Lord I am not worthy to receive you

It is no small coincidence that the person whose faith Jesus commends most in the gospels of Matthew and Luke is that of a foreigner - one whose cultural and religious beliefs were among the least like those of anyone else he met.

Who was this foreigner? By the accounts a Roman centurion, who was asking for Jesus to heal his servant. Jesus was prepared to yet again go out of his way and heal a person, but the centurion made clear he believed Jesus' had the power to simply make it so - without ever going near this servant. It is for this simple and trusting faith that he commends this Centurion through the ages to us as an example of how to believe.

Who we are is not defined by the accident of what race, gender, class, subgroup, or country we are born into. Who we are is what we do. And it is what we share. What we own up to. And how big our hearts are.