Getting Specific

 

Getting Specific

Matthew 22:34-46[1]

We have all kinds of images about what love is “supposed” to look like. If you’re in my generation, you will remember the line that “love means never having to say you’re sorry.” That “romanticized” view of love gets in the way of what I would say real love looks like. From the perspective of the Bible, love is about what we do. Love means caring enough about another person to set our wants and needs aside. Love means giving of ourselves without asking “what am I going to get out of this?” Whether it’s feeding the hungry, or clothing the poor, or comforting the sick and dying—or just listening enough to really hear someone—love is about what we do. And the Bible can get pretty specific about what that looks like.

In our Gospel lesson for today, when Jesus was asked about the “greatest commandment,” he answered with two well know passages from the Hebrew Bible: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. This would have been nothing new to the people of the day. The first command to love God was something that pious Jewish people prayed on a daily basis. The fact that Jesus added a “second” command to love your neighbor would also have come as no surprise. These two commands were the foundation for all the teachings of Scripture.

Where I think we may get hung up is on what loving God and loving your neighbor looks like in daily life. I think a closer look at the Hebrew Bible may help us. The “first” command to love God comes from Deuteronomy 6:5. If we look at the book as a whole, we find that God was establishing a relationship with his people. And the commandments were meant to define what that relationship would look like. Deuteronomy says it this way: “loving God” means “obeying the commandments of the LORD your God … , walking in his ways, and observing his commandments” (Deut. 30:16). That’s right, we love God by keeping his commandments!

This perspective isn’t limited to the Hebrew Bible. Jesus also defined love for God in terms of keeping commandments (John 14:23-24). And he went on to spell out what that looks like in very specific terms in the Sermon on the Mount. For Jesus, loving God means we avoid hatred and anger and we find ways to make peace in our broken relationships. For Jesus, loving God means we keep our intentions toward others honest, in both our actions and our words. For Jesus, loving God means we proactively do good to all people, even those who may be “enemies.” In other words, for Jesus, loving God looks very specific.

The second “great” command, to love your neighbor as yourself, comes from Leviticus 19:18. Again, I think it will help us to take a closer look at the Hebrew Bible. In Leviticus, loving your neighbor means leaving the edges of the fields and the gleanings of the harvest “for the poor and the alien” (19:11). Rather than using all our material wealth for ourselves, we’re to reserve a portion to help those in need. Loving your neighbor means not mistreating the deaf or the blind, but rather giving respect to all people (19:14). Loving your neighbor means not talking about others in a manner that diminishes them (19:16). And it means not taking revenge or bearing a grudge (19:18). This Scripture gets quite specific when it defines what it means to love your neighbor as yourself!

I hope that you heard some echoes between what it means to love God and what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. Those two “great commands” are intertwined throughout the Bible. Loving God and loving others go hand-in-hand. It’s no coincidence that when the Bible gets specific about what it looks like to love God and love your neighbor, there’s quite a bit of overlap in what it has to say to us. We love God by the way in which we live our lives. And a big part of that is the way in which we treat others.

Some of us may be experiencing a “disconnect” with this sermon. We’re used to thinking that the “Old Testament” has been replaced and we really don’t need to pay serious attention to it. We’re used to thinking of the commands as “law,” which we associate with “enforcement.” But the Hebrew word for “law” is Torah. And it’s fundamental meaning is “instruction.” That’s the point of the very specific commands of the Bible. They are instructing us about what it looks like to live our lives based on love for God and love for others. That’s right—all the “thou shalt not’s” and “thou shalt’s” are meant to lead you and me into a relationship with God. In that relationship we love God and love our neighbors by putting into practice in our daily living what we learn when the Bible gets specific with us.

