Sermon 10/14/2018 Trust and Patience

Scripture:    Amos 5:6-7,10-15  Psalm 90:12-17  Hebrews 4:12-16  Mark 10:17-31

   

           I think that two of the most difficult things we must learn in our lives are trust and patience. 

          So many people in this country are suspicious, and many have good reason.  We are bombarded with stories of people being conned or bamboozled by not only strangers, but even by people they thought had their best interest at heart.  We hear of seniors being tricked into giving up their retirement savings.  We learn of organizations taking risks with other people’s money.  Intimate relationships are destroyed by infidelity or poor money management.  Friendships end because of broken promises. 

          We are sold security systems for our homes and our businesses; we must walk through metal detectors at the airport and in schools; and have our bodies scanned and purses and bags peeked into at ball games, concerts and state fairs. 

          It takes time to learn to trust someone new to us.  We vet our doctors and other professionals.  We look for recommendations before trying a new restaurant.  We lock our doors and windows and cover our valuables in our cars.  We are told not to walk alone at night, and to arm ourselves with pepper spray or a handgun if we do. 

          Our society has trained us to be skeptical, cautious and suspicious before we can trust.  Because if we first trust, we could be hurt in a million ways.  And who chooses to be hurt?

          And then, there is patience.  Very few people are willing to wait for anything.  Drivers speed and swerve on the highways and side streets.  Or they tailgate those who drive the speed limit.  We scope out what we hope will be the least busy check-out lane at the grocery store.  We watch television in ways that eliminate commercials.  There’s fast food available everywhere.  We pay for conveniences, like Amazon Prime, so the things we order will arrive more quickly.  Why wait when there is an option for instant gratification?

          There are certainly good reasons for not trusting and rewards for impatience, but there are also important reasons for trust, and patience.  Especially when it comes to faith.

Throughout scripture we hear stories of the many people who have a hard time trusting God and how many lack patience in waiting for God.

Maybe it isn’t so much that we don’t trust God or that we are impatient with God.  Maybe it is that we want to have control of our lives and of our destinies. Maybe it is that we don’t want to wait for God.  Just maybe, we want to think we can do it alone.

The funny thing is, God made us and gave us free will.  God gave us the ability to make choices in our lives.  We are given gifts and talents, resources and connections that we can match with opportunities to achieve whatever level of success fits us.

And God loves us as we navigate our gifts and talents, resources and connections. 

In some ways, this is like the story from today’s Gospel, of the young man who ran to Jesus and knelt at his feet, in a posture of need or of healing, sharing his deep desire to inherit eternal life. Or maybe sharing his nagging fear that he will not inherit eternal life, even though he had kept the commandments and had lived a life that exemplified his faith to the world. 

 Jesus loved this young man, so he asked him for one more thing.  Jesus asked the young man to trust God so much that he give away the comforts of the life he lived for the life God would provide. 

The difficulty for the young man may have been that he didn’t know what that life would look like.  Or maybe he looked at the disciples and Jesus and saw how they journeyed from place to place and that way of life frightened him. Perhaps he did not see that the life he was living was also a life of faith.  That what he was to give away were the things in his heart that kept him from depending on, from trusting, God.

It seems that he was living a faithful life, keeping the commandments, attending worship, but from what this short story says, he wasn’t able to give away the things which made him feel secure.

What we do not know is if, in the end, he did give it away.  He might have.  He could have become one of the crowd who followed Jesus.  We only hear about this moment, this conundrum, this example of what it is we must give up to fully trust God.

What we do learn is that he went away, shaken, sad, grieving, because, perhaps, he wanted a quick answer.  An answer that would provide instant gratification.  Maybe, he wanted to be told he was enough, just as he was. 

But that’s not what we hear about in Mark.  Instead, we hear Jesus talking to the disciples about how hard it is for the wealthy to enter eternity. How it is impossible for anyone to earn their way into heaven.

This is where trust comes in.  Not faith.  Trust.  And like I said, I think trust is one of those things that we humans find hard to do.  Maybe because that with trust comes patience. 

When the disciples ask, ‘“Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”’

For God, all things … are possible.

Do you believe it?

Do you trust it?

That’s what the young man was trying to do.  He believed in God.  He lived a life devoted to God.  He was loved by Jesus.  But he didn’t trust that those things were enough to inherit eternal life.

This story isn’t so much about giving wealth away as much as it is about trusting that for God, all things are possible.

To put a fine point on it, Peter, of course it is Peter, points out to Jesus that he and the other disciples have given up everything to follow Jesus.  Ev-er-y-thing.  And Jesus lets Peter and the rest know that all they have given up, and more, will be given back to them in eternity.  He might have said, “First or last, rich or poor, for God, all things are possible.  Just be patient and trust me.”

Be patient and trust.  Only with God’s help.

Let us pray.

  O Holy One, the Psalmist said it well in today’s Psalm: 

  ‘So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.  Return, O Lord; how long will you tarry? be gracious to your servants.’  

      We are not patient with one another or with you and we struggle to trust you.  Help us to find your wisdom dwelling within us so that we may know that it is in trusting you we are whole and that in learning to be patient we are at peace.  Amen.