One Whole Body

 One Whole Body

1 Corinthians 12:4-14, 24[1]

Today is the day that we celebrate the birth of the church. All those centuries ago, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God swept through the group of Jesus’ disciples, empowering them to become bold witnesses for Christ. And the book of Acts tells the story of how they went out in the power of the Spirit to do unimaginable things in the name of the Lord Jesus. As they proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ to any and all who would listen, thousands responded. And what began in a backwater corner of the Roman Empire became a thriving movement. The power of the Spirit working through the church of that day would eventually change their whole world, including the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

When we look at our churches today, it may seem like a stretch to think that the same Spirit is still working in and through us. Churches that were filled with people 50 years ago are now partly, or mostly, or in some cases completely empty.[2] When you look around, you might be forgiven for wondering whether the Spirit who we say we believe empowers us “to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace” has passed us by.[3] Although the Church is thriving in other places around the world, in this country it’s a very difficult time to be the church!

While there are a lot of people saying a lot of things in about what churches “need” to do to thrive, I would say the place to start is with our own hearts. I’ve said before it is my firm conviction that only as we carry out our work in the power the Spirit supplies can we hope to achieve any lasting results. That applies to this and every other church. It’s one of the foundational themes of the NT. Everything we do in our Christian lives is the result of what the Spirit of God is doing. Everything we do, from praying, to worshipping, to planting seeds of faith, to growing in service to God, to living lives of kindness and respect, to sharing the love of God, will thrive or not thrive to the extent that we rely on the Spirit of God.[4]

That’s why we have to start with our own hearts. It’s not going to be enough for us to work hard for the sake of the church. That still presupposes that whether or not this church thrives is in our hands. But as St. Paul once confessed, “In ourselves we are not able to claim anything for ourselves. The power to do what we do comes from God” (2 Cor 3:5, NIrV). If that was true for Paul, how much more is it true for us. We start by recognizing that none of us can “make” this church thrive by our own efforts. We must look to God diligently, consistently, faithfully, and sincerely to pour out the Spirit in and through us if we hope that what we do will have any lasting results.

In our Scripture lesson from 1 Corinthians, St. Paul says it this way: “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us” (1 Cor 12:4-6). Jesus promised, “I will build my church” (Mt 16:18), and the way he’s been doing that is through the presence and power of the Spirit working in the church. I believe we can trust that Jesus will keep his promise. I believe we can trust that the Spirit will continue working in and through us all. And I believe God will continue to supply us with what we need to carry out the ministry of the kingdom in this community.

With that in mind, we might wonder what we can do. Well, first and foremost, we can pray. Let me be clear about this: we don’t pray because it’s some kind of “magic wand” that will “miraculously” turn things around. We pray because that’s how we open our hearts to the work of God’s Spirit and align our lives with God’s kingdom. I invite you to join me in praying that God will pour out his Spirit and empower us to carry out his work in this community. I’ve been doing that since I came here. And one of the times I pray that prayer is on Sunday morning during worship. All I do is ask God to pour out his Spirit to help us thrive and to bring us the people we need to help us. Please join me in that prayer!

But St. Paul also knew that there was another dimension to a thriving church. He said it this way: “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other” (1 Cor 12:7, NLT). Many of us probably don’t agree with that statement. We think that if anyone has a “spiritual gift” that can benefit the church, it must be someone else. But St. Paul makes it clear in this passage that he believes that the Spirit of God works through every part of the body of Christ. That means that there’s no one who’s contribution is “dispensable.” For this or any other church to thrive, it takes every one doing what God enables us to do. We can’t sit back and expect someone else to do it for us. It’s going to take all of us working together as one whole body of Christ if we want to thrive as a church.

Whether we see this time in which we’re all working so hard to live faithfully as the body of Christ as a crisis or an opportunity depends on our point of view. We can lament that our churches are nowhere near as full as they were ten or twenty or thirty years ago. And if we take that approach, we will likely continue to watch the church decline. Or we can take the opportunity to step up. Each and every one of us. I believe that if Christians in this culture truly opened their hearts to God’s Spirit and truly aligned their lives with God’s kingdom, it would revolutionize the church. It would revolutionize our world! I believe that if Christians in this culture would embrace the promise that the Spirit has given each and every one of us gifts to help the church thrive, we couldn’t contain all the people in our buildings. If that’s what we want to see, it’s going to take all of us working together as one whole body of Christ.

