Past All Hope?

 Past All Hope?

Luke 8:26-39[1]

I think all of us have known someone who was thought to be “past all hope.” Life in this world can bring so many challenges, and for some it’s just too much. In his brilliant but cynical novel “A Call to Arms,” Ernest Hemingway said, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” I’ve found that to be true. But I’ve also known people whom the world has broken, and they just seem to remain broken. For whatever reason, instead of taking the steps to heal and grow stronger, they cannot break free from the darkness of their pain and fear. Or they retreat into some kind of unhealthy behavior in order to avoid their suffering.

Unfortunately, I would say that our willingness to write someone off as “past all hope” is just a convenient way to let ourselves off the hook when it comes to treating them with human dignity and kindness. Let’s be honest: it can be frustratingly difficult to try to relate to people who are caught in the darkness of their pain and fear. We have to go out of our way to try to have any kind of basic interaction with a person like that. And all our efforts may be met with little or no response. There isn’t much of a “payoff” for trying to treat someone so fundamentally broken like a fully human person. But the call to follow Christ demands that we reach out to “the least of these.”

Our Gospel lesson for today can be difficult for us to hear. It’s easy to get caught up in all the talk of “demons” and casting them out. Some may want to just write all that off. But I agree with Karl Barth, who said that Jesus saw and experienced “an abyss of darkness” that was not imaginary but real and actually affected people’s lives.[2] On the other hand, it would be a mistake to think that this story is primarily about the “demonic” and to believe that we live in a world “with devils filled” as Martin Luther put it. We live in God’s world, and this story shows us God’s power to overcome all that torments people.

That’s what we see when we focus our attention on the man who was afflicted. Luke tells us that although he “a man from the city,” “for a long time he had not worn any clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs” (Lk 8:27). Because of his extreme torment, although people tried to restrain him, he broke the bonds and was driven into the “wilderness” (Lk 8:29). The result of his affliction was that he was completely separated from human community. Perhaps we might say that even more than that, he was separated from his own humanity. I think it’s safe to say that the people who knew him had written him off as “past all hope.”

When we focus on this man and his interaction with Jesus, what we see is the power of Jesus to save and heal and restore this man. It’s important to note that when Jesus crossed into this territory, which was on the Eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Luke says he was “opposite Galilee” (Lk 8:26). That’s a way of saying that he had left Jewish lands and was in a Gentile region. I think we’re meant to see that Jesus’ power and authority to both heal and save even one so utterly tormented was fully intact. That might seem logical to us, but in that day, people believed that different “gods” had control of different countries. While we may not be surprised to know that Jesus’ power to heal and save was just as effective in Gentile territory, Jesus’ disciples may have been.

Part of the point of this story is also found in Jesus’ interaction with the people of that land. When those who witnessed what happened went back and brought others with them, they found the man who had been so tormented “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind” (Lk 8:35). The contrast between his present state and his former state could not be more obvious: Luke identifies him as “the one who had been saved” (Lk 8:36). This man who had been written off as “past all hope” Jesus had not only restored to his own humanity, he had also saved him.[3] But when the people of that place saw all this, they responded not with joy but with fear. They were content while he was among the tombs or in the wilderness. But the thought that he might rejoin their community was too much for them. So they asked Jesus to leave. Despite that, Jesus left this man behind as a living witness to the power of God to heal and to save even one who was “past all hope.”

Some of you know that I have some personal experience with this kind of thing. My younger brother, Douglas, suffered a kind of mental and emotional breakdown when he was 16. We’re not sure what happened, but whatever it was shattered his soul. His life was one of constantly going from one medication to another that from my perspective didn’t help much. It was difficult to know how to relate to my brother, how to treat him as a fully human person. Finally, we decided to make regular trips to Corpus Christi, where we would take him to his favorite restaurant, visit with him as much as possible, and then take him back to his day care center. My brother passed away in 2009 at the age of 44. He was never “healed” in the sense that the man in our Gospel story experienced. But I’d like to think that our willingness to treat him as fully human person, along with his caregivers who worked with him over the course of most of the last twenty years of his life, was a kind of “restoration” for him. And I believe that now, in the presence of the living Jesus, he has been restored to his full humanity. It’s my hope and prayer that all of us may find a way to respond even to those who are labeled as “past all hope” with dignity and kindness, treating them as fully human persons.

