Authority and Faith to Give Life

The authority and power that is embodied in your word is something I can recognize as authority, but it is of a wholly greater realm than the hierarchy I know and live. It gives life and health. It creates life. I see it. I recognize it. I know it’s real. Simply say a word. That word will carry the gift of life across any distance, up and down any human hierarchy. That word gives life. That recognition of the reality of God’s creative, life-giving authority and power in Jesus, the very presence of God in Jesus, that recognition, Jesus say, is “such a great Faith.” It is not defined by grasping details of doctrine or imposing rigorous practices useful though those may be. It is seeing, recognizing, knowing – in heart and mind and body, philosophically, emotionally, aesthetically, analytically, musically, with every part of my being – that here among us is the God who created us, sustains our life, who has loved and will love us forever. That’s where Jesus is leading his disciples and every one of us. Notice, Luke doesn’t even tell us that Jesus spoke a word. Those who’d been sent, Jewish elders and friends, simply returned. God had intervened, health and life had broken out. That slave was alive, thriving. A Great Prophet has risen among us. God has visited his people. Amen.