Beyond 'Little' or 'Great'

Wednesday of Week 18 in Ordinary Time

Matthew 15:21-28

Yes, that one...

The Canaanite Woman, the crumbs, the dogs, and the faith

So much to play with in this passage…but today it is that word:  FAITH!

I like the way Karoline Lewis* nibbles around this text by paying attention to both Peter’s little faith (14:31) and The Canaanite woman’s ‘great faith’ (15:28).  She then posits an honest discomfort with our contemporary use of the word ‘faith’ especially paying attention to our propensity to quantify.

In the hospital I hear the word thrown around as a talisman.  It is as if “people of faith” can’t allow themselves anger or frustration at what feels like abandonment by God.  As if that, somehow, will indicate ‘less’ faith.

Kathleen Norris, in Amazing Grace, A Vocabulary of Faith*, talks about ‘faith’ as more of a verb than a noun.  It is harder to pin down that way.  And it can’t be measured…which means it isn’t how we stack up one in relation to the other.  No competition allowed!

As a verb it is on the move.  I am always somewhere on the spectrum of ‘trusting’…open and vulnerable one day, and closed and controlling the next.  I can’t quite resonate with the GOT FAITH? bumper stickers.  I would have to keep peeling it off and re-attaching it like a post-it note.  GOT MILK, I understand;)  GOT FAITH?, I mistrust. 

Does one ever just HAVE it?  Aren’t there possibilities every day to allow oneself to be nudged and prodded along?  The only answer to GOT FAITH? I trust is when others have seen it in me.  Periodically that happens.  And it seems to happen when I’m tired of faithing.  I can hear God saying, “Cindy, Cindy, Cindy…you are trying way too hard!”

Let it be a verb...
trust it...

*Sources:

1.  Karoline Lewis, “’Getting’ Great Faith, http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=3298

(a great read!)

2.  Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace, A Vocabulary of Faith, p. 169-174

Addendum

Jeremiah 31:1-7

I’ve been ignoring Jeremiah for two weeks now!

And it isn’t quite fair of me to start with today’s pericope, which is all sweetness, mercy and comfort!

Jeremiah, the book, isn’t very orderly; it jumps around without being too concerned about the ‘when’ of things.  His basic prophetic message: Judah’s doom and destruction.

Jeremiah, the prophet, started his career as a young boy.  That is a long time to be talking about doom.  And it doesn’t win him many friends;)

But today we are in the ‘Book of Consolation’ which is what the scholars call chapters 30-33…vis a vis the surrounding 48 chapters of wrath;)

God, through Jeremiah, continues to paint a picture of a renewed Israel.  Those who have forgotten God in their exile will find him again.  Re-planted vineyards and music-making will be signs of this renewing movement that will bring the tribes of Israel back together.

It is a vision of rest and mercy and delivery.

And vineyards!  Blessed vineyards!

Cheers!