Opening to Faith

 Opening to Faith

John 20:19-35[1]

There was a time when you could simply take a lot of things on faith. It may seem crazy now, but it was simply the way life worked. You knew who you could trust, and when they said they would do something, you took their word for it. Again, it was just the way things worked. When you heard something on the news you believed it. When you read something in the paper, you took it for the truth. Of course, there were always people out there who were trying to sell you something. Hopefully, you could recognize them coming so you had a chance to withhold judgment until they proved themselves reliable. Faith was an important part of the way life worked.

These days, it seems that we have to question everyone. The old warning, caveat emptor, or “let the buyer beware,” doesn’t go far enough. These days we should probably say caveat auditor, or “let the listener beware”! It seems like nothing you hear these days is “on the level.” Partly that’s because a lot of those who do the talking in our world use their words to manipulate us. And partly it’s because too many of those who do the talking in our world don’t even try to line up their lives with their words. It feels like expecting most people you meet to be “what you see is what you get” is quaint at best, and naïve at worst. And all of this leaves us feeling more skeptical and suspicious than trusting. It makes it hard to take much of this life “on faith.”

One of the things I like about the way the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ resurrection is the way they all show how hard it was for his own disciples to believe it. We might expect that Jesus’ hand-picked apprentices would have leaped at the chance to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. But that just wasn’t something they could even begin to comprehend. They didn’t have any kind of framework to understand the words, let alone to grasp the concept. Some of them believed that there would be a general resurrection at the end of history. But none of them had even the faintest hint of a notion that they would see Jesus alive only days after they had seen him die.

When we take full account of their doubts, we might wonder what it was that enabled them to believe. In their case, the answer is that the risen, living Jesus presented himself to them! He met with them, he ate with them, he talked with them. Some in our day have tried to dismiss this as some kind of group hallucination. While it’s true that those who know how to work a crowd can make people believe just about anything, that’s not what happened in this case. One feature of the story of Jesus’ resurrection is that he appeared to different people at different times. As in our Gospel lesson for today, not everyone was there every time Jesus met with his disciples.

Of course, when we turn to the question of our faith in the risen and living Jesus, it gets a little more complicated. We’re among those who “have not seen” Jesus (Jn 20:29), and yet we are called to believe in him. For us the question is how we can put our faith in the risen and living Jesus without ever having had the experience of actually seeing him as his disciples did. There are a lot of reasons why we believe. For some of us, we were raised in the faith. For others it’s a matter of relying on the teachings of the Bible. For others, it’s about the influence of someone who was an example for us. For many of us, it’s a combination of some or all of those factors.

I think at the end of the day, all of us face the decision of what we’re going to base our lives on. You could say that’s a kind of faith. Whether it’s facts and figures, or money, or the “good life,” or family, or religion, the ability to trust that what you believe is true is always based on a choice. The question we all face is where we will choose to place our faith. Unfortunately, many of us have discovered that when we place our faith in the people and things in this life, we can be sorely disappointed. We’ve placed our faith in people and things that really couldn’t deliver what we were hoping to get from that faith. And when what you can see disappoints us, it makes it even harder for us to put our faith in the risen and living Jesus, whom we haven’t seen.

I’m not going to pretend it’s easy to do that day in and day out. There are some days when life seems so frustrating, so discouraging, that it’s difficult if not impossible to put our faith in a person we’ve never seen. But I think it comes back to that decision about what we’re going to base our lives on. And we may have to make the decision to put our faith in the risen and living Jesus day by day. We may have to make that decision moment by moment.[2]

For me, it boils down to the fact that in the depth of my being, in my heart and soul, in that place where all pretense is stripped away and it’s only me and reality, the hope and faith that there is a God who loves us all, always has and always will, simply rings true.[3] That’s where I start. It’s not that I understand it all. Rather, believing that God is always faithful, that God loves us no matter what, helps me open my heart and put my faith in the risen and living Jesus. That’s a choice I make day by day, and sometimes moment by moment.

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 4/16/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. John Caputo, On Religion, 33: faith always “needs to be sustained from moment to moment, from decision to decision, by the renewal, reinvention, and repetition of faith.”

[3] Cf. Caputo, On Religion, 7-10: he says that matters of faith take us out of “the manageable prospects of the present, beyond the sphere in which we have some mastery,” and into “the sphere of the impossible, of something whose possibility we just cannot conceive” where “only the great passions of faith and love and hope will see us through,”

A Whole New Life

 A Whole New Life

John 20:1-18[1]

When we think of the promise that through Jesus we have eternal life, I think most of us picture some kind of heavenly existence in the next life. And I would be willing to bet that our images of that next life are as varied as each person in this room. My favorite image of that life is a cabin in the mountains, where I’m surrounded by all the people I’ve loved, as well as all the dogs I’ve loved, and we get to enjoy the beauty of that place forever. Of course, a part of that dream is that I finally get the chance to learn how to play the guitar the way I’ve always wanted to. And likely there’s a bicycle or two around!