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[1] © Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 10/25/2020 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

What Belongs to God

 

What Belongs to God

Matthew 22:15-22[1]

We have a saying: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Nobody likes to be played for a fool. When we find out that someone we may have trusted has actually deceived us, it sticks in our craw. Maybe for years, or even decades. And the worst is when somebody “sets us up” to play the fool. That can be just downright cruel. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which there are people who take a kind of perverse pleasure in showing others up in this way. I can’t say that I understand it, but it seems that those who feel inferior have a need to “prove” that they’re smarter or better than others in this way. I’d have to say that the times when I’ve been “played” like this have been some of the most unpleasant experiences of my life.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus was being “played” by the Jewish leaders. There are several clues about this. First, the Pharisees and the Herodians were at the complete opposite ends of the spectrum in the Jewish world. “Herodians” were known as collaborators with the Romans. The only thing they had in common with the Pharisees was their desire to get rid of Jesus. Otherwise, these two groups would have seen each other as “enemies.” Second, the way in which they approached Jesus was clearly dishonest. No one but a disciple of Jesus would have said “we know that you teach the way of God truly!” The Pharisees and the Herodians certainly did not believe that!

So it probably didn’t take a great deal of supernatural insight for Jesus to see through their scam. It was pretty obvious that he was being set up. And I would imagine that the Jewish leaders were proud of themselves for coming up with this particular trap for Jesus. They assumed that whatever answer Jesus gave, he would lose. If he said that it was indeed lawful to pay the tax, he would have lost favor with the people. Taxation was the way in which empires like Rome paid for their conquests. They taxed the people they conquered. So you can imagine that paying this tax was something disgusting to the people.

On the other hand, if he suggested that they shouldn’t pay the tax, he would have given them grounds to denounce him to the Roman authorities. Not paying the tax was tantamount to rebellion, and the Romans were particularly effective at quashing even a hint of rebellion. When the Jewish people did launch a full-scale revolt some 30 years later, the Roman war machine ground them down so thoroughly that there was no Jewish nation until 2000 years later! For Jesus to advocate not paying tax would have meant a death penalty.

But they underestimated Jesus. They took him to be someone like themselves: hypocrites whose main concern was holding onto their power, prestige, and wealth. That’s part of the story here. Throughout this section of Matthew’s Gospel, the Jewish leaders repeated tried to set Jesus up for embarrassment or worse. The tension between the Jewish leaders and Jesus was running high, and they were looking for any way to get rid of him.

Jesus offers a simple solution to their question. He asks the Jewish leaders to show him the coin they used to pay the tax. It was a Roman Denarius. It was the standard wage given to a day laborer for one day’s work. The thing about coins in that day is that most kings, even “puppet” kings, minted coins with their image. The image on the Denarius would have been that of Caesar. The implication was that a coin ultimately belonged to the one whose image was on it. In fact, because Caesar’s image was on this coin, pious Pharisees would at least make a show of refusing to use it.

Since Caesar’s image was the one on the coin, Jesus made a simple suggestion: give back to Ceasar the coin that belongs to him. But he goes on to remind them that the God’s claim on our lives goes far beyond what you do with your money. The clear and consistent witness of Scripture is that God calls for us to love him with all our heart, our mind, and our strength. In effect, Jesus answered the question put to him by saying, pay Caesar his tax, but give your life to God!

I think Jesus was pointing them and us to a fundamental truth in Scripture. In one sense, everything belongs to God, including a coin with a man’s image on it. But God’s claim on our lives goes far beyond the money in our pockets. Not only all that we have, but also all that we are belongs to God: our families, our careers, our abilities, our hopes and wishes, and even the hours in our days. It all belongs to God. Jesus managed to take what was a “set up” meant to entrap him and turn it around to point his accusers to the basic truth they had forgotten in their hypocrisy: we’re meant to give back to God what belongs to him, and that means all of life!

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[1] © 2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 10/18/2020 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

All Are Chosen

 

All Are Chosen

Matthew 22:1-14[1]

Many of us experienced the childhood ritual of “choosing up teams.” A group of children would decide to play a game, and two would be selected as “captains.” Then the “captains” would take turns choosing their teams. If you were like me, you were one of the last to be chosen. I was a bit clumsy in those days. My hand-eye coordination wasn’t the best. Most times I was one of the last to be chosen—if not the very last! Which meant that my team didn’t “choose” me, they got “stuck” with me. No matter how many times I went through that ritual, I don’t think I ever got used to the feeling of being “chosen” last.

