient for what He has called us to do.
I don’t believe he’s asking us to move trees or mountains but Jesus is asking us to trust him, to have faith in his Word and his love for us.
Our lives aren’t easy. Everyone, every family, has problems, everyone experiences some suffering. Jesus is telling us that our calling is to be ministers to each other using the gifts we have been given to serve others and to bring glory to Him. That is our calling; that is our purpose in this life. Just as those we work for expect us to give them an honest day’s work so God expects us to give him the same.
Do we expect a reward? Do we expect to be forgiven for our sins? Well maybe, but it all depends on God’s grace through Jesus’ sacrifice. And part of God’s grace is the faith we have received from him.
Friends, God sent his Son, Jesus, here because he loves us. He died for us because he loves us. He defeated death because he loves us. He gives us just enough faith because he loves us. All he asks us to do is just live it.
Friends, remember God does love you. Trust and believe. Have faith and then just live it.
Thanks be to God for his grace. Amen.
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