Our hopes for that life are important. But I think an even more important promise of our faith, especially in John’s Gospel, is that we have a whole new quality of life right here and right now. I mentioned recently that I’ve wrestled with what that looks like for 40 years. Mainly because in my opinion there are people out there making promises in God’s name about what we can expect from “new life” right here and right now that God never made! Having “eternal life” or a “whole new life” here and now doesn’t mean that all of a sudden our lives are all sunshine and rainbows. At least not in my experience!

I think our Gospel lesson for today helps us with that question, although it’s going to take some doing to get us there. Our lesson for today tells us a very different Easter story from the one we’re used to. We’re used to the story that the women who went to the tomb to take care of Jesus’ body properly were met by an angel (or angels) who announced to them immediately that Jesus had risen from the dead. But as a matter of fact, there is no such announcement in our Gospel lesson. In fact, there’s no such announcement in John’s Gospel at all! Instead of hearing that Jesus had risen from the dead, everyone in John’s Gospel experiences the living Christ. In John’s Gospel, the good news of Easter is not “He is risen!” but rather “I have seen the Lord!” (Jn 20:18).

That’s because in this Gospel, it was no angel who revealed the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection, but Jesus himself. Although Mary Magdalene was the first to see that the stone had been rolled away, it was Peter and the “disciple whom Jesus loved” who first entered the tomb. After the two disciples left wondering about what had happened, Mary returned to mourn. At this point Jesus himself appeared to her, but she didn’t recognize him. The scene is tender and touching. Jesus asks, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” (Jn 20:15). At first, like some of the others who met the risen Jesus, Mary didn’t recognize him. In fact, she thought that maybe he was the one who tended the garden in which the tomb was located. She also thought that maybe this gardener had taken Jesus’ body. But she had no idea that she was speaking to Jesus himself.

Until Jesus simply called her name. All he had to do to cut through the fog of her grief and confusion was to speak her name: “Mary!” And she immediately recognized him. It reminds me of something Jesus said earlier in John’s Gospel: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me” (Jn 10:14) and “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27). All Mary had to do to recognize Jesus was to hear him calling her name. And when she returned to the others, she simply told them, “I have seen the Lord!”

What Jesus said to Mary may leave us scratching our heads: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (Jn 20:17). We may wonder why it was so important for him to “ascend to the Father.” In John’s Gospel the ascension fills out the picture of what Jesus did for us to give us a “whole new life.” We may think of that simply in terms of his dying on the cross. Or we may think in terms of his dying and rising again. But that’s not the full picture, not in John’s Gospel. What Jesus does to offer us a whole new life begins with the fact that he is the one who was God and was with God from “the beginning,” but he came to be God with us in human flesh. And in John’s Gospel, that  means he can give us the life that only God gives (Jn 5:26). That’s where it starts.

But beyond that, Jesus said he would be “lifted up” so that everyone who believes may “have life” in him (Jn 3:14-15). A part of that means being lifted up on the cross. I think he did that to give us an example of what love looks like as our inspiration for life. But more than that, Jesus had to be lifted up to new life by rising on that Easter morning to break the fear of death that held us in its relentless grip. And in our lesson for today, we learn that Jesus also had to be lifted up to the right hand of God the Father. In John’s Gospel, what Jesus does to give us a “whole new life” is a complete picture: he becomes one of us, he offers his life for us, he rises from the dead, and he returns to the right hand of God.

We might be able to get the rest of it, but I’m not sure we understand why it was so important for Jesus to “ascend to the Father.” But I think what Jesus said to Mary meant that he must return to the Father so that his Father could be their Father, and his God could be their God. I think what that means is that he had to complete the work of ascending to the Father so that they could share the same relationship with the Father as he did. In John’s Gospel, one of the most important aspects of the “whole new life” that Jesus gives us is that we are embraced in the relationship of love that the Father has shared with the Son and the Spirit for all eternity. That was the goal of all that Jesus did to give us a whole new life. Living in a relationship of love with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit is what “eternal life” here and now looks like in John’s Gospel.

That might sound like something that’s beyond our grasp, and I would agree with you in part. But I would ask you to think about the difference it makes in your life to know that you’re loved by someone. Now take that and put yourself in the picture as being embraced eternally by the love that Father, Son, and Spirit always share. I don’t know about you, but for me, that love means everything. It means that even when we may feel alone in this world, we're never really alone. It means that even when we may feel rejected in this life, we always have a home in the love of God where we know that we're accepted. I believe that kind of love makes a whole new life possible for every one of us here and now, and every day.

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 4/9/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Deserters

Deserters

Matthew 26:14-35[1]

I’ve mentioned before that none of us lives up to our image of ourselves. It’s an inescapable fact of our humanity. No matter how good our intentions may be, we all fall short. Sometimes we do much more than fall short. Sometimes we crash and burn. When that happens, we tend to want to look for someone to blame. Someone besides us, that is. And so it is that throughout the history of the human family we’ve found it convenient to find a “scapegoat” to take the blame for our failures. Whether it’s the way we were raised, or how much money we have, or what kind of breaks we got in life, it seems we can always find a scapegoat to blame. But a scapegoat only really serves to let us off the hook so that we don’t have to look too carefully at ourselves.

