Dismantling Evil

 Dismantling Evil

Matthew 4:1-11[1]

Our culture has an almost irrational fascination with evil. When I was in college, I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula for one of my English classes. It’s a gruesome and horrific story, one meant to inspire fear of the unknown powers of evil in this world. But the ultimate point of the horror genre, at least in that modern era, was to provide the assurance that no matter how frightening the powers of evil in this world may be, they can and will be overcome by good. Of course, in our postmodern day, those lines have been blurred in popular culture. Novels and films intentionally play up the “good bad guy” over against the “bad good guy.” And the fascination with evil persists. Whether it’s demons, or vampires, or zombies, people seem to think that if they can understand evil, then it’s not such a threat.

I’m not sure that’s the best way to try to deal with the reality of evil in the world. We only have to turn on the evening news to see all kinds of evil run rampant, seemingly unchecked. And way too many people take comfort in being able to say that all this is the work of a “devil.” Somehow, giving credit to a “devil” who is behind all the evil in the world helps people feel better. I think that’s partly because it gives them a ready explanation for where all this evil comes from. I think it’s also because it “confines” evil to one particular figure. In a strange way, that provides reassurance. But in my mind, the popular myths around a “devil” who is everywhere at all times, who is all-knowing and all-seeing, and who has the power to tempt anyone anywhere only increases fear. And it gives any “devil” there may be in this world way too much credit.

I think one of the purposes of our Gospel lesson from Matthew is to demonstrate that whatever evil powers there may be in this world have been decisively defeated by Jesus. Of course, that’s one of themes surrounding the cross and the resurrection in the NT. As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews puts it, Jesus “destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life” (Heb 2:14-15, MSG). In our Gospel lesson for today, we find that the “devil” held no power over Jesus from the very start. Although Jesus was weakened by his forty-day fast, which means that the temptations he faced were real, he was able to dismiss every one of them simply by reciting Scripture. And this wasn’t the last temptation he would face.

Part of the reason for Jesus’ ability to dismiss the “devil” so easily is because he had already declared at his baptism that he was determined to “fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3:15). This is a theme that Matthew’s Gospel develops, and it includes Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount about what it truly meant to follow him in discipleship: responding to the demand of grace by loving God and loving others. It also includes Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will, seen ultimately in his willingness to go to the cross. But here, we see Jesus’ determination to “fulfill all righteousness” in his unwavering commitment to remain true to God in the face of every temptation.

Every one of the temptations in this story had to do with how Jesus would fulfill his role as God’s “beloved son,” as the voice from the heavens had identified him at his baptism immediately before the temptation (Mt 3:17). Although it seems harmless for Jesus to have fed himself by turning a stone into bread, the temptation went deeper than hunger. The question was whether he would trust in and rely on God to meet all his needs, or whether he would take matters into his own hands. In response to Jesus’ faithful obedience to Scripture, the second temptation (mis)quotes scripture regarding his trust in God. The misuse of the scripture can be seen in that the “tempter” twisted a passage affirming God’s unfailing care into a challenge to put God to the test. Each time, Jesus demonstrated his commitment to “fulfill all righteousness” by remaining true to God.

I think in Matthew’s Gospel we’re meant to see the fact that, despite Jesus’ weakened condition, the “temptation” was really no contest. All he had to do to ward off every temptation was to recite scripture. And the scriptures he used were among the most basic in the Bible: they are related to the call to stay true to one true God from the Shema, the verse that pious Jewish people still recite every day (Dt 6:4-5). Even the final temptation, the offer of “all authority” if Jesus would turn from his loyalty to God and worship the “devil,” was an almost pathetic attempt that failed spectacularly. Again, all Jesus had to do was recite the most basic scripture, which he likely had known all his life: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Dt 6:13).

One aspect of Matthew’s story of the temptation may be hard for us to see. In that final temptation, the “devil” falsely offered Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” on a “high mountain.” As if the “devil” would have been able to give what belongs to God! At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, meeting his disciples on another mountain, Jesus declared that God had given him “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Mt 28:18). As a result of Jesus’ commitment to “fulfill all righteousness,” even when it meant going to the cross, God raised him to his own right hand, far above all the powers of evil there may be in this world. Jesus our Savior dismantled the power of evil by his willingness to remain true to God in the face of every temptation.

