In God we trust?

This week the US actress, Scarlett Johansson, drew attention to a video that was circulated on social media. The video features her and other Jewish celebrities, protesting about someone who made antisemitic comments.

The problem with the video wasn’t its message, the problem is that it isn’t real. It is a deep fake.

Created by Artificial Intelligence (AI), the video uses the celebrities' likeness to say and do things that they hadn’t done or said. In a statement to the media Scarlett shared her concern that AI was making people “risk losing their hold on reality.”

She isn’t exaggerating. We saw for ourselves in the riots that broke out across the country last summer, how quickly false news on social media can cause civil unrest. In a landscape where people distrust politicians and mainstream media, it is true now more than ever that a lie is halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its shoes on.

In the unsettled times we are living in, when we can’t even trust what we see with our own eyes, it is important for us to examine what or who it is that we are putting our trust in.

When we trust, we place our confidence in the reliability, truth and ability of a person or object.

This morning’s readings describe some of the things that we put our trust in: PEOPLE, POSSESSIONS & REPUTATION.

Jeremiah reminds us that there are limitations when we put all of our trust in people, whether they are politicians, church leaders, or those closer to home, our partners, parents, children. The unfortunate thing is that the people in our lives will inevitably let us down at times because they are ‘mere mortals’ like us.

Human strength cannot carry the weight of our trust. Politicians break their promises, spouses break their vows. We are human and we all make mistakes. At some point and to some extent, we will let ourselves and others down.

The Psalmist agrees that when the winds of life struggles begin to blow, our flesh may fail. In times of testing, we may struggle to do the right thing and make the right decisions.

In our Gospel passage Jesus warns people who put all their trust in their finances and reputations that they will suffer woe because personal wealth and a nation’s economy are at the mercy of financial crisis, redundancy, and the impact of global events.

Jeremiah tells us that when we place all of our trust in sources that are not God, we are cursed, not because God is cursing us, but because we will suffer devastation when we are inevitably failed by people and things.

He warns us that when we trust in the wrong things, we are looking in the wrong direction and we are at risk of missing the true source of our rescue and help.

God urges us to put our trust in Him, to turn our hearts to Him.

Our readings today tell us that when we put our trust in God we will be blessed.

When we trust in God we don’t have to fear when troubles come in our lives. Not because we will avoid troubles coming into our lives but, when times of trial and heat do come, if our trust is rooted and grounded in God, we will find peace and consolation in the middle of our circumstances.

We will find new energy and receive strength to endure even the toughest of situations.

When we put our trust in God, we don’t have to be crippled by anxiety. We will still be able to encourage and be a blessing to others, even when we are going through our own problems and difficulties.

When God is our trust, He empowers us to stand.

Do we believe this deep down? Are we putting our trust in God in the middle of what we are going through right now?

Today our readings ask us to allow God to test our minds and search our hearts. Because yes, we may be Christians, yes, we may have put our trust in Jesus Christ, but we too are mere mortals and sometimes our minds and hearts deceive us.

I can’t be the only one who sometimes find that – despite who I profess my trust to be in – there are times and areas of my life where I am not putting my trust in God and instead have turned to unreliable, weak sources.

Maybe this morning some of us are struggling and sinking in our problems.

Perhaps some of us are feeling far away from God.

Maybe we’re trying to fix our circumstances by relying on our own strength, wisdom and abilities.

Maybe our panicked attempts to fix our own problems has turned our hearts away from trusting in God and His help.

But Paul’s letter to the Corinthians reminds us of why we can and should put our trust in God.

He reminds us that God is trustworthy.

Paul speaks to all of us who are having, or have ever had, trust issues.

The people of the Corinthian church had had their faith knocked by people saying there was no resurrection of the dead. This had planted a seed of doubt in their hearts. If there was no resurrection, it would mean that their whole faith, their trust in Jesus Christ as their Saviour, was in vain.

Paul encourages the Corinthians by reminding them that the apostles, and he himself, had witnessed the resurrected Jesus in the flesh and experienced His work in their lives.

He told them that they truly could trust in God’s salvation.

And if today, any of us are having a trust issue, God is inviting us to turn our hearts again towards Him and His Words in the scriptures. He is asking us to believe what it tells us about His character and His promises, and to put our trust in Him.

A line in the Gospel passage that jumped out to me immediately was… “He came down with them and stood on a level place…”

This sentence tells us so much about the character of God.

He came down with them and stood on a level place…

Our God of love, saw the need of humanity, he saw our weakness, and our inability to follow His laws. And yet He did not scorn us. Instead, He had compassion.

Jesus came down with us, he stooped down to our level, becoming a human.

And everyone who recognised their need for healing, everyone who recognised that they were troubled and susceptible to sin, came to listen to Him.

Everyone who understood that they couldn’t rely on their own strength reached out to touch Him because they knew that only He had power over the sins that plagues them.  

Jesus came down to us so that He could raise us up into His Kingdom.

He came down to our level so that He could fill us with His Holy Spirit, so that we can draw on His strength to walk through our lives here on earth and have hope for our future destination with Him.

Jesus came down and suffered for us so that we can rejoice even when we are being hated, excluded, despised, scorned and rejected. Knowing that He has walked the same path, that He can empathise with us, and that – when this life is over – we will also rise with Him.

So, this morning, let us turn our hearts to God. Let us deepen our roots and strengthen our trust in Him. Because He alone is worthy of our trust.

He alone is able to carry the weight of our trust.

He will not let us down. He cannot.