It's a challenge to those of us in church who have words we repeat each week, even if they are the glorious words of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. I confess that in the liturgy I sometimes shift into automatic pilot, and then some phrase will leap out at me as if I've never heard it before. When it does, I'm reminded that I've been in the presence of a power greater than myself, power that can be downright explosive, and I've not always seen its power. I've seen these prophets come and go. They're all the same.
Faith is just a crutch.
There's nothing for me in this religion stuff. If there was, why would there be so many problems in the world. I mean, I could organize things better. This story challenges us with the somewhat amazing and slightly scary idea that God's works of power can in some way be thwarted by our own lack of receptivity, by our own unwillingness to be open to God's working. The story tells us there's a mysterious synergy that goes on.