God's Faith in Us

The Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein was the preacher at First Congregational Church on September 21, 2008. He was one of many guest preachers this year, all from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds, who shared with us about his spiritual journey. A gifted musician, Rabbi Stein left a promising career as a orchestra conductor to enter rabbinical school, and is now on the staff of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles.

In his sermon, Rabbi Stein talked about “God’s faith in us.” It was an interesting phrase. We often speak of our faith in God, but God’s faith in us? Intriguing, no? I registered the words, turned them over in my mind, and then went back to listening to the sermon. I might have lost them after that, had not one of our church members sent an email commenting on the phrase. So I thought about it more.

I know that when someone has faith in me, when someone trusts me to do the right thing, to make the right choices, to be present in real and meaningful ways, my knowledge of that faith and trust empowers me to do my best. Maybe that’s a part of how it is that we go about doing the work of the church. We talk a lot about doing God’s work, about being God’s body – the hands, feet, arms and mouth of God, doing the work of justice and caring and compassion to which we believe we have been called. I think that perhaps that we are able to do this, in part, because of God’s faith in us. That sense of call that we feel – that urge in our hearts to do justice, love kindness, and live with humility – might be how we experience God’s faith in us.

What do you think?