Episodes
Sunday Feb 17, 2019
Sunday Feb 17, 2019
Tested Minds, Searched Hearts
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC February 17, 2019, the sixth Sunday after Epiphany. “This Is Us” series.
Text: Jeremiah 17:5-10
Jeremiah’s prophecy reveals that God will “test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.”
If God were to test your mind and search your heart today, what would God find? Where are you putting your energy? What or who gets your love and your trust?
One of the most consistent messages throughout the Bible is that where you place your trust and devotion determines so much about your life. And the unwavering call is to trust God above all else—not because God will get mad at us if we don’t, but because trusting God will set us free to live even in the most threatening circumstances.
We know from human experience that without trust, life is a small, fearful thing. Or, said positively, trust is what allows freedom, courage, and growth.
If I trust you, then I will be willing to go with you into something that would otherwise make me nervous. If you trust me, you will believe me when I explain that the words I said weren’t meant in the way you heard them—and you’ll allow me to explain. When a trusted teacher, boss, or coach is hard on you, pushing and expecting more and more of you, it is possible to believe they aren’t punishing you, but believing in you and encouraging you. If I trust my doctor, my whole being will be more receptive to healing. In these and so many other instances, trust is what makes it possible to step into new things, nerve-wracking things, challenging things. Trust frees us from the fear that would hold us back. Trust helps us be vulnerable and brave. Trust expands our horizons.
We also know from human experience that sometimes trust is difficult. Our family histories and cultural experience may make it challenging to extend trust to anyone. Our hearts get broken and betrayed in so many ways in this life, making us guarded and shy to share ourselves again. From parents to politicians to pastors to partners, human beings are fallible and finite. We can really do numbers on each other… And while it is one of the greatest gifts in human life to be able to trust our heart with another person, we know, if we’re paying attention, that there is no person—and certainly no thing—that can meet all our needs or sustain our whole life or keep from hurting us or letting us down at some point.
Jeremiah prophesies, “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.” Throughout the Bible, we hear God calling us to turn away from false Gods, calling us to stop putting our trust in things or in earthly leaders that will not give life. Those who make themselves “lords” over others and who look to their own strength and wealth and power and control as the locus of their trust will find themselves, sooner or later, in a painful place. Jeremiah’s image is of a parched place, a “salt land” where nothing can grow, and the “shrub” in that place isn’t even able to see when something hopeful is on the horizon.
Jeremiah describes the alternative in this beautiful way: “Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”
The good news is that we’re not asked to trust God without evidence that God is trustworthy. Our Judeo-Christian family history has shown that God can be trusted. God receives the cries of God’s people and journeys with us from slavery into freedom. God calls people from every walk of life and grants grace and power to participate in mighty acts of mending and saving. God is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love. God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us and has shown us again and again—and supremely in Jesus—that the promise is kept.
God knows what we need. God longs for us to thrive, to be free from anxiety, and to bear fruit. And God alone is the one who can be trusted to lead us and feed us and ground us in the kind of perfect love that is life and health and peace. It’s not that we cannot or should not trust one another, it’s that we cannot expect any human being to be God, to be able to perfectly love us, to see us in our fullness, to know our whole capacity, to hold us accountable and push us to grow, to give us everything we need to thrive, to never break our trust.
When we are able to put our trust in God’s love, mercy, and providence, we are free to risk trusting others, knowing that even when we get hurt, God will be there to hold us and wipe away our tears. When we experience the trustworthy presence and love of God, we learn something of how we are called to be in relationship to others. We know we can’t be God for others, that we will fail and will hurt others…but God will give us grace to grow in integrity, patience, and courage, and care. God will help us be the kind of persons with whom others will trust their hearts…
As [some of us enter covenant with this congregation today], as we move into this week’s General Conference—and any other challenge you may be facing in your life—the invitation is to let God test your mind and search your heart. Let God show you—and help you release!—things that don’t deserve your attention and energy and trust. Let God work within you to help you trust God’s love and providence more than anything else. Let God help you trust God more than you distrust anyone else!
As we put our trust in God we’ll have no need to fear when heat comes, and we won’t need to be anxious in a moment of drought. We don’t need to fear a vote or a distressing possible outcome. We don’t need to be anxious about what others will do or say. We don’t even need to fear suffering and death. Because our trust is in a God whose love flows, a river of life in which we all are invited to play, from which we are all invited to drink, upon which we are all carried into a future life that is assured. Because our trust is in a God who holds us and loves us and guards us and goes before us, as a shield and encircle, we can be bold and brave and alive in love and compassion. This trust gives us peace beyond all human understanding. This trust sets us free.
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