When we buy into the popular mythology surrounding the “devil,” we may give it far too much credit. Any “devil” there may be is a created being. It cannot be everywhere at all times, it is not all-knowing or all-seeing, and it does not have the power to tempt anyone anywhere. Only God has the power to be everywhere at all times, to be all-knowing and all-seeing! More than that, any “devil” there may be is a defeated being. It could not even stand up to Jesus after he was weakened by forty days of fasting. It certainly cannot rival the power of the risen Christ reigning as Lord from the right hand of God. That means that ultimately, we don’t have to fear evil in this world. Jesus’ death and resurrection broke the power of evil forever. Of course, we still face the reality of evil in this world, but because Jesus is the one who is with us, he helps us face every temptation. And more than that he gives us the power to join with him in dismantling whatever evil there may be in our world in the same way as he did: by remaining true to God.

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[1] ©2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/26/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Hear Him!

 Hear Him!

Matthew 17:1-13[1]

Most of us have a “dream” that inspires us, or at least at one time we had a “dream.” The most fortunate among us have the opportunity to see that “dream” fulfilled. But life has its own way with our dreams. Sometimes they’ re fulfilled in ways very different from what we may have expected. Some of us live to see our “dreams” fulfilled, and then have to learn how to live when our dreams are behind us. Some of us never live to see our “dreams” fulfilled. One of the hardest tasks in life is to figure out how to continue to find joy in life after our dreams have passed us by or perhaps when our dreams fade away completely. It’s something I’m not sure many people ever truly find, but I would say finding it is one of the most important lessons we may ever learn.

I think part of the problem is that we find our “dreams” early in life, perhaps in childhood. Someone or something inspires us, or perhaps they wound us, and that leads us to our “dream.” But the problem is that we form our dreams by “thinking as a child,” as St. Paul puts it (1 Cor 13:11). Of course, that’s all very natural and normal, but the “dreams” of our childhood can rarely stand up to all that life sends our way. In a sense, those “dreams” that we frame for our lives in childhood are too small to inspire us for a whole lifetime. At some point, because life is what it is and not what we would have it to be, most of us come to the end of our “dreams,” and that’s when we have to learn what it truly means to thrive in this life.

I would say the disciples who play a main role in our Gospel lesson for today had their own dreams about what they hoped God was going to accomplish through Jesus. They were raised on the stories of God’s amazing wonders in the lives of their ancestors in centuries past. Stories about the Exodus, when God brought the people out of Egypt, out of slavery, “with a mighty hand” (Dt 6:21) and “with signs and wonders” (Dt 26:8) as the scriptures say. Or stories about the return from Babylon, “with singing” and with “everlasting joy … upon their heads” (Isa 35:10; 51:1). Or, just past their living memory, stories about how God had set them free from Empires vastly more powerful through the family of the Maccabees. I think like most of the Jewish people, the faith of the disciples on that mountain was directed toward the “dream” that God would renew his amazing wonders in their time.

I think that may have been part of what was behind Peter’s strange request in our Gospel lesson for today. One of the great festivals in Judaism still today is called Sukkot, or the “festival of booths.” It probably originated as a harvest festival, when the people lived in tents in the fields in order to gather the crops. But it was also related in Scripture 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’ appearance miraculously transformed, and when Moses and Elijah appeared with him, they believed they were witnessing a renewal of God’s amazing wonders in their day. I think that was what was behind Peter’s statement, “Lord, it’s good for us to be here” and his request to build three tents. They believed their dream of what they hoped God would do for them was being fulfilled. It’s not surprising that they wanted to set up tents and stay on that mountain of wonders!

But in Matthew’s Gospel, Peter’s request was answered by the voice of God himself: “a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’” (Mt 17:5). If we hear it rightly, I would say that this voice from the cloud responds with a (perhaps gentle) rebuke. Peter wanted to stay on the mountain, where he believed he was witnessing the beginning of his hopes and dreams for his people coming true. But the voice from the cloud instructed him 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 would not only listen to him, but they would also follow his instructions. And Jesus took them down the mountain where they were to engage with the people he called a “faithless generation” (Mt 17:17). That was no easy task!

You see, I would say that part of the point of this passage is that God has a dream for us all, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu says. It’s the dream that we heard from the prophet Isaiah a couple of weeks ago: a dream of freedom for the oppressed, food for the hungry, and shelter for the homeless (Isa 58:6-7). As Archbishop Tutu puts it, God’s dream is of “a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony” are literally transfigured so that there “will be more laughter, joy, and peace, … there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing.”[2] The name that Jesus used for that dream was the “kingdom of God.” When God’s dream that Jesus called the “kingdom of God” comes to pass, it will mean that the hungry are fed, the prisoners are set free, those who are bowed down are lifted up, and the widows and orphans and refugees have someone to watch over them.

We don’t tend to pay too much attention to the “transfiguration of Jesus,” even though we mark that event every year. I think we don’t pay much attention to it because we really don’t know what to make of it. But as Desmond Tutu reminds us, transfiguration is the very essence of God’s dream for this world. We catch a glimpse of that miracle in our gospel lesson for today. But just as the voice of God would not let the disciples stay on the mountain, but rather directed them to “hear” and obey Jesus, and just as Jesus led the disciples down the mountain to engage the people, so also in God’s dream, we’re God’s “partners,” each and every one of us an “indispensable agent of change.”[3] That’s because God chooses to make his dream come true in and through each one of us. Our faithfulness in hearing Jesus and in living out what he taught us makes a difference in the outcome of the kingdom of God. Most of us think we’re not that important, but in God’s dream, we are! Our faithfulness in hearing and obeying Jesus contributes toward the final fulfillment of God’s dream for the world, the “kingdom of God”(Rev 12:10-11).

It occurs to me that such a dream might help us with where we started: we need a bigger dream than the ones we choose for ourselves in childhood if we’re going to live fully and joyfully in this world. We need a dream that’s big enough to fire our imagination and rekindle our passion for loving God and loving others, especially when it’s difficult. We need a dream that’s big enough to inspire us when all our other dreams have passed us by. We need a dream worthy of investing all that we are and all that we have, worthy of heeding the call to serve rather than being served. We need a dream that’s bigger than us, a dream that what we do in this life makes a difference in shaping a better world. That’s the dream Jesus lived and taught those who followed him. And it’s the dream we need to hear and obey now more than ever.

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/19/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Desmond Tutu, God Has a Dream, 19-20.

[3] Tutu, God Has a Dream, 61-62.

Loving God, Loving Others

 Loving God, Loving Others

Matthew 5:21-48[1]

Most of you will have recognized Norman Rockwell’s famous depiction of the “Golden Rule” on the splash slide for the sermon today. It was based on his previous 1953 drawing entitled “United Nations,” which was inspired by the UN’s humanitarian mission. His idea was to depict the United Nations as the world’s hope for the future: sixty-five people representing the world’s nations, “waiting for the delegates to straighten out the world, so that they might live in peace and without fear.” In 1961 Rockwell painted the oil on canvas entitled simply “Golden Rule” that would later become a mural at the UN building in New York City. Rockwell wanted to show that all religious have something like the “Golden Rule” in common.[2]

You might wonder why I would be talking about the “Golden Rule” in connection with our Gospel lesson for today. The answer is that in Matthew’s Gospel, when Jesus summarized all that he was trying to teach the disciples about what it would mean to be a part of the kingdom of God, he did so by saying, “in everything to do others as you would have them do to you” (Mt 7:12). It’s easy to miss how important this verse is, but Jesus gave us a clue by saying, “this is the law and the prophets.” In other words, as the New Living Translation puts it, “This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” And I would add that this is the essence of all that Jesus taught in the “Sermon on the Mount” and elsewhere.

As we’ve been introducing the “Sermon on the Mount,” we’ve already seen that grace always comes first in our relationship with God. That was the lesson of the Beatitudes. And we saw last week that grace also always brings with it demands. God’s grace claims us in a way that reshapes us into a people who will practice God’s justice, compassion, and mercy toward one another. That’s what it means to love, and this week we learn that the demands of grace always lead us to love others. That’s what Jesus was trying to demonstrate in our lesson for today. He offered concrete examples of what looks like to truly love others. It means that we not only don’t kill, but we relate to others in ways that uphold their worth as human beings. Following the demands of grace means that we not only avoid cheating on our spouses, we also relate to others with pure motives rather than using them as objects. Jesus was illustrating the principle of the kingdom of God, the point of all that grace demands of us: to treat others the way we want them to treat us.

