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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection vii
Faithless - What I am ...
Monday, March 23, 2015. How much faith do you have? And how does it show itself? Faith is something personal - it is something which happens within you. It is a kind of trust. Often, we think we know what faith is. But can we be so sure?
Experiences with faith …
The disciples of Jesus had faith - they thought. We would probably agree: is it not that they chose to follow him? Did they not give up everything to be with him? What else would deep faith be? But let us listen to what happened one day, and what Jesus said about their faith. In Matthew 17, we read:
14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
(Matthew 17, 14-20)
When we read this story from the viewpoint of Jesus, it appears obvious that he was not very amused about the faith of his disciples. He called them faithless and even twisted. Imagine your Pastor would to that with you, or anyone else in your environment. You would probably be quite upset about it. But Jesus did it with his disciples - and it seems he had a good reason for it.
How twisted am I? …
It would be quite adequate that we ask ourselves: how twisted are we? It seems very clear to me that in the eyes of Jesus we are part of the faithless crowd. We are part of the twisted generation. Even the Christians, even those who follow him, are part of the faithless civilization which we live in.
True faith is a revolution. It means that we can trust God fully, that he fills our heart and our mind. True faith is not a system, it is not a signature on a pile of doctrines. Faith is something which changes my heart and my life. It is not something complicated. It is not something which could be learned only in the academies of theology. It can be taken up by a little child, by an old man or women, by a young boy. It is about our relationship to the Lord.
I feel at the edge of faith. I do not feel as if I would have fully understood. How could I - I am part of the faithless generation as well. I might have a little faith sometimes, and each time I do have this little faith, many things happen - just as here in the story. Most times I live as if God would not exist, and I struggle with many things. But every day I know about this invitation to faith, which Jesus gives us here, and which the biblical books express us again and again. There is nothing better than this, trusting the Lord, and there is no life outside of him. Let us go! Let us come to him. (RWEP) ... more texts