Sixth
Sunday after Epiphany – Cycle C
Jeremiah
17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Cor
Pastor
Gayle M. Pope
A Living Trust
“Blessed are those
who trust in the Lord – whose trust IS the Lord.” That’s what Jeremiah says.
“Blessed are those
who delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on God’s teaching day and
night.” That’s what the psalmist says.
“Blessed are you who are poor, hungry,
weeping and persecuted now.” That’s what
Jesus says to his disciples – those who have left everything to follow him. “For your fortune is great in God’s kingdom.”
All these statements have something in
common – besides just the word “blessed.”
All these statements are about living a sort of double life – a life
with our bodies in the here and now and our hearts in the there and then – “there”
being with God and “then” being forever.
This is the double life of all those who
believe that Jesus is the Son of God – the Messiah who died and rose “for you”
and “for me” – so that “my sins” and “your sins” can be forgiven – so that our
hearts CAN be with God now and forever.
This is the double life of those whom Paul
addressed in our reading from first Corinthians – those whose hope is in the
RISEN Christ.
This is the life we live – with bodies of
flesh and blood and brains that have limited powers of perception, but which,
miraculously, are capable of containing the very life of God.
Paul put it this way in his second letter
to the Corinthians: “For it is the God
who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ who has shone in our hearts … but
we have this treasure in clay jars.”
Martin Luther described this double life
with a Latin phrase. He said we are simil
justus et peccator – simultaneously “justified” and sinners.
Our human, sinful nature and our divine,
justified nature co-exist and are often at odds. But what our readings for this
morning emphasize is that it IS possible to LIVE INTO AND OUT OF our divine
nature in our day-to-day existence in the here and now. And when we do so, we are blessed.
And to be “blessed” means we are at peace
with God – reconciled – connected with our source of true life. So that regardless of our circumstances, our
hope is anchored in the unfailing, eternal truth of God’s love and God’s
promise for a future when all will be well.
The thing is … living this life is not
always easy for us. It is not
natural. And in many ways, our culture
works against it.
So even when we WANT to follow and trust
the Lord, it is sometimes difficult for us to discern what we should expect
from God and what God should expect from us.
And always, we are tempted to put our trust in that which we can see and
control and understand.
This struggle affects us in our personal
choices and it affects us as a congregation.
Our annual meeting is an example of this.
Two weeks ago we struggled together with the
question of how to live in a spirit of trust as we dealt with the reality of
our budget. It was difficult for me
personally and it was difficult for us as a body.
We have this very real and practical situation
where we spend more than we take in. And
yet, because God has blessed us with some pretty good reserves, we aren’t
spending more than we HAVE – at least not yet.
So, how do we make budget decisions in this
situation in a way that reflects our TRUST in God’s provision and yet, at the
same time, shows good, responsible stewardship.
It’s difficult.
And what makes it MORE difficult is that,
for some reason, we get emotional when we start talking about money. My word,
our defenses go up. It’s only money, but it represents so much about what we do
and who we are and our worth and our power and our control. The bulk of our income, as a congregation,
comes directly out of the pockets of each and every one of us. And a good share of it goes INTO my pockets.
Now, how tough is that to put on the table?
It’s so tough I had to leave the room so people could feel comfortable.
So, how did we do? Well, we tried to be more responsible and not
to OVERSPEND as much as we could have.
We did this by cutting back on what we give to those OUTSIDE our
congregation and on the amount we are willing to pay for mileage reimbursement,
and we approved a salary increase that is respectable, but less than what the
church says is just and fair.
As far as I know, there was no discussion
about the giving side of the budget. But I understand there IS a willingness to
work on raising funds through a Saint Patrick’s Day supper, which is a good
thing. And probably the BEST thing that
came from the whole discussion is that we are willing to look at sharing in
mission and ministry with other congregations.
Perhaps that IS the way God is leading.
It is very risky for me, as your pastor, to
bring this whole subject up from the pulpit.
Very uncomfortable. But I do it
because I am concerned not so much about money, but about TRUST.
Our readings today are about living a life
of TRUST in the Lord. As I said, this is
hard to do. Not because we don’t think
the Lord is trustworthy, but because we are pretty sure we’re supposed to DO SOMETHING
ourselves – and we ARE – we’re supposed to OBEY him.
But if you think about it. If we are all trusting the Lord, wouldn’t we
be making choices with a sense of confidence rather than fear? And wouldn’t we have a good sense of trust in
one another?
This is my concern. In our discussions of where and how to spend
money, there is an underlying fear that if we DON’T do such and such, we will
RUN OUT. But, if we are being faithful
to God’s call to mission, we WILL NEVER RUN OUT!
Second, I am concerned because, for the
first time, I have a sense that maybe we don’t completely trust each
other. I have a feeling there are those
who do not trust my decisions about how I spend my time. This causes me to become defensive and not to
trust the congregation.
This is not good. So how do we address this?
By just putting it out on the table.
First, those at the meeting all heard me
make a case for paying synod guidelines.
The vote did not go that way. I
felt bad about that – not because of the amount of money, but because it was a
change in the covenant we had with one another.
So I had to wrestle with my own feelings and figure out how to trust the
Lord.
I want you to know that, even though I
disagreed with that vote, I trust God with the decision and it doesn’t make any
difference in my commitment to you and my love for you.
As we go forward, we will always be
challenged with money matters. That is
the nature of being a congregation.
The important thing is that we need to be
able to live a life of TRUST in the Lord, and to do that, we need to be able to
trust one another as fellow sojourners in this world where we have life in the
flesh and in the spirit. We need to be able to help one another along the way.
And to do that, we need to be able to speak
the truth to one another. So, that’s
what I’ve tried to do today.