Deepen our faithfulness to you

Deepen our faithfulness to you

When I think of phrases such as this one, “deepen our faithfulness to you”, from the Collect for The Second Sunday after Trinity, my thoughts are often drawn to another remembered phrase, “I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

Jesus’ disciples had tried unsuccessfully to heal a boy with a spirit that put him in harms way and prevented him speaking. When the boys father spoke to Jesus he was told that, “All things can be done for the one who believes”. To which the father immediately responded with, “I believe, help my unbelief!”

I can almost imagine the disciples responding in a similar way when Jesus tells them later, after they asked him why they couldn’t cast the spirit out, “This kind can come out only through prayer.” (Read the full account in Mark 9:14-29.) It would seem safe to assume that prayer was always a part of what happened during the healing process; so perhaps Jesus was hinting about a specially focussed kind of prayer requiring even more spiritual effort. This incident happened soon after the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13), following it immediately in Mark’s Gospel. Perhaps we’re to assume that Jesus’ time on the mountain was, for him, a time of particularly intense prayer, giving him on his return especially heightened power.

It looks to me though, that there was a quite a lot of belief being shown on that particular day. The boys father believed enough in all that he’d heard about the events surrounding this charismatic figure of Jesus to bring his ill son to him. He believed in Jesus’ friends enough to let them try to heal his son when he found them before finding Jesus himself. The disciples believed enough to try. All of this would have shown already a tremendous amount of faith. But it appears, not quite enough.

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

1. We frequently imagine that a person’s early years as a Christian pilgrim are the hardest, and that as we mature and grow in faith things become easier. But the opposite often turns out to be true. Just as we’re learning to walk alongside Jesus, we’re given harder tasks, which demand more courage and more spiritual energy.
2. I can remember the pain I felt when, a few years ago, some well-meaning friends told me that I wasn’t healed from my particular health issues because I didn’t believe enough. They equated “healing” with “cure”, which I think is wrong. I think healing can, and does, sometimes mean cure; but that isn’t always the case. Healing is more about learning to be at peace with yourself and accepting things as they are. In that sense I believe I have received a lot of healing, though recent events have shown I still have a way to go.

We will experience challenges to our faith and beliefs as we continue on our own journeys of faith. But we can grow through those challenges. When they do come our way, let us join in prayer with the father in this story, “I believe, help my unbelief!” Let us pray that our faith in God, and his Son Jesus Christ, will be deepened and encouraged to grow. And then let us take the next step on our own pilgrimages of faith.

Faithful Creator,
whose mercy never fails:
deepen our faithfulness to you
and to your living Word,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Second Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council