“Blessed are they who trust in the Lord always.”
There is a great deal of difference between optimism and hope.
Optimism says
“Everything is going to turn out all right. Don’t worry.”
Whereas hope or in particular Christian hope says,
“No matter how things turn out,
God is going to be with you at all times. Don’t worry.”
Now that may not seem like much of a difference
but it is a huge difference when things do not work out.
Most often things do not work out the way we want them to;
or at least don’t work at that moment.
Optimism has this bubbling of false positivity that says
when things are not going well for us
“Oh, don’t worry. Everything will work out.”
When you have broken both your legs.
You got involved in a car accident.
You’ve got all sorts of situations.
And to say everything is going to work out
does not feel so good at that moment.
As much as optimism is well intentioned, it is often empty.
However, hope and in particular Christian hope
says something very differently.
Christian hope says that no matter what is going on at this moment;
no matter how dark it feels
or how painful it may be,
God is with you now.
And you may not see it.
But God will also be with you when you come through this moment.
It does not promise of a happy ending as much as
it promises a constant presence of the Lord in all times.
Why that is so important is because when we are suffering,
when we are in the middle of struggles or pain;
when we’re sick or a loved one is sick;
when we’ve lost a job;
when we are in the middle of maybe some relationship problems
and just things seem to be falling apart.
The temptation is just to say to ourselves
or to somebody else who is in that state,
“Everything is going to be fine.
God is with you. Everything is going to be fine.”
We have to be careful because we often imply
that everything will be okay because everything is going to turn out okay.
This leads to proverbial gospel of prosperity
that God blesses you and everything is going to be fine
if you are faithful to God.
And then if you are not faithful to God,
God is not going to bless you.
That’s fine when everything is going well
because then you feel blessed:
“Oh, I’m blessed! I’ve got everything!
It’s all going well! It’s wonderful!”
But when things do not go well
then you do not feel blessed.
It’s the God of Job then and the battle that Job had.
And the struggle is that when things are not going well
then you may think God is no longer around.
But that is not true.
God is always here.
The Prophet Jeremiah sets up the context for today’s set of readings.
Jeremiah is, if you would, the Prophet of Doom.
He was always. “Oh, it’s poor me, it’s terrible.”
And now he comes to this part and says,
“The one who trusts in God is like a tree planted by a river:
that it will always, always have fruit.
But when we rely on ourselves only
then you are like planted in the desert.”
That is a really powerful image of trust in God no matter what.
And he is telling himself as well as all his listeners.
Along comes St. Paul.
Paul doubles down on this Christian hope.
He says ‘No matter what, God is with us.”
And even if we die, he says,
“God is with us because eternal life is promised to us.”
And that is the context in which Paul always frames things.
We see it in today’s gospel with these Beatitudes according to Luke
where there are four Beatitudes and then four woes.
It is not that God will only reward you in the end times
but that God rewards you here and now.
This implicit idea is that you are blessed
when you are faithful to the Lord.
The Lord, if you believe the Lord is here,
the Lord will be here no matter what and just believe that.
I do not know what is going on in your life.
Things may be blissful for you.
And you feel blessed.
But you also may be struggling.
Things may not be going as well as you hoped.
And what we say is we hold on.
There is that beautiful song that says
“Hold on through all the difficult times.
Trust in God even though you do not see the hand of God right now,
or you do not even hear his voice right now
that he is here in the midst of our lives.”
How do we do that?
You have heard me say it a thousand times
and I probably have to repeat it another thousand to actually hear it.
We have to be men and women of prayer;
boys and girls of prayer
so that we root ourselves in listening
and in trusting God like the Prophet Jeremiah recommends to us today.
It is to be solidly planted beside the river,
the wellspring of God’s love;
that we absorb that into our lives.
It is not only that we must do that
but also we must be that for others.
There are times in our lives we need each other.
We need the Christian hope of seeing our community
gather around us in those difficult moments.
It is powerful because it becomes the living presence of God.
And that is where the Beatitudes come alive;
it is when we bind together that it matters the most.
I have said this before but
when I went through all the difficulty with my brother dying,
this community bound around me;
and made the living presence of Christ real.
While I might have felt God was absent,
God’s presence through you made him very present.
So we need to be that for each other.
In a few moments, we are going to invite those among us,
who are sick, to come forward.
It takes courage to come forward and say,
“I need the anointing” but what we promise to do for them;
we cannot cure them, it is not for us to cure,
it is for us to care for them.
And that is what we are planning to do.
With our prayers, we are going to lay our hands on them
and ask the Lord to bless them;
and if it is at all in God’s Will to cure them
but at the very least, they will know that we are caring for them.
By our prayers and by our standing with them,
at this moment in their weakness,
in whatever way that is,
we are committing to compassion and care.
So that is what we will do in just one moment
but at all times, we are called to trust always in the Lord.
“Blessed are they who trust in the Lord always.”
