Was it God, or Faith?

What2Say2Day? In continued preparation for Sunday's discussion with our Youth and Young Adults I read Acts 3:12-19. It took me a few reads and an opening of my heart to begin seeing what the message for me was today. The words used are harsh and spoken in anger. Peter is being accusatory, and downright mean. I don't usually begin my days this way, but this is where we start today.

I wanted to understand why Peter sounded so upset in this passage so I read what lead up to it. It just so happens that Peter had recently spoken his first sermon on what we now call the day of Pentecost. Peter is visibly still upset about what happened to Jesus on the cross as he ends that sermon with the words, "this Jesus whom you crucified." (Acts 2:36b) So when even more people are in amazement of Peter and the apostle's abilities to heal a crippled beggar it seems Peter has had enough of their disbelief and non-understanding so he rips into them.

Okay, so Peter finally gets all that ugliness was building inside him out in the open, and that's a good thing - more of us should do that more often. However it's Peter's words, not the anger, that caught me this morning. Peter never gives the credit for the healing to God or Jesus. What he does say is that the beggars faith in Jesus' name is what cured him. Interesting, isn't it. According to Peter it isn't God or Jesus that heals, rather it's the faith of the one needing the healing.

This motif is found throughout the Gospels. Jesus says more than a few times, "because of your faith..." So I guess the question is what is faith? I think I'm going to like today as I'm feeling I just might be witness to something that will give me the answer. In fact, I have faith it will happen.