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph. D. on 6/19/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/DF3FbH9B6lo

[2] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:230. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke I-IX, 733: he describes this phenomenon simply as “evil afflicting the psychic being of a mortal man.”

[3] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, 104: “The lordship of God drives out of creation the powers of destruction, …, and heals the created beings who have been damaged by them. If the kingdom of God is coming as Jesus proclaimed, then salvation is coming as well.”

God's Love Overflowing

 God’s Love Overflowing

Proverbs 8:1-11, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15[1]

When you think about religion as our human efforts to worship and serve God, you would think that a concept so basic to the human experience would be consistent across the board. But the opposite is true. The cultures of the world throughout history have held many beliefs about “God.” In ancient religions, the “gods” were simply a picture of human impulses on a large scale. But while the “gods” may have embodied the best human qualities, they also embodied the worst. Other cultures have approached their understanding of “God” through nature, and some even found their way to a “benevolent” notion of God. But our notions of “God” have always been as varied as the human family is.

Even in the Christian faith there are very different images of God. Some see God as a stickler for rules, always eager to punish those who go astray. And in many cases, those who understand God like that have come up with all kinds of things you have to do in order to stay on God’s “good side” so you can go to heaven when you die. Others have such a casual view of God that they turn the creator of the vast universe into their “buddy.” And they think this “buddy” of theirs is a personal “genie in a bottle” who will make their every wish come true. How you understand God makes a difference!

That’s why we observe “Trinity Sunday.” It’s a day for us to recall that there are important reasons we worship one God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I realize that may sound like a “stretch” to some. A lot of people these days think it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you have some kind of faith. But I would insist that the Bible bears witness to God in this unique way of understanding that we call “Trinity.” And it’s not just about making sure we follow the Bible. Believing in, worshipping, and serving God as “Trinity” makes a big difference in what your faith and your life look like.

Our scripture lessons for today point out some of the reasons why it’s important that we understand God in this way. In our lesson from Proverbs, we get a better glimpse of what it means to say “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” There is something intimidating about the notion that God created all the galaxies we can see with the new James Webb Space Telescope. But our lesson shows us a different side: God enjoying creation and delighting in the human family. Creation was not only an expression of God’s power, but also of God’s love, overflowing in the beauty of the world that is “very good” (Gen 1:31). Part of what it means to believe in “Trinity” is that we see God not only as all-powerful but also as one who takes great delight in loving all creation.

Our lesson from John’s Gospel reminds us of what it means to say, “I believe in Jesus Christ God’s only Son our Lord.” As we’ve seen in our journey through John’s Gospel during Easter, Jesus’ whole life was one act of demonstrating God’s love for us. By coming in human flesh, he showed us what God’s love looks like. By serving “the least of these” (Mt 25:40), he demonstrated God’s love for everyone. And by giving his life on the cross, Jesus revealed just how far God is willing to go to draw us into the embrace of love shared eternally by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Part of what it means to believe in “Trinity” is that we know God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.

Our lesson from Romans reminds us of what it means to say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” God not only poured out his love when he created all things “very good.” And God not only poured out his love by sending Jesus to show us what love looks like in real life. God also continually pours out his love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Again, as we have seen in John’s Gospel, the Spirit is our constant companion, the one who leads us to faith, who shows us the truth of what God is doing in and among us, and who guides us daily. Part of what it means to believe in “Trinity” is that we trust that God’s love for us means that he continually accompanies, guides, sustains, and empowers us.

In the Bible, it takes all three, God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer, and the Spirit who sustains us, to fully understand who God is. If it’s true that “God is love” (1 John 4:8), it should come as no surprise that the one God who is three—Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer—exists in a relationship of love and community. This is the image of God in the Bible: God in relationship, God in community, God involved in our lives. This is central to our faith, because the love shared between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the basis for everything God does in our lives, for all that God does in our community of faith, and for all that God does through us as we serve others.

