God's Work

God’s Work

Matthew 16:13-20[1]

Some of you know that I serve on the Board of Directors of the Omaha Presbyterian Seminary Foundation. Our mission is “to seek, develop and support excellence in Christian leadership through the PCUSA.” With that in mind, we sponsor programs to help pastors and churches thrive in the 13-state region that includes much of the Midwest and some of the mountain states. For example, when Christy Dempsey was our pastoral intern a couple of years ago, the Seminary Foundation paid for most of her salary. Another way we work is by providing scholarships to seminary students to help offset the high cost of their education. Every year at this time I have anywhere from 40 to 60 applications from students at PCUSA seminaries.

One thing I’ve noticed is the many different “answers” the applicants have for what the church needs to thrive in the 21st Century. Some of the answers are amusing in their youthful idealism. Others are really quite thoughtful. I find it ironical, however, that I’ve hardly ever read that the church needs to return to their dedication to faith, because ultimately whether the church thrives or not depends on God’s work among us. The music, technology, education, and community outreach are all important. But I think the fundamental answer is to be found elsewhere.

I believe that our Gospel lesson for today points us in the right direction. Unfortunately, many are drawn into the centuries-long debate between the Catholic and Protestant branches of the church about the “true” church. I think that misses the point. Regardless of whether you define the “rock” upon which the church is built as Peter himself, or Peter’s confession of faith, or something else altogether, it seems more important to me that Jesus said “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). The bottom line here is that Jesus is the one who builds the church, not me, or you, or anybody else.

That reminds me of something St. Paul said about his ministry. The church at Corinth had become divided by their loyalties to different teachers. But Paul says that all those teachers were just workers in God’s field. One plants, another waters, and another one reaps the harvest. But whether or not there is a harvest at all depends on God as the one who “gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7). We can discuss policies and programs all day long until we’re blue in the face (something Presbyterians seem to be “good” at), but unless we look to God to give the growth, I would say we’re just spinning our wheels.

So how do we promote the vitality of this congregation by looking to Jesus to build his church? I think this introduces the second important dimension to what it takes to help churches thrive in our day and time. At its core, this kind of work is spiritual work. It’s not organizational, it’s not programmatic, it’s not marketing. It’s spiritual work. It’s true that those things are important. But at the end of the day, building the church requires that we do everything we do in the recognition that God is the one who gives the growth. That means that it is crucial for us to pay attention to our spiritual lives. In order to truly promote God’s work in this world, we have to align our hearts and minds and lives with God’s ways.

I think that’s something of what St. Paul was talking about when he urged the church at Rome to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). He called them to be “transformed” in their minds and hearts so that their lives might reflect “the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). This is at heart a spiritual endeavor, one that we can undertake only by spiritual means. We Presbyterians have traditionally called them the “Great Ends of the Church.” But it’s simply a matter of making worship, service, and witness the core of our lives rather than something we do from time to time. Whenever the church engages in that spiritual work, we experience God’s work of transforming and renewing our life together.

In one sense, this spiritual work is not the calling of just one person, or even a few. It is the work of the whole body. Building up the church in our day and time is something that takes all gifts that God has given each and every one of us. It takes all of us giving the best we can give to be the body of Christ, to be a community defined by faith, hope, love, and witness. God builds the church in partnership with us.

In another sense, building the church isn’t something we do at all, it’s God’s work. When our lives are centered on the faith, hope, and love that define what it means to live in a relationship with God, we will grow. Perhaps not numerically, but we will grow. At the end of the day, however, we will grow because Jesus is building his church. We will grow because God has given the growth.  We will grow as the result of God doing his work in and through each and every one of us.

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

Dogs and Children

Dogs and Children

Matthew 15:21-28[1]

If you’re like me, dogs and children are some of your favorite “people.” I know not everyone is a dog-lover, but I definitely am. There’s something special about the unconditional devotion that a dog gives you. Yes, they can be difficult and challenging at times. But the joy I’ve received from the dogs I’ve known has far outweighed the challenges. I don’t currently live with a dog, because I think it would be unfair to keep any animal cooped up in my apartment. And until recently, I didn’t spend much time at home. Most evenings had been taken up with some kind of meeting or activity. So, I guess I would say my love of dogs precludes me from living with one at this time in my life.

Of course, dogs weren’t always treated like “one of the family.” And that’s true even today. In many places, dogs are kept for the work they do. In some places, people use dogs to churn out puppies for sale. In other places, they use dogs for the money they can make from racing of fighting. These neglected and mistreated animals live a hard life. The fortunate ones find their way to rescue organizations. One of the best dog friends I’ve known was Roscoe, a French pointer mix, whom I “rescued” in Houston. When we first met, he was very timid, but after a couple of weeks he was flourishing. It was a joy to share that experience!

Our Gospel lesson for today speaks about dogs and children in a way that we might find surprising. While Jesus was in what was considered “foreign” territory, a gentile woman approached him and asked him to heal her daughter. At first his response simply seems strange: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt. 15:24). But when the woman continued to ask for his help, Jesus’ response seems downright insulting: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Mt. 15:26). For me, it’s hard to understand why Jesus would call this woman a “dog!”

This encounter is confusing to me because it is so out of character not only with Jesus but also with the rest of the Scriptures. Even biblical scholars don’t quite know what to make of it. Some think Jesus was testing the woman to see if her faith was genuine. But I don’t buy that. When she approached him, she not only called him “Son of David,” acknowledging him as the Messiah (which Jewish leaders refused to believe). She also called him “Lord,” which is important because only those with genuine faith call Jesus “Lord” in Matthew’s Gospel. I would say that any doubt about her faith in Jesus is erased by the fact that she assumed a posture of worship—she knelt before him.

Others have suggested that maybe this was a test for Jesus. They take him literally when he says that he was “sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and assume that Jesus truly believed he was not meant to share God’s blessings with gentiles. And yet this flies in the face of most of what we learn about Jesus in the Gospels. I think it’s pretty clear that Jesus knew his mission was to benefit the whole world, not just the Jewish people.

If this is a test, then the only people left to test are the disciples. And, in fact, I do think that this whole strange interaction between Jesus and this desperate mother was learning opportunity for the disciples who wanted to send her away because she was bothering them! I think Jesus was trying to demonstrate to them that God’s mercy is not limited by ways in which we exclude people we consider to be “other.” The disciples were the ones who thought it wasn’t right to take what belonged to the Jewish people and share it with Gentiles, who in their minds were no better than stray dogs. But Jesus will have none of this kind of thinking!

I think this is the point of the whole chapter in Matthew’s Gospel. It begins with the Jewish leaders asking why Jesus didn’t observe their boundaries about what (and who) was clean or unclean. In reply, Jesus scolds them for “honoring” God with their lips while their actions actually negated God’s commands. He proceeds to set aside their notions of “clean” and “unclean.” I would say that, in this context, Jesus wasn’t primarily talking about food, but rather about how wrong-headed it was to draw lines that exclude people from God’s blessing. And following that, even his own disciples failed to grasp the point when they wanted to send this woman away because she was an “outsider.”

While we may not call those we deem to be outsiders “dogs,” we can still disregard their humanity. I think it’s telling that in the verses following, Jesus healed everyone who came to him in this foreign territory. I can’t imagine that he first checked the color of their skin, or their belief system, or their identity papers, or any of the other things we still use to divide between “us” and “them.” Jesus knew in the depth of his very being that God’s mercy is for all. In God’s sight there are no “dogs” to be kept “outside” in kennels. We’re all beloved children of God!

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[1] ©2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 8/16/2020 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.