rainy Sundays and coffee hour questions
Has rained steadily here in the central part of the state over the last few days. I stopped here on my way home from Guthrie on Sunday. This is one of my favorite places, Mineral Wells Park. We stopped by this park on our second visit to Oklahoma, when we were apartment hunting back in April, and I remember thinking about how red the water was and what a change that was going to be. Homily with the central focus of the Canaanite woman went well and received much positive feedback, but I seem to be in extemporaneous preaching mode at the moment so nothing to publish. It strikes me how hungry people are for good information about Scripture, that both takes it seriously and yet not literally.
One listener challenged me after the service by asking why Jesus criticized the disciples' little faith in last Sunday's Gospel and praised the Canaanite woman's great faith when we only needed to have faith the size of a mustard seed. I'm curious what some of you might have answered her in return.
posted by Emily @ 11:11 AM
2 Comments:
Stimulating question! Is the seed the objective? No, the seed is the beginning, the bare essentials, but the seed must be planted before it can grow. The disciples should have already been growing in faith, theirs, having been followers of Jesus for some time, should have already been beyond the stage of new birth, already becoming, if you will, a great tree.
Just my humble opinion. I always say this about Gospel stories, but this is one of my favorites.
Annie
I would think that Jesus encouraged and praised the Canaanite woman to offer spiritual feeding, where the disciples needed guiding and reminding. I know as a teacher I am much more encouraging when a student just beginning to understand than one that KNOWS - the ones that already know need the tweaking and "guidance".
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