“A Stilled and Quiet Soul”
Psalm 131/Matthew 27:11-14
5th Midweek in Lent – March 5th
Pastor Chip Winter

            Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. The texts have been read for us already.
            My dear family in Christ.  Sometimes, when we try to define ourselves by asserting what we are not, we are less than helpful because we haven’t narrowed the field down enough for those listening to us. 
            For example, if I want to tell you something about myself and I start by stating that I am not a polygamist, that still leaves you with a couple of possibilities: I could be either a monogamist or a celibate.  If I tell you I don’t read much science fiction, you still don’t know if I prefer biographies, poetry, detective novels, systematic theology or histories.  Nor are you certain if I prefer hardback, paperbacks, first editions or periodicals. 
            As the psalm was read this evening we had the experience once again of someone proving what they were by telling us what they were not.  In this instance, though, it works a good deal better.  Here is a writer putting himself forward as a humble child of God, trusting in the providence of his Creator, by denying that any vestiges of pride inhere.  There is no arrogance to be found in the heart, the eyes are not haughty, and he does not try to take for himself the mighty work of God; therefore, he is not to be confused with someone conceited.  Either you are proud or trustingly humble - there is no other option.
            The proud are readily recognizable in our age.  There is the arrogant heart of the football player gyrating in the end zone, thumping his chest or taunting the receiver he’d knocked loose from the ball. 
            Haughty eyes?  How about the latest rap music recording artist you’ve seen?  What about the college basketball player, just having let loose of the rim after his mighty slam dunk?  Or how about that crowd in school which is so “special” that it doesn’t even acknowledge your presence as you pass in hall?
            But it need not be relegated to the adolescents in the classroom or on a field.  We also see this pride in the self-made people who play at God in their home or at their work.  We see it in ourselves, for we all walk among the wonders of what properly belongs to God, claiming to be creators and saviors, beings who have the power to choose life or death.  We make our own truth.  We give ourselves rights and prerogatives once reserved only to the divine.
            Over against this sinfulness and its respective manifestations, we have the call to be humble and to live our lives trusting in God.  The image supplied for that in our text is that of a weaned child with its mother.  A child who has experienced change, it has grown up and it no longer throws tantrums when things aren’t going its way.  It has experienced its share of change, turmoil and adjustments; yet, now weaned, the child trusts that, though things are different, mom will still provide.
            That is to be the trust of a child of God in our day.  Trust that He will provide what we need when we need it.  Trust that He will not allow us to be tested beyond what we can bear - even when it seems that we are getting mighty close to our limit.  Trust that He will forgive us all that has been wrong through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.
            How is such trust made manifest among us?  That trust is seen in a woman, a fellow Lutheran Christian from a sister congregation who needed the money her present job offered in order to provide for her family, but who was willing to forgo such employment because of the unethical things she was being asked to overlook at the job sight.  She knows that her God does not want her to be a willing participant in such things and she would have no more of it.  She trusts that He will provide what she needs to fulfill her responsibilities and based upon this, she made her stand.
            How do we move to such a life-changing trust from this position of pride and demanding self-sufficiency?  The key to the transformation from haughtily going it alone to trusting in the doer of the great and wonderful, our God in heaven, is silence.
            It is silence; the silence of the One in the Gospel lesson this evening.  Here is the Child of heaven, long since weaned; the only-begotten Son of the Father, who has gone this way before us.  His silence before Pilate, which amazed the Roman Governor, was but one of the signs that He had commended Himself to the Father’s keeping.  In the hands of the Father He rested and His was the quietest of souls that night.
            Before the haughty eyes of His accusers, He remained silent and trusting.  Before their blasphemous arrogance He was peacefully obedient to the Father’s will on our behalf.  His example of quiet trust encourages our trust in the same Father Who has loved us to the point of sending His son to forgive us our sins through death and resurrection.
            This trust in God, borne of His Grace, leads us to Hope.  It is not a pie in the sky by and by hope.  It is not mere wishing.  Such hope is defined as “trust seizing the future.”  It is faith at work for the days ahead.  That is our hope.
            By faith in God’s Son we are not disconsolate - we are hopeful.  We are not defiant - we are peacefully assertive.  We are not proudly self-sufficient - we look to the hand of our God.  We are hopeful because of our trust in this loving God and His promise that along with His Son He will provide all things that we need.  Amen.