Tag: Trust

An Epiphany in Faith Formation from a Lost Ball and a Trustworthy Dad

The greatest lesson I ever learned about faith I learned from my father. I had accidentally pitched a ball into a valley on the roof of our house. instead of getting out a ladder and climbing up to get it for me, dad picked me up to boost me up onto the roof so I could get it myself. I had never been upon the roof before. It was frightening, mostly the getting-up-there part.

When I began to express my fear my dad said, “Don't worry. I won't let you fall.” His hands and arms felt strong. His voice was firm and confident. He had been on the roof himself. He believed I would be okay. So, I forgot my fears and found my faith and dad didn't let me fall.

Through the experience of trusting I discovered that my dad was trustworthy.

I have been able to live my life with an abiding faith, often tested by the things that test everybody's faith. It goes back to that lost ball on the roof, my dad’s strong and loving arms, reassuring voice, and dependable promise, “I won't let you fall.”

That has made it easier for me to trust my heavenly father who promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Earthly parents, though fallible, have a role to play in the formation of faith in their children's lives. In fact, parents are the primary faith-givers. The chief evangelical opportunity for Christian parents is with their children. Even helping a child retrieve a toy stuck on the roof can be an occasion for faith forming. The world needs dads to give their children a fear-conquering faith. Of course, moms do it too. But this is Father's Day.

Blessings,

The Very Reverend Ron Pogue

June 15, 2024
A Response to a Lawless Mob

Yesterday, the United States Capitol building, a symbol of our nation’s covenant to live together as one people governed and protected by laws, was assaulted by a lawless mob, urged on by reckless and violent political rhetoric. While we are relieved that order was restored in the Capitol, we can’t ignore the fact that a national symbol was violated and desecrated. It’s going to take some time for the soul of America to recover.

This event ceased to be about politics when the boundaries that protect our common life were breached. The work of Congress was interrupted by violence and intimidation. It was an assault on democracy itself and calls for a united response in asserting the shared values that bind us together. We need to remember that our liberty is upheld by those shared values, those objective standards that bring order to the way we live together.

Many of those values are enshrined in the Constitution, which is itself an objective basis for law and order in our land. I want to emphasize three that are essential for the restoration of our national life.

Truth – One value that is necessary for our life together is a commitment to truth. Lies and conspiracy theories have become so common that in recent days I’ve found myself wondering if, in addition to an epidemic of COVID-19, we might also be experiencing an epidemic of psychosis, with millions of people believing hallucinations are true. When a lie brings harm to the life or reputation of another, it is bearing false witness. That’s an objective standard that we believe to be given to us by God.

Justice – Then there’s justice. The classic symbol of justice is a blindfolded figure holding a balanced scale in one hand and sword in the other. The scale is for weighing the evidence with the truth. The sword represents the concept that justice can be swift and final. The blindfold symbolizes the philosophy that justice should be rendered “without passion or prejudice.” Considering only the facts on scale, justice does not let emotional impressions of the accused enter into the implicit equation. When our legal system is misused, when the evidence is lacking or false, when justice is delayed, our life together is deprived of confidence of fairness before the facts of the case and the judgment of Justice.

Trust – We also have to be able to trust our leaders and one another. Betrayal of trust wounds the ones betrayed and erodes something essential in our ability to work together and promote the common good. Trust begins with each one of us being trustworthy. If I want to be trusted, I must be trustworthy. Maybe that’s why in the Scout Law the first law is “A Scout is trustworthy.”

None of these objective standards requires a belief in God. However, those of us who do profess that belief bear the responsibility of the conviction that such standards are in harmony with God’s will. Living faithfully in accordance with the will of God is a way we honor God because in so doing we honor our neighbor. If you turn to the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21) you will notice that the first four pertain to how we are to honor God and the next six are about how we honor people. Jesus summed up the entire Law of God when he said, “The first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31). St. John took explained it this way, “Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (I John 4:20).

For Christians, love is not essentially a feeling. Love is how we act regardless of how we feel. Love is how we behave toward God and our neighbor because it is the right thing to do even if we don't feel like it. There is an objectivity about such love. Love is real not because of how I feel but because love is of God. Love transcends my subjective experience and will continue with or without me. For my part, I'll hang on to that love. And, when I fail in love and let go, I'll grab hold again.

We can’t change the unloving behavior that occurred at our nation’s Capitol yesterday. But we can have an influence on the response. We can love God and our fellow citizens by seeking truth, pursuing justice, and fostering trust. And we can expect the same from those we elect to public office.