I realize that all this may sound too simple to make much of a difference. But in my experience, a simple shift in mindset is one of the most powerful ways to effect change. That’s what I’m asking you to do today. I’m asking you to shift your mindset and trust in the power of God to build up this church. We don’t have the power in ourselves to do what needs to be done for this church to thrive. Only God can do that. But God has always accomplished his work in through people like you and me. And that means we’re all called to step up. If we keep doing what we’ve always done, we’ll keep getting the same results. I’m asking you to step up in a new way. Pray for the people of this church. Reach out to ask someone you know how they’re doing. When the people of God open their hearts to the Spirit of God in prayer and turn to God by aligning their lives with the kingdom, great changes can happen. And not just in this community, but throughout the whole body of Christ. Let’s join together as one whole body of Christ to do unimaginable things in our time through the Spirit of God!

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/28/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Yonat Shimron, “Study: More Churches Closing than Opening,” Religion News Service 21 May 2021, accessed at: https://religionnews.com/2021/05/26/study-more-churches-closing-than-opening/. The report suggests that in 2019 about 4500 protestant churches closed, while only 3000 were started. This compares with 2014, when there were 3700 closures, but 4000 openings. For reference, there are about 320,000 to 350,000 protestant churches in the US.

[3] The Book of Confessions 2016, “A Brief Statement of Faith,” 11.4, p. 312.

[4] Cf. Henri J. M. Nouwen, A Cry for Mercy, 109: “The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to his followers, is the great gift of God. Without the Spirit of Jesus we can do nothing, but in and through his Spirit we can live free, joyful, and courageous lives. We cannot pray, but the Spirit of Christ can pray in us. We cannot crete peace and joy, but the Spirit of Christ can fill us with a peace and joy that is not of this world. We cannot break through the many barriers that divide races, sexes, and nations, but the Spirit of Christ unites all people in the all-embracing love of God. The Spirit of Christ burns away our many fears and anxieties and sets us free to move wherever we are sent. This is the great liberation of Pentecost.”

Humbling

Humbling

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:5-7[1]

I have a confession to make. Actually, I think it’s a confession I’ve made to you before: it’s not easy for me to trust God. It’s never been easy for me to trust God. Some of that has to do with my life experiences. But then I would say that it’s not easy for anyone to really trust God. I mean trusting God when your life is going in the completely opposite direction from the path you thought you were headed down. I think to some extent that has to do with a fear that we all share: the fear of being vulnerable. These days, we’re all vulnerable in ways we may never have expected, nor could we even imagine. Being vulnerable is a scary thing, and when we are scared, we don’t have much head space or heart space to trust God. In my experience, the opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear! Fear is the greatest obstacle to trusting God.

One of the challenges with being in a vulnerable place in life is that it can be humbling. I don’t think we’re any more comfortable with being humbled than we are with being vulnerable. We often associate being humbled with humiliation. And for that reason, the humbling experiences of our lives can be painful. I think most of us would rather do just about anything to avoid going through an experience that humbles us. But I would have to say that it has been the most humbling experiences of my life that have led to the most growth in my ability to trust God, and to entrust my life into his care, as our lesson from 1 Peter for today calls us to do.

As you may remember, 1 Peter was addressed to people who were undergoing painful hardships because of their faith. Our lesson for today tells us that they were going through “fiery trials” that made them “partners with Christ in his suffering,” and for no other reason than they “bore the name of Christ” (1 Pet 4:12-14). As I’ve mentioned before, while there was at this time no official ban against practicing the Christian faith in the Roman Empire, the trials believers experienced in the churches Peter was writing to were wide-ranging. They faced the loss of their livelihood, the loss of their families and homes, and at times the loss of their very lives due to the actions of violent mobs.

It was in that setting that Peter called them to practice humble faith. The humility Peter called for not only applied to the way they saw themselves and to the way they approached God, but also to the way they related to one another. Peter quotes the wisdom of Proverbs: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet 5:5, NLT). That humility also applied to their hardships. In the face of their sufferings, he called them to “humble yourselves under the mighty power of God,” and promised that “at the right time he will lift you up in honor” (1 Pet 5:6, NLT). Just exactly what that might mean is hard to say, but I think the point of it was to remind them that God was very much aware of all they were going through. More than that, God was actively involved in helping them get through every hardship.

And so Peter called the believers turn to God in every situation with humble faith: “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Pet 5:7, NLT). In this, Peter was probably also quoting the wisdom of the Psalms. John Calvin suggests that Peter was referring to Ps 38:15: “it is for you, O Lord, that I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.”[2] This was the Psalmist’s response to a situation very similar to the one Peter’s audience was going through. He described the many foes who hated him, saying that they “repay me evil for good and oppose me for pursuing good” (Ps 38:20, NLT). I think that’s probably one of the hardest times when we may be called to “give all your worries and cares to God”!

