Bring the Faith You Have

O come, all ye faithful

— opening phrase of a Christmas Carol with that title

“If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you may say to this mountain, ‘Move from here’, and it will move, and nothing will be difficult for you.”   That’s the Aramaic Bible in Plain English translation.  I like it because it uses the phrase “like a grain of mustard seed,” which for sure sounds miniscule.

 “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”  That’s the more familiar New International Version.

Either way, it’s what Jesus says in Matthew 17:20.  We’ve heard it a lot.

Usually we leave something out, just like I did both times here.

Jesus opens with this in the Aramaic version: “Because of your unbelief….”  Ouch.

Probably it’s more polite in the New International Version, right?  “Because you have so little faith….”  Wrong.  That still stings.

But let’s be honest.  We’re probably somewhere short of the Moving Mountains faith.  But you and I have some degree of faith.  Don’t we?

So don’t bring the faith you don’t yet have.  Bring the faith you do have.

Gotta start somewhere.

Gotta start sometime.

This song’s invitation is  for us when it says, O come, all ye faithful.

Today, on what some call The Second Day of The Christmas Season, O come, all ye faithful…O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.