A Matter of Trust

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 25, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 25:1-9.

            I don’t know about you, but I find it very tempting to just not pay attention to the news anymore.

            Now, I’m not saying that’s the right thing to do.  But it just seems like, when we pay attention to the news, all we hear is bad news.  And I’m not going to go down the list of things--you know it as well as I do.  But it seems like the news is just one bad thing after another after another.  And it’s depressing to see it.

            And the thing about it is that, for almost everything we see, it seems like there’s nothing we can do about it.  We see all these bad things, and we have no idea what we might do to make them better.  And so we add frustration to our depression, and that just makes us feel worse.

            That can happen in our personal lives, too.  Sometimes bad things happen to us personally.  And sometimes it seems like there’s nothing we can do about those things, either.  

            The temptation, in response to all this, is simply to withdraw.  To pull back into what we think of as a safe area, to ignore the world, and just try to get through our lives as best we can.  But I don’t think that’s really what God wants us to do, and it’s really not even possible anyway.  No matter how much we may try to withdraw, the world has a way of forcing itself back into our consciousness.  So there we are, depressed and frustrated, and forced to deal with situations that it seems like we can do nothing about.

            The people of Isaiah’s time would’ve been able to relate to all this.  They did not have twenty-four hour news channels, but they knew they were living in a time when things were pretty bad.  Israel was under pressure from enemies on every side.  And it seemed like there was nothing they could do about it.  Certainly, the common people did not think there was anything they could do about it.  And I would think they were feeling pretty depressed and frustrated, too.

            The prophet Isaiah, in our reading for today, tells them, and us, how to deal with this.  The passage is written as a prayer to God, but Isaiah surely knew that God was not his sole audience.  Don’t get me wrong--Isaiah was addressing God, and I’m sure he meant every word he said.  But he clearly knew other people were going to hear what he said, and he said these words with that knowledge in mind.  He wanted the people of Israel to benefit from his words, and we can benefit from them, too.

            After saying that he will exalt and praise God’s name, Isaiah says this:  “in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.”

            It seems to me that there’s so much packed into that statement, and it’s all stuff we need to remember about God.  First, God is faithful.  What God does, God does in perfect faithfulness.

            When we get depressed and frustrated, I think we tend to forget about that.  God is faithful.  God sees what’s happening in the world.  God sees what’s happening in our personal lives, too.  God knows what’s going on with you, and God knows what’s going on with me.  And God is not just going to abandon us and allow these things to happen forever.  God is faithful.

            Second, God has done wonderful things.  In this context, “wonderful” does not just mean something really good, although it includes that.  “Wonderful” means things that are incredible.  Things that are awe-inspiring.  Things that just make us go “Wow!”  

            And so, we know that in addition to being faithful, God is good.  And God is all-powerful.  God is, literally, awesome.  We said that God is not going to allow our situation stay as it is forever, but it’s more than that.  God is going to do some things that are amazing.  God is going to do things that are so astounding that we would not believe them possible, until we remember who it is that’s doing them.  There is no such thing as impossible for God, because with God, all things are possible.

            Third, the things God is doing are “things planned long ago”.  Nothing ever comes as a surprise to God.  Nothing that happened in Isaiah’s time, and nothing that happens now.  Nothing that happens in the world, and nothing that happens in our personal lives.  God knows everything that’s happening, and God has a plan for all of it.  That does not mean God caused it all--human beings still have free will.  But God has a plan to turn all those things for good.  Those wonderful things that God is going to do are things God has planned to do all along.

            We hear that, and maybe we agree with it.  But then we look around, and--we don’t really see any evidence of it.  We don’t see God turning our situations around for good.  Sometimes we don’t see God doing much of anything.  We just see the bad things that are happening, and they seem to keep happening, with no sign that they’re going to get better.

            That was true of the people of Isaiah’s time, too.  They could see no sign of things getting better.  And so, Isaiah reminds people of all God has done in the past.  He says, “You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.”

            In other words, whenever we’ve had trouble in the past, God has been there for us. God has always provided what we needed when we needed it.  If God has done that in the past, we can trust God to do that again.  God has always been there for us, and God will always be there for us.  That was true for the people of Isaiah’s time.  It’s true for our time today, too.

            So, as it so often does, it comes down to a matter of trust.  Can we trust what God has said?  And can we trust what God has done?  Can we trust that, because God has been faithful in the past, God will be faithful again?  Can we trust in God’s goodness?  Can we trust in God’s power?  Can we trust that God has a plan, even if we don’t understand what the plan is?  In short, can we trust that God loves us and that God will do right by us, even when it looks like things are going wrong?

            It’s not easy.  Sometimes it seems like it should be easy, but it’s not.  It never has been.  One of the threads that runs through human history is a failure to trust in God.

            When we don’t trust God, all kinds of things happen, and almost all of them are bad.  One of the things that happens is what we already talked about, that we try to withdraw from the world.  But when people of faith withdraw from the world, what happens?  The people who don’t have faith take over.  And that’s not going to lead to good things for anyone.  God can still use it, of course--again, God can use anything for good.  But it’s still going to make things harder for a while.

            But the opposite thing can happen, too.  If we don’t trust God, we start thinking we have to do things ourselves.  We try to force things to happen, rather than allowing them to happen in God’s way and at God’s time.

            Have you ever done that?  I have.  I did not realize it at the time.  If I did, obviously, I would not have done it.  I thought I was doing God’s will.  I thought what I was trying to make happen was exactly what God wanted to happen.  But in fact, I was doing my will.  What I was trying to make happen was exactly what I wanted to happen.  But again, I did not realize it.  I had convinced myself that what I wanted had to be what God wanted, and so if it was not happening then God must want me to make it happen.  But in fact, I was trying to force things to happen my way, rather than allowing them to happen God’s way.  I was not trusting God.

            It’s not easy to trust God.  But it’s worth it.  Look at how Isaiah closes this passage.  “The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth….The Lord has spoken.  In that day they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’”

            God is the Sovereign Lord.  God is faithful.  God is good.  God is all-powerful.  And God loves us.  God does has a plan.  He always has had a plan.  We may not always understand the plan, but that’s okay.  God does not ask us to understand it.  God asks us to trust it.  God asks us to trust Him.  If we do, God will end our tears.  God will save us.  We will rejoice and be glad in God’s salvation.

            When we look at the world, things can look bad.  And sometimes they look bad in our own lives, too.  And in fact, sometimes they will get worse before they get better.  But they will get better.  God makes that promise, and God always keeps God’s promises.  That was true in Isaiah’s time.  It’s true for us today, too.