Let us pray.

O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(The Book of Common Prayer, page 824)

Blessings,

The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

January 7, 2021
What I Am Giving God This Year ~ My Trust

I'm reflecting on the custom of gift-giving, which is grounded in God's greatest gift to us. We spend a lot of time selecting just the right gifts for our loved ones. And what shall I give to God? Advent provides me with the opportunity to consider that question.

Today, I'm thinking the gift of my trust is something God would value.

John the Baptizer had the task of pointing others to a greatness into which he himself did not enter. That required a great deal of trust on his part. In a Bible study course on the gospels, when we came to Matthew 11:2-11, the passage where John sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah, the question arose, “Was John having second thoughts? Did he have doubts that Jesus was the long-awaited anointed one?”

I don’t think John was having second thoughts about Jesus. I think John realized his particular task was just about complete. His fate was sealed. The last thing he needed to do was to send his own disciples to Jesus so that they could join in following him. It was not John but John’s disciples, therefore, who needed convincing that day. So they said to Jesus: “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And, Jesus reply was meant for them that they might believe – as eyewitnesses to his Messianic work: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And, blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

Someone tells of how from the windows of his house every evening he used to watch the lamplighter go along the streets lighting the lamps. But the lamplighter was blind. He was bringing others light that he would never see. Like the lamplighter, John had to trust that his work had a purpose beyond what he could see with his own eyes.

Trust! That’s something I want to give God this year. But it is a costly gift.

It is so easy to fall into doubt and fear, especially during this horrible pandemic. The best way to resist doubt and fear is to practice trust; Trust God and one another to get us through. Frankly, practicing trust is harder than giving in to doubt and fear. We don't need God's grace to be afraid, do we. We need God's grace to be able to trust.

When I turn my life over to God, I give God leadership. Doing that means I will advance even though I do not know where God will lead me. It means I have to reshape my thinking to make my thoughts large enough for God to fit in! I have to let the size of my trust set the size of my aims and objectives in life so that my expectations match God’s abilities.

One of the things my Father and I always did together at this time of year was to string lights on the roof of our house. At first, my help was confined to checking the bulbs. Then, later, I could stand on a ladder and hang the ones under the eves. Finally, I was allowed to get up on the roof. But that required assistance. I needed a boost getting up and help getting down. The booster and the helper was my dad. If I wanted to help put up the lights, I’d have to trust him not to drop me. Because of that experience, I knew Dad could be trusted not to drop me.

The everlasting arms of God are even more trustworthy. They undergird all of us. They boost us up and they keep us from falling. Blessed are we when we trust God above all others.

I’m giving God my trust this year.

Blessings,

The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

December 10, 2020
The Spiritual Discipline of Tithing

Occasionally, I am asked about tithing. Since we are in the season when churches traditionally emphasize faithful stewardship, I thought it might be helpful to share a few thoughts on the subject.

A “tithe” is 10% of something. Tithing has meant several things throughout history, including tribute, tax, and charitable contribution. Years ago, my wife and I came to understand the tithe as a spiritual discipline, by which we acknowledge that everything belongs to our Creator and our role is that of stewards. The discipline of tithing helps us maintain a healthy relationship with our possessions. As we see in the teachings of Jesus, if we are possessed by our possessions, we aren’t truly free and if possessions harm relationships with our neighbors, they undermine God’s vision of a world where people live in peace. As a priest, one of the most important things I can do for the spiritual health of those given into my care is to help them have a right relationship with possessions.

When we give the first 10% to God, we are reminded that everything we have, whether spent, saved, or given away, is a sacred trust from God. Each time we write a check to the Church for the tithe, we are reminded to be faithful stewards of the remaining 90%. We are also reminded that Jesus Christ doesn’t ask us for a small portion of our loyalty – he asks for 100%, "our selves, our souls and bodies."

Because we are unapologetically committed to the mission to which God is calling The Episcopal Church, that is where we bring God’s tithe. Other organizations have many different ways to solicit and raise funds to sustain them. The Church has us. Most secular organizations, governments, community chests, and businesses cannot contribute to overtly religious communities. We consider additional charitable giving to be an “offering.” God’s tithe and our offerings equal about 20% of our gross household income. By the standards of most of the world, the lifestyle sustained by the remaining 80% is luxurious.

Once we saw the difference this discipline could make in our lives and in Christ’s ongoing mission, we set out to work toward the goal of tithing. With God’s help, we modified our spending and saving patterns so we could step up each year toward a tithe. Then, we continued to take steps that would allow us to make offerings beyond the tithe.