I think the way the church has looked at Judas Iscariot falls under the category of “scapegoating.” He has been known as the one who “betrayed” Jesus. Unfortunately, that’s about all we know about Judas. The only things Matthew’s Gospel tells us about Judas is that he was “one of the Twelve” (Mt 26:47) and that he betrayed Jesus. In fact, he is known simply as “Judas the betrayer” in Matthew’s Gospel, much like John is known as “John the baptizer.” I must say I’m a little disappointed in that. After all, Judas was one of twelve hand-picked disciples Jesus chose to accompany him and to join him in his ministry. It makes me wonder what Jesus saw in Judas that led him to choose Judas as one of his original “apprentices” in ministry. It also makes me wonder why Judas, who took the risk to join Jesus in going to Jerusalem for the last time, would have done something like betraying him. The Gospels tend to say simply that he did it because he was destined to. But I wonder if there was more to it than that.

I think it’s important to recognize that not only was Judas among those Jesus chose to join him in his ministry, in all of the Gospels he is also present at the Last Supper. We see this in the fact that the story of the Last Supper begins with Jesus’ announcement that “one of you will betray me” (Mt. 26:21). While those shocking words likely came in the course of the meal, I don’t think we pay close enough attention to this detail. Talk about a way to kill a party! And as a side note, some of you may know that Da Vinci’s famous fresco of the Last Supper was intended to portray the reaction on the part of the disciples to that shocking statement: “one of you will betray me.”

If we read the story closely, we have to reckon with the fact that not only was Judas present at the Last Supper, but that he also participated in the meal! Jesus knew that one of them would betray him. I think Jesus even knew that Judas was the one who would do the betraying. And yet, in the Last Supper, Jesus offered Judas the bread that represented his body that would be broken on the cross. And he offered Judas the cup that represented his life poured out as a demonstration of God’s unfailing love. Yes, Jesus gave Judas the bread and the cup! Jesus offered his broken body and his life for the sake of one he knew was going to betray him.

Perhaps the early church was so disturbed by Judas’ betrayal they couldn’t see past that. But I think the human tendency to find a “scapegoat” may have also affected the church. By the time Matthew’s Gospel was written about 40 years later, Judas’ act of betrayal had so completely defined his character that they could not think of him any other way. But if we keep reading the story, we find that there was plenty of responsibility to go around. After the supper, presumably after Judas had gone to get the Jewish authorities, Jesus told the rest of the disciples that “Tonight all of you will desert me” (Mt 26:31, NLT). We should hear the full impact of that word “desert.” The word in the original Greek refers to those who are either unwilling or unable to put their faith in Jesus! It’s a strong word. That’s why so many English translations read, “You will all fall away because of me on this night” (NRSVUE). It was a serious matter. And they knew it!

Peter speaks for the others when he says, “I will never fall away” (Mt 26:33). But Jesus knows better. In fact, not only would Peter “fall away” on that night, Jesus told Peter, “you will disown me three times” (Mt 26:34). Peter would become a deserter and a denier! Of course, Peter insists he would rather die, as do all the others. But when the time came, they all deserted him, just as Jesus had warned them. And when the time came, Peter disowned Jesus. Three times. And the last time he did so with an oath and cursing! What I want to come back to is the fact that at the Last Supper Jesus not only offered the bread and the cup to one he knew was going to betray him. Jesus also offered the bread and the cup to the one he knew would disown him. And Jesus offered the bread and the cup to those he knew would desert him. Everyone around that table on the night of the Last Supper was going to “betray” Jesus in some way or another. And Jesus knew it. And still he offered them all the bread that represented his body that would be broken on the cross, and the cup that represented his life poured out for them.

We have this idea that the Lord’s Supper is only for those who are “worthy.” In fact, some churches insist on that. But if we’re taking our cue in celebrating the Lord’s Supper from what Jesus did at the Last Supper, then we’ve missed something important when we restrict who can take the bread and the cup. Jesus gave the bread and the cup to Judas, who would betray him. Jesus gave the bread and the cup to Peter, who would disown him. And Jesus gave the bread and the cup to the others who would all desert him. The bread and the cup are for everyone!

We all fall short. And sometimes we crash and burn. Too many times in my life I’ve had to come face-to-face with the fact that I am not always the man I want to be, not always the father I want to be, not always the disciple of Jesus I want to be, not always the pastor I want to be. I think it’s safe to say I’m not the only one in that predicament. But we don’t gather here to celebrate our worthiness. We gather to celebrate the fact that Jesus offered himself to the one who would betray him, to the one who would disown him, and to those who would desert him. We gather here taste again the grace of love we can never deserve, nor can we ever forfeit. We come because, whether we have betrayed him, or disowned him, or deserted him, Jesus keeps offering himself to us all!

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm.  A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 4/2/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.