By Dr. Lani Wilson

Good Day to you all. Let’s continue to lift up in prayer our little outpost in East Oakland and all churches open in the Name of Jesus the Christ. Churches are people, not buildings, and as we lovingly celebrate the life of Reverend Gloria Aguilar who passed on 24 June, we also acknowledge the passing of longtime member Connie Divack exactly one week later on 1 July, mother of members comedienne Robin Cee and social activist/journalist Davey D. We want to keep all families in prayer who are walking that marathon through “the valley of the shadow of death.” It is a trek we cannot train for but one we must all make because as my Mother told me from childhood, “Death is a part of life.” We know that The Christ awaits us there to hold us and sometimes hold us up as we pass through, however long it takes. Thank You, Lord.

The word highlighted for our consideration this week for our Thursday prayer and fasting is “trust.” Again, it is not a word I would have chosen because it is quite frankly a shibboleth, a password if you will, of Christianity and sometimes somewhat overused. But then again, I’m not in charge. So…trust.

I am going to trust in the Lord
I am going to trust in the Lord
I am going to trust in the Lord
Til I die.

I am going to trust in the Lord
I am going to trust in the Lord
I am going to trust in the Lord
Til I die.

Can’t you just hear the melody in that familiar song we often sing? So comforting. So reassuring. So repetitive.

Educators and psychologists know that repetition is an important part of learning when we learn any new thing, whether it is for our bodies or our minds. Repetition is key. If we do it over and over again, eventually our muscles and our minds will take it from short term to long term memory. As an old “hoofer” (dancer) I was taught that “muscles have memory.” In the last few decades it seems that bodybuilders are taught the same thing. Really? Remember the adage, “It’s like riding a bicycle?” That alludes to the idea that once you’ve learned something, you never really forget it. Interesting concept…but is it really the idea that your brain houses the information neurochemically and prompts your body to recall it or do your muscles actually morphologically remember?

Muscles actually have a memory of their former strength – and that memory may last indefinitely, University of Oslo physiologist Kristian Gundersen tells NPR's Audie Cornish. Gundersen's team just released a study that has good news for those of us who used to be fit.

Muscles Have A Mind Of Their Own

The study challenges the idea that muscles go back to their starting condition when you stop strength training. "Our findings suggest that there are permanent structural changes in the muscle," says Gundersen. "We don't know if they're really permanent, but they're very long-lasting in animals, at least."
“No More Gym? Don't Worry, Your Muscles Remember,” All Things Considered, NPR.org August 22, 2010

The researchers put mice through strength training on their hind legs. Building muscle generates new muscle nuclei, which Gundersen calls the "small factories that will produce new muscle." Then the researchers took the mice off their training regimen. Gundersen observed their nuclei directly with specialized microcameras, and found that although the mice lost muscle mass, they still maintained the muscle nuclei. Those nuclei give the muscle a head start when training resumes.
All Things Considered, NPR.org August 22, 2010

Training actually produces new muscle nuclei in cells that are permanent fixtures in each cell. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you will perform at the same level you did when you were younger (muscles don’t age but joints and organs do) but that your body will respond faster when re-engaged with the training regimen than someone who never trained before.

When we search the New Testament (NT) in the Bible for the word “trust” we find an overwhelming number of passages that have the word “believe” and its variations. To trust Jesus the Christ is to believe. But who believes what and in whom? We always assume that when you speak of trust in the NT, we are talking about us trusting God or Jesus the Christ.

Huh.

When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone. John 2:23-25 (NRSV)

Listen to Eugene Petersen’s The Message Bible translation:

During the time he was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them.

It rarely occurs to us when we say the word “trust” in “Christian-ese” that Jesus God Incarnate had the notion to trust us. Is it because we choose only to focus on how much we need The Christ in our individual lives? Is it because we are frail human beings and we need to constantly be reassured that God will back us up? Is it because we cannot grow beyond that primitive developmental stage of dependence that we focus on trusting a superior source? Are we scared to think that God needs to trust us? And trust us for what? Isn’t trust reciprocal?

We use the word as a verb and as a noun. It is commonly used as a belief in someone or something that is responsible: “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something” (Apple Dictionary). In legal terms it is “confidence placed in a person by making that person the nominal owner of property to be held or used for the benefit of one or more others.” (Ibid.)

“…But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.”  John 8:45 (NRSV)

They said, “If you are the Messiah, tell us.” He replied, “If I tell you, you will not believe and if I question you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”  Luke 22:67-69 (NRSV)

When he heard that Jesus had come from Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”  John 4:47-48 (NRSV)

Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop was the great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I, the Hawaiian King who united all of the islands into one nation. She bequeathed her landholdings to a legal trust for the betterment of the Hawaiian people and it became commonly known as the Bishop Estate, of which the Kamehameha Schools is the flagship entity. As in so many other human organizations, great temptation led to great violation. Broken Trust by Samuel P. King and Randall W. Roth (2006, University of Hawaii Press) documents the investigation and heroic battle (1997-1999) to rectify abuse and mismanagement. The Bishop Estate is undisputedly “America’s largest charitable trust” (Ibid). It is a story of great love for an institution, great love for the people served by that institution, and a willingness to reveal corruption and the healing that evolves from that revelation. It is ultimately a story of courage.

