Faith and Worthiness (Guest Speaker: Matthias Roberts)

Matthew 17:14-20

Matthias Roberts (he/him) is a psychotherapist specializing in religious and spiritual trauma and the author of Holy Runaways: Rediscovering Faith After Being Burned by Religion and Beyond Shame: Creating a Healthy Sex Life on Your Own Terms. He hosts  Queerology: A Podcast on Belief and Being and holds two master's degrees from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, one in theology and culture, and one in counseling psychology. His work has been featured by O: The Oprah Magazine, Bustle, Woman's Day, Sojourners, The Seattle Times, and many others. He lives in Seattle.

Matthew 17:14-20 (NRSV):

14 When they came to the crowd, a man came to him, knelt before him, 15 and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has epilepsy and suffers terribly; he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Jesus answered, “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured from that moment. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Queries:

Have you ever felt like the amount of faith you had just wasn’t enough? What do you think of the parable of the mustard seed?

What do you think of the idea that what might hold us back from experiencing love, belonging, and faith to move mountains is our lack of belief in our own worthiness? 

Have you experienced that it’s easier to see another person’s worthiness than to believe in our own? Why do you think it’s so difficult to see our own positive qualities?