What Joy!

 What Joy!

Psalm 32[1]

Christian worship can seem strange to people who aren’t used to it. Especially a traditional service like ours. Everything we do in worship has a reason for it. But because the way we worship was shaped literally centuries ago, it can reflect a mindset that some people just don’t connect with. I think that’s especially the case with our unison “Confession of Sins.” Even if we’re actually praying the prayer as a way of confessing our sins to God, and not just “saying” the words because that’s what comes next in the service, it might seem strange that we all “pray” the same confession. As I said, the way we worship can seem strange to people who may not be used to it.

Some of us these days may be uncomfortable simply admitting that we have sinned. Some of us are even more uncomfortable admitting that we are sinners. But from the biblical perspective, both are true: we have sinned—that relates to our actions. And we are sinners—that relates to who we are. But it’s not something that’s easy for us to admit. Especially out loud. The pride that can lie at the heart of our personal insecurities can also lead us to make our own selves the most important thing in our world. We name that choice “sin” because it means turning away from the love that shapes our true humanity and therefore it means turning away from God.[2]  

I think this can be a problem even and especially for those of us in the church all the time. In the evangelical world, people can tend toward the thinking that “I’m saved, I asked Jesus into my heart and confessed my sin on such-and-such a date.” They may feel the need to confess “really bad” actions here and there, but they tend to think that they’ve already confessed to being a sinner. They’ve got that part covered. In our branch of the Christian world, we can tend toward the thinking that “I’m a good person, I go to church, I try to help people and be kind to them, I volunteer my time.” Given all of that, some of us may feel like the demand to confess that we “are” sinners is offensive and even harmful. Rather than confessing our sin, some think we should be affirming that we are good enough just as we are.

In the midst of all this incredibly complicated approach that we have toward the simple fact that we all can do and say things that we regret, the Psalmist in our Scripture lesson for today insists that confessing our sin is something that’s important for our spiritual health and well-being. Despite the fact that this lesson was written before Christ was even born, it still remains a truth of our human existence that when we refuse to acknowledge our wayward behavior, it tends to fester inside us and comes out in all kinds of ways that aren’t pleasant. Pride, anger, and bitterness are just some of the ways that we can behave when we try to repress a feeling of guilt for what we have done.[3]  

From the Psalmist’s perspective, refusing to clear his conscience by admitting his wrongdoing made him feel like God’s hand was “heavy” upon him (Ps. 32:4). I think most of us can relate to that “heavy” feeling. And it’s one more clue that we all need the relief and release the Psalmist says comes as a “blessing” when we confess our sin (Ps. 32:1-2). And that is precisely what the Psalmist promises in response to the heartfelt, genuine confession that “I have sinned, and I am a sinner”: relief from the burden of guilt. That’s why the confession of sin is so important. As long as we hold back, as long as we refuse to acknowledge who we really are and what we’ve really done, we will always have lingering doubts about whether God really accepts us as we are. But when we admit our wrongdoing, we find God’s love embracing us, God’s grace abounding, and God’s mercy healing us.  More than that, when we come to God with the confession, “I have sinned, and I am a sinner,” and we experience not condemnation or rejection but acceptance and love and forgiveness, we walk away from that experience with a stronger sense of trust in the God whose love for us never fails. 

Unfortunately, for too many of us, “confession” is only something we do at the beginning of a worship service. And even then, because we do it every Sunday, in the same way, and at the same time, it can begin to feel like something routine. But for confession to be genuine, it has to be more than a routine. It has to be something that is heartfelt. It cannot be relegated to a few words we mumble on Sunday morning. Ongoing confession is an integral part of the life of faith. If we need to be reminded why it is so important to confess our sin, all we have to do is remember that, as we say in one of our Presbyterian Confessions of faith, it is God’s love poured out for us in Jesus’ death on the cross that exposes our sin.[4] Jesus’ death on the cross shows us that there is something about sin so damaging to us that God felt it necessary to die for us in order to do something about it. If our sin is that serious to God, maybe we should take it more seriously.

The way the New Living Translation of Psalm 32 words our lesson is with the exclamation, “what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven” (Ps 32:1, NLT). It might seem like a strange thing to some of us. We have a difficult and complicated relationship with aspect of ourselves at times. And admitting, even to ourselves, that we have fallen short in some way, can be deeply disturbing. It can challenge our sense of self-worth. But when we take that approach, we let our own pride get in the way of the acceptance that God offers us freely. We’re only harming ourselveds. The very words, “I am a sinner” get caught in our throats as we say them. Yet, they are so important for us to say. Only when we confess—to ourselves, to one another, and to God—that we have done what we regret do we fully experience the joy of God’s unconditional and unfailing love for us.[5] But as the ancient words of Scripture promise, if we’re willing to take that step, we find what people of faith have experienced for millennia. When we confess our sins, we know the joy of being embraced by God’s acceptance and love. A love that claimed us “before the foundation of the world” as Paul says, and a love that will never let us go, world without end! And what joy it is to know that our God loves us in that way. What joy indeed!