Fortunately, we also had church sports leagues. I played on our church’s volleyball and softball team. There was no question about whether or not you would get to be on the team. Anyone who showed up was on the team. But, again, I wasn’t the fastest, or the best at bat, or the best at fielding a ball. I played right field. Anyone who’s played softball knows what that meant. In church league terms, that’s the spot for the weakest player on the team. And when I came up to bat, I was the “easy out.” Even on our church’s sports team, I felt like they didn’t “choose” me, they got “stuck” with me.

Our Gospel lesson for today has to do with this dynamic in our world. Jesus tells a story about how “many are called, but few are chosen.” I think we have to be careful here, because I would say this is another ironical parable. Jesus is teaching us about the Kingdom of God by telling a story that illustrates the opposite way in which the world works. In the story, a king throws a wedding feast for his son. Now, in the Mediterranean world of Jesus’ day, any “king” was nothing more than a “stand-in” for Caesar. And it would seem that the people he ruled knew that he was no real king, because when he threw a party for his son’s wedding, none of the “movers and shakers” of his kingdom would come. What we have to understand is that a royal wedding was about demonstrating the ongoing legitimacy of one’s rule. And that means that when the wedding guests refused to come, they were repudiating his rule over them. Not a very welcome RSVP, to say the least!

So the king responds the way any petty ruler of the day would—with force. He sends his soldiers in and they attack his “subjects” and kill them and burn them out. No surprises there. But then the king does something strange—he decides to invite all the “riff-raff” to the party. After all, he’s throwing a party to celebrate his rule and its continuation through his son. When you throw yourself a party, and nobody shows up, it’s not much of a party! So he decides to save face and fills the banquet hall with anyone and everyone his servants could find on the streets. 

Just in case you’re beginning to think this guy must not be all bad, the story includes his not-so-friendly interaction with one of the guests. When the king sees one of the people who have been whisked off the street to fill the party not dressed in the appropriate garment, he flies into a rage and throws him out. After all, perhaps the fact that he didn’t have the right wedding garment was a reminder to the king that the party was a sham and his “guests” were really just there to make the party look like a “success.” So he vents what’s left of his anger over being snubbed on this unsuspecting fellow.[2] And the justification for his temper tantrum sounds reasonable enough: “many are called but few are chosen.”

I find it interesting that while Jesus said many things that sound like that, this is the only place where those precise words are recorded. At first glance it seems that “many are called, but few are chosen” would be something Jesus might have said. But if you compare the way Jesus acted, you find a different picture. You find Jesus welcoming those who were outcast. You find Jesus sharing meals with the most notorious of sinners. In fact, so much so that Jesus had the reputation of being “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners” (Matt. 11:19)! In light of that, I don’t think it makes sense to take the statement that “many are called, but few are chosen” at face value.

That’s the way the world in which we live works. Only the best players are “chosen” to play for the team. The rest sit on the bench. Appropriate attire is required; and if you’re not dressed appropriately, don’t bother showing up. But the Kingdom of God that Jesus envisioned and proclaimed works very differently. In fact, you could say it’s completely opposite from the way the world works. There is no dress code. Everyone is welcome at the table. Everyone is invited, and you can come to the party just as you are. In the Kingdom of God, “all are called, all are chosen!”

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[1] © 2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 10/11/2020 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Daniel Berrigan, “A Parable For Today, If Not Tomorrow - The Parable Of The King's Banquet,” in National Catholic Reporter (May 4, 2001): 10-11: “Imagine a homeless person in New York rounded up to appear at a wedding and then berated for not being clothed in a tuxedo!” 

Time for the Fruits

 

Time for the Fruits

Matthew 21:33-46[1]

Faith is an aspect of human life that has many facets. Our “beliefs” play an important role in faith. Gathering for worship is central as well. The music, the Scriptures, and the words we say together are both an expression of our faith and a way to encourage faith. We “act out” our faith together when we celebrate the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Our personal spiritual practices also build up and provide an outlet for our faith. While it’s possible to have faith without a community, we gather with others because they help us hold on to faith when life gets difficult.

