Meditating on Proper 18: Trust in God with your whole heart

 

Proper 18    

The Sunday closest to September 7

Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as
you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength,
so you never forsake those who make their boast of your
mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Preface of the Lord's Day

Image by grok

It’s hard to trust in God. It’s hard to trust in anyone or anything. At least that’s true for those who have been let down or disappointed with people or situations that have arisen in their lives. Some folks are resilient. They fall down and get right back up. Others lie there, flopping around like a wounded fish out of water, screaming and crying about just how unfair life is in general, or their lives in particular.

I honestly don’t know why that is. Is it nature or nurture? Is it survival of the fittest or just plain, dumb luck? Is it genetic or cultural?

These are matters we wrestle with. As the Apostle Paul says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). Elsewhere he says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). The answer seems pretty self-evident: Who can be against us? The world, the flesh, and the devil!

It can certainly feel that way at times, but our collect today invites us to take our noses out of the papers and news or propaganda sources for just a moment and pause. Take a breath. Inhale … slowly … through your nose …  Exhale slowly … through your mouth. Just take a minute and do that. In. Out. Breathe. Close your eyes. Let the last words you heard dribble out your ears while the last images you saw run down your cheeks; breathe.

If you're lounging in a recliner, put your feet back down, squarely on the floor. Fold your hands gently in your lap. Sit up straight. And breathe.

Spirit. Wind. Breath. Life. Peace. Shalom. 

Once you have erased everything on the blackboard of your mind (or whiteboard for you techies out there), your pulse should be a bit slower, your breathing a bit more relaxed, your storm-tossed gut a bit less frothy.

Now we are ready to pray: Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with our whole hearts.

It’s hard to trust in God. 

“God helps those who help themselves,” goes the old saying. It’s not an either/or proposition, of course. It’s a both/and. We ask God to help us because many of us have trouble letting go of past hurts, past disappointments. We have trouble letting go of our training: “If you want it done right, do it yourself!” 

It’s hard to trust God. So we pray: Grant us Lord to trust in you. Help us get over ourselves, in other words. There is life, death, loss, grief. True. But there is also God. There is also God’s community – the Church. Brothers and sisters. Friends and neighbors. We are God’s hands, feet, heart, and soul. Our prayer isn’t just to “trust in you,” but to become one with God in being trustworthy.

There are several stumbling blocks we need to overcome, of course. The first one is this idea of being entirely self reliant. It is the toddler who struggles and cries, “Me do it my-self!” We encourage them in their struggle, but it is our encouragement that becomes their strength, isn’t it. They don’t ultimately do it themselves. We pray for God to not so much to “resist the proud who confide in their own strength” but to help us hear God cheering us on as we press on.

The second stumbling block is the idea that we can do nothing. The perpetual victim. The damnable worm. The no good low down snake in the grass. While we may have our moments of being less than reflections of God’s love, the fact is we ARE reflections of God’s love, and so we ask God to complete in us what we cannot complete in ourselves. As Saint Augustine put it, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not. We pray God, therefore, to stand by us as we acknowledge God’s mercy, grace and love.

Why? Because to do otherwise would be to confound God’s purpose and confide in our own strength, and reject the grace God has poured out on us, and continues to pour out upon us and the whole human race.

Let's make an effort to be faithful by placing our hands in the hands of the Faithful One ... and breathe. Amen