Shall we trust God? This may sound like a strange question for a preacher to be asking a congregation. The answer is obvious—isn’t it? Of course we do—don’t we?

How do we know if we really trust God? All we have to do is examine our attitudes and actions. What are the real priorities that shape our living? For us to trust God is for us to live with such confidence in what God has made known in Christ that what we see in Jesus shapes the way we live—the compassion that shaped all he said and did shapes all we say and do. Well, does it? Do we really trust God?

For some of us there is significant evidence that what we really trust to give our lives meaning is the achievement of material success. We live as if the more we obtain the more our lives are worth. Others of us do not trust God as much as we trust ourselves, and that is why we want as much power as we can get—so we can be in control of life. We place our faith in obtaining power so we can get others to live the way we want them to live. For some of us, pleasure, comfort, enjoyment is what we trust will make our lives worth living. If we can just be happy, if we can just have some fun, if we can just be comfortable and enjoy life, then we will say we are living a good life.

Because we are tempted to place our trust in materialism, power, and pleasure, the question: “Shall we trust God—God as revealed to us in Jesus Christ?” is an appropriate question for us to ask ourselves. Shall we trust God to make our lives meaningful? Shall we trust God to give our living purpose? Shall our trust in God be the primary reality that shapes the way we live? Shall we trust God?

I suspect this was an issue for the people of Judah 500 years before the first Christmas. They had been captured and marched to Babylonia to live in exile. Their nation had been defeated and plundered, their homes destroyed; even the holy temple had been leveled. To these people who were living in the midst of the worst of times, the poetry we read this morning was declaring that God had not forgotten. God was with them, and God would deliver them from their distress.

The issue was, could they trust God? Could they live confidently trusting that the promises God had made to Abraham—the promise that they would have a place in life that they would have a future, and that their lives would matter^{[1] —}could they live their daily lives confidently trusting God to keep these promises?

I can imagine someone saying then, as some of us say today: “Wait a minute. I would like to trust God, but how can I when I look at the reality of human history. If God is worthy of trust, then explain why there is so much that is bad in life, so much that is unfair in life, so much that is cruel in life? In the face of life’s injustices and cruelties, how can we trust God, the one we affirm is the Creator?”

If we live long enough, sooner or later each of us finds ourselves standing at a place in life not unlike Job. Bad things do happen to good people. In this life, persons who do not deserve the suffering inflicted upon them suffer terrible torments—sometimes torments of the body, and sometimes torments of the heart, and sometimes both. It is then that we, like Job, fling our questions in the face of God. But often, like Job, the only answer we get is silence.^[2] Or perhaps the answer we receive is like the one Job received. Out of the whirlwind of reality, God says, in effect: “Oh, you little creature, do you really think you can comprehend the mind and ways of God?^[3]

But our response to such truth is rarely quiet, humble acceptance. Our pains and frustrations and fears are seldom soothed by God’s declaration that we are incapable of understanding the ways of God. And so our pain, fear and frustration continue to lure us, call us, tempt us, lead us to place our trust in what we can understand: materialism, power and pleasure. Frustrated by our inability to ever comprehend the mystery of injustice and cruelty, we turn from trusting God to trusting that more money, more power, more pleasure will make our lives worth living. Unable to trust God, we try to grab control of life, or at least control life around us, and we exhaust ourselves trying to prove our worth by obtaining more things and winning more trophies. We try to have a good life by striving to be comfortable and enjoying as much as we can. We focus on ourselves and our families, and only rarely glance in the direction of God.

God understands. And because God does understand, and because God does love us, God has come among us as one of us. In and through Jesus the Christ, God has not merely talked the talk about what it is to live as God intends, God has walked the walk. In the midst of all the injustices and cruelties of life, God in Christ became one of us and has lived through all we must live through. In Jesus, God has taken on all we must endure—even misunderstanding and abandonment by those closest to him, even a crucifixion that appeared to declare his life and his life’s work a failure. God in Jesus even experienced the agony of feeling God forsaken.^[4]

There is so much we do not know or understand. But this much seems fairly clear. Through the scriptures we are aware that God is active in history, but because of the evidence of evil and sin, it is obvious God has chosen not to control everything in history much less in our lives. We have not been created as some sort of biological robots who are programmed to do only what God wants done. God chose to make us in God’s image. And the primary characteristic of God is love.^[5] To be given the gift of being able to love means also being given the freedom not to love because love is possible only where there is freedom not to love.

What we see revealed in Jesus Christ is that God has chosen to build life around the central reality of love, the kind of love we see in Jesus Christ. And when we choose to make something other than the kind of love we see in Christ the central organizing principal of our living, we make a mess of things and all hell breaks lose.

In just a few days we will celebrate the birth of Jesus, the one we declare to be the Christ. There is something special and unique in this birthday celebration for those who live in the confidence that in Jesus God was not only active in history, but in ways we do not fully understand, God entered history, God became one of us, dealing with all we have to deal with—not as a divine being nor as a semi-divine being, but as one of us.

It was as though God were saying, “Look, I have been trying to get a message across to you people. I have sent one prophet after another to teach you what living is really all about. But you have not yet learned what I have been trying to tell you. You have allowed your attention to stray, and you have followed the illusions of your daydreams rather than staying focused on me and living as I intend you to live. The results are obvious. The world is headed to hell in a hand basket, and so are all too many of you. I have tried to tell you. That obviously has not worked. Now I will show you—show you the way, the truth and the life.^[6]”

And so, the Word, the message of God, became flesh, became a human being, and lived among us. Light has come into our darkness. Even though at times that light seems to be only a small, fragile candle flame flickering in the winds of history, that light is still there.

Shall we trust God? This question requires more than lip service response. For us who call ourselves Christians, to trust God is to rely on God. For us to trust God is for us to trust that the winds of history and the storms in our lives cannot extinguish the flickering candle flame of God’s amazing grace. For us to trust God is for us to live with such confidence in what God has made known in Christ that what we see in Jesus shapes the way we live.

Shall we trust God? Whether we are aware of it or not, we do answer “yes” or “no.” In our daily living our attitude, words and deeds declare what we really trust. And so, each moment of each day the question is always before us. Shall we trust God?

 

God, regardless of what we are facing or going through, may our attitudes, words and deeds be shaped by our confident, obedient trust in you. Amen.

 Pastoral Prayer:

God, as our nation and our state move toward new administrations, we ask you to send your healing grace into our lives and into the lives of all citizens so that as we deal with the challenges and problems life has set before us, we are able to be instruments of your will. Rescue each of us from any sense of cynicism that undermines efforts to rebuild trust. Rescue each of us from all pride and arrogance that undermine relationships. Show us how to work in harmony with one another even when we disagree with one another. Set us free from our slavery to egotism so that we are able to cooperate with one another for the highest good. And God give us the ability to discern what is the highest good.

God, fill our hearts with the compassion that was in Christ. Teach us how to love one another—even those we have viewed as our enemies. Show us how we can give of ourselves for the good of others without merely giving in to whatever others want. Give us wisdom to maintain integrity while at the same time working for appropriate compromise.

And God, what we pray for ourselves as citizens of this nation, we pray also for our leaders. We especially pray for President-elect George W. Bush, Vice President-elect Richard Chaney, and all those in the Congress. We also pray for Rick Perry as he assumes the leadership of our state and for all those who are coming to serve in the next legislative session.

God, help each of us, citizens and leaders alike to be the persons you intend us to be, doing what you want us to do. Enable us to live as Jesus was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: “Our Father …”