as the third in a
three-part series, Trusting God
Trusting
God.
Two
weeks ago, in the first sermon of this series, we asked the question, ‘Who is
God?’ And when Lily and Keegan received
the sacrament of baptism, we answered that question by saying the God we
worship is the God who names. We
promised Lily and Keegan that, from this day forward, they have a new
name. It is the name God gave Jesus’ at
his baptism: chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life. The God we seek to trust is the God who
names us by this name.
Last
week we talked about how hard it is to trust God when there is so much
suffering in the world. Why does a
loving, powerful God allow so much suffering to occur? And we raised the possibility that we need to
think about God’s power in different ways than we talk about human power. Because when God came to dwell among us as
Jesus Christ, we know that Jesus did not spend him time with the powerful
people. He spent time with the very
people who had no religious, political, economic, or social power. And Jesus became the victim of the most feared
symbol of Roman power, the cross. So, in
some mysterious way, maybe God’s power is most present in those places God
seems most absent. Maybe God’s power is
most present in those places of deep suffering, violence, despair, and
death. And that’s where God calls us who
are Jesus’ disciples to go, and to dwell.
In
this final sermon in our series, I’d like to share with you one way I try to
trust God. And it has everything to do
with trying to build my true home in God’s love. It has everything to do with accepting Jesus’
invitation to name God as the true country I am supposed to reside in.
I
believe all of us have a hunger for home.
All of us hunger for a place where we feel safe, secure, comfortable,
and loved. John’s Gospel celebrates the miracle
that, in Jesus Christ, John’s community discovered such a place. Jesus Christ showed John’s community the
intimate, loving face of God Jesus calls Abba – Daddy. Listen to some of the verses from this
morning’s reading; whenever John uses words like in and with and within,
John is talking about a living relationship of deep intimacy:
Jesus
said, ‘ . . . (Y)ou can
recognize the Spirit of truth
because she remains with you
and will be within you (14.17).
On
that day you’ll know
that I am in God,
and you are in me,
and I am in you (14.20).
Those
who love me will be true to my word,
and
Abba God will love them;
and
we will come to them
and
make our dwelling place with them (14.23).
John’s community sings that Jesus Christ
has given them the safe, secure, comfortable, loving home they have hungered
for. He is the true country they want to
reside in. This is the one who shows them
the face of the God they can trust.
One
of the ways I have tried to build a relationship with the living God I long to
trust is through daily prayer. And one
of the simplest ways to pray I know of is to take walks with Jesus. It may sound odd to take walks with someone
who was executed over 1900 years ago.
But I am talking about taking walks with the Jesus who John’s community
sings about – the living, risen Jesus Christ who makes real the intimate face
of Abba God. That is the Jesus I walk
with. When we take our walks, I spend
some of the time listening to what he has to say to me. Just some silent time. And then I let him know what’s on my
mind. I talk about what I’m struggling
with, what’s making me feel joyful, what part of the world’s pain is breaking
my heart. And I talk to him about the
people I’ve promised to pray for.
Taking daily walks with Jesus has made God more real to
me than any other prayer practice I have tried. Listening to and talking with Jesus as I
would with my closest friend gives a God who can seem
distant and remote and just too big flesh and heart and intimacy. Carrying on this kind of daily conversation
with God can help me find in God the home I hunger to discover, the home I
hunger to trust is real and lasting.
This is something first graders can do and eighth graders
can do and eighty-somethings can do. All of us can take 10 minutes each day to
listen to Jesus and talk to him.
I
believe there is nothing more important for each of us in this congregation to
do than to take daily walks with Jesus.
For people outside the walls of this place need us to be church. And we inside these walls need each other to
be church. And being church means
showing extravagant love and welcoming those who feel alone and listening for
the ways God calls each of us and all of us to make the world the place of
justice and joy God dreams the world will become. I believe we can be church when our faith is
deepened by daily walks with the Jesus who shows us the intimate face of Abba
God and calls us anew to follow Jesus as trustworthy companion and friend and
savior.
I
believe there is nothing more important for each of us in this congregation to
do than to take daily walks with Jesus.
Because we inside these walls and those outside these walls need love
and healing, welcome and justice. I
believe we need to love more freely and dream more boldly and criticize more
sparingly and believe more confidently.
And that means deepening our faith in the God who comes to us in Jesus,
and invites us to build our home in the one in whom alone we find the safety, security,
comfort, and love we hunger to know.
Amen.