Monday, March 03, 2008
From AscensionNYC
Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent
by Nicholas Saunders
Psalm 30:1-6, 11-13
Isaiah 65:17-25
John 4:43-54
Today's texts are about healing, for recovery from illness, and ultimately about hope for a better world. Read together, they show a couple of ways of arriving at faith. One way is to look as these passages as leading from an answered prayer (the psalm) to God's promise (in Isaiah) to a specific sign of God's action in the world (Jesus' healing the child at Cana). Or they could be read in exactly the opposite order, as a path to faith: the miracle that leads people to believe, then the scriptural confirmation of God's favor toward us, and finally the psalmist's prayer of thanksgiving for the healing and joy that comes from a relationship with God. Whatever our individual approach to spiritual life, these ancient texts offer comfort and a reflection of God's love.
Jesus is aware of how difficult faith can be. He tells the nobleman whose son is at the point of death, "unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." But what is available in 2008 to help us make a commitment to faith and keep it? Faith remains a mystery, yet the texts we read can help us understand the ineffable feeling that we might call belief. For me, the psalms have been useful, and I have read them at times of trouble or sorrow, even when faith was not really a part of my life, and hardly a commitment. The power and beauty of the language stirred me for some reason, while faith was a long way off. So perhaps, for me, the spiritual journey begins with a prayer, like today's psalm, and leads from there to a hopeful recognition of God's presence in the world.
Psalm 30:1-6, 11-13
Isaiah 65:17-25
John 4:43-54
Today's texts are about healing, for recovery from illness, and ultimately about hope for a better world. Read together, they show a couple of ways of arriving at faith. One way is to look as these passages as leading from an answered prayer (the psalm) to God's promise (in Isaiah) to a specific sign of God's action in the world (Jesus' healing the child at Cana). Or they could be read in exactly the opposite order, as a path to faith: the miracle that leads people to believe, then the scriptural confirmation of God's favor toward us, and finally the psalmist's prayer of thanksgiving for the healing and joy that comes from a relationship with God. Whatever our individual approach to spiritual life, these ancient texts offer comfort and a reflection of God's love.
Jesus is aware of how difficult faith can be. He tells the nobleman whose son is at the point of death, "unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." But what is available in 2008 to help us make a commitment to faith and keep it? Faith remains a mystery, yet the texts we read can help us understand the ineffable feeling that we might call belief. For me, the psalms have been useful, and I have read them at times of trouble or sorrow, even when faith was not really a part of my life, and hardly a commitment. The power and beauty of the language stirred me for some reason, while faith was a long way off. So perhaps, for me, the spiritual journey begins with a prayer, like today's psalm, and leads from there to a hopeful recognition of God's presence in the world.
