Kingdom Building

October 5, 2019

Scripture Reading: Luke 17:5-10

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. –Luke 17:5-6

I think Jesus is saying either we have faith, or we do not. The problem with faith is not whether we can proclaim it; that is easy enough. The problem with faith is whether we can live it. How do we separate the ways of the world from the ways of faith and follow where faith guides us?

Faith (4102/pistis) is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people*. Just as love is not something we can earn; faith is a gift from God granted to all. Our challenge is to accept this awesome gift. The world “awe” perhaps has lost some of its potency over the years, but its meaning spans the dichotomy of   terrific, extraordinary and dreadful, awful. Tears came to my eyes a few days ago when I watched a three-year-old immigrant from Central America be reunited with his father after being separated from his dad at the border. It took some weeks for the confusion that caused the separation to be cleared. Finally, they were reunited, and the little boy pushed away and turned his head from his father screaming. His trust system had been violated and it took some time for trust to be re-established. Love eventually won. My guess, he will be sensitive to his father’s normal absences for some time to come. When we experience trust as a negative, it impacts our future abilities to trust others and to have faith in God.  While none of us can ever be perfect we need to work at perfecting both faith and love.

Learning and growing in faith with God transcends human experience. God’s gift of faith is always available. Trusting in God can heal souls damaged by the failures of humans.

There is a balm in Gilead
to make the wounded whole,
there is a balm in Gilead
to heal the sin-sick soul**.

Prayer: God of Love, we live in a world that seems to be growing more and more distrustful. Heal our sin-sick souls. Make us whole; make us one. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.