Just a Little Faith

Luke 7-8

Stories of faith and the lack of faith fill today's reading. A Roman Centurion has more faith than Jesus has seen in all of Israel because he understands the authority to whom Jesus responds... John the Baptist and his disciples entertained the doubt that Jesus might not be the Messiah, but Jesus reassured them... A woman of ill repute had faith enough to shower Jesus with everything she had hold back nothing, while his Pharisee host looked on with disdain... many women had faith enough to provide the financial support for Jesus and his followers... When his family comes near, Jesus explains that all who hear and obey God's word are his mother and brothers... When the disciples cower in fear from a storm, Jesus asks where their faith is... A woman with a bleeding disorder had faith enough to think that if she could just touch the hem of his garment she would be healed... the crowd at Jairus' house laughed at Jesus' statement that his daughter was only sleeping.

Men would should have had great faith, had none. Women who should not have had any faith, were filled to overflowing with faith. God's arithmetic of faith is contrary to man's expectations. Jesus tells us that if we had the faith of a mustard seed, we could move mountains. Within the church, we depend on the presence of faith... but do not really know how to generate even an ounce of it. Jesus' response to the apostles questions about the parable of the farmer and the seed explains it perhaps better than anything else... "You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they look, they won’t really see. When they hear, they won’t understand.’ "