Trusting God for Our Future

 

Building on our last article, how does our theology about God help St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church as we plan to renovate our rectory/community ctr., continue to facilitate a welcome for visitors, and now clean up a lot of trees and tree damage?

In Genesis, the Lord reveals himself to Moses (and thus, the Nation of Israel) with the name “Yahweh”. Literally in Hebrew, it translates “I AM”. God is not just the Lord of Creation – matter, time, and space – he is above it and removed from it. God is not “was” or “will be”. For Him there is no past, present, and future; there is only NOW. Not only does our wonderful God know the future he has for us, but he also actually lives in that future. So as he has promised us time and time again, we have nothing to fear.

Listen to the young trusting David before he was king:

 ⁴¹ The Philistine came on and drew near to David, with his shield-bearer in front of him. ⁴² When the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. ⁴³ The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. ⁴⁴ The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the field.” ⁴⁵ But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶ This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, ⁴⁷ and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.

 We humans hear the promises of God, yet we are sure that he needs our help to get his plan right for us. He doesn’t. We hear the statement of David ‘that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand,” and see it as fanciful thinking. David showed courage, believed that God would go with him, and fought with the weapon that God had taught him to use. Many of us, however, would have been packing multiple backup weapons just in case God didn’t come through. If trust and courage were easy, everyone would engage them. That is why the story of David and Goliath is still so compelling today.

 When we consider the greatness and love of our God, let us remember that He is calling us into a salvation history for His Covenant people that is already completed, but not yet. This is a mystery and one we will never completely understand. May this encourage us regarding his greatness. He is beyond us – transcendent – and He can be trusted.  May this help us as we move on in mission to the world. The Lord has called us to be faithful and responsible stewards. He has never called us to do his job for him. We just have to believe that he will use us even when we don’t get everything right.

  

Father Tom