I commend the discipline of tithing to you. Try it and discover for yourself how blessings flow in as treasures flow out. It will give new meaning to phrases found in the baptismal liturgy, such as placing our “whole trust in God’s grace and love.” It will change the way you understand our Lord’s summary of the Law, to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Blessings,

The Very Reverend Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

September 10, 2020
New Life Requires Risk and Trust

The readings for this Sunday are filled with images of renewal – new birth, new life, new creation. These images imply that God’s promise for new life entails God’s gift of a fresh start, freed from the restrictions of our past lives in order to enter a new relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lent is a time for engaging our new life in Christ more deeply, risking new levels of trust. The purpose of Lent is not to dwell on suffering, or to spend forty days bewailing our manifold sins and wickedness for the sake of feeling our pain. Lent is about engaging in the ongoing process of renewal, regeneration, and new birth; it is about encouraging us to trust and to risk going forth and being sent out with the promise of new life.

Lent may require us to “think outside the box” of piety and religiosity, just as Abram and Sarai had to break with their past, and the Pharisees Saul and Nicodemus with theirs. The promises of God bear not only upon the future of our individual lives in relationship to God, but also upon the future of our parish, our diocese, and our Church as a whole

To respond to the promise for new life means we have to be ready to redraw and rename the places on the journey. When the ancient ones told the story of Abram and Sarai, they were also inscribing new place names and creating a new social geography on the territories of their migrations in company with God.

God may be inviting us to rethink how we do Church in light of the socio-geographies of the times we live in. When Saul the Pharisee became Paul the Apostle as we know him, he brought new words, images, and new community structures into being, “calling into existence things which do not exist,” by trustfully following Jesus into new life.

Lent is for listening to that call in our own lives. In the words of James Russell Lowell, “New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth.” Lent is for careful thinking about how to step into the as-yet-unmapped future, to deepen our relationship to God, to trust the picture of new life in Christ, and for identifying the breaks with the past that we need to make in order to respond to the promises of God.

I'll see you in Church!

The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

March 5, 2020
What do we mean when we use the word faith?

What do Christians mean when we use the word faith? Often, we are speaking of a set of beliefs or doctrines. But there is a more important meaning without which all our doctrines and words are empty – to have faith first means to trust God, especially when we are not 100% certain about something.

In his book, Living Faith While Holding Doubts, Martin B. Copenhaver writes, "There are times when we must make a 100% commitment to something about which we are only 51% certain"

When God calls to you, how do you answer? With doubts, anxieties, fears? You are not alone! But can you listen beyond them to God's reassuring voice, calling you to trust God to lead you through them, perhaps even to use those obstacles to faith as bridges into the future where God is trying to get you to go with him? Can you say, I'm 51% sure, God, but I'll trust you with the other 49%? If you can, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

Let us pray.

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, and always to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I'll see you in Church!

The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

January 16, 2020
What does it mean to have faith?

Religion has never meant quite the same thing to all persons. In history there have been essentially four ways in which religion has been meaningful to people: To some religion is inward fellowship with God; to others, religion is a standard for life and a power to reach that standard; to others religion is the highest satisfaction of their minds; and, to yet others, religion is access to God, that which removes the barriers and opens the doors to God’s living presence.

It was this fourth conception of religion that attracted the writer of the letter to the Hebrews. He found in Christ the one person who could take him into the presence of God. Jesus, for the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, was the one person who gave access to reality and access to God. That is the key thought of this letter, this book of the Bible. In the eleventh chapter we find a magnificent exhortation to have faith. What does it mean to have faith?

To have faith is to have a new way of looking at reality. Each of us is born with five senses, which enable us to apprehend reality as it appears on the surface. We see, hear, taste, touch, and smell the world in which we live. The organs that make this possible are a part of our natural equipment.

We might think of faith as an organ that takes us beyond the five senses and enables us to perceive another, deeper level of reality. By means of faith, we are able to trust the truths of God that are beyond our natural ability to understand. Thus, faith is itself a verification – the verification of the things we cannot see. So, we often speak of seeing with the eyes of faith.

Such faith, according to the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, enabled people like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac to trust God’s promises and to obey God. When faith dawns and begins to develop in a person’s life, one is able to look at reality as it appears to the five senses and apprehend still another dimension that gives things a meaning and purpose they did not have before. Faith gives us a new way of looking at things.

