Today’s Scripture
Reading (December 7, 2017): Acts 3
Faith. The intangible cousin of belief that allows us to move forward in many
areas of our lives in spite of an absence of concrete evidence that something
is real. I have faith that Russia and the United States will be able to find a
diplomatic solution to their differences, even though at times the leaders of
either country seem utterly incapable of reasonable thought. I have faith that we will
be able to find a long-term solution to global climate change in spite of all
of the dire warnings coming from scientists. There is no concrete evidence that
I am right in either case, but I choose to have faith, to be a person of faith,
even when it is in something as frail and inconsistent as the human community.
In religious circles, we often
speak of faith as being a pre-requisite to a move of God. Do you want to
experience a healing in your life, then have faith that God can heal. Do you
need a miracle, then have faith that God
will accomplish that miracle in your midst. Sometimes faith seems to be like
wishing hard for something, hoping that it will come true.
Faith is necessary for
Christians, but sometimes I think that we misunderstand why. We believe in a
God, through faith, when all evidence points to there not being a God. Faith says that ‘all things work together for
good (we have to get rid of the idea of “my good”) for those who love God, even
though that “good” we may never see. Faith is in being able to see God even in
our worst circumstances and believing that his presence makes a difference. But
what faith is not is a magic formula in
which we get whatever it is that we might want.
And faith healing – just don’t
go there. The reality is that God heals who God heals. I have faith that there
is a purpose in the workings of God, but
I know people of great faith who have never experienced the healing touch of
God. They have suffered through life facing illness and disadvantage, and yet
their faith has never wavered. They understood, by faith, that there was a
purpose in everything that was happening in their lives – and they were okay
with where God had placed them, even though that place was not where they
wanted to be.
And I know of people without
faith who have experienced God’s healing touch. The man who sat at the Gate
called Beautiful was one of those. Consider the story. He is begging for money.
All he wants is money. He asks Peter and John for money. Peter and John ask him
to look at him, and the man raises his
head and pays attention to them expecting to get some money. Then the miracle
happens. God doesn’t give the man the money he is looking for; he heals his bones so that he can walk. According
to our faith theology, we would expect that the next thing to happen would have
been that the man tries to stand up – or even better, that he leaps to his feet,
having the faith that what Peter and John have spoken has become a reality.
But that isn’t what happened.
The truth is that the man seems a little bewildered by the entire ordeal. He
was expecting money. What is this whole
thing about walking? He has never walked. And, by the way, even the great rabbi
Jesus has passed through this gate and yet he still was not healed.
There is faith in the story; it just doesn’t belong to the man
sitting by the gate begging for money. Faith
is in the possession of Peter and John.
And as the healed man continues to sit there, they pull him to his feet. The man’s
feet and ankles become instantly healed. He didn’t ask to be healed, and he didn’t expect to be healed. But that did not stop God from healing him, even though the man had an absence
of faith.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Acts 4
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