How hard it is to be "doers" of the word!

Pentecost 13 + Proper 17
James 1:17-27

I am going to start this morning with a question. Don’t call out the answer, just raise your hand if you know: what is the official motto of the United States?

Well, it looks like most of us are not sure. The United States government thinks that the official motto is so important that they print it on small pieces of paper and give them out in various quantities to all Americans, and even to visitors from other countries. You have surely had some of these pieces of paper with the motto on them in your hands many times. They also print the motto on little metal discs, just in case you don’t have the pieces of paper.

What is the official motto of the United States? It’s “in God we trust,” and it’s on all our money. Now, I think that’s the ultimate irony! We say we trust God, but we really put all our “faith and credit” in money! I’ll come back to that idea in a bit.

For the last six weeks, our Sunday readings have taken us through the history of the first three kings of Israel and Jesus’ long discourse about the Bread of Life. The people who designed our Lectionary knew what they were doing, because these two sets of readings paint a clear picture for Christians.

At the beginning of the First Book of Kings, Israel is at the end of the long period when the Judges led them. A judge did not sit in a court room; instead, it was a wise man (only one of them was a woman) who was given leadership responsibilities in the face of a specific problem or enemy. After the problem was solved, the judge lost his authority and went back to being an ordinary citizen.

The people of Israel got the idea into their heads that they needed to have a king, like the other countries around them. The prophet Samuel conferred with God about it and at first told them they didn’t need a king. But the people persisted, even saying that if Samuel didn’t give them what they wanted, they would find another prophet (and another god!). So, in the end, God relented and gave the people what they demanded, but it came with a warning. God, speaking through Samuel, told the people that their kings would become rich, powerful, and corrupt; that they would start wars in which young men would die; and that the people would come to regret that they ever asked for a king.

Sure enough, all of these things came to pass. The first king, Saul, soon stopped listening to God speaking through Samuel. So God rejected Saul as king and led Samuel to anoint David, the shepherd boy. After a good start, David himself fell victim to the attractions of power and money, and he took another man’s wife. David was devastated when the baby he had with Bathsheba died, and much more so later, when his favorite son, Absalom, rebelled against him and was killed in battle. Even Solomon, the wisest king, had his own problems. Solomon, for all his wisdom, tried to put God into a box, in the middle of a building, when God wanted to be in the homes of all the people.

The problem with kings is that they are just humans, like the rest of us. They may mean well, but either they don’t have the skills to succeed or they succumb to the temptations of money and power. God was right, if we don’t trust in God, but instead put our trust in false gods, we will always regret it.

Opposite all these stories from the Book of Kings, we have been hearing a long discourse, or sermon, from Jesus. The sixth chapter of the Gospel of John contains Jesus’ teaching that followed the feeding of the five thousand. He said things like, “your ancestors ate the manna, but they were hungry again,” and “I am the bread come down from heaven – those who eat of me will never hunger.”

Jesus was teaching that the people needed to get back to putting their trust in God. For centuries, they had put their faith in people – kings, high priests, and generals. And it had brought them nothing but trouble, wars, captivity, slavery, and oppression. But they still didn’t get the point. They were looking for a messiah who would conquer the Romans and make Israel a great earthly kingdom again. So, when Jesus’ message really challenged them, they couldn’t accept it and walked away.

When Jesus saw this, he turned to his apostles and asked them, “do you also wish to go away?” To their credit, they responded, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

We are very much like the people of ancient Israel. We claim that we put our trust in God, but we really depend on things like money and armies. Like the crowds who heard Jesus’ words and then walked away because what he was asking of them was just too difficult for them to accept or do, we walk away (or sometimes run away!) from messages that we don’t want to hear.

Let me hasten to say that this isn't a political sermon. I don't have a specific viewpoint or solution in mind, other than the one that you will hear in a moment.

When God tells us, “you people need to find a way to take care of each other and to make sure that everyone has health care,” we only think about how that might affect our own benefits.

When God tells the Anglican Communion, “you need to find a way to welcome all of my children and to work together so that all believers feel that they are part of my family,” we instead create alternative churches and try to take the buildings with us.

We must think that the words, “in God we trust” are very important, because we put them in such prominent places. But it almost seems that we think that printing the words on money and buildings is all that we have to do. Well, I have news for you.

If we truly trust God, we will rely on him to provide what is best for us, in whatever way he decides is best. If that means that each of us pays a little more so that everyone can afford doctors and prescriptions, then there’s no denying that that is a difficult message to accept. But remember what happened when people didn’t like what Jesus said. He let them walk away; he let them lose the wonderful gift that he was offering them. He didn’t run after them and say, “I didn’t really mean it,” or “you misunderstood me.” He had a tough message for them, he delivered it, and he let them go if they rejected it. I fear that the same thing will happen again and again, as we have to respond to challenging messages from God.

The people of Israel turned their backs on God and put their trust in earthly kings. The people who were miraculously fed by the loaves and fishes only listened as long as Jesus said things that they wanted to hear. The lessons for us are clear. Will we accept them? Will we submit to God’s will? Will we really trust God, as our motto says? Or will we continue to fear, to doubt, and to shout at one another?

I pray that we will take the words that we prayed this morning to heart: “increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works.” I pray that we will stop trusting in earthly powers, in money, in politicians, and that what we will become doers of the words we say so often: In God We Trust.

Amen.