FIFTH SUNDAY in EASTER

May 22, 2011

Text: John 14:1-14

Pastor Dale G. Bauer

In God We Trust became the official motto of the United States by an act of Congress in 1956. That motto began to appear on our paper currency in 1957. The first time we used it officially on coins was in 1864.

No doubt you’ve heard some say that it should be taken out because it suggests the establishment of religion and violates the Constitution’s separation of church and state. For years we’ve fought pitched battles about the Christian origins of our country. I’m sure George Washington was a good Christian, being a good Episcopalian. Thomas Jefferson no doubt believed in God, but he had his doubts about Jesus, once taking a copy of the New Testament and clipping out any miracles, exorcisms of demons, and references to Jesus’ divinity.

Lower federal courts have thrown out attempts to change it, and it is my understanding the U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear any case that would
eliminate In God we trust as the motto of this nation.

I’m for keeping it. But I don’t think we take it very seriously at the federal level, or the state level, or even the local level. We talk about it a lot. We just don’t live like it at any level. Even on a personal level.

I’m a big believer in intellectual honesty. The idea that fuels this sermon came from a friend and colleague, Rich Mayfield. He was pastor of Lord of the Mountains Lutheran Church, in the mountains of Colorado, while I was pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church, urban Denver. Once a week we would gather at a church in west Denver and talk about how we proclaim the gospel in sermons. Rich is a self-differentiated, opinionated kind of guy. So am I. Often we would go to the mat in heated debate, holding clearly differing opinions. It never became personal. And we always had respect for each other. You need to know that he influenced me a lot. He was the one who introduced me to setting aside Thursdays to write sermons. I have done that for twenty-five years. He is also the one who suggested that Jesus probably didn’t read his sermons. And so I don’t read mine.

In his sermon, he suggests that while we holler that we trust God, we don’t. We are much more apt to trust in the tangible: “money ... power, status, weaponry, and domination” are words he uses.

He tells the story of a fella who goes for a walk in the mountains and comes too close to the edge of a cliff and slips to his death until he grabs the branch of a tree. He yells out, hanging literally by a branch, Is there anyone up there? Hearing nothing, he yells again, Please, won’t someone help me? Then he hears a loud voice out of a cloud: Just let go and I will lower you to the ground. Still hanging precariously, the man says, Who are you? Out of the cloud comes the voice, saying, I am the Lord God and all you have to do is let go and let me take care of you. And the man replies ... Is there anyone else up there?

Trusting God is hard to do. It isn’t easy. And we are not very good at it. Certainly the disciples weren’t:

I am the way, and
the truth, and the life

These words are from the mouth of Jesus to his disciples, after three years of companionship and teaching. These words are not a litmus test for who gets into heaven and who goes to hell. Following Christ is the way. It is truth. And it is zestful living, now. But for most of us most of the time, Jesus is the way, truth, and life after the mortgage payment, car payments, sports, and lattes. If you don’t believe that, then take Financial Peace University.

Trusting God is hard to do. The first commandment, You will have no other gods before me, is the hardest of all commandments. We struggle to fit God into our schedules.

... the one who
believes in me

will also do the
works that I do …

Trusting God is so very hard because we fear the cost. The road is too narrow. Obedience seems so strange a concept to people who treasure freedom. If you don’t think that is true, look at the liturgies today that have eliminated any reference to Jesus as Lord. People are becoming
spiritual by the bushel because we are so afraid of religion and the call to discipleship. I mean, who really believes that our faith, our religion, requires us to take up a cross, to sacrifice silently? Who among us really believes that love is more powerful than coercion, that forgiveness brings joy, that
taking responsibility is reflected in self-respect? “We love you Jesus, and are born again or born from above, but please don’t ask us to do anything that might take us out of our comfort zone.”

And so, trusting in everything other than God, we watch marriages fall apart, children caught in the middle, and loneliness creeping like pestilence into our lives. But Christ Jesus still calls us to trust. Not for his sake, but our sake.

Amen.