Trust in God A Sermon

Trust in God
Deuteronomy 26: 1-11/ Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16/Luke 4:1-13
1st Sunday of Lent/ Year C/ February 21, 2010

These days it is hard to remember how we ever got along without computers, televisions and cell phones. A generation has now emerged that never knew a world without these appliances and their many applications. We live in world where the wisdom of the past is easily trumped by the latest bid for our loyalty. Are we now the happy slaves of modern technology? To whom do we belong? In whom or what do we place our ultimate trust? To whom or to what do we owe our allegiance?
What happens when a people’s sense of self and history when their priorities are organized around material possessions and shifting market values? What has happened to us that people destroy everything they worked for because they no longer can afford to pay for them? We hear everyday of people who have placed their trust in a market system that is now overburdening them with hidden fees, taxes, and outrageous interest rates. What has happened to our society where the needs of the whole are trumped by the needs of the individual? We have lost our identity. We are now a number among millions. Our identity as God’s people delivered from bondage and death has been lost and the small acts of thanksgiving we do once a year become meaningless. These passages today help us to see and to understand ourselves as human beings who are the subjects of God’s continual care and creative love. They echo the opening line of the Brief Statement of Faith of the PCUSA that says “In live and in Death we belong to God.” These texts counter the idea that we can through the technologies that surround us, save ourselves. When we forget our past, we loose also our present and our future.
It is our past that shapes us whether directly or indirectly. We cannot ignore the history of our country without remembering that many came here to escape from oppression, religious intolerance, and even bigotry, to find a new life. WE must struggle to hold on to that past so that we can learn lessons of how to move forward in hope, toward a future with a greater sense of wisdom and appreciation of the struggles that people like ourselves endured to bring the freedom we now experience. How does anyone who has experienced cruelty or harsh treatment by another, do the same to someone else? How can those who know the history of abuse and torture and terror that reigns in our world, condone the use of abuse, torture and terror against another? History is the great teacher. As Aldous Huxley wrote nearly half a century ago, “If we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it.” That is what the writer of Deuteronomy, the Psalm, and the story from Luke, is doing; reminding us of the abiding presence of God with God’s people throughout history. Reminding us of what Israel experienced as God led them from bondage into the land of promise, reminding us that even in the midst of the temptations this world offers, God is present with us, offering forgiveness, mercy, justice, compassion and abiding love.
The Psalm offers the opportunity to remember that God, the most high, is the place where we find refuge and safety amidst the storms that surrounds us. But can we take this invitation to abide in God’s shadow seriously in the 21st century? We live in a world that is insecure, frightening, and unsafe. In our own country, after years of prosperity and security, we now find ourselves in a very different world. Suspicion, fear, prejudice, judgmental attitudes, and down right mean- spiritedness seem to rule the day. Many in our world live in fear, experiencing unjust treatment by those who wield power. How can we “buy into” the idea that we can abide in the shelter of God, in spite of international terrorism, questionable financial practices and security, war, rumors of war, religious and racial hatred, prejudice toward those who are different, and the rampant fear and anxiety that have led many into myriad addictions, from sex to drugs, and dysfunctional behaviors?
In Luke’s account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, we are reminded that we are called to embrace a particular way of life, the way of Jesus himself. Throughout his forty day trial in wilderness Jesus is asked to forsake the ways of God, to put his trust in the Satan, the adversary. In each instance Jesus is presented with a moral question and each time his response is rooted in faithfulness to God and God’s call. He shows, we who live in a world filled with prosperity, security, and a world view that says we are the master of our lives, a different way of living. He renders to God the obedience that Israel, nor we, give to God. He places his complete trust in the ways of God. . He did not ask for trials and temptations, he accepted them, knowing they could not be avoided, he kept his eyes always on God and God’s purpose for human life, which is love, acceptance, freedom and filled with abundance.
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Each of these texts speaks to us about how we are to live our lives as we prepare our hearts to receive the glorious gift of new life. “Is not Lent a time of deprivation, a time of concentration on Jesus’ suffering and death, a time to face our own unworthiness and our sinful nature?” During Lent the popular notion is that we are to give something up for Lent. Various responses are expected; give up red meat, sweets, or perhaps excess television or internet browsing. These texts call us to give up these simplistic notions of Lent but rather to see that “Lent is not giving up something but rather taking upon ourselves the intention and receptivity to God’s grace so that we may be worthy to participate in the mystery of God and God’s presence in our midst.”
We are invited to see God’s abiding, protective presence at work in our world and to join in that work creating places of love, nurture and care. We are invited to grow in our awareness that God dwells in our hearts in times of trouble, joy, sickness, health, vibrancy, sadness, loneliness, and yes even death. We have a divine friend who walks with us, cries with us, and loves us with a deep and abiding love.
Lent is a time to acknowledge and respond to God’s offer to dwell in our hearts. It is a time to pour energy into increasing our awareness of God’s presence with us, no matter the circumstances. Our prayers during Lent should be to ask God to let divine love open our hearts and increase our willingness to share that knowledge with those around us.
How do we do that, you ask? We can do it by focusing on news ways to trust God’s promises. We can experience God as a living active presence in our daily lives. We can refocus and center our lives on what it means to be in love with God. You say, that’s all well and good, but what do I have to do to do this? Let me give you some suggestions that I have found helpful over the years.
First, read the scriptures, let the words paint a picture in you mind of what God is doing in the world. Let the words guide you into understanding what God is calling you as a person to be and to do in your everyday life.
Second, take a few minutes each day or week to write a letter to God. Not an e-mail type letter, but a letter that expresses what you see and hear around you, describes you feelings and thoughts, your wants, your needs. Tell God about your daily life experiences. Express in the letter how much you depend on God and how much you need God’s guidance. Tell God your joys and sorrows, expectation and fears. At the end of Lent, just before Easter go back and read through you letters, see where they lead you, find the places where God was active in your life.
Third, for you who may be more creative, write a poem, a hymn, a short story about your relationship with God. If you like to draw or paint, draw or paint a picture of your relationship with God and with the world around you and the love God has for you and for the world. Be aware of the colors, the shapes, the images that appear on the page. Put it somewhere where you can see it each day during Lent. If you can’t do that find a picture of something or someone that expresses you relationship with God and God’s love for you and the world.
Fourth, Listen for that still small voice, feel God’s presence as you go through each day. Try to Experience God as your loving companion, your best friend, your confidant, being honest with God about your joys, sorrows, concerns and frustrations in life.
Fifth and lastly, pray. Let God speak to you. Listen for what God has to say to you.
Opening our hearts in these ways can increase our trust in God’s invitation and promises. We can spend each day in the quiet shelter of God’s love and protection, listening for the voice of the Spirit saying, You are my beloved child, with you I am well pleased. Amen.