But I think that the language of the psalmist might help us here. When he says that “it is for you, O Lord, that I wait,” he’s using a “loaded” word. Some English Bibles translate this as “it is in you, O Lord that I hope” (NKJV). Some English Bibles translate it as “it is in you, O Lord, that I trust” (CEV). I would say it takes all three to get at the full meaning of what the Psalmist was saying: waiting, hoping, and trusting. Trusting in God, especially in the face of hardships, places us in a situation where we do a lot of waiting and hoping. And it takes all three—waiting, hoping, and trusting—for us to truly “cast our cares” on the God whose love for us never fails.

What enables us to do all that trusting and hoping and waiting is the assurance that God cares for us. I think an image from the Gospel of John can help us here as well. When Jesus spoke of himself as “the Good Shepherd,” he contrasted his willingness to lay down his life for us with one who is like a “hired hand.” He said that the “hired hand” doesn’t care for the sheep because they don’t belong to him, and so he abandons them when danger comes (Jn 10:13). But Jesus Christ is our true shepherd, and he will never abandon us, no matter what we may have to endure in this life! That’s one of the most important demonstrations of God’s care for us!

In my experience, learning to trust God to care for me, come what may, has been the direct result of the humbling experiences in life. With the Psalmist, I have to confess that it was “good for me that I was humbled” (Ps 119:71). I’ve been “humbled” by painful events several times. There was one time in particular that I was humbled by something joyful. It was the first time I took the risk of admitting to a friend the one thing that was most difficult for me to say out loud to anyone. I was afraid to tell him, because he was my best friend at the time, and I worried that he might think less of me. What happened is that he had a new respect for me. That was an important lesson in the connection between humility and trust. When we take the risk of humbling ourselves, we may learn that there are people whom we can trust to share our burdens. More importantly, when we go through experiences that are humbling, we have the chance to really learn that we can trust God. When we realize that we cannot rely on our own strength or wisdom or goodness, we learn to “cast your cares” on God, trusting that “he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).

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[1] © Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, PhD on 5/21/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, 148: “But he calls those humble, who being emptied of every confidence in their own power, wisdom, and righteousness, seek every good from God alone.”

In Jesus' Name

 In Jesus’ Name

John 14:1-14[1]

I’ve shared with you recently that some of the things Jesus said have puzzled me for most of my life. Perhaps one of the most confusing statements is “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you” (Mk 11:23)! On the face of it, that kind of thing seems blatantly exaggerated. But that may have been the point. Some biblical scholars think that “mountain-moving” faith was the subject of a proverb that was popular in Jesus’ day. That would suggest what seems almost obvious: that Jesus wasn’t speaking literally. If he was, I don’t know what he meant!

Our Gospel lesson for today presents us with a similar promise and a similar problem. Jesus promised his disciples, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). And he repeated that promise in the next verse: “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:14). I’d have to say that if we take this promise too literally, we may be distorting Jesus’ meaning. There are a lot of people in this world who ask for a lot of things “in Jesus’ name,” and they expect (or perhaps claim!) that they will get what they ask for! I’m afraid they may find themselves skating on thin ice when it comes to their faith if they try that approach!

I think if we look at this promise in the light of its context, which is always a good idea when approaching the Bible, we’ll find a very different meaning to praying “in Jesus’ name.” Our lesson for today begins with a dialogue between Jesus and his disciples concerning whether or not they truly believed that he was who he claimed to be and what he was doing was the Father’s will. Jesus prompted this discussion by saying, “If you know me, you will know my Father also” (John 14:7). That was a difficult thing for any Jewish person to comprehend in that day. How could knowing a human being equal knowing God? I’m not sure it’s gotten any easier for us today. I think Jesus recognized how difficult a challenge it is for faith, and he called his disciples to “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” on the basis of the works he had done (John 14:11).

It’s this dialogue about their faith that leads up to the promise that the Father will grant them anything they ask in Jesus’ name. And yet, it’s important to note that the point of this passage is that if Jesus’ disciples believe in him, they “will do greater works than these” (John 14:12). I’m not sure which one poses a bigger challenge for faith: really believing that Jesus shows us the Father, or really believing that that our faith will enable us to do “greater works” than he did! I think I’d have a hard enough time hoping to do the works that Jesus did, let alone “greater works.” But despite any second-guessing on our part, Jesus clearly promised to accomplish his work, and do even greater things, through flawed and fallible people like his disciples.

