(Dis-)Trust

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Gainesville FL
The Chapel of the Incarnation, Gainesville FL
March 20, 2011

Year A: The Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17

(Dis-)Trust

In last Sunday’s sermon I talked about how hard it is for many of us to obey. We just don’t like being told what to do.

Well, obedience is hard, but for many of us trust is even harder.

Many of us have a hard time trusting other people.

Some of us are just naturally suspicious. When I was growing up, if someone rang the doorbell our first response was to surreptitiously peak out the kitchen window to try and see who was at the door. You certainly don’t just take your chances and open the door! It could be a Jehovah’s Witness or some neighbor we didn’t want to deal with.

Sometimes people offer to help us and we wonder what’s their angle? What’s in it for them? How am I being taken advantage of? Watch your wallet!

Some of us have hard time with trust because we’ve been hurt when people have let us down by breaking a trust. For some of us that’s happened too many times to count.

And some of us have a hard time with trust because we ourselves have not always been trustworthy and so we assume that everyone is as untrustworthy as we are.

Whatever the reason, for many of us trust is hard.

Lacking trust is a big deal because of course it messes up our relationships with other people. It’s difficult if not impossible to form friendships or to love another if there is no trust.

And lacking trust is a big deal because it wounds us spiritually.

At its heart, faith is trust.

We usually think of faith as accepting a series of claims as fact. And that’s certainly part of what faith is. In a few minutes we’ll stand and say the Nicene Creed. Part of faith is standing up and saying, yes, I believe these things. Or, at least faith is standing and saying I have my doubts about some of this stuff, but with God’s help I’m trying my best to believe.

But, much more important than accepting the claims of the creed, faith is trusting in God.

Faith is trusting God even when – or especially when – we don’t understand why terrible things happen.

Faith is trusting God when tectonic plates rub against each other and cause horrifically destructive earthquakes and tidal waves.

Faith is trusting God when a young person, a college freshman, dies in a senseless and meaningless way.

Faith is trusting God – trusting that God is in the midst of suffering, pouring out grace and strength.

Faith is trusting God – trusting that God is at work as God is always at work – turning death into life.

Faith is trusting God.

In the words of Psalm 121:

“I lift my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.”

Faith is trusting God. But trust – trusting one another and trusting God - is hard for many of us.

Today’s lessons offer us an example of one person who trusted God and another struggled mightily with trust.

In today’s brief passage from Genesis, we heard the story of God sending Abram away from his home into an uncertain future in a foreign land. God makes big promises, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

Genesis tells us that Abram was seventy-five when he trusted God and along with his wife and his nephew left home for Canaan. I’m sure in those seventy-five years Abram had put his trust in others and sometimes they had let him down. And I’m sure in those seventy-five years others had put their trust in Abram and sometimes he had let them down.

Yet, Abram trusts God and trusts in God’s promises.

And then there’s Nicodemus.

We’re told that Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a leader of the Jews. The Pharisees are usually depicted very negatively in the New Testament, but not Nicodemus. He recognizes Jesus as “a teacher who has come from God.” Nicodemus recognizes that God’s power is working through Jesus.

But, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. Nicodemus is not yet ready or able to put his trust in Jesus.

Nicodemus represents of other First Century people who recognized the power of Jesus and yet were unready or unable to put their trust in him.

And Nicodemus is probably a representative for many of us who have also seen the power of Jesus working in our own lives and in the lives of those around us.

Nicodemus is probably a representative for many of us who have seen God at work turning death into life, and yet…

And yet, we’re unable or unwilling to put our trust in God.

Christians believe that faith is a gift from God. There’s nothing we can do to make ourselves have faith, to convince ourselves to trust God.

On the one hand, God has been reaching out to us, calling to us, since the beginning.

And God’s ultimate reaching out to us, calling to us, is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the familiar but still powerful words of John’s Gospel:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have everlasting life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

On the other hand, trust takes time. We need to take the time to open ourselves to God who is reaching out to us, calling to us, through Jesus.

Trust is hard. Trust takes time. During Lent we have a chance to make a little more time for God, make a little more time for God to grow closer to us, make a little more time to allow our trust in God to deepen.

Maybe that means setting aside a little extra time for prayer and Scripture reading. Maybe that means setting aside a little extra time to take a reflective walk in this beautiful place. Maybe that means attending a weekday service. Maybe that means offering some kind of sacrifice or service to someone in need.

At its heart, faith is trust.

Faith is trusting God even when – or especially when – we don’t understand why terrible things happen.

Faith is trusting God when tectonic plates rub against each other and cause horrifically destructive earthquakes and tidal waves.

Faith is trusting God when a young person, a college freshman, dies in a senseless and meaningless way.

Faith is trusting God – trusting that God is in the midst of suffering, pouring out grace and strength.

Faith is trusting God – trusting that God is at work as God is always at work – turning death into life.

Faith is trusting God.

And trust takes time. I’m sure Abram’s trust of God grew over the seventy-five years before he set out into the unknown - to Canaan.

And maybe Nicodemus’s trust of God also grew over time.

Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night makes a brief but important reappearance near the end of John’s Gospel.

After Jesus’ death on the cross, it’s Nicodemus who uses an abundance of myrrh and aloes – weighing about a hundred pounds, we’re told - to anoint Jesus’ body before burial.

Why do that? To me, that sounds like faith as trust.

I don’t know if Nicodemus had worked out all his theology or if he ever would have been able to stand with us and say the creed.

But Nicodemus made time for God and for God’s Son - giving generously of himself, trusting that somehow, someway, in the midst of great suffering, God was at work as God is always at work - turning death into life.

Amen.