Trust

Second Sunday in Easter
April 19, 2009
St. Paul’s United Church, Richmond

Psalm 133
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

John 20:19-31
Read the passage: The Message   or    The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) 

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this post.

The Rev. Suzanne E. Sykes

This past Monday, after all the excitement and activities of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, I finally had a chance to catch up with my reading.  Reading the weekend’s newspapers.  As I sat in my  chair, by the living room window, in the sunshine, watching the river run, drinking my coffee, an article in Saturday’s opinion section jumped out at me. It got me thinking.  And it really stuck with me.

Robert Sibley talks with David Mitchell, president of a prominent think tank, who recounts for him a conversation with a wealthy industrialist.  The industrialist tells him that the collapse of the global economy has exposed an even greater, deeper problem, one with a moral dimension, that underlies all communities and all societies around the globe.  And that is the problem of trust.  He says:

The current economic trauma we’re living though is fundamentally a crisis of trust, a crisis of confidence.  Trust is the sleeper issue of our time.

The economic problem came about not only because of rampant greed, but because our ability to trust - to trust in individuals, in institutions, in politicians, in our leaders - has been steadily eroded over recent decades.

The economic crisis caused a precipitous drop in our trust quotient.  The industrialist doesn’t expect to see it repaired in his lifetime.  It explained why - when some of the bailout money given to financial institutions to help them survive ended up as bonuses to employees to ensure their loyalty - it explained why this was so outrageously offensive. 

When you strip away all the fancy language it really is a bribe. You can’t buy loyalty.  It tells us that the executives and directors - the people that we have entrusted with billions to solve this problem -  have no trust themselves.  They don’t trust their staff - they don’t trust them to do their best to help get them out of this mess.  They don’t trust them to act even in their own best interest, much less out of higher, more compassionate instincts for the wellbeing of others. They don’t even see that they themselves don’t trust others.

This is the same problem that Thomas has.  Trust.  The trustworthiness of Christ, of his friends, even of God.  He doesn’t see that he has a problem trusting those closest to him, even while he struggles with it.  The disciples and Mary Magdalene tell him they have seen Christ, that Christ is alive, and he can’t believe it.  He can’t trust their story.  He can’t trust them.  It is too far outside his comfort level, his comfort zone of how the world really works.  He won’t believe the story until he sees for himself.  Until he has his own irrefutable experience. 

Thomas gets what he needs.  And this is reassuring.  It tells us something of how far God will go to meet us where we are in our faith journey.  Thomas sees Christ.  He sees the nail prints on Christ’s hands and feet.  He gets the evidence he needs to trust again in the goodness of God, in the power of life over death, to trust in God’s desire for the wellbeing of all creation.  His affirmation of the risen Christ is so powerful and overwhelming that tradition tells us he became the first missionary to travel beyond the reaches of the empire, the known world, and to spread the good news of abundant and everlasting life as far away as India.

When we come to this table we affirm a lot of things.  Especially at Easter we affirm the celebrate the resurrection of Christ.  We affirm that life is stronger than death.  That all that we are, all the good that we do is not lost, but kept in God’s safekeeping forever.  We affirm that community of faith, the relationships that we have with each other are the real stuff of life.  Relations are the real fabric of existence.  We affirm that God’s love and care for us is everlasting.  We affirm that we, like Thomas, get what we need.  We affirm, in the sharing of the bread and wine that we belong to God.  We are God’s people.

The story of Thomas reminds us of another affirmation that we as Christians can make in a world of fear, doubt and mistrust.  We affirm that our God is a trustworthy God.  When the gospel writers, Saint Paul, the prophets and psalmists, the church fathers and mothers, all the saints that have gone before us  -  when they all say that God loves us, they really mean it.  God’s loving faithfulness is part of their experience.  We can trust them.  And we can make that that part of our experience.  We can trust God’s promise that God desires our wellbeing, the abundant wellbeing of all creation and all creatures.

At this table we reaffirm our faith, our trust in God’s abundant goodness and care.  At this table we reaffirm our commitment to be the church - to care for the wellbeing of one other.  At this table we reaffirm our mission - to be God’s hands and feet in the world, to work to bring greater beauty, harmony, peace, goodness and abundant love and joy to the world, because this is our world that God loves.

Suzanne E. Sykes