The point of the Trinity is that God is a God of love—not just love that observes from afar, but love that reaches out to us and seeks a relationship with us. The God who creates and redeems and sustains us is a God who shows us a love that is constantly present among us, that gets involved in our lives, and that takes action to fill our lives with love. About twenty years ago, the PCUSA commissioned a study of our understanding of God as “Trinity.” That doesn’t take any kind of stretch of imagination! The (inevitable) report encouraged churches to explore ways to include affirmations of our faith in God as “Trinity,” using the range of expressions in the Bible and in the history of the Church. And the overarching theme was framed in the title of the report: “The Trinity: God’s Love Overflowing.” I can think of no better way to understand God: love overflowing in and through all creation and in and through every one of our lives!

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph. D. on 6/12/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/q6bP3CkiA0Q

Empowered

 Empowered

John 14:1-21, 25-27[1]

In some ways, our world has gotten much smaller than it was when many of us were children. Today we can know instantly what is happening anywhere in the country, and all over the world. But at the same time, I would say this means that our world has gotten much bigger. Growing up in a small town in Texas, our concerns were fairly limited to our family, our friends, our church, and our town. We had the news for “bigger” matters, but there was no 24-hour news channel, and “breaking events” wasn’t even a thing. Now, we have instant access to major events happening all over the world. Our world has gotten a lot bigger.

For many of us, this can leave us feeling overwhelmed. There are so many serious problems in our world coming at us every day. I think it can lead to a kind of “information overload.” We hear about so many troubling things in our world that we may wonder what any of us can do about them. This great big world of ours with so many crises happening so fast may convince us that we’re too weak, too small, too helpless in the face of it all to make a difference. But now, as always, I think we make the biggest difference when we can step away from the great big world and focus on the people in our lives each day. I would say that’s where we have a chance to do something meaningful in our world.

Our gospel lesson for today relates to this feeling of helplessness. This week, we’re returning to a chapter we talked about recently. As I mentioned at that time, in this whole section of John’s Gospel, Jesus was preparing his disciples for the fact that very soon he was no longer going to be with them. He knew that his “hour” was at hand, and he told them in a variety of ways that he was going to be leaving them and returning to the Father. I mentioned previously that the disciples were confused by all of this, but I think we can say that they were also upset about it. There’s an edge to what Thomas said to Jesus: “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (Jn 14:5).

That’s why Jesus started this chapter with words of assurance: “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (Jn 14:1). The reason for this was that he was about to tell them that he would be leaving them, and he knew it would upset them. Despite all appearances, Jesus promised them that “I will not leave you orphaned” (Jn 14:18). He wanted them to know that they would not be left on their own to carry on without him. Finally, he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27). All of this was meant to address their sadness and fear over his leaving.

We talked a couple of weeks ago about how this  would relate to their potential feelings of abandonment. But I think there’s more to it than that. I think Jesus also wanted to help them understand that they would not be left to their own efforts to carry on the work he had begun and that he commissioned them to take up. In the first place, they would be empowered to carry out that work because of their relationship with Jesus and the Father. He promised them that when they saw him again, they would know that “I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (Jn 14:20). Jesus promised his disciples that they would be embraced into the relationship of love that Jesus and the Father have shared from all eternity in order to empower them to carry out their work.

More than that, Jesus also promised that he would send them “the Spirit of Truth” to help them with their task. The Holy Spirit would be for them “another Advocate” or “Counselor” or “Helper” who would be with them forever (Jn 14:16). Not only would the Spirit “teach” them “everything” and “remind” of all the Jesus had said to them (14:26), he would also “declare” to them “the things that are to come” (16:13). The purpose of this would be to “glorify” Jesus  by taking “what is mine” and “declaring” it to them (16:14). And “what is mine” includes “All that the Father has” (16:14).

The result of all of this is that not only would the disciples be empowered to carry on their work, but in fact they would do much more. Jesus promised that their sharing in the love between him and the Father and the constant presence and guidance of the Spirit would empower them to “do greater works than these” (Jn 14:12). It may seem impossible, but Jesus promised that his disciples would carry out his legacy of fulfilling God’s work in the world. That would include bearing witness to Jesus, but also it would include lives of faithful discipleship that would have effects that would reach more widely than any of them could likely imagine.

There are a lot of ways in which the helplessness we feel about the world relates to what’s happening in the church. Churches across the country have been in decline for decades. And two years of the pandemic has only sped up that process. It can seem like all our efforts to turn that around have been frustrated by the changes that are sweeping through our world. But despite our feelings of helplessness, Jesus’ promises to his disciples apply to us as well. He has not left us to carry on the work of ministry by our own efforts. The love we know in relationship with him and the Father and the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit empower us all to go out and do “greater works” than any of us can likely imagine!

