The texts on which is based are:
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-9
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10
In what have you put your trust?
In whom have you put your trust?
Maybe it’s politics! That’s a very popular topic in our world today.
Some people put their trust in the current state and federal administrations. Other people put their trust in anything BUT the current administrations. The trust doesn’t – in either direction – doesn’t seem to be bearing much good fruit, though.
Maybe it’s your family. The history, traditions, sense of where you are from. If you are from Durham or North Carolina, you may feel the specialness of being native to the area. If you are from some other place, you may cling tenaciously to the traditions and customs that you grew up with, because things are so different here. There’s no place like home, right?
Or maybe it’s social position! Do you have “security” for retirement? Or a good house? Or maybe the right car? Maybe you are healthy enough to not worry about all the things that people who are sick or have disabilities face daily. You might even be healthy enough to not realize how good things are, and so you trust that all will always be well.
Or are you a hard worker? A person who struggled through to achieve an education? Maybe you worked hard all your life, did your homework, fulfilled the requirements. Are you part of the Greatest Generation? Or the Generation That Really Made A Difference? Does that feel like a safety and comfort?
Is the one, the thing, the circumstances that you trust able to guard what you have trusted to it forever?
Let me say that another way…
Whatever you trust, whomever you trust, the thing you count on, do you trust it the same way my cat trusts me?
I know, cats get a bad rap in the relationship department. But every morning, as soon as I get up, my cat stalks over (and it cannot be described any other way)… she STALKS over and starts YELLING for her breakfast.
There is no trace of doubt in that sound. It is abundantly clear that she is saying
HEY YOU! Up there with the thumbs! You know good and well it is time that there is food in my bowl. NOW!
And then she STALKS over and sits in front of her bowl. She has told me of her need and is completely confident that I will fill that need. I might be standing at the coffeemaker, or gathering the clothes I will wear for the day, but she is at that bowl. Sitting. Waiting in the certain hope that she will be fed soon.
I wonder if the confidence and power – the kind my cat shows every day - is what Paul is talking about in his statement to Timothy. Paul KNOWS who he has trusted and has absolute confidence in that trust.
But here is a big way that Paul’s trust is different than mine, and might be different than yours, too. My cat’s trust – and my trust – is in a context of a pretty good life, in a pretty safe place, where I have pretty good access to clothing and food and other basic needs, including people who care.
But Paul’s trust was so powerful that when things went really wrong,
When Paul got beaten up and put in prison
When he was put in jail
When his friends disappointed him
Paul kept right on doing what he KNEW was true and correct.
He kept right on trusting his God.
Believing in what Jesus had done for him.
KNOWING that in spite of what was happening in the world around him, he could trust that his God was there and shaping the path.
Paul could trust that God would come through in the same way that my cat trusts that I will come through with the cat food. Maybe not this exact second… but soon. Reliably. With great certainty.
And I am going to be bold and tell you right now that I have had SO MANY MOMENTS, especially in the last six years, where I am not sure that I was as confident as Paul that things were really going in the direction that will keep me.
I want to say “well, yeah, of course, because y’know… God is God.”
But is it that easy?
Sometimes it is… but sometimes it gets a lot more complicated. Because sometimes I get confused about who is in control, and what is causing the good things.
Take, for example, all the good things happening in South Durham right now, the things that this congregation participates in: sharing food with strangers, caring for a beautiful building and the lands around it, growing food for neighbors to access freely, taking meals to people faced with illness or injury, inviting children to music camp, making quilts to cover people in all parts of the earth. This is a vital congregation and I know the list of things you do to share God’s love for you is long.
And I know the world says WOW! Look at that group of people over at Christus Victor!
I’ve met you. I know the love you share and I know you are humble and generous.
And that’s why it is so hard to read the words of Jesus in today’s gospel. The part where Jesus says… yeah… ummmm… well…. It’s not really all that much. It’s certainly not any more than I call you to do.
And when I read that I think…. WAIT… WHAT????
I’m supposed to call myself a worthless slave?
But…
But…
But…
Yeah. I know.
But setting aside our temptation to read this literally based on what those words mean today…
What Jesus is getting at is the same thing Paul is talking about.
Do you trust your own goodness?
Do you put your trust in this building?
Or in your service activities?
What if the building disappeared?
Or your family could no longer be there for you because of health reasons, or the kinds of pain and arguments that families are so good at falling into?
Or you had a brain injury or stroke that prevented you from relying on your education?
What if you were unjustly thrown into prison?
WHAT IF EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER THOUGHT YOU UNDERSTOOD ABOUT LIFE GOT TURNED UPSIDE DOWN AND BROUGHT INTO DOUBT?
Would you still know in whom – in what – you put your trust?
Well, siblings and friends and people I have not yet met, I am here to share with you the BEST NEWS EVER.
Literally.
Seriously.
It is not about beating yourself up and thinking of yourself as worthless, because in God’s eyes you have INFINITE worth. It’s just that if you put your trust in Jesus, completely, utterly, crazy-like (by the world’s standards) in Jesus, everything else will pale.
Your gardens can win community engagement awards but you will say, well, YEAH, but that’s NOTHING compared to what Jesus did… what Jesus made possible.
Because Jesus lived the way we were created to live.
Jesus walked with the poor and sick and hurting… but he never got too busy to go off and pray in a quiet place.
And it got him killed. Dead.
But it could not keep him dead. In living that perfect life, and dying a real human death, Jesus broke the spell that required us to be good enough… to do good enough.
Jesus made everything right. We continue our broken and imperfect attempts at living like Jesus did (and I believe we really do yearn to live like Jesus did) but our actions are no longer the main thing. We don’t have to get it perfectly right, because Jesus did that for us.
We are free now.
We are free to put our trust in Jesus.
We are free to know that NO MATTER WHAT ELSE HAPPENS we are freed. Redeemed. No longer under that spell of trying to be good enough – or if not good enough, then at least better than… well… pick someone that has a different weakness than you do.
You no longer have to work at being good enough because in Jesus you ARE good enough.
You are freed to maintain the building the best you can, to feed the neighbors the best you can, to give comfort to those in your community the best you can.
And it will be the least you can do.
Because the real work is done and in Jesus you are free to love. Free to go where the Holy Spirit leads. Free to break human rules that contradict God’s loving will because you KNOW where you can put your trust and the Most Important Thing is to follow the Spirits’ calling.
No matter how bad things look – or how good. Your situation is the same. You are a beloved, free, redeemed, treasured, and absolutely good-enough Child of God.
Amen.
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