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lyo nta kindi dufite uretse UKWIZERA
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Bible Study: Trust
Bishop Donal McKeown

Review: Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland: Boundaries of Belonging and Belief
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Review: 1916: Lest We Forget
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Difficult Conversations
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New Resource
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People of a certain age – like myself – remember growing up in a time when the world seemed a reasonably benign place. God was in his heaven and all was more or less right with the world.

Trust
BISHOP DONAL McKEOWN

BUT A NEW GENERATION is growing up, afraid of many things – from whether the Son of Man will find any faith on earth (Luke 18:8) to being suspicious of strangers and worried about the future of the planet. Faith in human beings, faith in the future and faith in the God who continues to have faith in us – all of these are challenged in fundamental ways in our ‘post-modernist’ culture. Christians, however, are still constantly invited to see the world through the eyes of God not of the prevailing secular culture, to have the mind and heart of Jesus Christ. And that is a work of grace, not of nature.

St Paul’s correspondence with the gifted but fragmented Church in Corinth may ask us some awkward questions.

1 Trust in God.
“Jesus has become our wisdom, our virtue, our holiness and our freedom.’ Corinthians 1:31

The scriptural word for faith in God is associated with the verb ‘to lean on’. Leaning on God’s grace and wisdom is not a sign of weakness – but a gift of the strong God who invites the Chosen People to trust in his ways. They have seen that God’s weakness is stronger than human strength (1 Cor 1:25). The prophet Isaiah was clear that the great sin of God’s people was trust in themselves, pride and self-sufficiency. The people thought that God ought to shape his plans in accordance with their plans for the future. This was the antithesis of faith – and would bring judgement on them, according to the prophet.

The call to faith in God is partly a trust in God’s salvation, given as a free gift that can never be earned. But the Old Testament and New Testament writers also make it clear that it is also a trust in the working out of God’s ways in our lives. “Not my will be done, but yours”, says Jesus in Gethsemane (Mt 26:39). One sows, another waters, but it is God alone who gives the growth. (1 Cor 3:7)

Our lives are made up of many facets – personal, professional, political. In regard to all of these, can I say with all my heart, “Lord, let your will be done in me and in all your creatures”? Where am I excessively tied to making God do my will, and judging success and failure by my criteria? How can I best seek to be open to God’s plans for the future? Do I hear God’s entire dream for our world – or just the parts of it that suit me? Can I live with the reality that taking up our cross is part of following Jesus?

2 Trust in other people
“If anyone wants to boast, let him boast about the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 2:31
Our society is very competitive, indeed combative. There is a widespread instinct to blame and criticise authorities, groups of people, colleagues – indeed almost anybody. We are conscious of people’s failings and mistakes. We love to see the humiliation of public figures. Trust is in short supply.

It can be very attractive not to trust other people, to assume that their motives are suspect. It can create a smug sense of our own goodness and superiority. But it will also generate further division, lack of understanding, gross caricatures of individuals and groups.

The Lord does not ask us to be stupid in our dealings with others. Sometimes, we have been hurt by others. But pride and snobbery – rather than security – can sometimes be a large part of our lack of trust. Jesus’ treatment of the Pharisees suggests that.

Jesus has entrusted us with the Good News of salvation, that God has offered the world forgiveness through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Where can we witness to trust in a suspicious society? Where do I find it hard to forgive and trust other people? Do I enjoy feeling smug and superior to some individuals and groups? Where do I feel inclined to boast of my own righteousness rather than about the Lord’s forgiveness and trust? Does my life bear witness to faith in the God who continues to have faith in us – despite everything?

3 Building the possibility of trust here.
“If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him because the temple of God is sacred – and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:17

Jesus was concerned in his own day with breaking down barriers, rather than building them up. In our increasingly multi-ethnic society we are challenged here to find a shared way of living together. And we have to find ways of having a future, despite the past. That seems to be a Christian imperative, not just a political expedient.

Truth can be an important element in coming to terms with the past. But the search for ‘the truth’ will not always bring healing. Some people have found their peace and really don’t want to know who caused them such injury and loss. On the other hand, ‘the truth’ can sometimes be used just as a weapon to further a conflict. And for some, their status as a victim has become so much part of who they are, that they wonder what they would be without it.

In the light of Jesus’ work to heal the broken heart of the world through his forgiveness, what am I doing to build trust in our community? Where am I actually contributing to the building of barriers rather than bridges – in my family, my work place, my neighbourhood, in this society? Where in my heart am I tempted to assume that victory and control provide the only way to peace? Does my faith community bear witness to the sacredness of God’s temple, Christ’s body?

This is the first in a series of three studies by BISHOP DONAL McKEOWN, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Down and Connor.

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