In the passage for this week the disciples ask Jesus to give them more faith (Luke 7:5-10).  The mistake they are making in asking this is to confuse ‘faith’ with ‘belief’.  Belief is something that grows with understanding; faith is something, as Jesus replies, that we either have or we don’t.  Talking about belief rather than faith allows the disciples to reserve judgement on Jesus, the enigmatic and challenging Messiah they have been with over the last few years.  In our busy and crowded urban environment we can spend the whole time keeping our options open, living our lives as if they were multiple choice questionnaires.  There is always somewhere else we could be or something else we might prefer to be doing.  It is hard to keep things simple – make a decision and then stick to it

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