Christmas - All about Trust

30 December 2013

Much of what scripture tells us about the birth of Christ is all about Trust. Although, in thinking about this, we also need to consider the meaning of the word Mistrust and the different meaning of the word Distrust. Mistrust is where one isn't sure whether one should trust someone or something whereas Distrust is where one definitely should not trust someone or something. When it comes to the Christmas story, any individual can have three approaches to it: Either they mistrust it: They are challenged by it and are not sure what to believe about it. They Distrust it: and reject it out of hand. Or they Trust it. 

 

Meanwhile, the entire Christmas story, the truth that lies at its very heart, is not about Mistrust or Distrust - it's only about Trust. Pure and simple. Mary trusted that, despite the fact that she was only betrothed to Joseph that she should have a child and, more, that she should call him Jesus. Joseph trusted that, despite the fact that Mary was not yet his wife and that the law of the land required him to publicly accuse her of whatever, trusted Mary's word. In fact, he trusted her because she was honest enough to trust him with the plain facts of the matter. And, I am sure, we can read the very familiar passages of the Nativity again over this Christmas period and identify many other incidences where Trust was the underlying theme.

Someone once said to me that, in his view, there were two types of people in this world: Those you believe but don't trust. Those you don't trust but believe. Those you believe but don't trust. Those you don't trust but believe.

In many ways, he was right. But in one very significant way, he was wrong. For, certainly, there are people who might wish to tell us the truth about something and we believe that it is the truth - but we cannot trust their reasons for telling us this thing. And there are those who for whatever reason choose not to tell us the whole truth about a matter and yet ask us to trust them and to go along with them in this matter without knowing the whole story. But these are two very human, very worldly, even cynical, perspectives. There is another way of viewing human beings. People we can both believe and trust. We all know them. We all hope that we are them. It is certainly the case where Jesus the Christ is concerned. We can both believe and trust him.

If Scripture offers us an insight into how to go about something, no matter how odd or challenging that may seem - well, then, we can both believe and trust that if we adopt whatever course of action is being suggested, that all will work out well in the end. It does not mean it will necessarily work out well for us, though. It simply means that we are doing the right thing where God's purposes for creation are concerned.

In the meantime, we should note that the people in Scripture for their part are just like us. They are no different. Women in Jesus' day are no more likely to fall pregnant if they are virgin that they would in ours.
A king is not less likely to be born in a stable in their day than one would in our day. And, looking further ahead, people are no more likely to die on a cross and be raised to life again then as they would now. So, how does Scripture address this in order to win our trust?

Well, for a start, it does it by being honest. By recognising the difficulties and challenges of such extraordinary, amazing events. It goes on to earn our trust by taking the trouble to record for our benefit the mistrust and the distrust of the people at that time, people who witnessed first hand these events. I have not done a study of ancient manuscripts, other religious tracts, histories, myths, but it seems to me that usually, supernatural events are taken at face value and often without comment there - unlike in our Scripture. In Scripture, we hear time and time again peoples' astonishment and disbelief at such events. More than once we hear that some believed but some doubted or words to that effect. That people were astonished and amazed. Not necessarily in the way one would gasp at a well-performed magic trick with awe and wonder, but with the astonishment and amazement that comes with the sense that: "This simply can't be happening. It's impossible."

Another way Scripture handles the mistrust and distrust is through prophecy. Or, rather, the recording of prophesies made, perhaps many centuries before, and the noting how they have come true at a later date. The curious relevance and relatedness of something said and written down six hundred years previously has with those present events. It's why we spend so much time in our Advent and Christmas Services reading those great prophecies of Isaiah, or God's promises that God will never let us down or let us go in Genesis.Why Gospel writers like Matthew in our Reading today placed so much emphasis on how what was once written in Scripture hundreds of years before has a relevance to his own record of events in his day. And, indeed, why we, too, today can have every confidence that if so many things have 'come to pass' that those things that have yet to come to pass, and which Jesus foretold, will also take place. At some point in the future.

And that brings us back to Mary and to Joseph. They both believed and trusted the various messengers from God that appeared to them - before and after the Messiah's birth. And they acted according to that view. Despite the fact that, in terms of the way their society, the world, expected them to behave, they could end up in a whole lot of trouble, or difficulty or worse... they set out on the course commended by God and - if they had not... well, we wouldn't be sitting here today.

If we can trust Scripture with the truth so far, we can surely trust what it has to say about that which is yet to come. And it is this which, amongst the other truths and joys of our Faith we celebrate at this time of year.

As we enter 2014, let's hold on to that idea of Trust. Trust God's plan for us, for the world, for all creation, that he initiated not just in the creation of the earth and the universe, but in his coming among us, Emmanuel, as a tiny, fragile, vulnerable and - yes, completely trusting - infant child. Yes, as the song goes, "he has the whole world in his hands" - but he has also placed it - and one another - in ours. He trusts us - let us trust him.
Amen.

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