Second Sermon at Rock Springs, WY

When Trust Is Shaken
By Rev Steven R. Mitchell
Job 1:6-22; I Cor 13:1-7 & 13; Matt 26:17-25
Based on “A Hard-Fought Hope” by William Long & Glandion Carney

Today we are going to look at the meaning of “Trust” and what that means and the implications of what happens when our trust is shaken. Webster defines Trust as: a firm belief in the honesty, reliability of some person or thing; faith. Confident expectation, as have trust in the future, hope. As an adjective, Webster gives definition as: acting as trustee – in trust, in the condition of being entrusted to another’s care.
[Trust then covers all facets of our lives! Trust touches subjects as diverse as contract law, political realities, social theory, personal relationships, and religious faith. When we say, “I trust her” or “I trust God,” we express a firm confidence. (p 28) In our walk through the book of Job, we will explore how Job’s terrible suffering endangered his ability to trust God and his friends.]
A good basic starting point is how trust flourishes in one’s life. According to the author of the book, A Hard-Fought Hope, Journeying with Job through Mystery, William Long states, “The instinct to trust is built into our genes, passed on from generation to generation just as physical traits pass from parent to child. Trusting another person often means a commitment to the growth and basic integrity of the other. Trust nurtures faith in and expects the best from another person.” So when I say, “I trust you Mary Ruth Powell” or “I trust you Jonathan Firme” or “Paul Allen I trust you” this is nurturing faith and hope in you to be your best.
On the backside of our money we read, “In God We Trust”. This would imply that we trust God to keep the value of that bill. I’m not sure that is a realistic expectation to put on God, but none the less it is there. What it does imply is our faith and hope in the ability of our monetary system to perform to our expectations. Even in our Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag, we use the idea that God is there to protect us as a nation. A very traditional childhood prayer that parents teach their children is, “Now I lay me down to sleep, the Lord I pray my soul to keep.” So this hope, this faith, this trust in God and in people we have relationship with is very basic to our feeling of security.
But what happens to us when our trust is shaken? How do we react; how do we cope; and how do we survive? This past Friday marked the 8th anniversary of the attack by terrorists on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as well as the downed passenger airliner known as Flight 93. It was the first time within my life time that we have been attacked by a foreign entity on American soil. I shall never forget the sick feeling deep within my stomach as it became apparent that we were under attack. My first thoughts were remembering how my grandparents would talk about the significance of December 7th in their lives and I remember thinking, “this must be the same type of feelings that they were feeling when their learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor.”
There was a shattering of true innocence of many in our nation that we as the leading world power and a nation that is protected by God would be spared such violence on a massive scale. Our trust in who we were and of our self-importance internationally has been forever shattered. In response our whole life style has changed. Out of fear we have given up many of our civil rights to our government, without questioning the legality of what was being asked of us. Out of a broken trust we allowed illegal detention of several thousand innocent people. Out of broken trust our government engaged in torture of prisoners. Out of fear we have engaged in profiling people because of their religious beliefs or the color of their skin without giving equal profiling to their Caucasian counter parts.
When trust is broken, the opposite of having trust happens. Instead of “the best” being brought out in us, broken trust generally brings out the worst in us. Words like treachery, betrayal, disloyalty and fraud are a few of the types of behavior that can occur when trust is broken.
So what I’ve been talking about thus far is what happens when we as humans break trust with other humans. But what happens when we have trust broken by God? How do we react? Is it “okay” to get mad at God for breaking trust with us? Can God actually break trust with us and if so, then just “how firm is our foundation” as Christians. This is the situation with Job. Here is a man who is totally faithful to God and utterly hates evil. He gives sacrifices to God and just in case his children aren’t being faithful enough, Job is giving sacrifices in their names as well.
God is so impressed with Job and his faithfulness that God is bragging to Satan about how wonderful Job is. Of course Satan’s response to God is, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does – he can’t lose!” Satan then goads God with this challenge, “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.” So God tells Satan, that he can do whatever he wished to Job in trying to prove his point, but is restricted from physically harming Job.
Now it is important to understand that in Job’s day, your prosperity was directly related to your righteousness or rightness with God. Job by all accounts is the most holy person alive as he was truly the richest man of his day. The person, who would most likely rank with Job in our time as of February 2009, is Bill Gates as the wealthiest individual in the world who is estimated to have $40 billion, which he has lost value with the current downturn in the market. Mr. Gates just happens to have been raised in the United Church of Christ.
