Tag: YMCA Devotion

Are you ever surprised by who has faith and who has doubts?

It is really quite amazing that anybody believes that Jesus was the anointed King of Israel, was crucified, resurrected from the dead, ascended to his throne, and that he will return someday to make everything all right.

Considering how difficult it was for the first Eleven disciples to follow and believe Jesus, how much more difficult for us today?

Jesus shows up to the disciples with holes in his wrists and feet, he talks like Jesus, looks like Jesus, moves like Jesus – and they still think he is a ghost.

Even though he told them – and at this point, there are eyewitness accounts by others – he would return to them – they still doubt.

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.

He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. [Luke 24v36-45, TNIV]

Maybe we Christians should go easy on people who don’t believe Jesus.

Maybe we shouldn’t take for granted our own faith. Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves when we lack a stronger faith.

Maybe it’s no wonder Jesus was hoping for at least mustard-seed-sized faith from his followers.

Maybe to believe in Jesus we need Jesus.

Jesus’ strategy is interesting;  upon his ascension, he promises that the Father will send the Spirit to become at home in each disciple. Follow the reasoning here:

  • the Spirit that was in Jesus is now in the disciples
  • this Spirit helped Jesus serve and endure and rescue and heal and feed and clothe and celebrate and share
  • that Spirit is in us
  • through the Spirit of Jesus, we have a powerful helper so that we can believe amidst our doubt, live boldly in the shadows of death, and speak the truth in love and grace amidst the lies, greed, and anger of our world.

It’s a miracle that anybody believes Jesus.

Maybe it’s not helpful to focus on all the people who don’t have faith in Jesus. Maybe it’s more helpful to notice everyone who tries to walk by faith.

Maybe in our work to see Jesus in the world, to see and partner with those who do believe, we’ll let Jesus plant more small seeds of faith in the least expected places.

Nobody expected the Jewish Messiah to come from Nazareth. Nobody expected the Galilean fisherman Peter to lead a movement. Nobody expected Jesus to be popular with corrupt tax agents and starving prostitutes.

Maybe we should let ourselves be surprised by who has faith and who has doubts.

He goes about doing his rescue work through the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places.

People like you.

How Does God Work In The World?

If you’re like me, there are specific moments in your life where you wish God would have showed up and… [fill in the blank]. When my little 13 year old brother started to go blind, we wanted to know why God didn’t step in and restore his eyesight. When Ben died later that summer due to a brain tumor, we wondered – with deep bewilderment – why God didn’t show up and save our dear brother’s life.

Watch the news. Hear the statistics. Listen to painful stories of loss, abuse, neglect, violence, mayhem, terror, insanity. With all that is wrong in the world, how is God working? Is God doing anything? I’m still not immune to the bewilderment. Like a lot of people, we wonder at how God can be God and let so much evil wreck so many lives.

But: a thoughtful and prayerful reading of the Gospels in the New Testament reveal a Jesus of Nazareth who speaks to the pain that perplexed the people of Israel, Rome, and now us. In the gospel according to Mark, there is a short parable where Jesus explains how God works in the world:

“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Obviously this parable doesn’t explain everything, nor is it meant to. But it does shed some important light on the questions the people of Israel asked while under the brutal rule of Rome. How God works in the world is attuned to the ways of the earth.

Just as a sower accumulates wisdom of seeds and soil while using diligence to prepare for the needed harvest, the sower must also trust in the mysteries of the seed and soil. So with us, as we work with God in Christ among the real world. The wisdom and diligence we attain from doing God’s will adds to the flourishing of each other, while we trust the Lord with what we don’t understand.

We want peace on earth? God wants it more. We want everyone to flourish in life? Jesus wants it more. I don’t know all the reasons for why Rome oppressed Israel or Ben died of a tumor. But I do believe that in both cases God was present with his people, in the midst of the suffering, always working through our sowing of faith, hope and love to produce a harvest that heals.

If we learn anything from this parable, Christians are ones sent out together into our community as little Christs to sow good works everyday, for the nourishment and flourishing of all, in the face of evil, amidst our own suffering, done with unstoppable love.