This investigation could only be accomplished in public and required legal action and potentially lifelong professional and personal sacrifices never seen in the history of the Bishop Estate. Ultimately, the risks were worth the vulnerability because the estate and the Kamehameha Schools especially are stronger and more vibrant than ever. The story of the Hawaiian people still evolves but unbeknownst to most Americans, they were and are a gracious, welcoming, intelligent, educated society pre- and post- Western contact. And although the neo-European version of Christianity imposed was a severe prototypical expansionist, White Supremacist model, the Hawaiian monarchy seemed to have accepted The Christ of justice, righteousness, and forgiveness, much like The Christ of African-Americans.

Trusts are administered by groups of people who are responsible for upholding the original intent of the benefactor. Just who is the benefactor and who is the recipient in a relationship of trust? Who is the trustor and who is the trustee? A trust (in legal terms) is the following: “an arrangement in which someone's property or money is legally held or managed by someone else or by an organization (such as a bank) for usually a set period of time; an organization that results from the creation of a trust” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary.com). On boards of directors individual board members are trustees: “a person or organization that has been given responsibility for managing someone else's property or money through a trust; a member of a group that manages the money of an organization” (Ibid). A trustor is “the donor, settlor, grantor, or other person creating a trust by transferring his property to a trustee” (Ibid). A benefactor is “someone who helps another person, group, etc., by giving money” (Ibid).

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? Luke 16:10-12 (NRSV)

As African-American people in America we are so recent to middle class material consumption that we have trouble trusting anyone or anything with anything who looks like us because on some level we cannot believe that we are where we are. Most of us are one generation or less away from the African-American women who were domestics in the movie “The Help.” If you had told most of our parents that we’d be traveling the world on jets and cruise ships at will, they would have told us to stop dreaming and “get real.” Most of our parents didn’t have pensions or retirement: They had w-o-r-k and family.

The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had already known from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) So Jesus added, “Because of this I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come.” After this many of his disciples quit following him and did not accompany him any longer. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!” John 6:63-68 (NET)

If trust in a relationship cannot be one-sided in order to function, then is it possible for us to have a reciprocal, trusting relationship with the Lord God through Christ Jesus? Are we solely to trust Her or is it possible that God trusts us and if so, to what extent? What happens when we inevitably screw-up because, as S/He knows, we are flawed creatures?

“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”  John 3:11-12 (NRSV)

It seems that Jesus repeatedly tried to explain why so many didn’t believe Him or believe in Him. It seems that Jesus repeatedly told them Who He was and where He was from. It seems that He knew that some of us would believe and some wouldn’t. It seems that Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, was the benefactor, trustor, trustee, and trust all in one. He donated the riches (Himself) as trustor from the benefactor (God) to set up the trust (His church) for His trustees (us) to administer for the good of Her people (the world). But then…who’s liable, who’s accountable, who’s trustworthy?

Even as we are supposed to be liable for the maintenance of Christ’s church on earth, He steps in to take the fall for us, again and again and again and again. He has every right to demand the ultimate accountability, our lives, from us for our weaknesses, but He doesn’t. He asks only that we accept and acknowledge our mistakes and lifts us up to try again. And when we succeed, He rejoices! He rejoices with us! Heaven sings! He rejoices with us!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.
Amen.  Romans 11:34-36 (NRSV)

Jesus said, “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40, NRSV). What does The Christ dare trust us for? He certainly can’t trust that we will act like Him all the time, and we certainly don’t reciprocate by trusting each other much at all. Perhaps, He wants to trust that we will come to Him for life. Impossible? But we can keep trying. And keep trying. And keep trying. Perhaps, he wants to trust that we will always depend on Him, that we will always seek His face, that we will always call on Him. Seems kind of one-sided, doesn’t it? He’s the Benefactor, the Trustor, the Trustee, the Trust all at once, at the same, knowing that we don’t trust Him all the time, no matter how many times He’s rescued us from ourselves and each other. All He wants from us is to come to Him...and He’ll do the rest. What kind of a God is that? What kind of a Christ is that? Who is this Jesus who wants to trust us?

Thank You, LORD God, for Jesus who dares to step in the gap and trust us for anything. Thank You, LORD God, for being Mother/Father God, Holy Spirit, Christ all in one. Thank You, LORD God, for rescuing us when we fall, for moving us forward when we’re afraid, for picking us up when we stumble, and for laughing with us when we are laughable. Thank You, LORD Jesus, for your sense of humor and enjoying our feeble attempts to hide from you and ourselves. Thank You, LORD Jesus, for taking on all the roles and patiently waiting until we can step up to fill in just one of them for each other. Thank You, LORD Jesus, for believing that we can rise to the occasion and be a benefit to someone else on Your planet. And finally, thank You, LORD God, for bequeathing us Your most precious gift, the Son whom You love so much. Forgive us when we take that gift for granted and bring us back to where we started…at His Feet.

I am going to trust in the Lord
Til I die.

Amen