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[1] © 2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/22/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, II:50, where he defines sin essentially as “hubris” or pride.

[3] Cf. Karl Menninger, What Ever Became of Sin?, 178: “I believe that all the evildoing in which we become involved to any degree tends to evoke guilt feelings and depression. These may or may not be clearly perceived, but they affect us. They may be reacted to and covered up by all kinds of escapism, rationalization, and reaction or symptom formation.”

[4] Cf. The Confession of 1967, 9.12: “The reconciling act of God in Jesus Christ exposes our sin in the sight of God.”

[5] Cf. James L. Mays, Psalms, 146: “God’s way is to forgive sinners, and we do not acknowledge his grace unless we present ourselves to him as sinners.”

Listening

 Listening

Matthew 17:1-13; 2 Peter 1:12-21[1]

I had an experience growing up that I think some of you might be familiar with. I would be engaged in something, completely immersed in what I was doing. My mother would be talking to me about finishing my homework or doing chores, and she would ask me, “Are you listening?” I would answer yes, but the truth of the matter was that while I may have been “hearing” her speak, I wasn’t “listening” to what she was saying at all. I wasn’t trying to be rude; I was just so immersed in what I was doing that I simply couldn’t hear her. As a parent, like many of you, I’ve had the joy of experiencing the other side of that conversation. With my children I learned that it worked best for me to actually touch them on the shoulder to get their attention before trying to communicate something important. That seemed to work for them. I would imagine a lot of us have been on both sides of that conversation.

When you read the stories from the Gospels about Jesus teaching his disciples, it can feel like something similar was going on. While they were paying attention to him, they really didn’t understand what he was telling them. They were distracted by their own concerns, their own expectations, and their own preconceived ideas. One of the classic examples of this is when he told them (not once but several times) that his path of obeying God was going to lead to his dying on a cross. That just didn’t make any sense to them. They heard the words he was saying, but they didn’t have the ability to actually “listen.”

We see something like this in the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. In Matthew’s version of the story, Peter is overwhelmed by what he’s witnessing and wants to stay there on the mountain. He even offers to build three tents for them. That might seem like a strange request. But it might not have been that strange to Peter. One of the great festivals in Judaism still today is called Sukkot, or the “festival of booths.” In Scripture it was related to the idea that the people lived in tents when they came out of Egypt (Lev 23:42-43). It’s not much of a stretch to think that when Peter and the others saw Jesus transformed, and when they saw Moses and Elijah him, they believed that God was fulfilling their hopes and dreams for a new Exodus to liberate the people from the Roman Empire. It’s not surprising that Peter wanted to set up tents and stay on that mountain!

But in Matthew’s Gospel, Peter’s request was answered by the voice of God himself: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Mt 17:5). I would say that this voice responds to Peter with a (gentle) rebuke. He wanted to stay on the mountain, where he believed he was witnessing the beginning of his hopes and dreams coming true. But the voice from the cloud instructed Peter and the others to direct their attention to Jesus. More than that they were to “listen to him.” And the implication here is that they were not only to listen to him but also follow his instructions. Afterwards, Jesus took them down the mountain where they were to engage with people he called a “faithless generation” (Mt 17:17). It’s no wonder they had difficulty hearing and understanding what he was trying to teach them about how they were to live and serve in that setting.

When I think of that situation of hearing but not really listening, it reminds me also of our reading from 2 Peter for today. Apparently, 2 Peter was written long enough after Jesus’ resurrection that many were beginning to deny that there would be a “second coming” at all (2 Pet 3:4). In response, our reading for today reminded them that Jesus’ transfiguration on that mountain was a kind of a foreshadowing of his “second coming.” What those who were there saw and heard left them with no doubt that Jesus would indeed return in the full majesty of his glory as Savior and Lord.

Unfortunately, some have approached this passage as if it advocates that Scripture is to be accepted at face value, simply embracing the “literal meaning” of the words. The truth is any written document has to be interpreted. That’s especially true for a document written as long ago and in such a different setting from ours as the Bible. More than that, the Bible itself raises some questions that we cannot readily answer. That makes it difficult if not impossible to simply embrace the “literal meaning.” I think what all this means is if we’re going follow the advice to “pay close attention” to Scripture we’re going to have to put forth some effort (2 Pet. 1:19, NLT). We’re going to have to be intentional about it. I think that means more than a casual reading of select verses. It means serious and sustained study of the Bible!