To have faith is to have a new source of energy. The key to understanding the power of faith lies in the wonder of the human psyche. Faith is itself the power given to those who have made a decision to believe and to trust. It is the power to act. Indecision keeps all that power locked up and causes depression, anxiety, and frustration.

On the other hand, confident decisions unlock enormous reservoirs of power and energy we will need to carry out those decisions. Thus, if we want to experience the energy of faith, we have to decide what we’re going to do about the new understandings we have seen through the eyes of faith.

Finding creative solutions to complicated problems is the specialty of people of faith. Faith keeps us from giving in easily to problems and provides energy to struggle with them until they have been mastered and overcome. It doesn’t take eyes of faith to look at the past or to maintain the status quo. What about tomorrow?

I believe we can and we will keep our eye on tomorrow because we are people of faith. The kind of faith we have is the sort that guided and empowered the patriarchs and prophets and our Savior and the early Church to persevere. It will be the same for us. We have a vision and we will act on it, trusting in the promises of God. This faith is nothing less than the fuel cell of the Church! To have faith is to have a new source of energy.

To have faith is to have a new kind of security. Jesus said, “Have no fear, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom. Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor. Provide for yourselves purses that don’t wear out and save your riches in heaven, where they will never decrease, because no thief can get to them. For your heart will always be where your riches are” (Luke 12:32-34).

What does he mean? He means that the Kingdom of Heaven, the Realm of God, is the most valuable thing in the universe and it is God’s desire to give it to those who place their primary trust in him. Whatever we possess here is but a shadow and dim reflection of the great treasury of that Kingdom. Like Abraham, who lived in a tent, with no permanent home, we look for that city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And yet, we cling for security to so many things.

Whether or not we actually sell all that we have and give the money to the poor, the role of faith is that it produces a sense of security apart from our attachments to the present material world and our possessions. Faith gives us a new kind of security.

Finally, to have faith is to have new life. When Abraham answered God’s call to leave his safe, secure homeland and journey into a land he did not know, he began a new life. All who have such faith are the descendants of Abraham and have God’s gift of new life.

Martin Luther said, “Faith is a living trust of the heart.” To live in faith is to live under the conviction that everything and everyone belongs to God. Faith, therefore, conditions the way we relate to our world and the people in it. And what is the opposite of trust? Fear. The good news is that faith is the agent that enables us to overcome fear. It relives us of some anxiety that is produced by our idea that God won’t come through. It frees us to accept our place in the divine plan for all things.

We have a commission to live life to the fullest, equipped with this living trust of the heart. So, we have new life to live today and every day, until for ever. When, with the YES of faith, we see and greet from afar the heavenly city where life never ends, we begin to experience a foretaste of that life here and now. That vision illuminates and transforms our present reality and we are alive unto God. To have faith is to have new life.

In a Nutshell… To have faith is to have a new way of looking at reality, a new source of energy, a new security, and a new life. So, fear not, little flock. for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Don’t trust your fears more than you trust your God to keep promises. Reach out and experience the world and the persons around you with the five senses. Then, experience all of these things with the faith that comes from God so that you might see it all as God does. It will transform you and free you become all you were made to be! And, it will attract you to other people of faith in ways that overcome differences for the greater glory of God as together we work, pray, and give for the spread of the Kingdom of God.

I'll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ronald D. Pogue
Interim Dean
St. Andrew’s Cathedral
Jackson, Mississippi

P.S. I have always found these lines from this secular song to be a beautiful illustration of faith.

The Rose

It’s the heart that fears the breaking
that never learns the dance.

It’s the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.

It’s the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.

And the soul afraid of dying
who never learns to live.

When the night has been too long
when you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong

Just remember in the winter – far beneath the winter snows
lies the seed that with the sun’s love
becomes the rose.

March 14, 2019
Sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole ~ November 8, 2015

The Twenty-fourth Sunday After Pentecost

Listen to the Sermon for November 8, 2015

Read the Sermon for November 8, 2015

Listen to the Children's Sermon for November 8, 2015

Read the Children's Sermon for November 8, 2015

November 8, 2015
God’s Abundant Protection

On a visit to England's Salisbury Cathedral, Gay and I were invited to join a tour of what I would have called "the attic," but the English refer to the entire structure as "the roof." Once we had climbed to the top of the interior of the Cathedral, we ascended stairs to the area above the nave that is normally invisible to worshipers beneath the magnificent 757-year-old vaulted Gothic ceiling.

