TH“Thinking aloud...

 Goodness  - I knew I'd not been here for a while, but really had not appreciated how long. Since Meta decided that linking to blogs on FB was a subversive and dangerous activity, I've tended to just paste preaches there...but I'm kind of fond of this space, that has been somewhere to think aloud in company for more than 20 years now, so I'm reluctant to abandon it entirely.

That being so, and in no particular order, here are a few recent meanderings. This one from last week...

“Not even in Israel have I found such faith”

My late and much-loved father in law, Mark- who had retired from a distinguished career as a senior army officer used to insist that this line in Luke’s narrative was positive proof that Jesus had a sense of humour.

His thinking was that when the centurion insisted that his staff were always obedient “I am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me…and I say to one “Go” and he goes and to another “Come” and he comes, Jesus felt that he was being comically naïve. Mark, with his experience of commanding soldiers, felt that the sub-text to Jesus’s words was something along the lines of “If you’ll believe that, you’ll believe anything”

I’m not sure - though I love that whenever I hear this story it makes me remember Mark and smile. It does, though, encourage me to think about the nature of faith as it is presented here. If we take Jesus’s words as a simple statement of fact, why is it that the centurion displays faith greater than Jesus has encountered within the Jewish community? Community leaders have vouched for the man, for he has excellent inter-faith credentials which encourage Jesus to head towards his house, - but before they can even meet, he sends his messengers with that extraordinary protestation

Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof but only say the word and let my servant be healed

This man is a senior officer in the occupying army – yet based purely on what he has heard of Jesus, he recognises a greater authority than the might of Rome. While others might have questioned his wisdom in inviting the itinerant rabbi to his home, the centurion feels that his home is not fit to welcome Jesus at all…that he himself is not fit…

So his extraordinary faith emerges as part of his clear vision – he knows exactly where to turn.

That faith gains power from the urgency of his need: the centuion cares about his servant deeply. He longs for him to be well….And that longing fuels his belief that in Jesus all our deepest needs can be met.

I’m intrigued by his phrasing “LET my servant be healed”. It suggests to me that the broad sweep of everything is towards wholeness and healing…that sometimes there are short term barriers, but that Jesus can intervene to clear those barriers with only a word, so that the destiny of the centurion’s servant, the destiny of all those for whom we pray, is caught up in that tendency to a final restoration. Often, regardless of our faith, we don’t get to see that healing instantly…Sometimes, that's not enough for us, especially when death over-takes us or those for whom we pray before those prayers are answered….but  nonetheless, I believe that the over-arching narrative gives us a clear path. It's outlined in the Good Friday prayer

let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord;