On Line Bible Study - For the Week May 30-5, 2011
Lesson 495
In John Irving's recent novel, Until I Find You, the opening chapter tells of a little boy who reaches up to hold his mother's hand. He doesn't always know why he does it; he just knows that things seem safer when his hand is in hers.
In the previous lesson when we considered the humility of the tax collector praying in the temple we were invited to consider the spiritual power of such an attitude. Humility has greater influence on the mind of God than does spiritual arrogance.
The three verses under consideration this week point to another essential quality for spiritual health - trust. The three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) all recall this event in almost exactly the same language. (See Matthew 19:13-15 and Mark 10:13-16.) Am I willing to trust the word of Jesus with the same blissful abandon I trust the laws of physics? What kind of trust does it take to respond fully to the invitation: Come, follow me.
In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, the German theologian speaks of 'obedience' and 'faith' - one is impossible without the other. The familiar hymn puts it on the table - Trust and obey, for there's no other way ... Bonhoeffer goes on to say that only those who have left all to follow Christ can claim to have been 'justified by grace'. Whatever else it takes to "leave all", it takes a lot of trust in the one extending the invitation.
An airplane doesn't 'sort of fly...' It either flies, or it doesn't. When people put their faith in an aircraft that does not fly the results can be disastrous - and fatal.
For any who remember their childhood, we can look back with amazement at how we trusted parents or guardians or teachers - various adults who told us one thing or another.
Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters ... - so sings Lynn Anderson. So must we do - just like the children so trustingly put their hands in ours. Adults might be the ones providing the assurance the little ones need; but their unequivocal trust is the quality that must be emulated. As a child trusts, so must we.
Luke 18: 15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
Tomorrow morning when I get on an airplane I will be exercising the highest degree of trust that is expected of me - a trust in "laws" which insure that, at a certain speed, given a certain design of the machine I am sitting in, I will fly. I've had it all explained to me over and over again; still it seems to me that once that plane rumbles down the runway it's all out of my hands.In John Irving's recent novel, Until I Find You, the opening chapter tells of a little boy who reaches up to hold his mother's hand. He doesn't always know why he does it; he just knows that things seem safer when his hand is in hers.
In the previous lesson when we considered the humility of the tax collector praying in the temple we were invited to consider the spiritual power of such an attitude. Humility has greater influence on the mind of God than does spiritual arrogance.
The three verses under consideration this week point to another essential quality for spiritual health - trust. The three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) all recall this event in almost exactly the same language. (See Matthew 19:13-15 and Mark 10:13-16.) Am I willing to trust the word of Jesus with the same blissful abandon I trust the laws of physics? What kind of trust does it take to respond fully to the invitation: Come, follow me.
In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, the German theologian speaks of 'obedience' and 'faith' - one is impossible without the other. The familiar hymn puts it on the table - Trust and obey, for there's no other way ... Bonhoeffer goes on to say that only those who have left all to follow Christ can claim to have been 'justified by grace'. Whatever else it takes to "leave all", it takes a lot of trust in the one extending the invitation.
An airplane doesn't 'sort of fly...' It either flies, or it doesn't. When people put their faith in an aircraft that does not fly the results can be disastrous - and fatal.
For any who remember their childhood, we can look back with amazement at how we trusted parents or guardians or teachers - various adults who told us one thing or another.
Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters ... - so sings Lynn Anderson. So must we do - just like the children so trustingly put their hands in ours. Adults might be the ones providing the assurance the little ones need; but their unequivocal trust is the quality that must be emulated. As a child trusts, so must we.
posted by Mark D at 12:21 PM
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