The contrast was striking. Whereas the ceiling one sees below is beautifully formed and painted, the timbers above, which support tons of lead sheeting, are rustic. Our guide pointed out a place on one of the ancient timbers where the carpenter had placed his mark. It occurred to me that the memorial of this humble craftsman also stood in contrast to the gilded memorials of powerful and influential people down below in the statuary, the windows, the textiles, and all the other treasures that are a part of the day-to-day life of the Cathedral.

Salisbury Roof Timbers

And yet, this sturdy structure provides a cover of protection for everything and everyone below it. Without the roof, exposure to the elements would destroy everything else. The vaulted ceiling of the Cathedral is supposed to draw the minds of worshipers to heaven above, which, like the roof timbers, we cannot see but we trust as the realm of our ultimate protection.

Salisbury Cathedral has been a place of pilgrimage for countless pilgrims since the mid 13th Century. Like pilgrims going up to the Jerusalem Temple, latter day pilgrims recite prayers and psalms on their journey. When I was looking at the roof of Salisbury Cathedral that day, the words of Psalm 121 came to mind.

I lift up my eyes to the hills;
from where is my help to come?

My help comes from the LORD,
the maker of heaven and earth.

Click the Pic for a Virtual Tour

He will not let your foot be moved
and he who watches over you will not fall asleep.

Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep;

The LORD himself watches over you;
the LORD is your shade at your right hand,

So that the sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
it is he who shall keep you safe.

The LORD shall watch over your going out and your coming in,
from this time forth for evermore.

Is it any wonder that the roof-peak on a building became a symbol for protection? The roof-peak is the inspiration for the ancient symbol we call a “chevron.” The French word chevron means rafter, the sloping supporting beam that runs from the ridge beam of a roof to its edge. In feudal times during the Middle Ages (ca. 1066 to 1485) knights and men-at-arms received the “top of the house” chevron badge or shield as an emblem of their protective role.

We see this symbol almost every day but never give it a thought. The classic upside down V-shaped symbol, especially used as a symbol of rank on military or police uniforms, is also used as a car logo, a corporation name, a kind of car racing, and more.

The chevron appears in the new insignia of St. John’s Heritage Circle as an element in the graphic device. It reminds us of the roof of St. John’s and all the chapels of the parish, which are topped by a cross. Like Salisbury Cathedral and other houses of worship, the lines of the architecture are intended to lift our hearts and minds heavenward and point us to God, who is our protector.

This generation has been entrusted with the work that was begun here decades ago. It is now our privilege and duty to exercise our trust in God, who “is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8). God's continuing purpose for St. John’s compels us to return week by week to be nourished in Word and Sacrament and sent back into the mission field at our doorstep to love God and our neighbor in our daily lives.

Sometimes, carrying out God's purpose is challenging and frightening. Some of the neighbors we are commanded to love are not that lovable. Some of the places we are sent are not that safe. Some of the issues we must tackle are not that popular. The price we pay will sometimes be costly. Jesus never promised following him would be risk-free. He said, “Take up your cross and follow me.” He also promised to provide all the grace, all the resources, and all the protection we need to continue his redemptive work.

If we will train our eyes to look, we will recognize signs of God's protection wherever we may be.

You who live in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,

will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress;
my God, in whom I trust." (Psalm 91:1, 2)

The Catechism of the Episcopal Church, found on pages 845-862 of The Book of Common Prayer, provides An Outline of the Faith we profess. In the Catechism, we are taught, “The duty of all Christians is to follow Christ; to come together week by week for corporate worship; and to work, pray, and give for the spread of the kingdom of God.” I am grateful to be among people who are called, commissioned, and committed to that way of life. I am grateful to know that the One who gives that life to me is watching over me. I am grateful that God trusts me to extend the good news of divine protection to others who need it. I am grateful. Because I have received so much, I want my gratitude to be reflected in the generosity of my life.

The next time you see the chevron in the insignia of St. John’s Heritage Circle and the next time you look up to our roof or our intricate ceiling structure, think of God our Protector, who is the Source of all our gifts. Know that you are carved into the palm of God's hand and God will never let you go. Trust that God will supply you with exactly enough so that you can give a little more generously every day. Then, with a glad and generous heart, take the steps God sets before you to fulfill your vocation as a follower of Jesus Christ.

I'll see you in Church!

October 6, 2015
Sermon at the Chapel of St. Hubert the Hunter in Bondurant, Wyoming ~ June 28, 2015

The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

Listen to the Sermon for June 28, 2015

Note: The sermon was recorded during an outdoor service at St. Hubert's before the annual barbeque and there is sound from people arriving and passing vehicles.

Read the Sermon for June 28, 2015

June 28, 2015