Listening closely to Scripture has never been easy. There have always been those who raised objections that seem to call into question the validity of the Bible as a source for faith. And there will always be a wide range of voices claiming to speak on behalf of the Bible. It takes some effort to sort through the tangle of conflicting messages out there. But it seems to me that our lesson for today points us in the right direction. As those who have gone before us have framed it, “the clear teaching of Scripture” has always been there to guide us. There are some things that are clear. There are some things we can say confidently that “the Bible teaches this.” Those who have gone before us have called that “the clear teaching of Scripture.” That doesn’t mean we’re going to automatically find the answer to our questions simply by flipping through our Bible. It’s going to take intentional study of the Bible if we’re going to do a better job of “paying attention” to Scripture.

I guess the place to start is making time to listen to the Scriptures. Most people would just try to “read through” the Bible. But if you start with Genesis chapter 1, the likelihood that you’ll make it all the way through to Revelation chapter 22 is fairly small. Most people don’t succeed at reading through the Bible in that way. That’s where Bible reading plans can help us. We do hear the Scripture in worship on Sunday morning, but I dare say that we may not always be “listening,” even in this place. Sacred music, whether traditional or contemporary, can contain scripture. But musicians aren’t always the best Bible teachers. Let’s face it, sometimes Pastors aren’t always the best Bible teachers! I’ve found the Bible itself to be the best teacher. And the way we “let” the Bible teach us is by reading it. Over and over again. And preferably in different versions. We do that until what is the “clear teaching” in the Scriptures begins to stand out in contrast to some things that aren’t so clear. Our faith can focus on those clear, foundational teachings, and we don’t get so bothered by what may be not so clear. That’s how the Bible teaches us to read the Bible. Paying close attention to the voice of the Bible is a bit like actually listening to someone who’s talking to us. We have to “tune in” rather than “tuning out.” As it turns out, really listening always takes effort on our part. If we believe the Bible is the basis for our faith, then we’d better get with it when it comes to “paying closer attention.” Our lessons for today challenge us to start being much more intentional about listening for the “word of the Lord” through Scripture!

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[1] © 2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/15/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Open Hands

 Open Hands

Isaiah 58:1-12[1]

You may have gathered that I’m something of a people watcher. I find it fascinating to observe the way our society functions. Of course, all that observing I do is from my perspective, and therefore it’s limited and biased! Unfortunately, I’m not always as aware of that fact as I should be, and as a result, I have an unfortunate tendency to pass judgment on people about whom I really know very little! I’m afraid that the inconvenient truth is that we all can do that from time to time. The hard part of it is that it’s not a very generous outlook. I have to confess that I’m not very “generous” when it comes to “Superbowl Sunday.” I must admit that part of that comes from the fact that some of the players in the game will make more in one evening than most people will make in their whole lifetime. But then that can be true of a lot of top athletes in other sports as well, including the ones that I love to follow.

I think what concerns me about what I see in connection with the Superbowl is how much money we’re spending this weekend—essentially on our own entertainment. For example, this year retailers are projecting that we will spend twenty billion dollars in connection with the Superbowl. That’s just consumer spending. That’s just what we’re expected to spend on TV’s, fan gear, and food for hosting parties. To put that in perspective, the agricultural production in the state of Nebraska for the whole year is around twenty-five billion dollars, if I have my figures correct. We’re going to spend that in one weekend. When you think about everything that goes into “Superbowl Sunday,” I’m not sure anyone can measure the total amount of money that we Americans will spend on this event. To my eyes, eyes that admittedly can be judgmental at times, that can seem like an awful lot of self-indulgence.

By contrast, when I read our Scripture lessons for today, I’m reminded that one of the central messages of the Bible is that we who claim to be people of faith in the God of Exodus—the God who looked on the oppressed people with compassion and who liberated the captives—are called to embody that spirit in the way we relate to people around us. And over and over again, the Bible defines that in terms of practicing “justice.” What I find striking in our lessons for today is the clear and concrete way in which they define practicing justice! The prophet Isaiah says this means that we’re to “free those who are wrongly imprisoned”; we’re to “lighten the burden of those who work for you”; we’re to “let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people” (Isa. 58:6, NLT). More than that, we’re to “share food with the hungry,” “give shelter to the homeless,” and “give clothes to those who need them” (Isa 58:7, NLT)!  It seems clear that “justice” means “compassion” and “generosity.”

