CELEBRATING:
SERMONS
22 - March 2009
A sermon delivered by Rev. Gordon How
March 22 - Lent IV - A Season to Learn to Trust
Why would I keep this? I have in my hand an uncashed-cheque
issued to me 43 years ago by the Government of Alberta,
dated June 7,1966 for the huge sum of $2.70! You see
I was in Flatbush, Alberta for the summer as the student
minister… Flatbush, I am sure you all know, is
not far from French Creek, up the road from Fawcett,
north of Jarvie, which is north of Westlock, which is
an hour north of Edmonton.
In Flatbush, a call went out one hot July day, that
under penalty of arrest, all able bodied men must report
35 miles north to fight a raging forest fire… Now,
it wasn't because of the threat of arrest that I went.
I hurried off because it would prove that I was "an
able bodied man". I put on my grubbiest clothes
and drove north in my 2-door 1958 Anglia Prefect - to
do my duty to the Crown, and help fight the massive
fire. Only when I reported in for duty, was I told,
the fire was out. Regardless, I would be a sent a cheque
to cover my 4 hours minimum. $2.70. Maybe I've kept
this old cheque all these years to prove that I am,
indeed, a veteran firefighter! Right up there with Red
Adair. Why do I tell you this? Only because it sets
up a conversation I had at that time.
Not wanting to hurry home (believe me, a forest fire
was the most exciting thing in Flatbush all summer)
I spent a hour or so talking to another recruit. He'd
rushed down to the fire from his job laying oil pipeline
several miles north. He told me how the oil which would
eventually flow through the pipes, would add to the
weight of the pipeline, so it had to rest on a solid
base. Usually, that wasn't a problem; one didn't have
to dig too far, 10 - 20 feet to find bedrock, but there
was a section near the Athabaska river that was troublesome.
Excavation revealed permafrost, which, when exposed
to air, thaws, and the layers of ice and soil dissolve
into one mucky, gumbo mess that is neither solid nor
easy to work in.
Constructing pipelines or buildings on permafrost
is difficult. Apparently, two of the first homes built
in Thompson, Manitoba were not built on foundations
that rested on bedrock. There is a decided tilt to the
two homes, which are adjacent to each other and tilt
in opposite directions. People would talk about one
family who were leaning to the left, politically, while
their neighbors leaned to the right!
Let's not diminish the importance of bedrock - like
our old-time hymn states: "Will your anchor hold?
Fastened to the rock, which cannot move, grounded firm
and deep in the Saviour's love!" When we trust
in God's unchanging love, we build our faith upon a
rock that cannot move! Trust is the bedrock of relationships,
be those friendships, marriage, congregational relationships,
student-teacher relationships, business relationships,
or any other matrix of relationships. To have each other's
trust is a blessing; to jeopardize it is very risky.
Trust is a delicate thing, and there are many whose
trust is already shaken during their childhood and who
find it difficult to trust others because of traumatic
childhood experiences. There was one person in a novel
by the late American Novelist John Updike, whose trust
was shattered when his father failed to hold him up
in the swimming pool. From this one childhood experience,
the individual went on to experience a series of failed
trusts. I can only imagine the issues of trust through
which an abused child has to navigate. One can only
weep and mourn the waste of human potential because
some adults have abused the trust of children. A world
without trust is a frightening prospect.
There are other, less traumatic things that inhibit
our trust but that are painful, nonetheless. Broken
promises inhibit our trust. Irresponsible behaviour
inhibits trust. Fear inhibits our trust. Being manipulated
will cause us to withhold our trust. Betrayal inhibits
if not destroys trust. The Old Testament psalmist writes,
"Even my best friend, the one I trusted most, the
one who shared my food, has turned against me."
(Psalm 41:9) Sometimes, when we risk sharing deeply
of ourselves with others and meet nothing but reserve
or a polite facade in response, our trust becomes insecure,
and may be shaken.
Too many of these corrosive experiences and we begin
to resemble the knight in Lewis Carroll's Through the
Looking-Glass (1865), who traveled with a beehive attached
to his saddle so that he could have honey to eat. He
also traveled with mouse traps to catch any mice he
might encounter. And then there was the knight's own
invention, anklets around the feet of the horse to guard
against the bites of sharks whenever the horse might
have to cross a body of water. Too many experiences
with deception and distrust and we become the knight's
fellow traveler, loaded down with defenses, proceeding
through life most cautiously, extremely guarded, always
vigilant, ever so wary! But surely the strain of being
on guard and suspicious all the time, cannot help but
take a heavy emotional toll. A world without trust is
a frightening prospect.
