Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Faith

Jesus said if you had faith the size of a mustard seed you could command mountains to move. Since mountains are not a-leaping these days we can only assume that there is not much faith around.

Or can we? He also likened the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed which starts small but grows into a huge tree in which birds nest.

But how do we react when someone asks for faith? The evangelist J. John once said that it worked like this:

'If you do before you get it what you would do if you had it then you've got it.'

You can't be given faith. You have to start the process yourself. 'Lord I believe; help my unbelief,' said the father of an epileptic lad brought to Jesus after the disciples' failure to heal.

Some people, when talking about their faith in God, are actually confused because they think they've worked the Gospel out, have answers for every question and say, 'Bingo, that's faith.' It ain't. That's science. And given the flimsy nature of the data, pretty bad science.

Some people have said, publicly recently, that the imprisonment of a local vicar here for child abuse has led to them losing their faith in God. I can undertsand them losing their faith in that vicar - we all have - but in God. Come on.

Let's get this straight. Faith is faith. Faith is believing without seeing. Faith is living your life as if this thing, which you can't know for sure is true, is true.

So to those who say, 'I wish I could have your faith'. You can't; its mine. You need your own. It's amazing how much more believable God becomes once you start believing.

5 comments:

Andy said...

Good words St. Rather apt for me, at the moment - so thanks for that!

:)

IAIN CUNNINGHAM said...

Exactly! Excellently put.

fill said...

I remember we walked to a park once at Ellesmere and we all had to walk through a very dark tunnell to get there. I can recall having to walk on a very dodgy path that was littered with holes and rocks. It was only by faith that we go through it, as we could not see our feet to place them properly. Some held on to each other some braved it alone. Taking each step was difficult but we knew that there was going to be an end.

Simon said...

Relgious circular argument no. 367

Anonymous said...

J John always used to say:

"It's not pie in the sky when you die, it's steak on a plate whilst you wait".

Just shows how catchphrases stick in the memory.