336 Who Do You Trust?

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Who Do You Trust?” originally shared on November 6, 2024. It was the 336^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.) 

   There is said to be a lot of concern today over who we can trust. Today, we’re going to consider our answer.

   “I’m sorry that Election Day is over because I’m really going to miss all those humanity- polluting political attack ads,” said nobody. Ever.

   I’ve read that the reason there has been so much political trash talk and negative advertising in the past years is that it works. And that the purpose of telling obvious and outrageous lies is to create the distrust that makes it impossible to know who is telling the truth. And that the reason for trashing the media is to convince people that only one person will tell you what is real. That’s how they gain control.

   This is nothing new.

   Appearances can be deceiving, and Jesus speaks of this at the beginning of the gospel text that will be read in the vast majority of churches all over the world this coming Sunday, Mark 12:38-42, starting in verses 38-40,

38 As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! 40 They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

   Looks can be deceiving.

   The scribes, in Jesus’ day, were among the rare people who were literate. They made copies of what we would call the Old Testament, what might be called in Jesus’ day the law and the prophets. They made their copies by hand and would check their work by knowing how many words, how many letters, and how many punctuation marks were in every book. They checked all their copies for accuracy by reading forwards, and then the checked them reading backwards, counting by word, by letter, and by punctuation mark. They knew the Bible!

   They could talk the talk, but they didn’t walk the walk. They were highly respected by the public but, privately, they were stealing from vulnerable people. They were acting for personal gain, contrary to the instructions of the Old Testament. They placed their trust in themselves.

   It’s a human dilemma. Who can we trust? How do we know who to respect, and who to listen to?

   I studied enough Biblical Greek in seminary to read Bible commentaries, especially New Testament commentaries, but I stopped after I came to a conclusion that has illuminated much of my study ever since.

   I realized that, in order to have an authoritative opinion as an adult, I would have to have studied Biblical Greek every day since childhood, earned specialized academic degrees in Biblical Greek, taught Biblical Greek, published recognized books on Biblical Greek and still there would be people with similar backgrounds who would disagree with my interpretations!

   I was able to read the commentaries, but how did I know which commentaries to read? Which were faithful to scripture?

   I came to the conclusion that the first question I needed to ask with regard to forming my own interpretations and worldview is, “Who do I trust?”

   Jesus wasn’t just throwing shade at the Scribes. Jesus was asking people to reconsider who they could trust.

   Appearances can be deceiving, and Jesus also speaks of this at the end of the gospel text that will be read this coming Sunday, Mark 12:38-42, in verses 41-44,

41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

   This text is a basis for a theme that I, and many others, have used in church building programs, “We don’t ask for equal gifts. We ask for equal sacrifices.”

   It makes sense, and it’s fair.

   Jesus wasn’t promoting the poor widow’s poverty; Jesus was commending the woman’s giving. She had given everything, because she knew who was trustworthy. She had put her trust in God!

   That is the question, isn’t it? Who do you trust?

   “Who Do You Trust?” was a television game show on CBS in the 50’s and 60’s. It was hosted by Johnny Carson for 5 years, just before he moved to “The Tonight Show” on NBC in 1962. It was based on the judgement of a husband to trust his answer to a question or to trust his wife’s

   “In God We Trust” is the official motto of the Unites States. (Fun Fact: it’s also the official motto of the country of Nicaragua). Its words were particularly significant after the Civil War and after World War II. Like the addition of the words, “under God” to the United States’ Pledge of Allegiance, it made it more palatable for Christians to serve their country. Both were statements of ultimate trust.

   Yesterday was Election Day, and a lot of our concerns in voting, and its outcomes, will be about who we can trust.

   Every candidate who was on the ballot is a human being. (We can be thankful for that, anyway. 😊) But saying that someone is a human being these days is usually followed by a justification for their flaws.

   Martin Luther, the 16^th Century Church reformer, had a higher bar. He has been quoted as saying, in a time when only men were approved to serve as priests or as politicians, “Send your good men into the ministry, but send your best men into politics.” 😊

   Why? Because God, present in both Church and State, is more trustworthy than human beings.

   Which brings us to another message in this text, one that has to do with human worth.

   Human worth can only be determined outside of humanity. Otherwise, we are only worth what others think that they can get from us.

   Our worth comes from God. All human beings are of inestimable value simply because human beings are created by God, in God’s image, as in Genesis 1:27,

²⁷       So God created humankind in his image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

   And whatever else being created in God’s image means, it means that we are created for a living relationship with the one true living God.

   No one and nothing can separate us, the people of God, from God, as we read from Paul in Romans 8:31-39, 

³¹ What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? ³³ Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;

we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

   This is the living experience of the poor widow who gave everything that she had in response to her trust in God.

   What does that mean?

   We took a family trip to a local army/navy surplus store last week. It was like traveling in time, returning to another world, and kind of overwhelming. Some of the items had the names of the soldiers and sailors to whom they once presumably belonged stamped in them. I wondered what stories they could tell. Sally saw a flag that said, “All gave some. Some gave all.” It refers to the sacrifices made and given by those who served and serve our country in the military. We will honor them this Sunday on Veterans Day, November 10th. It will coincide with the 249^th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, in which I served. We are grateful for their sacrifices.

   It also might describe the Church and its martyrs. But, in a sense, there is no life in the Church that is less than fully committed.

   We are not called to make God the most important thing in our life. We are called to be transformed as people in whom God has been made everything that defines us in our lives. We all give all.

   That is the significance of the poor widow who gave everything that she had, her whole living. We trust in God.

   What can we do?

   Open your heart to God Be changed. Be a new Creation. Be born again. Be God’s people and share the good news of Jesus Christ with your friends, with your family, and with the world. Repent and believe in the good news of Jesus Christ in the cross.

   MacDonalds recently had a problem with the slivered onions on its Quarter Pounders causing an e. coli outbreak in some parts of the country. What did it do? It got rid of the onions.

   We are at a point in our country where the political temperature, the polarization, the distrust in anybody but those persons who would be our savior, has reached the point where we have made gods for ourselves. After the election, it will be obvious that our trust has been trampled and abused.    

   What is our solution? Repent. Turn away from what is killing us and toward God, who alone is trustworthy.

   Repent and live to make our fallen world more like the perfect world it was Created by God to be and which it will be once again in the new heaven and the new earth, coming as promised.

   Repent and live as a people set-apart. Live as the people of God in the transformational power of the Holy Spirit described by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23,

²² By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

   People are pretty charged-up emotionally today, and half of us are going to be bitterly disappointed and fearful once the results are clear.

   We could do worse than to follow the example of Dodger Freddie Freeman who, when asked how he celebrated after he hit the walk-off grand slam that won the first game of the 2024 World Series, said that he went home and helped put the kids to bed. And when asked what he did after the Dodgers won the World Series, said that he took his kids out trick-or-treating.

   We could do worse than to follow the example of Martin Luther who was reportedly visited by a member of his congregation while Luther was digging a hole to plant an apple tree. His member had been reading the Bible’s book of Revelation and he asked Luther what he would do if he knew that the world would end tomorrow.

   Luther replied, “I’d plant my apple tree.”

   We live as we have been called, equipped and sent to live by God.

   We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know Who holds the future.

   We trust in God.