(This is a reflection reprinted from our 2008 "Jesus 101" class)
God's faith in us is always greater than our faith in God. Consider God's faith in us as yet another expression of God's immeasureable grace. What does this mean for our discipleship? The upcoming Christmas narrative will remind us that God comes among us defenseless; in the Christ-child, God's blessed future for the whole world is placed in our hands for our care. The baby is fragile enough to be crushed by human violence, to be set aside and abandoned, or to be received and nurtured to fullness of life. Let those metaphors resonate within you.
The birth narrative further stimulates our reflection:
1) The world's salvation is carried and born into the world by a vulnerable, unmarried, "unprepared" young woman who at first cannot imagine being God's favored one (Luke 1:26-38).
2) Her companion is scandalized by God's action and quietly seeks to excuse himself from the narrative, tempted to deny their connection on "reasonable" grounds. Instead, he responds to the divine invitation not to be bound by fear (Matthew 1:20) and commits himself more deeply to the emerging covenant.
3) In spite of outward appearnaces and worldly wisdom, this fragile birth carries the power to turn the world upside down! (Lukle 1:47-55)
4) It is a harrowing and thrilling life or death story (Matthew 2) in which people from outside the traditional religious community--"foreigners"-play a critical role, embodying a faiththat they were not taught in Sunday School!
The story is full of journeys. God's people are always "on the Way." It is an awesome and peculiar privilege we have, one that is initiated by God's grace, rather than by anything we can muster for ourselves.
Mother Teresa wistfully said: "I wish God didn't trust me so much." Behold her life!
I have been reflection on faith, thinking about this:
ReplyDeleteRecently, I was talking to a woman whose husband had passed away. They had been married for nearly 45 years. She had never, in all those years, been alone in their house. She was very afraid. But then someone said to her, "You have to have faith. You cannot have faith and fear at the same time."
I have been thinking about this a lot. I discussed this with Lydia. She said, "You can have fear that your faith won't hold out." I told her if that were so, then you never truly had faith in the first place.
I think about what Lydia said. Actually, she has a point, yet I believe it is so simple when thought of in the expression "You can't have faith and (insert-your-word-here) at the same time."
Wendy
Thanks for the depth of your reflection, Wendy (and that of Lydia). I keep coming back to God's "faith" in us, which doesn't waver, even when we do. That's our strength.
ReplyDelete"What God does first and best and most is to trust people with their moment in history (Walter Brueggemann)."
Faith is the stuff of relationship. Perhaps that is what John is getting at when he writes, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18)." This comes only two passages after he testifies, "So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them." The word "perfect" is actually "whole' or "complete." "Be complete as your heavenly Father is complete."
Maybe we have faith (relationship) and fear at the same time, but faith (gift of God) is destined to overcome. And we "live and move and have our being" in that promise!
Scott