In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Ghost.
When Peter on the lake suddenly realised not
only with his mind but with all the awe of his being who the
Lord Jesus Christ was, he said, “Leave my boat, o Lord, I am not
worthy that I should be in Thy presence.”
And today we find another man whose faith is
calm and grave — the centurion. He came
to Christ to ask for the healing of his servant, for mercy and
for love. And when Christ said to him that He would come and
heal this servant of his, he said, “No, You need not trouble
Yourself. A word of Yours will suffice.” And Christ let him go,
He did not say, “To reward your faith I shall come all the
same.” He let him return to his home to find his servant healed.
How different it is from so many of our
attitudes. We turn to God half-heartedly in the vague, uncertain
hope that He will and that He can respond to us. The centurion
had no such dividedness of mind and heart. He knew that if it
was right, God will act. He presented Him with his request with
all his hope and all his faith but he claimed nothing, certainly
not any reward for the faith he had expressed.
He went. Yes, indeed, his prayer was fulfilled and it was
enough for him. He had met the mercy of God face to face and the
mercy had responded because he himself was prepared to accept
whatever the Lord would decide.
When we turn to God we must learn this
whole-heartedness. We must turn to Him in the certainty that He
can act, that His love is entirely and perfectly offered, but
that His wisdom may find it right to act in a way different from
what we expect. And we must be prepared to present our request
to the Lord and then go, leave it to Him to act as best He
chooses. In a way we must be prepared to trust Him so completely
that His absence should not shake our faith. His absence is
never real, it is our subjective perception of it. He is always
there in our midst, with us, but at times He makes this presence
perceived, at times not. We must never doubt that He is there, —
He is but in His wisdom preparing us to a greater maturity than
that of a beggar, a greater maturity than one who expects
continuously to be helped and protected, and be heard, He makes
himself unperceptible, unperceived.
Let us learn to trust the Lord not only when we
are overwhelmed by His presence but also when apparently He is
not there. And when in one way or another He says to us, “You
have received from Me all you needed, go now and do your work,
proclaim My mercy, do to others what I have done to you,” — then
we must be prepared to go away, away from the services, away
from our surrounding, away towards those who need the Lord, Who
sends us to them. Amen.