It might not be obvious at first glance, but the “Golden Rule” is basically a restatement of the “great” commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” The “Golden Rule” frames loving your neighbor as yourself in more practical terms, but the point is the same. What sets Jesus’ teachings apart is that he insisted on love that comes from the heart. He emphasized that what is most important is not just your actions, but your motivations. That probably doesn’t come as news to most of us. But we also have to recognize that if our motivations are true, it’s going to make a difference in our actions. As I mentioned last week, Jesus’ approach to the demands of grace makes it harder for us to love God and love others, not easier!

I would say it’s no coincidence that Jesus focused the demands of grace, the demands that the kingdom of God make of us all, on the command to love your neighbor as yourself. When we miss that, we pretty much miss the whole point of God’s grace in our lives. That was not just the mistake of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day; it’s the mistake that Christians have made through the ages. The whole point of the demand that God’s grace makes of us is that we love others truly and sincerely, from the heart, in such a way that it lead us to treat them with genuine kindness, fairness, and respect. For Jesus, that’s the core principle for discipleship, for living in the kingdom of God, for “loving God with all your heart.”

When we miss that, it becomes too easy for us to do what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did: we define our piety solely by external actions, by what others see and not by what is in our hearts. We focus on the letter of what Jesus taught, telling ourselves that we’re taking his word seriously, but all the while missing the point. We make our religion about blaming others for the wrongs in the world so that we can justify ourselves. Our piety is focused on labelling “them” as “sinners,” using Jesus’ very words to do so, while ignoring our own faults. That is not the way of grace. It is not the way of the kingdom of God.

I’ve mentioned before that I teach my confirmation classes that we won’t go too far astray from what Jesus was trying to teach us if we truly ask ourselves the question, “What would Jesus do?” I know it was something of a fad back in the day. But if we take the question, “What would Jesus do?” seriously, it will lead us to the point of all that Jesus was trying to teach us: to love others truly from the heart in a way shows them kindness, fairness, and respect. Love requires of us the best we have to give in order to treat other people with genuine care. It can be painful to love others in this way, but love is the way of the kingdom.

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” It seems straightforward enough. Treat other people the way you want to be treated. But putting it into practice is no simple matter. Jesus’ examples in our Gospel lesson for today make that uncomfortably clear. Once again, I think we have to take this lesson, as well as everything Jesus said in the “Sermon on the Mount,” from the perspective of the principles we’ve been discussing. When it comes to our relationship with God, grace always comes first. But grace always brings with it a demand: that we become people who will practice God’s justice, compassion, and mercy toward one another. That leads us to the point for today, that the demands of grace always lead us to love; love for God that shows in the way we love others. The true measure of our love for God is that we treat other people with genuine care in every aspect of our relationships with them. This is the principle of God’s kingdom; this is the point of the grace that God gives us all so freely.

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/12/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman NE.

[2] Cf. “Rockwell’s ‘Golden Rule,’” blog posted on the Norman Rockwell Museum website on 2/5/2014; accessed at https://www.nrm.org/2014/02/golden_rule/ .

What Difference Does It Make?

 What Difference Does It Make?

Matthew 5:13-20[1]

One of the challenges we face in our world is that there is a whole generation of people who have learned to thrive in life without any kind of real dependence on God. In some families, there are multiple generations. It’s not that they outright deny that God exists. They just don’t see what difference it makes whether you believe in God or not. And many of those people look at all the churches around them and they genuinely don’t get it. They don’t understand why anyone would bother spending their time participating in “organized religion.” They see those of us who are engaged in the practice of our faith as hypocrites at worst and out of date at best. Personally, I think this is at least to some extent because we who profess faith in Jesus Christ have not adequately shown them what difference it makes.

