"Faith and Trust"

Faith and Trust - Sermon 12/28/25
Have you ever heard of a Trust Fall? Do you know what it is? I observed one years ago. I had a half-time teaching position in a 4 th , 5 th & 6 th grade Special Ed class and I shared a classroom with a full -time teacher. We had students in the morning for reading & math and then some students went back to their regular classes and she had the rest of the students for the afternoon. There were about 10-12 in the afternoon, all boys and one girl. One day she had a substitute teacher. I usually stayed much later than my hours doing prep work and things so I was still there. For some reason, the
sub decided to do a “Trust Fall” with the kids. It certainly wasn’t in the plans for the day. She wasn’t a certified teacher but she did have training and experience working with kids and they loved having her. She lined the kids up in two lines facing each other near a counter and taught them how to lock their arms with the person across from them making a catch net.
Then she had a brave volunteer stand on the edge of the counter, with his back to the kids and his arms crossed in front of him and when she said “Fall”, he dropped back off the counter and the kids caught him. Wow!
Obviously, she had done this before but she had a lot of faith in these kids that they would follow the directions and do what they were supposed to do. And the brave volunteer could only have done what he did because he trusted her and his friends to do their part.
When I read the Matthew scripture for today, it made me think of this Trust Fall.
The scripture for today is from the lectionary which is set by the Presbyterian church as a guideline for preaching. When I looked at today’s scripture, I was a little confused because if you remember the one I read from Matthew, it is about some things that happened after the Wise Men had come and we haven’t had Epiphany yet which is on Jan 6 th . I was baffled as to why they would put the scripture for this Sunday.
There are a few ways to look at this passage. One is the fulfillment of prophesies and another is to look at the parallels of Jesus’s life and Moses’. But, I want to focus on the faith and trust of Joseph because that is what I first saw in this passage.
It is interesting that this passage is more about Joseph and not that much about Mary or even Jesus. And, we really don’t know all that much about Joseph beyond this.
From this scripture, we know that the Christ Child has been born and some Wise Men saw star in the east which they saw as a sign of a new born king. They followed it and not to mess up our ideas of our manger scene but it probably took them over a year to get there. As we know, they went by King Herod and let him know they were looking for this new king that had been born and he wanted them to return to let him know where he could find the baby so he could worship him as well. And, of course, they found the baby Jesus, worshiped him, gave him gifts and went back another way.
Just so you know, historically, King Herod was a horrible, brutal person who thought nothing of killing people when it served his purposes. It has been noted that during his reign, he had thousands of people killed including some of his own sons. So, when after a while he doesn’t hear back from the wise men about where the child is, he orders the death of all male children 2 years old and under in Bethlehem to eliminate any possibility of someone threatening his reign.
But, after the Wise men came, Joseph has a dream and is told by an angel – to get up and take the child and his mother to Egypt.
Does he hesitate? Does he take time to think about it himself or consult anyone? No, he has faith in what the Angel of God tells him and he gets up that night and they go right then to Egypt. This also shows a fulfillment of prophesy that “I called my son out of Egypt” as the scripture says in Hosea 11:1.

Continuing - Now, Joseph and family have been living in Egypt and he has Dream #2 – After King Herod dies, the angel appears again to Joseph and tells him, it’s ok to go back to Israel as Herod is dead. Does Joseph stop to consider whether they should stay or go? Or, whether it really is safe to go back? No, again he has faith in the message from God and trusts that they will be ok. So again, he gets up and they leave for Israel. Joseph hears about Herod’s son, Archelaus (Ar kuh Lay us) who is now in power and he is brutal like his father was.
Joseph is afraid to go to Israel but he is doing what he was told.
But then he has another dream, dream #3, and he is told instead to go to Galilee and they went to live in Nazareth. So, Joseph again had faith in God and trusted to do what he was told.
This also fulfills another prophesy of where the messiah would come from, as the prophet had said, “He will be called a Nazarene.” Interestingly, the word Nazarene may be a transliteration of Netzerene which means stump or branch. The scripture from Isaiah11 prophesied “out of the root of Jesse”. Like a branch that sprouts from a stump, someone from David's family will someday be king.
So, what does this have to do with us?
We need to be open to listening to God, have faith and trust that he will help us along the way.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says:
With all your heart you must trust the Lord and not your own judgment. Always let him lead you, and he will clear the road for you to follow.
I think we all have that YoYo effect when we try to ask God for help with things in our lives sometimes.
We try to do things our way and when they don’t work out we pray and say God, I need you to take over and lift this from me and we feel ok until, we get impatient and take it back and struggle some more only to just repeat the whole thing again.
We are human and God knows that.
Do we wonder what God is doing in our lives sometimes?
It is ok to doubt sometimes. At times it makes us seek the Lord even more looking for answers. The life of faith is staying in contact with the Lord through prayer, the word and worship.
Does God speak to you in your dreams?
I don’t know about dreams but sometimes, I actually think he does speak to me when I am trying to sleep. I think He knows that is when all my other distractions are gone and he can have my full attention. In fact, sometimes that’s when I get some sermon ideas or corrections. The scripture today talks about 3 dreams but Joseph also was told in another dream about Mary and the baby.
Does God speak to you at other times?
Mark 12:30 is when Jesus said what was the Greatest Commandment -
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 
I think if you have God in your heart and mind, he does speak to you sometimes in some of the most unexpected ways. It could be in a book you’re reading or a show you watch or an interaction with others.
You begin to see the love and mercy in situations and you just don’t see it as a human act but one that comes from God. I do hope you understand what I am talking about because then I know you have experienced this.
The Lord comes to us and we should be willing to listen and be faithful to what we hear and act accordingly as it brings about the fruit of God’s kingdom.

You see, not only are we to trust God to help us in our lives, but He is trusting us to carry out spreading His kingdom to as many as we can as well, just as the scripture from Isaiah said, the Lord asks, “who can he send?”
So, remember, God cares about us, He is in control, he’s leading and guiding. He doesn’t always tell us right away what to do sometimes. Many times, changes, decisions and situations that we don’t understand fill us with confusion and fear. But just as God drew near to Joseph, God also draws near to us. God knows what we are going through, knows our doubts, and hears our prayers. The invitation is clear: trust.
We need to stay close to him, keep reading and studying the word, joining together in worship, keeping our hearts open and letting God do what God does. We need to have faith in God and trust that He is always with us in all we do.
Let us pray:
Lord of infinite goodness, we ask you to please continue to speak to our hearts the same way you spoke to Joseph. When doubt or distrust enters our thoughts, speak to us, Lord. We want to be obedient to whatever plan you have for our lives.
We are in your hands. Amen
Lord of infinite goodness, I ask you to please continue to speak to my heart the same way you spoke to Joseph. When doubt or distrust enters my thoughts, speak to me Lord. I want to be obedient to whatever plan you have for my life.