"Can We Trust God?" - Genesis 2:15 - 17; 3:1 - 7; Matthew 4:1 - 11
A Sermon by Alex W. Evans, Pastor
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Matthew 4:1-11
“Can We Trust God?”
Today, as you know, marks the first Sunday of Lent. When I was growing up – the son of a Presbyterian minister, with formative years at Ginter Park Presbyterian Church – I heard about Lent, not from my church, but from the few Catholic friends in the neighborhood. It was only in the recent decades, since I have been a pastor, that Presbyterian have been giving attention to this liturgical season – Lent – a time of renewal, reflection, and re-commitment.
The word – Lent - comes from an Old English word for “lengthen,” and refers to the gradually lengthening days of late winter and early spring. All of us have learned that the Lenten season can be a very helpful time – 40 days - of preparing not only for Holy Week but also for faithful life as disciples.
In the ancient scriptural imagination, “40” was a shorthand way of saying, “for a long time.” Those who are familiar with the Bible know the many references to this number - the flood in Genesis 7 brought 40 days of rain for Noah and his family in the ark. Moses fasted 40 days without food on Mount Sinai. Elijah went 40 days without food as he journeyed to Mount Horeb. You probably know about Israel’s 40 years of wilderness wandering. We also have the story of Jesus’ 40 days of wilderness temptation, our second lesson today. Lots of stories related to the number 40.
The underlying idea here is that God, like a master choreographer, or composer, works through signature forms in time and space — and in the Season of Lent, we’re invited to step into our own 40-day pilgrimage of refreshment.
What might happen in this 40-day season? How might we be different, more faithful?
We have two passages today that seem to be about temptation. But I think the message in both passages is really something more and different and important. I think the message of these two passages is a very important question: “Can we trust God?”
Trust is a very important element in our lives as God’s people.
Listen to the way Frederick Beuchner talks about TRUST - I remember sitting parked by the roadside once, terribly depressed and afraid about my daughter's illness (she had terrible and dangerous anorexia) and what was going on in our family, when out of nowhere a car came along down the highway with a license plate that bore on it the one word out of all the words in the dictionary that I needed most to see exactly then. The word was TRUST. What do you call a moment like that? Something to laugh off as the kind of joke life plays on us every once in a while? The word of God? I am willing to believe that maybe it was something of both, but for me it was an epiphany. The owner of the car turned out to be, as I'd suspected, a trust officer in a bank, and not long ago, having read an account I wrote of the incident somewhere, he found out where I lived and one afternoon brought me the license plate itself, which sits propped up on a bookshelf in my house to this day. It is rusty around the edges and a little battered, and it is also as holy a relic as I have ever seen. (see Telling Secrets)
Can we really trust God with the important things of life? What will help us trust God more?
That story of Adam and Eve, which we just heard, appears to be about temptation. There is the garden of Eden – a place of great delight; and there is the tree of knowledge of good and evil: “you may eat freely of every tree” – except that one. Then along comes the crafty serpent: they ate of the tree of knowledge; their eyes were opened, and everything changed.
But look closely – the serpent’s fundamental move is to try to say that God is untrustworthy. The serpent wants to raise questions and hesitations in the minds and hearts of this first couple, and indirectly suggests that God would deny human beings food (“Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’”). The serpent wants Adam and Eve to doubt God’s goodness, to question God’s care for them. Then, to take it further, the serpent implies that God has lied (“You will not die”) and that God is actually humanity’s rival (“for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God”). The serpent wants to create deep doubts, deep mistrust of God, for this first couple.
Whatever you might think of this story, it conveys a powerful truth. We are all easily misled into anxious mistrust of God. This is really less about temptation and more a story about how much we all struggle to trust God.
Recall those great words of Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, a present help in times of trouble.” God is always on our side. But we have a hard time remembering that, living into that. That same psalm says, “even though the earth should change, and the mountain shakes in the heart of the sea” – we will not fear, for God is with us.
On the Sunday after the shootings on the campus of VT in 2007, a reporter asked me: “Pastor, what will be your first words to your congregation when you lead worship after the horrible events this week?” I said, “we will be joining our voices to the many who have known great suffering and loss; and we will say what others have said: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a present help in times of trouble.’ And we will keep on as best as we can, striving to trust and serve God.”
Marcus Borg helps us think about the importance of trusting God. “Faith as trust is like floating in a deep ocean.” We can float in 70 thousand fathoms of water. If you struggle and tense up and thrash about, you will eventually sink. “But if you relax and trust, you will float.”
Borg asks: have you ever had the joy and challenge of teaching a child to swim? “The biggest hurdle is getting the child to relax in the water – ‘it’s okay, just relax. You’ll float; it’s okay.’