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[1] © Alan Brehm 2022. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 6/5/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

How Will They Believe?

How Will They Believe?

John 17:20-26[1]

I think it’s hard for those of us who grew up in church to witness its diminishing influence in our society. To some extent, it’s the result of cultural changes that have been in the works since long before any of us were born! The history of American Christianity bears witness to the way the influence of the church has waxed and waned from the very beginning until now. Many of us grew up in the wake of the most recent of several “great awakenings” that renewed the importance of the church in people’s lives. But that renewal has been fading for decades now.

The declining interest in church participation is not only due to these broader changes, however. I would say that there is a very real sense in which the cause of this decline lies at our feet. People have lost interest in church in many cases not in spite of what we’ve done, but because of what we’ve done. There are churches in our circle of influence that still publicly “shun” those they deem to be “sinful.” And there are a lot of churches who practice something similar to shunning by denying the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper to those who aren’t “deserving.” But perhaps the worst black eye of all is the way in which we who call ourselves members of the Body of Christ treat one another, sometimes over the most insignificant differences of opinion.

In our Gospel lesson for today, I think Jesus calls us to a different way. Jesus called his disciples to a unity that is grounded in the unity he shared with the Father based on the love between them. Jesus prays, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us” (Jn. 17:21). He says it in several different ways, but essentially Jesus prayed for the disciples “that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me” (Jn. 17:22-23). I would say Jesus understood that his disciples would experience this unity as they were connected to him, and therefore as they were connected to the Father. What creates true unity in the church is the fact that we have been enfolded into the relationship of love that unites Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus says that the purpose of this unity among his disciples is “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21). The idea of “believing that you have sent me” may seem like a strange way to describe faith. We’re familiar with “believing in” Jesus, but it’s not so common to hear about “believe that” Jesus was sent by God. In John’s Gospel, however, this is one of the questions associated with Jesus, his mission, and the faith he calls people to have in him. The Jewish leaders continually debated his identity based on the question where Jesus came from. He tried to tell them in many different ways that he had come from the Father, and he called them to believe this. This is one of the important ways that John’s Gospel frames faith.

In fact, this is so important in John’s Gospel that Jesus repeats here it a little differently. It is his desire “that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:23). Here the idea of “believing” is replaced with “knowing,” which is not unusual in John’s Gospel. Not only does Jesus ask that his disciples share the relationship of love that he had with the Father, but he also wants the world to know that his disciples shared that relationship. I think at least one way in which the world would know this is by the way in which his disciples live out their unity with one another.

I guess the real question, though, is how we promote this kind of unity among people like us, who hold very different ideas about what we consider important in life. We can get very attached to our opinions, and we can be stubborn at times about holding onto our viewpoints. I think it takes a unity that is deeper and stronger than anything we can create ourselves. What really makes the church one is the unity that God creates—the church is the one people of the one God. It’s the unity that Jesus Christ creates—the church is the one people of the one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s the unity that the Spirit of God creates—the church is the one people of the one Holy Spirit. This is the unity that enables the world to believe in Jesus through our witness.

I don’t believe this kind of unity is about the absence of difference. I believe that one of the signs of a healthy community is their ability to disagree. The bond created among us by the presence of God in Christ through the Spirit doesn’t eliminate the differences among us. It means that the differences don’t divide us, they make us stronger. That happens when we deal with differences by focusing on our agreements without engaging in “mud-slinging” or “name-calling” or in any other way tearing down brothers and sisters in Christ who hold different views about crucial issues. The ties that bind us together are stronger than our differences of opinion!

When I was serving in Houston, the PCUSA was dealing with some divisive issues. A friend of mine who was the pastor of a nearby church led an education session during a Presbytery meeting. In that meeting he shared that their church was not “of one mind, but we are not divided.” That has stuck with me for many years. Bearing witness to our unity in Christ doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything, but I think it does mean that our disagreements don’t divide us. When we can show our world this kind of unity, especially now, I think our witness can be a way for them to believe.

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph.D. on 5/29/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.