The acrobat strung a tightrope across Niagara Falls. “Do you believe I can walk across the Falls on this tightrope,” he asked the gathering crowd. They expressed some skepticism so he leapt on the wire and walked over and back easy as anything. The crowd applauded. He grabbed a wheel-barrow and asked the crowd, “Do you believe I can push this wheelbarrow across the Falls?” Some in the crowd thought he could, others doubted. He jumped on the wire with the wheelbarrow and walked over and back, easy peasy The crowd roared its approval. He then put two hundred pound sacks of flour in the wheelbarrow. “Do you believe I can push a fully loaded wheelbarrow across the Falls?” By now the majority nodded in agreement and sure enough he pushed the loaded wheelbarrow over and back easy as anything. The crowd went wild. “We believe you can do anything on the tightrope,” they shouted. “Do you really believe that,” the acrobat asked? “Yes, yes. We believe in you.” “Okay,” said the walker as he dumped the sacks out of the wheelbarrow, “hop in.”
Our whole society seems to be walking a tightrope lately. Coronavirus, Black Lives Matter, gun violence, income inequality, immigration policy dysfunction, partisan division, environmental disaster – anyone of these things could send us plunging into a national abyss. Of course, we have our personal tightropes which threaten us as well – health issues, grief, financial woes, family trouble. To counter this, St. Paul tells us that “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” The Scriptural promise is that God will continue to love us, to cherish us, to care for us. How do we believe in God’s irrevocable grace in such perilous times? To answer that notice the final word that Jesus gave to the Canaanite woman: “O Woman, great is your faith!” This woman who was a foreigner, a non-believer, unclean according to the law had great faith according to Jesus. This was not first time that Jesus praised the faith of a non-believer. Remember the Centurion, the pagan member of the occupying Roman army who was oppressing the Jewish people? Jesus said about him, “I have not found such faith in Israel.” And the Samaritan leper, considered to be a non-believer, Jesus told him ‘Your faith has made you well.” It seems clear that for Jesus being a person of faith was not equitable with going to the right Church or saying the right creed or knowing the catechism answer. Faith for him was about the relationship that one had with God. In order to have great faith like the Biblical characters we need to feel in our bones that God has our back. How do we get faith like that?
First, faith involves trusting that God’s will in the world is for our well-being. The Canaanite woman was not going to take “no” for an answer. She expected that the God wanted her daughter to be well. Our faith will get us through this difficult period if we have a similar expectation. God created this world so that we can thrive as the children of God. No matter what dark forces are out there, the plan of God is unfolding as it should. The road is long with many a winding turn but we can walk it with the blessed assurance that the GPS of God which takes us down Compassion Boulevard, Forgiveness Avenue and Charity Highway will get us where we need to be. When we trust in God’s plan for us we can put up with the bumps and bruises along the way because we know that the ending will be glorious.
Second, faith means having confidence that God knows what we need. That God chose to share human life in the person of Jesus proves that God is not above it all, oblivious to what we are going through. Rather, God feels what we feel and knows what we know. God knows what it’s like to have a childhood when you are threatened with violence. God knows what it’s like for parents and children to have a hard time communicating. God knows what it’s like to have friends who desert you when the going gets rough. God knows what it’s like to have to learn to think differently. God knows what it’s like to get angry when you see injustice going on. God knows what it’s like to be judged by someone who really doesn’t get you. God knows what it’s like to break a mother’s heart. God knows what it’s like to feel so overwhelmed that you don’t think you can take another step. God knows what it’s like to feel all alone. God knows what it’s like to cry. Because of Jesus we have the confidence that our troubles are understood and our prayers are heard. Because of Jesus we can curl up in God’s lap.
Finally, faith means relying on the everlasting arms of God’s mercy. We are accustomed to relying on things. We rely on the brakes to stop the car when we step on the pedal. We rely on the supermarket to supply us with lettuce that doesn’t have e-coli. We rely on the internet to keep us connected with the world. (Some things we rely on are less reliable than others.) But we can rely on God to make the sun to shine on the good and bad alike. We can rely on God to never give up on us. We can rely on God to bend the long arc of history toward justice. We can rely on God’s love.
Faith words – not Trinity, incarnation, consubstantial but trust, confidence, reliance. These are comforting words, familiar words, words we relate to. These are words that will cause Jesus say to us, “Great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish.”