Unfortunately, we tend to take a different approach toward the needy in our world. That’s especially true with those who may challenge our sense that the world is an ordered and predictable place where we can rest assured that everything will turn out the way we want it to as long as we “follow the rules.” When we feel threatened by someone like that, we tend to fall into the pattern of judging them. We analyze them and assume we know why they “fell through the cracks.” When we adopt a “judging” mindset, it’s impossible to practice “justice.” Rather than opening our hands to share generously, when we live out of fear we tend to close our fists to protect what’s ours. But as I read our Scripture lessons for today, it occurs to me that the prophet Isaiah was trying to encourage people recover a spirit of generosity as a way of restoring their relationship with God and as a way of restoring their community.

The hard question that our Scripture lesson confronts us with is how we can find a way to open our hands to give the gift of generosity to the people around us. I would say it starts with faith. To learn generosity toward others, we have to overcome the fear that there might not be enough and trust that God will provide for our needs. There are times in our lives when we wonder whether there will be enough, and it can be hard to trust that God will provide. But as I look over my life, I realize that there was always enough. Learning generosity starts with trusting that God will provide for our needs. I think generosity also comes from cultivating a spirit of gratitude. When we recognize that we have received far more than we could deserve or expect, it leads to sincere gratitude. And when we’re grateful for our lives, we can be a lot more willing and able to relate to others with generosity. And I think practicing generosity takes a good dose of humility. When we remember how many times we’ve failed and instead of getting what we deserved God’s grace has let us off the hook, we’ll be more likely to extend that grace and let others off the hook.

Generosity is not easy to learn. And it can be even harder to practice. It’s hard to know when someone is truly in need and when they’re just scamming you. And it’s hard to know how much you should give a person who is destitute. And it’s risky, because you can’t control what they’ll will do with the help you give them.  But for my part I would say I think practicing generosity is worth the risk. Again, I think it’s important to hear what the prophet Isaiah says about practicing generosity as a way of restoring our not only relationship with God, but also as a way of restoring our community and our society.

 At the end of the day, we who profess faith in the God of Exodus, the God who liberated his oppressed people out of his great love for them, are called to practice the same generosity toward the oppressed people in our world. We who have received the gift of being let off the hook time and again by God’s grace are summoned to extend that same grace to those who fall short, for whatever reason. We who have experienced the open hand of God giving us all that we need and more can do no less than open our hands and extend them to the people in need around us.

The Bible can get uncomfortably specific about whom that includes. Isaiah says that we practice the generosity we’ve received from God when we stop hiding from those who need our help (Isa 58:7, NLT). I don’t know about you, but I’ve been there, and it can be uncomfortable. It can be hard to practice generosity, but when we open our hands and offer generosity to those around us, particularly those in need, we’re demonstrating the difference God’s grace has made in our lives. Jesus calls that living as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. The good news is that in 2024, the last year for which we have statistics, our charitable giving as a society totaled almost 600 billion dollars. The not so great news is that’s only about two to three percent of our national economy. Of course, it’s hard to measure generosity simply in terms of dollars. It’s clear that there are a lot of people who are giving a lot to help a lot of people. But there’s always room for improvement. I think we all have room to grow when it comes to practicing generosity in our daily lives. I think that’s at least part what Jesus had in mind when he said, “you are the light of the world.”  I think he wants us to show the difference God’s grace makes in our lives every day by opening our hands and giving the gift of generosity to the people we encounter.

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[1] © 2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/8/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

How Blessed We Are!

How Blessed We Are!

Matthew 5:1-12[1]

If you asked someone to define what it means to live the Christian life, you’d probably get answers as varied as the people you ask. Some would likely say it means seeking to follow Jesus more every day. Some would say it means becoming a part of a church family and participating in their life and work. Others might say it’s about following the Ten Commandments. Or perhaps the two “Great Commandments” Jesus identified: to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. And there would be truth in all of those answers. But part of the truth of all of those answers is that it’s no easy matter to live the Christian life!

As a matter of fact, in some circles, the answer to the question about the Christian life would be to follow the beatitudes. In fact, in one of the study Bibles I’ve owned, there was a whole “sermonette” in the notes section on how the Beatitudes constitute a kind of “staircase” for living the Christian life. Yes, in some cases, people have believed that practicing the Beatitudes was a literal “staircase to heaven.” That idea actually goes back centuries in the history of the church. It’s still the primary way that the Beatitudes are taught in the Catholic tradition today in some places. Many other Christians as well see the Beatitudes as a “blueprint” of what you have to do to “make it” into heaven. The benefit of that answer is that it keeps things pretty clearcut. The problem is that I would say Jesus’ teachings about how his followers were to live are both simpler and harder than that.