Now if trust is suppose to bring out the better in a person, then with all this trust that Job has in God, should bring out the best in God and in his actions. Yet it would appear that God is feeling insecure with His relationship with Job, by taking on the challenge that Satan has presented. It seems like the traditional 1950’s teenage boys sitting in their car’s, side by side, revving up their motors while waiting for the red light to change to green, so they could prove which car had the more horse power. Instead of being content in knowing that the car that was being driven had all the power it needed to do the job, there is an insecurity pushing them to prove who had the more power under the hood.
So Satan promptly goes to work on Job. In less than 6 verses, Job learns he has lost his fortune, all of his possession and worst of all, all of his children. Job found himself totally alone! In his day, he would have been judged by his friends and neighbors as having some deep and horrible sin in his life to have had all this happen to him. He was no longer the holiest man on earth but the most sinful man!
I am sure that many of you have had negative events happen in your life that seemed to have the hand of God in it. I recall when my wife and I had our first pregnancy. Marsha really wanted to have children shortly after we were married. I was more cautious and thought we need at least 5 yrs of marriage before we should start a family. Well, nature seemed to win out and we became pregnant about a year after we were married. After I got over the shock of the news, I started to really warm up to the idea of fatherhood and was looking forward to it. Then a few weeks later, we learned that Marsha had a miscarriage. We were devastated, but what was hurting in me the most was seeing the extreme disappointment in my wife and the lack of self-esteem that seemed to appear over the lost of this child. I became extremely angry with God. My trust in God had been severely shaken.
[Broken trust leaves us with a huge dilemma. To whom do we confide our sense of loss and betrayal?] Especially if the betrayer is God. [Do we try to act as if nothing has happened but in the meantime plot revenge? Beat ourselves up for being so naïve as to fall for the scheme by which we were defrauded? Chalk up the loss to experience and try to get back on track emotionally and spiritually? Or, just lock everything up in a closet and try to forget about it and let it fester within us? Maybe we decide never to trust again and live on the basis of that vow;] and if that feeling is toward God – just stop coming to worship or stop praying, possibly denying the very existence of God!
These are all normal thoughts and feelings that we can go through when we feel that trust has been broken, be it from God, friends, colleagues, neighbors or our governmental representatives. Under grey rainy skies at this past Friday’s memorial gathering at ground zero in New York, with names of those who lost their lives being spoken out loud – Vladimir Boyarsky, whose son, Gennady Boyarsky was one of the victims – spoke these words, “we miss you. Life will never be the same without you. This is not the rain. This is the tears.”
[The dilemma of trust exposes the fragility of our mechanisms for dealing with life’s adversities. When our trust is broken, we do not die. We keep living. We often have to face the next day with the same people who broke trust with us. So we need to find positive ways to deal with the breaches of trust that enter our lives.] Ways that will heal and rebuild those bridges and allow us to work in an atmosphere of confidence and comfort; in developing an environment that provides hope and faith that is nurtured and lived to its fullness.
As we come today to the table of communion, we have to think about the betrayal of trust that lies at its base. We read in Matt: “After sunset, he and the Twelve were sitting around the table. During the meal, Jesus said, ‘I have something hard but important to say to you: One of you is going to hand me over to the conspirators.’ They were stunned, and then began to ask, one after another, ‘It isn’t me, is it, Master?’ …Then Judas, already turned traitor, said, ‘It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?’ Jesus said, ‘Don’t play games with me, Judas.’”
Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends and colleagues. How did he handle this betrayal? First off, he recognized what it was and called Judas on it, in the presence of the other disciples. Later in the garden he prayed for guidance and strength to go through what was about to happen because of the breach in trust. We do not read that Jesus got angry and quite. We do not read where Jesus cursed God for what was happening. We do not read where Jesus gave up on his disciples. What we do read is Jesus giving his Disciples instructions on how to think anew the idea of fellowship and of communion with the faithful. He did this with the common bread and wine. Jesus tells us to do this as often as we meet. I think one of the reasons for this is to help us remember that we are not alone in this world, but rather we are a part of a larger body and even when we feel that our trust has been shaken, even to its foundation, that through Christ’s example, we can survive and rebuild that trust, that hope, that faith!
Let us dwell upon this lesson as we come to Gods table of love today. Amen