8-4-96	The Ten Commandments of Trust	Matthew 14:13-21

Our gospel lesson for today is about the feeding of the 5,000. It is a story that talks about sharing. But, more importantly, it is a story about how God provides for us. In fact, the story really teaches the importance of trusting in God for the things we need.

In fact, the issue of trust is one of the most crucial questions facing people, today. When we look around our society and you can see it everywhere. For instance, the catch phrase of the very popular television program, "X Files", declares, "Trust no one; fear everything."

And then there is the mistrust that everyone can see that exists between the Republicans and the Democrats, something that has lead to multiple forced government shutdowns as the battle rages over who can be trusted to balance the federal budget.

And then there's Social Security. According to several surveys, a majority of workers under the age of 45 consider Social Security to be a big joke and have no trust in a system that they think is going to be broke before they retire.

And then there is the installation of high-tech navigational computers in the new upscale cars that now means that folks will never have to stop and ask another human being for directions – and trust they are right – again.

Trust is a scarce commodity. We neither have it ourselves nor expect others to have trust in us. We are trapped in a "trust deficit" that keeps us looking over our shoulders and double-checking the locks on our doors.

There is a writer, Francis Fukuyama, who in his new book called Trust defines "trust" as the expectation that the interests of the whole will take precedence over the interests of a parochial part or small group. But, this is exactly what is going, going, gone in our world, today. Fukuyama argues that a nation's health, both economic and spiritual, is shaped by one cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in that society. And, for many, this is the missing ingredient in much of life.

A young man walked into a recruitment station and asked to re-enlist. When asked why he was returning to the Marine Corps, the man replied: "There's no one in charge on the outside."

In the dialectic between trust and suspicion, suspicion seems to be winning.

High-trust communities operate not on the basis of explicit rules and regulations which everyone follows, but out of a set of ethical habits and moral attitudes which the members of the community have internalized. However, our own country, which has historically been a high-trust society despite its rhetoric of individualism, is quickly becoming a low-trust society. You can see it in the rise of violent crime, civil litigation, and in the breakdown of family structures that include neighborhoods, churches, unions, clubs, and charities.

A commercial for AT&T says it pretty well as Dick Cavett comes on and makes the observation that "There isn't much you can count on these days." Then comes the punch line: "But you can count on AT&T."

"That's who we are to trust?" you ask! A phone company that recently laid off 40,000 employees? Maybe we all know what it is to feel as if "there isn't much you can count on these days."

So, what are we supposed to do as we suffer from this deficit of trust? In addition to the Ten Commandments, maybe we need to add some other rules to live by that would help us work on trust. By following these new commandments, maybe we can begin to dig ourselves out of the hole that threatens to swallow our sense of community, of well-being, of security.

What might some of these new rules be that would help restore trust, once again? Perhaps the first one might be, "Thou shalt turn only to trustworthy sources." And, of course, that means trusting in scripture. Indeed, scripture has always been the trusted source, the divine font, of comfort and truth.

In fact, the scriptures have much to say about trust. Turn to Jeremiah 17:7 and you get, "Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is in the Lord." Or, turn to the Psalms (Psalm 56:3, for one) and you see, "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you." Or, in Psalm 34 there are these words: "Taste and see that the Lord is good, happy are those who take refuge in him." Or, turn to Isaiah 26:3 and read, "Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace – in peace because they trust in you."

So, if we want to build our trust, we should turn only to trustworthy resources.

But, there's another commandment that we might want to follow. How about: "Thou shalt give up the illusion of control, and trust the Spirit." If we are going to learn to trust again, we must be clear about something:

You are not in control.

You never have been in control.

You never will be in control.

You never should be in control.

You are not in control – of everything . . . .

You don't make the sun come up.

You don't make the sun go down.

You don't make your heart beat.

You don't make your blood circulate.

You are not in control – anything.

There is a God. You are not it.

I am reminded of the story of Pollyanna. Maybe some of you saw the movie by that name. You'll remember how in that movie Pollyanna is a girl of about 10 whose parents die. So, she goes to live with her Aunt Polly who lives in a big house. And Aunt Polly is a control freak. She runs her family, she runs the town, she runs her club, and she even runs the church. There's one scene in the movie where Pollyanna is out walking in a field one Saturday afternoon and comes upon the minister practicing his sermon. And, it is very apparent that he is trying to make his sermon one that would please Aunt Polly, which to Pollyanna were pretty strict and stern. And Pollyanna and the minister start talking about kindness and grace and trust and the good things of life that would make a good sermon, too. The minister tells Pollyanna that he has to be careful about what he does and says because of Aunt Polly. As Pollyanna walks away she replies, "No one owns the church." And the next day the preacher preaches a sermon that is full of love and grace and which Aunt Polly doesn't like. But, the point is, no one is in control. No one should be in control.

We need to keep the example of John the Baptist in mind. When asked, "Are you the Messiah?" he answered, "I am not the Messiah." Every day we need to ask ourselves, "Am I God?" and answer with these words, "I am not God."

It is only in knowing that we are not in control that we can learn to trust God's Spirit.

But, then, there is another commandment that we might want to learn: "Thou shalt 'trust and obey.'" Certainly, trust is a matter of obedience, as in the song "Trust and Obey."

It's not "Trust when you feel like it and obey when you can."

It is "Trust and obey."

It's not "Trust or obey."

It's not "Trust, then obey."

It's trust and obey.

Trust is a command.

You say: But I don't feel like trusting. Actress Ingrid Bergman once told director Alfred Hitchcock that a certain scene just didn't feel "natural." She then explained why she didn't feel "natural" doing what the script called her to do. Hitchcock said: "Fine. If you can't do it naturally, then fake it."

You don't feel you can trust God "naturally?" You don't feel you can cast yourself on the waters? You don't feel natural living by faith and not by sight? Fine. Then fake it. Do it unnaturally. Do it supernaturally.

Every manager of every rock star or sports figure tells the client: "Get a charity." Most of them do. They obey their managers. But what at first begins as good public relations or image creation, often becomes a genuine joy and commitment.

The ancient rabbis once taught that it is better to fulfill a mitvah, a divine commandment, "not for the sake of heaven" than not to fulfill it at all because "from fulfilling it not for the sake of heaven, a person will come to fulfill it for the sake of heaven." The holiness of Tora obedience is such that even when it is done from the wrong motive, it brings the believer closer to God and, in time, the wrong motive will become the right one.

Such is the power of Torah. Such is the power of God.

Finally, there is the story of how on Black Monday, October 19, 1987, when the Dow Industrial Averages plunged 508 points . . . at the request of the Pacific Stock Exchange, a suicide watch was placed on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. During the same week, in Miami, a longtime speculator who lost large sums in the market's crash walked into the local Merrill Lynch brokerage office and requested to see his broker and the office manager. As the two men appeared before him, the man opened his briefcase, pulled out a handgun and killed the two men and himself. Later, a friend commented, "His entire life was devoted to the market, and it collapsed around him." The god that he trusted had let him down.

We might remember the example of Job. The whole world collapsed around him. But, by faith and obedience he was able to develop in his soul a radical trust in God: "Even though God slay me," Job said, "yet I will trust him."

What words for us to keep in mind as the world seems to crash down around us!

Amen.