“Trust in the Lord” by Colleen O’Sullivan
King David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him, “Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-Sheba and register the people, that I may know their number.” Joab then reported to the king the number of people registered: in Israel, eight hundred thousand men fit for military service; in Judah, five hundred thousand. Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people and said to the Lord: “I have sinned grievously in what I have done. But now, Lord, forgive the guilt of your servant for I have been very foolish.” (2 Samuel 24:2, 9-10)
Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith. (Mark 6:4-6)
Piety
My soul rests in God alone,
from whom comes my salvation.
God alone is my rock and salvation,
my fortress; I shall never fall.
(Psalm 62:2-3)
Study
Trust is sorely lacking in the world around us. There’s so much talk of “fake news” that it’s hard to know what or whom to believe. Neither major political party seems willing to trust that maybe, just maybe, the other party might actually care about the good of the people in our country. We spend countless hours glued to our social media, but it’s often difficult to trust that we’re reading about reality and not just urban legends.
Not that knowing about this lack of trust cheers me up a great deal, but there have been issues with trust for as long as human beings have populated the earth. The story of the fall shows us that, even surrounded by a garden paradise where she lacked for nothing, Eve didn’t trust that God had a good reason to tell them not to sample the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden, and Adam proved more willing to trust his companion than to trust in God.
Our Scripture readings today illustrate problems with trust. The first reading is about King David ordering a military census. The first time I read it, I wondered what could be wrong with conducting a census of the troops. The census itself turns out not to be the problem. It’s King David’s arrogant trust in his own achievements and in the power of the military he has amassed that constitutes the sin. The numbers are hardly in when his conscience begins to bother him, and he confesses to the Lord that he has forgotten to put his ultimate trust in God. God evidently doesn’t take too kindly to that, as you can see if you read the rest of the passage.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus heads to his hometown and, on the Sabbath, preaches in the local synagogue. The villagers, friends, and family in whose midst Jesus grew up, are amazed at first. They all agree that he speaks with great wisdom and has performed wondrous deeds. But then their small-mindedness comes to the fore. God would never make Jesus a somebody. After all, all the world knows that nothing good comes from Nazareth. It’s a nowhere place. Besides, they remember the days when Jesus’ hands and clothes were covered with the dust of the carpentry shop. No, Joseph’s son is just getting above himself talking to us like this. They don’t trust that God might do something outside the box of their limited imaginations. They demonstrate limited trust in God’s ability to use anyone God pleases for divine purposes.
Action
I can identify with David. How many times have I arrogantly trusted in my own abilities to solve a problem, banging my head in frustration on the wall? Once I told my spiritual director about something that had bothered me for 40+ years. He asked me if I had prayed about it. I thought for a few minutes and said, no, I’ve just thought about it. Sure enough, when I put my trust in God and took it to God in prayer, it quickly became a receding speck in my rearview mirror. Our ultimate trust is best put in the Lord and not ourselves.
In the Gospel reading, we see that as much as Jesus might want to heal us or forgive our sins, he will never force himself on us. We have to be trusting and open, or there is nothing the Lord can do for us. In a book that I read years ago, Who Will Be Saved? , the author invited the reader to put him/herself in the place of the man left by the side of the road in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Would we really accept help from a member of a group we’ve been taught to despise? That “despised” person happened to be the one God sent to aid the beaten person lying in the gutter. And none of the “acceptable” people showed up to help.
Where are you when it comes to trusting God? Do you feel any kinship with King David? Do you think you would have gone along with the rest of the folks in the synagogue in Jesus’ hometown? Do you have some other problem with trust? Whatever these Scripture readings elicited within you, take it to God in prayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment