You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
This week's reading speaks of faith as something you can have more of or less of. The disciples ask for increased faith because they can see what it takes to live this "God-Life." It does take faith to trust in what cannot be seen, to proclaim life in the midst of death, to bear light into darkness and truth in the face of injustice. We need faith to forgive the unforgivable, love the unlovable, heal the incurable, restore those who have been cast aside as worthless.
God seems to wait for us to participate in exercising faith. I wish it were otherwise, for our faith is often weak. But time and again in the Gospels we see Jesus respond to people’s faith, even saying to some, “Your faith has made you well.” Not “my power has made you well,” but “your faith.”
Why would God leave so much up to us, when God knows how feeble and fickle we can be? Is this a cosmic cruelty? It might be, had God not also provided what we need, asking only that we take hold of it. In addition to the “perfect faith” of Jesus, who joins us by his Spirit when we pray, God has also set us into communities of faith.
Faith is a contagious thing, and one which we can hold for one another. We can pass it down from one generation to another, and friend to friend. In Sunday’s epistle, Paul writes to Timothy, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” Lois and Eunice and many a father and grandfather too have “held faith” for their children until such time as they took hold of it. Some are still holding it.- Who are your “grandmothers” and “fathers” in the faith, from whom you learned to trust and believe? Name a few. Give thanks for those men and women.
- Who are your friends in the faith, brothers and sisters who help you believe when your faith is weak?
- And for whom do you do that, by your prayers and your encouragement?
- Is there a “big thing” you’ve had trouble trusting God about that you might ask a community of faith to pray about with you, for you? It’s a godly risk.
Jesus didn’t set us down, wind us up and say, “Okay – go do everything I commanded you.” He said, “Yo, I am with you always, to the end of the ages.” (Okay, most translations say, “Lo…”) We have plenty of faith around us to move trees, mountains, illnesses, injustice – and even hearts.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
In the days when one needed screen savers on computers, I adjusted mine to scroll through Romans 8:1 – “There is no now condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” As one whose inner critic can work overtime, that’s how badly I needed to be reminded of God’s affirming love. I consider this verse the heart of the Good News Jesus came to convey – that God has transformed the judgment we so fear into love: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Lest we doubt this message of affirmation, Jesus doubles down in the next sentence: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Why did Jesus need to clarify this matter? Was it to counter the message conveyed by religious leaders, that God was not pleased, that people were in trouble? Living under the tyranny of the Romans, the latest in a string of conquerors, could lead to such a conclusion. In a culture that saw prosperity as a sign of blessing and misfortune as the result of sin, people might be quick to see in their circumstances God’s punishment for unfaithfulness. The idea that God’s representative, his very own son, should have arrived on the scene in person – could feel like, “Uh oh, we’re in trouble now….” Hence the importance of these words to soothe and open hearts: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Jesus isn’t saying there is no condemnation anywhere – his next words suggest it is possible, even likely, for those who have been presented with the truth about Jesus Christ and have chosen not to believe: “Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
Is this “condemnation” for those who do not believe a punishment – or is it simply the consequence of their choice? God may not have sent his Son into the world for condemnation – but he didn’t say he would remove the consequences of our choices. People are free to draw near to God’s love, or to turn away.
Are those who have no interest in Jesus’ salvation still covered by it? What do we mean when we say Jesus took on all the sin of all the world on the cross? Did he redeem even those who choose not to believe in his power to redeem, who deny any need for it? Those who believe in universal salvation would say so. Those who believe each person has to say “yes” are left wondering.
All these questions make my head hurt, and can get in the way of our receiving the gift I believe Jesus offers us – to accept his grace, to allow him to take us off all the hooks we have ourselves dangling from, that we’re not good enough, smart enough, wise enough, compassionate enough.
Enough! The Son of God did not come into the world to condemn the world. The Son of God came to fulfill his father’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all things and all people to wholeness in Christ. I’m taking that deal.
© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
