FROM THE PULPIT: WHO CAN WE TRUST?

A man was walking down the road one cold, winter day, when he spied a snake on the road. It was nearly frozen to death and very stiff with cold. Having pity; the man picked up the snake, put it inside his own coat, and took it home. He then set it by the hearth, where it could warm itself and revive by the fire.

The children of the house were wondering at the snake, and playing with it as it warmed, when suddenly, the snake lashed out and bit the nearest one. The father hurriedly picked up the snake to take it outside and kill it. "I thought I could trust you, you ungrateful wretch, since I saved your life," the man exclaimed before killing the snake. The snake replied, "Such trust was certainly misplaced, for I was only doing What snakes do."

The moral of this fable of Aesop is that no gratitude is to be expected from the wicked. (Thanksgiving is coming; let this not describe us!) Another issue I see here is that of misplaced trust.

We live our lives in trust. We trust our alarms to go off every morning, we trust the electric company to keep the electricity flowing to our homes, we trust our cars to start and drive down the road as we turn them on and operate them, we trust meetings to start on time, we trust chairs and elevators to hold us up, etc. Trust is a major part of life.

There are times when trust is difficult. I think it is safe to say that Republicans and Democrats are not trusting each other right now! Some people do not trust others based on race, religion or gender. Others, like the farmer in the story, have found reason not to trust others by certain bad experiences. "Once bitten, twice shy," as the saying goes.

But we can trust Jesus Christ. He who loved us enough to die on the cross in our places, will surely love us through every circumstance of life. We can trust our Heavenly Father. He who sent his Son for our sakes, will He not give us all things? (Romans 8:31-39) God is ever faithful and true. Even "if we are not faithful, He remains faithful, because He cannot be false to Himself." (2 Timothy 2:13) God is love, and love is faithful.

To take faithfulness one step further, we who are called by the name of Christ are to exhibit such faithfulness in our lives as well. The one thing required of a servant is that he be found faithful." (1 Corinthians 4:2) Those who believe in Jesus Christ are the body of Christ on earth. (1 Corinthians 12, 1 John 4:17) If the world is to know the faithfulness of God, it needs to see it in us.

A dog is known to be faithful to its master. Can we be any less than that? Surely, since Christ gave his very life for us, we can pledge our undying faithfulness to Him!