Garrison Keillor (of Lake Wobegon Days) complains
about his home community, which taught him to be suspicious
of everyone! "You taught me," he writes about
the people of his town, "that...the world is fundamentally
deceptive. The better something looks, the more rotten
it probably is down deep. You have led me, against my
better judgment," says Keillor, "to suspect
people of trying to put one over. At the checkout counter,
I lean forward to catch the girl if she tries to finesse
an extra ten cents on the peaches. That's how the super-market
makes a profit. That's why cashiers ring up the goods
so fast, to confuse us."
Publilius Syrus was a mime and a wit in the days of
Caesar. He said: "Trust, like the soul, never returns,
once it is gone." But I like to think of that among
Christians trust can be re-built. I like to think that
among people of the faith that when there is a serious
breach of trust, relationships can be repaired. Given
time and understanding and perspective another level
of wisdom can be reached.
What is truly frightening, however, is when our trust
in God is eroded. Our trust in God is particularly tested
when things are beyond our control. Many things in life
are a gamble over which we have but limited control.
Surgery is a gamble; marriage is a gamble; travel is
a gamble; why even crossing the street is a gamble!
If we have children, we want them to be born healthy,
but we have little control over their health. We want
our children to develop into fine citizens, but the
control we have over them in their younger years wanes
only too soon, as they learn, rightfully so, to make
their own decisions. We want our children (and our children's
children) to love God and to love the church, as we
do, but that is another matter beyond our control.
There is a wonderful device in each of our homes called
the remote control. Initially it was designed to change
television channels, but more recently these devices
control fans, lights, all electronic devices, garage
doors, car doors and so on. But did you notice, when
you think about how they are used in your family, that
they are a clear barometer of the human need to control
things. How telling it is for many to never relinquish
control.
But when you think about relinquishing control, nothing
challenges our need to control as much as a terminal
illness. A man who received such a diagnosis prayed
long and hard, but he confessed that he was scared.
He continued to wrestle with God - and he tells his
story, that, "one night while I lay in bed, unable
to sleep, I had this overwhelming sense that even if
everything is not going to be all right, I will be all
right. Even if the diagnosis turns out to be devastating,
even if this kills me, I will be all right." In
a terrifying encounter with his own mortality, he entrusted
his life - and his life beyond death - to God.
Rachel Naomi Remen, a doctor who has treated many
people with life-threatening illnesses and whose insights
into human beings are powerful, writes about her experience
with prayer while lying on the operating table herself.
The surgeon offered a simple, traditional aboriginal
prayer before her surgery, praying, "May we be
helped to do here whatever is most right." It gave
her a deep sense of peace.
Remen says that "prayer may be less about asking
for the things we are attached to, than it is about
relinquishing our attachments in some way." That
was her own experience. "At its deepest,"
she writes, "prayer is a statement about your understanding
of cause and effect. Turning toward prayer is a release
from the arrogance and vulnerability of an isolated
understanding of cause and effect. When we pray, we
stop trying to control life and remember that we belong
to life. It is an opportunity to experience humility
and recognize grace."
This is a lesson that I need to learn: to wait patiently
for the Lord, trusting that God will hear my cry, that
God will pull me out of whatever miry bog I get bogged
down in, whatever forest fires I have to fight, and
set my feet upon the bedrock of God's promises. (Psalm
40:1-2) God may not protect us from every untoward experience,
but God promises to bless us with God's presence in
the midst of those experiences. Therefore the promise,
written by Isaiah, "Thou dost keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts
in thee." And the observation of the psalmist,
who tells us that those who trust in God are "not
afraid of ...bad news...." (Psalm 112:7, TEV)
May our Lenten preparations for Easter help us to
trust in God more deeply, so that circumstances, even
those beyond our control, can be faced with a serenity
of spirit which comes from standing on bedrock, the
bedrock of our faith. AMEN
Sermon Resources: Psalm 40:1-11
Trusting in Faith, D. Friesen
Fire in the Bones, Robert A. Wallace;
Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen
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Shaughnessy Heights United Church
congregation is a Christian faith community respecting
each other in our diversity and reaching out to all
who seek God’s love.
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West 33rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6M 1A7
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