That approach to the Beatitudes makes our relationship with God based on what we do. And once we start down that path, we likely will not stop with just the Beatitudes. We’ll add the Ten Commandments. And maybe the whole Sermon on the Mount. And maybe more of the “laws” from the Hebrew Bible. Essentially, the attempt to quantify our relationship with God in terms of how much we “have” to do will likely lead us to an endless list of demands. There are traditions around us in this community that practice that approach to faith. I think that makes things a lot more complicated. And people who practice their faith in those traditions do so in constant anxiety about whether they’re doing enough to “make it” to heaven. I don’t think that’s what Jesus intended!

That way of reading the Beatitudes misses the very wording of the Scriptures. They don’t say “blessed are those who become “poor in spirit,” or “meek,” or “pure in heart.” They say, “blessed are the poor in spirit,” “blessed are those who mourn,” “blessed are those who are humble.” It’s not about what you “become,” it’s about who you already are. I think the first clue to being able to hear the Beatitudes is to understand that they’re meant to reinforce the promise of salvation for all who open their hearts to the good news of the kingdom Jesus came to proclaim! In Matthew’s Gospel, we’re meant to read the Beatitudes in light of the statment that Jesus was “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people” (Mt 4:23). That’s important context for understanding the Beatitudes. And Jesus didn’t check the spiritual “credentials” of the people he healed. And he didn’t just heal Jewish people. Matthew tells us that he shared the blessings of God’s grace with everyone who came to him.

From that perspective, it doesn’t make any sense to read the Beatitudes as a “blueprint” for the Christian life. Rather, they are a beautiful way of spelling out the “good news of the kingdom” that Jesus was proclaiming. The Beatitudes show us the blessings we find when we align ourselves with God’s purposes in the world. That’s particularly important for the kind of people Jesus was addressing. Those who align their lives with Jesus’ “good news of the kingdom” often do so at their own expense. Those who look to God and God alone for what they need in this life—the “poor in spirit”—aren’t typically the “movers and shakers” of our world. In fact, they are often precisely the opposite: the last, the least, the left out, and even the powerless.

We who seek to follow Jesus in this world, who may not be last and least and left out and powerless, often find ourselves in the kinds of situations he talks about in the Beatitudes. We mourn: we mourn the condition of a world that thrives on greed and violence. We may even find ourselves “reviled” or worse because we refuse to endorse the way things are. We hunger and thirst for God to come and set things right. Because we’ve come to know God’s mercy in our lives, we cannot help but extend that mercy to others, giving without any thought of receiving, turning the other check, welcoming those whom others see as outcast. The good news that Jesus preached in the Beatitudes is that we are blessed: blessed because we know that our lives rest securely on God’s unfailing love for us.

At the same time, in Matthew’s Gospel, we’re meant to read the Beatitudes as a kind of introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. Even within the Beatitudes themselves, there’s a subtle shift that changes the emphasis from who we are to what we do. Jesus says, “Blessed are the humble,” but he also says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Matt 5:7). Being merciful is something you do. He says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt 5:9). Again, being a “peacemaker” involves action. The Beatitudes shift from assuring us of God’s blessing, to calling all who have received God’s blessing to put that grace into action in the way they live their lives every day. This pattern of grace as a gift that demands we live in certain ways is one that’s found throughout the Bible. Jesus adopts it in the Sermon on the Mount. When you move from the Beatitudes to the rest of the sermon, you find that Jesus makes quite challenging demands on those who would follow him.

I think Jesus knew that all who would try to follow him would desperately need the assurance offered in the Beatitudes. I think he knew we would need to hear that we’re supported and surrounded by God’s grace every hour of every day of our lives. And so it is that in the Beatitudes, Jesus makes clear that our relationship with God is always based on God’s grace and his unconditional love that never fails, not on what we do. And yet, I think Jesus also knew that we would always need reminding that God’s grace always demands all we have to give. He sums it up with the “golden rule”: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you” (Mt 7:12). We heard something similar in our reading from the prophet Micah for today: God’s grace demands that we “do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God” (Mic 6:8, NLT). But in the Bible, grace always comes before demand; and the demand about the way we live our lives is always based on God’s grace. That’s why Jesus starts his most famous sermon with a striking reminder of how much we truly are blessed. Before he instructs us about what it looks like to follow him in some uncomfortably specific ways, Jesus spells out for us just how blessed we are by the gift of God’s grace.

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[1] © 2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/1/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.