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The Challenge of Trust
Pentecost 10A, Proper 14
August 13, 2017
All Saints Episcopal Church
The Rev. Holladay Sanderson
I am a bit creaky this morning.
This past week,I have discovered
all kinds of new muscles in my body
after jumping around and singing songs
at VBS’s Hero Central.
The hit song of the week was called “Leap of Faith.”
It begins with arm movements
as we are asked if we can touch the air that we breathe.
“Can’t touch the air, but we know that it’s there…”
Then we spend the rest of the song
singing about jumping into the action and
taking a leap or two or three or many of faith.
The kids in the video were at a trampoline park.
Those of us at VBS?
We were a little more earthbound,
but were jumping into action and
leaping all the same. Ta – DA!!
Faith, trust, believing what we cannot see…
all of that ties our lessons together this morning.
Peter takes a walk of faith… well, for a second or two at least.
Joseph and his brothers are all challenged
in what they had been led to believe
as sons of the great patriarch…
that now-aging, weaker,
and elected deceiver, Jacob.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans,
Paul speaks about how to live
as those who have faith in the Lord.
How are we to live out our trust in God?
Let’s take a look at the dysfunctional Jacob family first.
Each of the brothers grew up as a children one of four women:
Leah, Rachel, or their handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah.
Reuben was Leah’s eldest and
Judah was the fourth of her six sons.
Leah also gave birth to Dinah…
but hers is another story.
Four more sons were borne by Bilhah and Zilpah
on behalf of Leah and Rachel.
Finally Rachel had Joseph, the second youngest.
She died giving birth to Benjamin.
And the story tells us how much Jacob LOVED Joseph… above all the others!
All the other children were less important
than this son of his beloved Rachel.
All the brothers had trusted that
their father loved them.
As they grew older,
they made mistakes or became jaded
by eventually feeling passed over
by the patriarch of their family.
Add to that the fact that
Joseph was a pretty arrogant kid.
He had dreams that seemed to indicate that
he was the big cheese of the family and
his older brothers hated him for it.
Add to that, he was a tattle tale whenever Jacob sent “The Kid”
to check up on the brothers’ sheep herding duties.
Finally Joseph gets this great coat:
a kethoneth passim… and
no one is clear on what “passim” means.
It could be colorful, ornamented,
striped, or long-sleeved.
However it looked,
it was made for one
who didn’t have to do any labor: Joseph.
For THIS, his brothers resented him.
Thankfully Reuben and Judah kept him alive…
if only to sell him into slavery.
So we would expect that Joseph’s own faith in family and
perhaps even in his God
would be shaken by being tossed aside to slavers.
The first part of the Joseph saga
is all about shaken faith and loss of trust.
The story of Jesus walking on the water
is a story about not having enough trust,
but it is not just about Peter’s lack of trust.
Yes, Peter tried to walk on water…
absolutely trusting that Jesus would keep him safe.
But he sank after reality set in… or
a burst of “I cannot really be doing this!!”
lost his sloshy footing.
This feeling is much like playing your recital piece perfectly and
then you stop and think… oops…instant mess…
Or you are riding your bicycle for the first time
without the training wheels and
then, you realize… “I cannot be really doing this…”
and the result is either a perilous wobble or a smash.
We might begin with that leap of faith that
Wile E. Coyote takes when he runs off the cliff
after the roadrunner or
that walk of faith that Peter took.
How much will our trust in God
counter the reality of what will happen?
After all, Joseph DID get sold into slavery,
regardless of his trust in God.
Paul is telling us to remember
the essence of what is important about our faith…
about demonstrating or
living out our faith, our trust in God.
Indeed, what we DO is important.
We have all those ‘shalts’ and ‘shalt nots’
listed in the Ten Commandments.
Still, says Paul,
“The word is near you, on your lips,
and IN YOUR HEART.”
Our intent is critical.
What is our intent in our doing?...
in our living out our trust in God?
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” says Paul,
but is that the reason we live our trust in God?
Are we in this endeavor
of being the people of God
to see only to ourselves?
Joseph’s brothers were totally wrapped up
in their own grievances
so they lost their trust in
both their father and their God.
Next week we will hear what happens
when the brothers all meet together
years into their future.
In the end, Joseph’s trust in God
kept him living as one who trusted infinitely
in God’s presence in his life.
Peter tried to walk on the water,
but splashed with the loss of trust.
Let’s also not forget that the
other disciples in the boat
didn’t trust what their own eyes were telling them
about Jesus’ own ability to walk on the water.
They, too, lost their faith…
and then the storm ceased and
they knew who Jesus was.
We know they were human in the times ahead
with flashes of trust and loss of trust,
particularly when they deserted Jesus at the Crucifixion.
In the end, though,
they lived their trust in God
from the very depths of their being.
Trusting God became as natural as breathing.
Doing morphed into
the being of which Paul spoke.
The result of the growth
in their heart-filled trust in God
was just what Paul calls us all to do…
to share the story of Jesus;
to share what living a love-filled life,
centered on trust in God can be like.
The story is not to be held in our hearts
so that we only work out our own lives
but it is one that needs
to be poured forth into the world and shared…
no matter what.
Paul asks:
“How are they to call on one
in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in one
of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear
without someone to proclaim him?
And how are they to proclaim him
unless they are sent?”
As children of God, we are all sent!
We ARE the ones called
to share the stories of God acting in our lives
through patriarchs and prophets and Jesus himself.
We are called
to share the stories of the foundation
of our most steadfast trust,
of our deepest love, and
of our most fulfilled life.
How can we NOT share that
in which we trust the most?
AMEN