Discipleship: Trust

Sermon preached by Penny Wheble, 25th March 2012

‘Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation’ -  D Elton Truegood

   

Today, as part of our series on discipleship, I’d like us to look at the subject of trust.

From the time we are born we have a dependency to trust in somebody. Just as a baby or a child needs to trust its parents to love him and provide for his every need, we as children of a gentle loving heavenly Father, need to put our trust in Him. He is the one on whom we can totally depend.

When Saskia my granddaughter was learning to walk she needed the security of someone to hold her hand or reins to support her. She didn't always realise it, but an adult was always there. And once she was confident in walking she went on to run and jump – but she also still sometimes wobbles or falls over, too much like us as Christians !!!!  That just how we are - and we all need the security of God’s love and care.

How often have we had the experience of trusting another person – whether that person is a friend, a lover, a politician, a minister or someone in authority? We’ve all put our faith in different ideas – we do it every day – simply turning on the light puts our trust in modern technology. We flick a switch and don’t give a second thought about how the power is generated, how it gets to our home, what the consequences are of our use of so much power are or how we’d cope if the power went or was limited. We trust people and ideas every day.

We know that trust and faith are closely linked – they come together. It’s often said that faith is spelt RISK. It’s easy, therefore, to become cynical. It’s tempting to stop trusting, to keep our hearts closed to the possibility of letting someone, or something, in so as to avoid the possibility of being hurt.


We know that trust and faith are closely linked – they come together. It’s often said that faith is spelt RISK. It’s easy, therefore, to become cynical. It’s tempting to stop trusting, to keep our hearts closed to the possibility of letting someone, or something, in so as to avoid the possibility of being hurt.

• Water to Wine?

• Lazarus to life?

• Bread and fish to a banquet?

• Healings?

• Works that bring healing, delight, abundance, life itself?

But we do experience Jesus. We do have him at our sides. Not just in some spiritual way, but personally, in the face of each other, in the presence of the stranger, in the arms of a lover. Where there is love and charity there also is God. We believe that God is at work in our lives and in our church. When we do the things that Jesus told us to do we walk by his side. When we help the poor we do Jesus’ work. When we challenge injustice we do so in the name and power of Jesus. When we bring relief to those who are down we do the work of Jesus.
The passage ends with Jesus’ startling words that his followers will do greater things than he did. What?? Greater than the miracles? Greater than those healings? It’s mind blowing. But then think of what we have achieved as a church:


The passage ends with Jesus’ startling words that his followers will do greater things than he did. What?? Greater than the miracles? Greater than those healings? It’s mind blowing. But then think of what we have achieved as a church:

• Simply being church in our world which distrusts religion is an accomplishment

• Simply having faith (when so many Christians would deny that we could be so – and when we’ve battled feelings of guilt and unworthiness) – is miraculous.

And we have more still to do. God hasn’t called us this far to leave us or forsake us but continues to use our gifts, our skills, our time and our treasure. We still have work to do, we still have lives to save, we still have miracles to perform in Jesus name. We do these together, not so that we may be exalted, not that we may make a name for ourselves, but so that the poor and lowly will have their lives changed and transformed by the power of God working through us so that the Kingdom comes a little closer.


And we have more still to do. God hasn’t called us this far to leave us or forsake us but continues to use our gifts, our skills, our time and our treasure. We still have work to do, we still have lives to save, we still have miracles to perform in Jesus name. We do these together, not so that we may be exalted, not that we may make a name for ourselves, but so that the poor and lowly will have their lives changed and transformed by the power of God working through us so that the Kingdom comes a little closer.

We have also had the experience of that trust being betrayed. A friend laughs at us, a lover turns to another, a politician is found not to live up to the ideals and standards we rightfully expect, clergy bully and abuse destroying trust and, often, faith. Modern technology doesn’t answer all our questions and still can’t eradicate disease, poverty or injustice, the political ideas we once held firmly no longer seem to be the answer to our problems.

Our relationships must be built on trust to succeed, and this week I was teaching one of my pupils a song from the musical Wicked called For Good. As we were thinking about the words and how best to interpret them I thought about how appropriate they were for the matter of trust. I quote: “I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn, and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them, and we help them in return”. It then continues, “ So much of me is made of what I learned from you. You’ll be with me, like a handprint on my heart. Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes the sun, like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood, like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea, like a seed dropped by a skybird in a distant wood. Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?  Because I knew you, I have been changed for good”.

And that’s how it is in a good marriage – and today we celebrate with Keith and Sylvie 40 years of marriage. – we change and grow closer as we learn to trust one another. We are changed and transformed, just as in the same way that we learn to trust God for every detail of our lives and come into relationship with Him, we become more like Him. Because when we know and trust Jesus, we are changed for good and life will never be the same again.

Immediately before the passage we’ve read today, Jesus had predicted that Peter would betray him. He spoke to the deep concerns of the disciples. They were confused and he encouraged them to trust. They needed to anchor that trust in him. Jesus indicated that he and his Father would prepare a place for them when he was gone.

He tried to prepare the disciples for the time when he wouldn’t be with them anymore. He said that he would be going away and that his disciples cannot go with him. He has washed their feet, Judas has gone to betray him and Peter is told that he will deny Jesus. The disciples must have felt that their world was turning again. It had turned when they were called to follow Jesus and now their security was uncertain. They are worried, their ideas are being challenged but they are told to trust – in God and in Jesus.

Then Jesus follows up this command with reasons to trust in him. Thomas and Philip are worried, they don’t know how to trust Jesus – he won’t be there. They don’t know how to trust God when they don’t know where to find God in their world where everything is changing. This anxiety about being left alone is clouding their vision, their perception, and their hearts.

Jesus moves away from talk about going away and returning (as this was just increasing their anxiety), to again asking them to trust (or believe) that he and the Father are one. Jesus is showing that to see Him is to see God the Father. And they have seen Jesus' face, heard his voice, and even more importantly, have seen what he did, his works. It should be enough. To know Jesus is to know the Father.

We can imagine Thomas and Philip and the others with them thinking back over the works Jesus has accomplished. What do they say about Jesus, and about the Father?

These would be the works of God, Father and Son. But Jesus isn’t with us in the same way. It was easier, perhaps, for Thomas and Philip to trust as they had known Jesus in person.

We know him by faith. We don’t experience him as they did.

Forging a church out of so many different people with so many different perspectives is almost unique.

By financially supporting the Glebe Centre in Walsall it’s been possible to befriend and journey with asylum seekers and help them secure their right to remain in the UK. We helped feed and clothe the homeless. We’ve saved lives, and we’ve done it together.

I end with a story -

A man fell over a cliff and, as he tumbled down the sheer drop, managed to grab on to a scrubby bush growing from the side of the rock. Terrified, he hung in space, his life flashing before him. In desperation, he shouted toward heaven, 'Is there anyone up there?'

To his astonished delight, a voice floated down: 'I am the Lord God, and I am here.'

'What should I do?' called the man.

The voice replied, 'Let go of the branch and, with my protection, you will float harmlessly down to the beach below.'

The man glanced under his feet to the jagged rocks at the foot of the cliff, hundreds of metres below. He gulped, and looked back toward heaven. 'Well... is there anyone else up there?'

As we pause, I ask this question, do you truly trust God?  He really loves us all so much that he sent his son Jesus as a lifeline. He is all we need! Are you going to reach out to Him ?

Amen.