At the end of the day, however, the call to follow Jesus is not simply about what we say or about how we worship. It is a call to live life in the way that he did. When Jesus calls us to be his disciples, he doesn’t just ask us to say the right words. Rather, he calls us to “take up our cross” (Matt. 16:24). I think that means that we are to commit to living our lives in the way Jesus did: loving God so completely that we choose to follow his ways no matter what it costs, and loving others even to the point of sacrificing ourselves for them. Following Jesus means “bearing fruit”: the fruit of a life that looks like his.

I believe our Gospel lesson for today addresses this challenge. Jesus tells a story that is traditionally called “the Parable of the Wicked Tenants.” It’s a story of a man who built a vineyard and leased it to tenant farmers. When it came time to collect his share of the produce, he sent his servants, but the tenants beat them and threw them out. Finally, the landlord sent his son, and they killed him. When Jesus asks what the owner of such a vineyard would do to the tenant farmers, the Jewish leaders answer in a way that is predictable—he will take his revenge by killing them.

The problem with this lies with the way we have traditionally interpreted this parable. We have tended to see it as a metaphor for the way God works—the landlord is God, the vineyard is Israel, the tenants are the Jewish leaders, the servants are the prophets, and the son is Jesus. But if we read the parable that way, it makes God into an absentee landlord who makes unjust demands of those he has put in charge of his vineyard. What’s more, God doesn’t seem to be a very competent landlord, because he sends his servants to collect the rent without any protection. And in the end, God acts just like the oppressive land owners of the day by taking revenge on the tenant farmers.

That image doesn’t work for me when it comes to my understanding of God. In the first place, the original command to love our neighbors in the Bible specifically prohibits revenge: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Furthermore, Jesus teaches us instead of taking “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” not to retaliate even against evildoers (Matt. 5:39)! And when Jesus describes who God is, he says “your Father in heaven … makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). When you put it all together, the traditional way of understanding this parable doesn’t work for me.

I think we need to look at it differently. Jesus tells a story about an absentee landlord who follows the standard customs regarding tenant farmers. He takes such a large cut of the crops as to leave the farmers who are actually working the land with barely enough to keep their families alive. As a result, the tenants rise up and determine to overthrow their tyrant of a landlord. In response, he sends in an army and wipes them out. That’s not how the kingdom of God works! I think Jesus is teaching us about the kingdom of God by telling a story about the opposite way in which the world works.

The kingdom of God works very differently: enemies become friends. Those who rebel may indeed find themselves broken and crushed by their defiance, but they also find that God is the one who heals the broken and lifts up those who are crushed (Ps. 145:14; 147:3). In the kingdom of God, there is no more “eye for an eye,” because operative rule is to forgive as you have been forgiven, to be merciful as you have been shown mercy. There is no place for revenge, because we’re commanded to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

I think Jesus used this unusual method of teaching to shock the “religious people” of his day out of their complacency. They were so used to considering themselves “righteous” and believing the way they lived was blessed by God that they ignored the fact that they were blatantly contradicting the clear teachings of Scripture. It’s easy to fall into that trap: most of us like the comfort of believing the way our world works is what God endorses. But if we look closely, and pay more careful attention to the Scriptures, we may the truth to be unsettling.

I think Jesus may have been warning the “religious people” of his day and ours that the “time for the fruits” is at hand. That’s the literal phrase that is translated “the harvest time” in the parable. “Bearing fruit” is an important theme in Matthew. The idea is that our faith is meant to make a difference in the way we live our lives. If it doesn’t, then it’s not “bearing fruit.” And the fruit that God looks for from all of us is that we love him so fully that we choose to follow his ways no matter what the cost, and we love others even to the point of sacrificing ourselves. I would say it’s likely that means we all may need to make some changes in our lifestyle. We all need to recognize that now is always the time for the fruits!

[1] © 2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph. D. on 10/4/2020 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.