“Faith as trust is trusting in the buoyancy of God. Faith as trust is trusting in the sea of being in which we live and move and have our being.” (see Borg, The Heart of Christianity, p. 31)
Our second passage – the temptations of Jesus story - is also about whether we can trust God. Listen to this story – Matthew 4:1-11:
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 7Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
This story has three scenarios – and three bold responses from Jesus. And each response is a quotation from Deuteronomy. Jesus knew about the promises of God and Jesus knew the holy words that could sustain him. His responses – quoting Scripture - beg the question for us – what might you and I quote in the face of threat . . . or fear . . . or uncertainty? Is it about trusting God?
Let’s think about these scenarios and what they might teach us.
The first temptation seems to be about comfort, as if the devil purrs, You have great power — and look, you’re dreadfully hungry. Why not make some bread, and take, and eat? But on a deeper level, the temptation boils down to this: Why not sustain yourself? You don’t need God to sustain you.
By quoting Deuteronomy 8 in response, Jesus signals that he understands the stakes, as if to say: Just as my ancestors were led through the desert for 40 years, the Spirit has led me here to spar with you for 40 days — and . . I’ve learned the ancient lesson: . . . God is my refuge and strength - the true source of my sustenance. Bread certainly has its place, but every good thing — including bread! — comes from God’s graceful decrees. Put simply, bread is a gift from God. Shall I then cut short the Spirit’s training by making and taking bread for myself? No. God is the fountain at the center of my life.
With an open, humble spirit, Jesus trusts in God’s graceful care; and Jesus reminds us to trust in God’s gracious provisions and care too.
Temptations and distractions may challenge us, issues and changes get in the way to increase our doubt and raise our anxiety. But God can be trusted to provide! That is the message. We rely not on our own power and strength. God is our help and strength – always.
Friends, I am preaching to myself. I am about to move on from 35 years of life and ministry and enter into a new chapter. I am not sure how to function when I am not your pastor. What does life look like without the regular rhythms of preaching and teaching and pastoral care? I look forward to figuring this out – but it raises questions. What does life feel like with income coming from the Board of Pensions and Social Security? And as someone told Ginger – watch out – you will have twice the husband and half the money.
This can create anxious mistrust, and doubt.
But we rely on God – God always provides. This is the framework in which we live – and we seek everyday to grow in trust, to stay open to God’s care and provisions.
The second temptation seems to be about security (Prove that you’re God’s beloved!), and the third about glory (Worship me, and all this can be yours!). But again, Jesus exposes the true stakes by drawing on God’s abiding care through the ages. Our lives are shaped and held by God. We are intended to be formed into people who worship God and serve God. We strive not to be drawn to grandiose ideas about ourselves. We are God’s beloved. We strive not to be drawn to high places so we can feel powerful and in control. We do not “put God to the test,” like a child throwing himself into traffic to see if his parent truly loves him. God is the graceful fountain not only of nourishment, but also of loving-kindness and graceful, genuine power — not the anxious, cheap power peddled by the tempter. (see saltproject.org – First Lent) We can trust God.
Look – here is something that might be helpful. The Greek word, which appears as “devil” – “diabolos” – has as its root the sense of SPLITTING us away from God. All through life, there are people, moments, circumstances, challenges that “split us” away from God – from trusting God’s goodness, from living as God’s beloved people, from remembering that indeed we belong to God – forever – and our lives are about serving God. Life is not easy. Called to live with God and love God and love God’s people, people and things come along to split us from trusting God.
But friends, God is trustworthy – that is the faithful witness of Scripture. God creates us and all things. God’s love will complete all things. That is the promise. And our lives are held forever in God’s abiding care.
On this last Sunday of Black History month, I quote again the great Dr. King. He did not surrender to the crucifying realities of this world. He did not permit racism, violence, the Vietnam War, and all discouragement that he knew in his life to have the last word. This was the power of his faith – he trusted in God. This enabled him to keep pointing to the dream, to live into the resurrection promise of new life. King often proclaimed that the “arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It bends toward hope. Indeed, it bends toward God.
Can we trust God?
The buoyancy of God. God’s abiding presence and care forever. This is our calling, our privilege, our joy. We can trust God, indeed! Amen.
Prayer of Commitment: Holy God, we open our hearts to your Spirit. We seek buoyant faith – where we trust you abundantly and serve you faithfully, following Jesus Christ our Lord. Show us that way. Amen
Alex Evans, Pastor, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA preached this sermon during Sunday morning worship on February 26, 2023. This is a rough manuscript.