October 1, 2004
Foolishness
Pentecost 18/22C
When the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith,” they surely had the right idea, only they asked the wrong question.
Although his answer wasn’t all that environmentally correct, they could have known from it, as well, can we. If your faith were merely the size of a mustard seed, he said, you could deforest the planet.
Ironically, he answered them in their own terms — size — to show them the results on his terms — effect. The apostles wanted more faith, Jesus wanted more faithfulness. For so long as we put more stock by quantity than quality, by style than substance, he implied, we’ll never catch the power of the spirit. Put another way, the Great Commission to baptize all nations is rendered senseless until it is grounded firmly in the Great Commandment to love.
You want faith-based, Jesus implies, I’ll give you faith-based. Faith and love and hope are communal values long before they’re personal possessions. Indeed, we never possess them as if to parcel them out on occasion and on demand, we live them as if to find in them a constant and consistently rewarding and challenging way of life. We don’t “have” faith, we do faith. It’s never about how much faith. It’s about living the life of the faithful. For it is there where is the leverage that uproots the status quo, the spirit that permeates the body politic and turns our hearts and minds unto the love of God and neighbor and self.
It is the age-old question of church and state. So long as the church remains obsessed with its size, its orthodoxy, its always “being right,” its “how much,” it will continue to be altogether indiscernible from any other secular institution and have even less relevance. Only when it ceases accounting how much and, in turn, looks inward at how little accountable, will size cease to matter and will relevance take effect.
But careful, beloved, it’s gangbusters out there. God may just bless you with “enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done” (thanks, Franciscans).
Thankyou - this went to my heart. I’ll still keep pioneering with God - in love.
Catez, New Zealand
Comment by Catez — October 1, 2004 @ 6:17 pm