FRIDAY, December 4, 2009 - FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT       

ISAIAH 29:17-24        
           
       Thus says the Lord God:
       But a very little while,
            and Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard,
            and the orchard be regarded as a forest!
       On that day the deaf shall hear
            the words of a book;
       And out of gloom and darkness,
            the eyes of the blind shall see.
       The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord,
            and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
       For the tyrant will be no more
            and the arrogant will have gone;
       All who are alert to do evil will be cut off,
            those whose mere word condemns a man,
       Who ensnare his defender at the gate,
            and leave the just man with an empty claim.
       Therefore thus says the Lord,
              the God of the house of Jacob,
              who redeemed Abraham:
       Now Jacob shall have nothing to be ashamed of,
              nor shall his face grow pale.
       When his children see
              the work of my hands in his midst,
       They shall keep my name holy;
              they shall reverence the Holy One of Jacob,
              and be in awe of the God of Israel.
       Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding,
              and those who find fault shall receive instruction.
      
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MATTHEW 9:27-31
                          
       As Jesus moved on from Capernaum, two blind men came after him crying out, “Son of David, have pity on us!”
       When he got to the house, the blind men caught up with him. Jesus said to them, “Are you confident I can do this?”
       “Yes, Lord,” they told him.
       At that he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith it shall be done to you”; and they recovered their sight. Then Jesus warned them sternly, “See to it that no one knows of this.” But they went off and spread word of him through the whole area. 

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"Are you confident I can do this?"  This is the question Jesus asks the two blind men after they beg him to have pity on them.  Over and over again Jesus tells the people he has healed that their faith has made them whole.  Oh, if we only had great faith like that!  But is it really "great" faith that Jesus is talking about?  In a similar story in Marks Gospel (Mark 9:14-27) a father asks Jesus to heal his son who is a deaf mute possessed by an unclean spirit that throws him to the ground.  The father says to Jesus, "If you can do anything have compassion on us."  Jesus responds that anything is possible for those who have faith.  To which the father cries out, "I do believe, help my unbelief." 

Sometimes we get the notion that we need great faith to allow Jesus to work wonders in our lives.  Sometimes we get the notion that we just aren't good enough for Jesus to do anything with us.  The father of the possessed boy cries out, "I do believe, help my unbelief."  It almost sounds contradictory.  But it isn't.  We have faith, ever so small at times.  But Jesus can take that spark of faith and fan it into a firestorm if we let him.  It means letting go of our illusion of control over our lives.  It means surrendering to the will of God in such a way that we are truly clay in the hands of the potter.  It means saying, like Mary at the Annunciation, "I am the servant of the Lord." 

Were the two blind men brimming over with confidence in Jesus? I don't think so.  I think there was more hope than faith in their response to Jesus.  But there was that spark of faith and they were willing to let Jesus fan it into a fire that would cure them.  Their lives were dramatically changed after this encounter.  Ours might be also.  It's this surrender to God that allows the spark to ignite. 

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Lord Jesus, we often allow our doubts and fears to paralyze us.  We become blind because of our lack of faith.  We do believe, help our unbelief that the faith planted in our hearts may be fanned into one that burns with the Spirit. 

Deacon Ed