SUNDAY, AUGUST 25 2024 - TRUSTING IN GOD
Sunday, August 25 2024
Deborah Laforet
Trusting in God
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
What does it mean to trust in God? In our scientific and rational based world, many
might find you very naive if they know you put your trust in a higher power, in an entity that
can’t be seen and can’t be proven to exist. Others might call this faith, an act that takes courage,
risk, and determination. My question today though is not about whether or not we should put our
trust in God. As a people of faith, I wonder what it looks like when we put our trust in God.
In two of our stories this week, the children learned about characters that were going
through difficult times. Jacob, through his own actions, had to run away from home. He had
tricked his brother and his brother had threatened to kill him. As a result, he was on the run, far
away from family and home, not sure of where he was going and what he would do to survive.
The second story we learned was about Naomi. Naomi had a husband and two sons and
lived in Bethlehem. Unfortunately, there was famine in Bethlehem, and she, like Jacob, had to
leave her home. They moved to Moab where there was food aplenty and where her sons
eventually married. Unfortunately, her husband died and then her two sons and he was left with
her two daughters-in-law.
In our Jacob story, he has a dream one night of a ladder, from the earth to the heavens,
and angels ascending and descending those stairs. And from the top of the ladder, Jacob heard a
God’s voice. That voice told Jacob that God would go with him.
In the story of Naomi, she decided she would move back to her homeland of Bethlehem.
She told her daughters-in-law to stay behind, to stay in their own homes and remarry. One of
them did, but the other, Ruth, decided to stick with her mother-in-law, no matter what. “Where
you go, I will go. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God.”
In both instances, we learn lessons about God. For Jacob, we learn that God does not
leave or abandon us when we make mistakes or when you have hurt others. We learn that God
goes with us always. In the story of Naomi, we learn that sometimes we can experience God’s
love through other people. Naomi was not alone because she had Ruth, who had devoted herself
to Naomi.
Jacob and Naomi were both people of God, but they had struggles, they made mistakes,
and they experienced loss. This is all part of being human. Trusting in God does not mean that
we will lead a trouble free life. Trusting in God is more about what we do when we experience
these troubles.
As a people of faith, I will turn to you and ask, what does it look like to trust God when
we experience trouble or struggle? What do you do?
Ask congregation.
In the story that was acted out this morning, Jesus was fast asleep while his disciples
struggled through a storm. The disciples were fortunate that when they woke up Jesus and asked
for his help, Jesus stilled the storm and the waters with just one word. “Peace.” And then he
asked them where was their faith? He was right there with them and yet they had been terrified.
Did they not trust in him?
Now, I find this to be a bit of a stretch as I think most of us would be terrified if a storm
threatened to sink our boat, but I think this story is using exaggeration to make a point. As a
people of faith, as followers of Jesus, as people who profess to believe that Christ is risen and is
always with us, why are we so afraid of the hardships that life brings our way. Why are we
afraid to take risks when we know the Spirit is guiding us?
Sometimes, us church-goers have the most difficulty putting our trust in God. We are
drawn to church because it is comforting to know God is with us. We are drawn to the parts of
our faith that offer unconditional love, forgiveness, and assurance, but struggle with the parts that
challenge us - feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, freeing the imprisoned, lifting up the
lowly, finding justice for the oppressed. The parts of the bible and of our faith that demand we
take risks, that demand we leave our riches behind, that invite us to surrender to the will of the
Spirit - those parts are hard. It is easier for us to turn away, to close our eyes, plug our ears, to
only trust in ourselves and what we can control. But this is not what trusting in God looks like.
What might our lives look like if we had more trust in God? Jesus encourages us to be
like a child, open and trusting. What might our church communities look like if we could let go
and trust in God? As our campers learned this week, trusting in God is knowing that God goes
with us, that God will lead the way, that God will share wisdom, that God will give peace, and
that, at every moment, God will spark joy, and that ultimately, whenever we’re afraid, we can put
our trust in God. Thanks be to God. Amen.