God’s Wisdom for Everyday Living: on Trusting God
Pentecost 10 – Narrative Lectionary 3: Summer
July 28, 2013
Proverbs 3.1-8; Luke 12.29-31
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3.5
When Cindy’s father passed away last month, she did what a number of children do, give a remembrance at his funeral service. I thought it was one of the finest, if not the finest, remembrances I’d heard, and I’ve heard many. She told about the lessons she had learned from her father through her experiences with him. For example, fishing taught her patience, donating blood taught her to give back, bowling taught her to be a part of a team, and so on. Her remembrance was not only a wonderful tribute to her dad, it also exemplifies our Proverbs text for today.
Today we have the second in our six-part Wisdom series, God’s Wisdom for Everyday Living. Last week we discovered that Proverbs is more than just good advice; it’s part of God’s creation, something we’ll explore in greater depth next week. We found that living wisely in fear of the Lord means not only to be in awe of God’s power and obedient to God’s word, is also means to be in right relationship with God. Today’s text casts the conversation about wisdom in terms of a parent’s wise advice to a child. It confirms what we know very well, that parents teaching children is a major building block of society. In less direct way, it also reinforces the fact that parents are the primary faith developers of children.
The main thrust of the passage and the core of parental wisdom and advice are to trust God. When the Bible talks about faith it does so in a wonderfully nuanced and multi-faceted way. There’s certainly head belief, but there is also heart trust and the faithfulness of God that inspires our loyalty and faithfulness. I love the way Eugene Peterson puts this in The Message: “Don’t lose your grip on Love and Loyalty. … Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure everything out on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.”
Do you realize how countercultural this trust of God is in a world that constantly advertises that we “can have it our way,” to “be yourself,” “follow your heart,” “live your dreams,” and “I just gotta be me?” There is nothing wrong with dreams, but I’m concerned that we are cultivating the most narcissistic and self-centered society ever. If we stop and think about it, we realize that our hearts don’t always desire the best things, do they? I love this quote of Mark Twain the exposes our naïve self-centeredness: "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
Jesus understands just how difficult trusting God can be for us, so he orients us properly. It’s important to know that Jesus doesn’t make light about what we need or how much we need to work to get it. Jesus wants us to grow in our understanding that God provides for us on God’s terms, including giving us the skills and abilities to do so. We are to see God working in, with, and through us and our lives. I was reminded of a story from CS Lewis’ Prince Caspian, in The Chronicles of Narnia, where the girl, Lucy, encounters the Christ figure in the form of a lion Aslan, whom she hasn’t seen for some time. “Aslan, you’ve grown since I’ve seen you last,” she says. “No, my little one,” he says, “it is you who have grown.”
How do we trust God? Thomas Constable reminds us that it is two-step process: the decision of trust and the habit of trust. First, we make a commitment to follow Jesus in the way of the kingdom and then we start acting like it. The second part doesn’t always come right away, but if in the middle of our fears we can muster the courage to commit our way to God’s, we will grow in our trust.
I think this applies not only to us as individuals but also as a community of faith. After worship today we will be voting on whether to further God’s work by calling a staff person who will lead us in helping to grow in faith and discipleship. It’s a scary time for us, but it was also scary making the changes in our education and worship last fall, changes which have borne incredible fruit so far. This is the next step of living into the future God has for us.
Trust God from the bottom of your heart. … Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; [God is] the one who will keep us on track. Amen.
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