A God Who Notices Us - October 13
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 5, 6; PM Psalm 10, 11; Jonah 1:1-17a; Acts 26:24-27:8; Luke 8:40-56
Today’s Reflection
Every time we come together to do Morning Prayer, whether during the week or on a Sunday, we affirm the basic tenets of our belief in the Trinity by saying the Apostles’ Creed. This comes after we have done some other things—confessing our sins, receiving God’s forgiveness, reading scripture, and responding to scripture—and just before we say our prayers together. The order of how we do things in the service is, of course, no accident. We build up to affirming what we believe by first grounding ourselves in assurance that we are forgiven, and that God has spoken to us through Holy Scripture.
At that point, we have some basis for saying that we believe in God, the Father Almighty, in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit when we recite the Apostles’ Creed. The basis for believing in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is being reminded that we matter to God enough for God to hear our confession, to offer us mercy and forgiveness, and to speak to us through the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments alike.
All the scriptures appointed for us in today’s lectionary are tied together with the thread of this question: What is the nature of belief? Psalm 10 shows us a picture of unbelief, what it looks like when people choose not to believe: “The wicked are so proud that they care not for God; their only thought is, ‘God does not matter.’” The psalmist goes on to observe how, “They say in their heart, ‘God has forgotten; he hides his face; he will never notice.”
In painting this picture of unbelief, though, the psalmist is also showing us a picture of the inverse. If not believing in God looks like saying that God doesn’t matter and that God doesn’t think I matter, then believing in God means that I believe that God matters and that God thinks I matter. Defined in this way, belief sounds a lot like a relationship. Someone believes I matter—by remembering I am here, by noticing I exist. I, in return, show that I believe in that someone by remembering they are here, acknowledging that they exist.
So, when we encounter Jonah today, as he has decided not to follow God’s command that he go to Nineveh, we find Jonah has boarded a boat to journey somewhere else, anywhere but Nineveh. But God has noticed that Jonah is heading in the wrong direction and that he knows Jonah is hiding out in the hold of a boat headed elsewhere. God sends a storm to disrupt Jonah’s plans, and then he sends some shipmates who want to know who upset which god—and when they figure out it was Jonah, they dump him overboard. But God is still noticing what is going on with Jonah, and God sends a large fish by at just the right time so that Jonah doesn’t drown in the stormy sea, but rather has a place to be for three days before he gets spit back out and sent on his way. Jonah’s ability to believe in God is renewed when God shows Jonah that he sees him, that he has not forgotten about him, and that he has some plans in store for him.
Likewise, in the encounters that people have with Jesus in today’s Gospel reading from Luke 8, we observe how Jesus notices people and affirms that they matter to him. The woman who has been hemorrhaging for 12 years already believes so much in the potential of Jesus’ healing power that she believes that if she can touch even just the fringe of Jesus’ clothing that she will be healed. In the midst of the swirl and chaos of the crowd that is following alongside Jesus, the woman perhaps thought she could do this without Jesus even noticing. However, that would not be in the nature of a God who notices, a God who cares about each one: “But Jesus said, ‘Someone touched me; for I noticed that power had gone out from me.’ When the woman saw that she could not remain hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before him, she declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.’”
Jesus noticed that the power has gone out from him and into healing her. And Jesus wanted her to know that it was OK to reach out to him, and to know that her belief—her faith in him and his healing power—is what had made her well. The woman noticed Jesus and what he was doing and believed that it mattered. Jesus noticed that the woman believed him and wanted her to know that he believed in her as well.
As Christians, we believe that God the Father, Son, and Spirit matters. And the God we believe in is a God who remembers we are here, notices us in our times of need, and shows us mercy. The God we believe in is also a God who believes in us.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Think of a time when you felt forgotten, but then someone showed you that they noticed and cared that you were there. How did you feel in that moment of shifting from feeling isolated or unseen to feeling connected and seen? Are there times when you have experienced this same dynamic in your relationship with God?
Daily Challenge
Look around your life this week for an opportunity to notice someone who may be feeling forgotten or unseen. Do something to let this person know that you not only notice them, but that you see who they are and that you value them.