As we discussed last week, it’s important to recognize that, especially in the “Sermon on the Mount” where Jesus talks about fulfilling the law and the prophets, grace always comes first in our relationship with God. That’s not only foundational for our lives, but it’s also necessary for our understanding of Scripture. The balance between grace and demand can be found throughout Scripture. In the Bible, God’s grace, God’s gift of love and life and mercy, always precedes any demands. This is true from the Ten Commandments to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” to the Apostles’ teachings. Grace always comes first. But grace also always brings demands. The Bible insists that we who have experienced God’s amazing grace are to demonstrate it in the way we relate to others.[2]

This balance is crucial for our understanding of Scripture because when we downplay one side or the other, it skews our whole viewpoint. When we overlook the fact that all the demands in “the law and the prophets” that Jesus said would be “fulfilled” are grounded in the grace and mercy and love of God, we turn those demands into rigid rules that are applied in a strict and severe way. That’s just as true for the New Testament as it is for the Old. And there are actual faith communities in our world who do just that: enforce a rigid set of rules lifted out of context from Scripture and expel those who don’t live up to them. I don’t think that’s a very accurate view of the God who throughout the ages has lovingly called the human family into relationship with himself.

The opposite is also true: it’s all too easy to focus only on grace and ignore the very real demands that are found not just in the Hebrew Bible, but also throughout the New Testament, especially in the “Sermon on the Mount.” When we make that mistake, we miss the whole point of God’s grace: to shape us into the people we we’re meant to be. In the words of the pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when we ignore the demand for heartfelt obedience to God’s commands, we turn all that God has done for us into “cheap grace.”[3] I think we can also call to mind those in our world who expect a loving God to be tolerant of any and all kinds of behavior, regardless of the consequences to others or ourselves! Again, I don’t think that’s a very accurate view of the God whose love has always called the human family to practice justice, compassion, and mercy toward one another.

We see this balance reflected when we look at Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” as a whole. As we saw last week, Jesus opens this “sermon” with the beatitudes, which are a declaration of the grace that God pours out on all people through Jesus Christ. It’s important for us to see that grace always comes first. But in our lesson for today, Jesus insists that “until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Mt 5:18). That may sound strange, but he’s just echoing what the Scripture teaches from start to finish: grace always comes first, but grace also always brings demands.

Immediately following our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus begins to teach his disciples what it means that he was calling them to a “greater” righteousness than what the “scribes and the Pharisees” practiced. In contrast to the way they spelled out in great detail the precise actions one could or could not do, Jesus called his disciples to obey God from the heart. That would mean not only not killing others, it would also meant avoiding anything that leads us to devalue the life of another. Jesus didn’t make it easier to obey God’s commands, he made it harder. He went back to God’s original intention: to produce a people who would practice God’s justice, compassion, and mercy toward one another. As Jesus would later teach in the “Sermon on the Mount,” when we “do unto others as we would have others do unto us,” we fulfill all that God expects of his people in the law and the prophets (Mt 7:12). And I would add that we fulfill all that Jesus and the Apostles taught as well. And we do it because God’s grace has changed our hearts. When God’s grace changes our hearts, we can’t help but live in a way that shows the difference grace makes.

I think that’s what Jesus had in mind when he said, “you are the light of the world.”[4] I think he wants us to show the difference God’s grace makes in our lives every day. And if you’re wondering what that looks like, our lesson from Isaiah puts it this way: “Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless” (Isa 58:6-7). It sounds a lot like what Jesus said in Matthew 25:35-36, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”[5] God’s grace makes it possible for us to live our lives as light for the world. When we do so, we show the very real difference God’s grace makes.

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/5/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Perry Yoder, “Liberated by Law,” Sojourners Magazine, September-October 1999  (Vol. 28, No. 5), 46; Patrick D. Miller, Deuteronomy, 113; O. Weber, Foundations of Dogmatics II:363.

[3] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works 4, 43.  For him, “cheap grace” meant that God’s grace “justifies sin” without making any difference in the sinner, so that “everything can stay in its old ways.”

[4] It is important to recognize that Jesus speaks of being light for the “world” not just for the few: Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, 125-26; Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4.2:804-805.

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 127: “It is not that the wretched are the object of Christian love or the fulfilment of a moral duty; they are the latent presence of the coming Saviour and Judge in the world.”