It’s in that context that Jesus promised “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). I think Jesus probably knew that his disciples were having a hard time believing all that he had done. I would think he also knew that they felt overwhelmed by the statement that they would do “greater things” than Jesus had done. And he was promising them that he would provide them with everything they needed to carry out that work.

That’s the real basis for Jesus’ promise to do whatever they asked in his name. He was reassuring them that they could ask for the insight, the faith, the courage, and the strength to do the “greater things” that he promised them they would do. Think of it: how else could “the Father be glorified in the Son” than for Jesus to empower his disciples to continue the work he had begun. I would say that the story of the disciples’ ministry in the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament shows us how they did just that. What they did “in Jesus’ name” was to continue his work of bringing the peace and justice and freedom of God’s kingdom to those who needed it most.

Unfortunately, many believers in our day have separated this verse from its context and turned it into a means of getting whatever they want. People who call themselves “Christian” pray for all kinds of things in Jesus’ name. A whole lot of it has nothing to do with Jesus’ work. That’s what happens when you pick and choose verses from the Bible. I think it’s fine to pray “in Jesus’ name” when we’re asking God to provide basic life needs. But there’s a big difference between what we need and what we want!

The lesson John’s Gospel has for us this week is that praying in Jesus’ name is first and foremost about praying for God to help us carry out the work of Jesus in our community and in our world. I don’t think that means we shouldn’t pray for our needs or even at times our desires. It’s only natural for us to turn to our creator with the deepest desires of our hearts. But Jesus’ approach to prayer suggests that the desires of our hearts ought to be shaped not by the values of our culture, or our own selfish interests, but by the principles of the kingdom—compassion, peace, justice, and freedom. When our prayers “in Jesus’ name” are shaped in this way, we will be praying for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done. When we do that, we won’t just be praying in Jesus’ name, we’ll be living in Jesus’ name. That kind of living is what gives us the confidence that God will answer in a way that best promotes his purposes in our world.

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[1] ©2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/7/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Following in Jesus' Steps

 Following in Jesus’ Steps

1 Peter 2:11-25[1]

I think most people who identify themselves as Christians would say that means they are following Jesus. The language of “following” Jesus goes back to the fact that he called his first disciples to “follow me.” The focus of Jesus’ ministry was proclaiming the “good news of the kingdom of God”: that God had definitively entered this world in and through him to bring wholeness and new life to all people. And when the people whose hearts led them to seek that loving transformation in their own lives came to him and asked, “what should I do,” his answer was “follow me.” And many of them did. There were the women who provided for Jesus and the disciples. And there were 120 of them in the upper room after the cross and resurrection. And there were many more scattered throughout Galilee and Judea.

Even in that day, not everyone who followed Jesus literally left everything and accompanied him. And the same thing holds true today. When it comes to defining what “following Jesus” looks like, the answers have been all over the page. Some believe following Jesus means to separate oneself from the world, and they do that literally by joining a monastery or a convent. Some believe following Jesus means actively fighting the “enemies of Christ,” through crusades of all varieties, from evangelism to social justice to literal wars. Some believe that following Jesus means living in a way that is completely different from the cultural norms, while others believe it means living in a way that is completely in line with those same cultural norms.

I don’t think you could blame anyone for throwing up their hands when it comes to trying to figure out what following Jesus is supposed to look like in real life. I do think it helps when we place the call to follow Jesus in a specific context. That’s what our lesson from 1 Peter for today does for us. Peter was writing to Christians who were struggling because of their commitment to Jesus. In those days, a person who had a trade belonged to a kind of “union,” and every trade had their own “god” whom they worshipped to prosper in business. Those who became Christians were kicked out of the union. In many cases, those who made the decision to follow Jesus were cut off from their families because they broke with the “family gods.” Following Jesus could mean leaving behind one’s livelihood, one’s home, and perhaps even one’s family.

Those first Christians lived in an empire, not a democracy. They were subject to the “powers that be”, and those powers exercised rule absolutely by using force. The first Christians really had no choice but to submit to those who held power over them. Perhaps one of the more troubling aspects of this situation was slavery. The fact of the matter is that slavery was a long-established feature of the ancient world. We might wonder why Jesus and the early Christians didn’t do more to overturn slavery, but that would be to assume that they lived in a world that was more like ours than theirs. We have to remember that the early church was a fledgling movement that was on the margins of society. Their power to effect that kind of social change was limited.

Rather than risk the violence that is the inevitable response of any empire to those who resist, the apostles encouraged Christians to endure whatever mistreatment they had to face with patience, looking to Jesus’ example. So it is that Peter could say in our lesson for today, “God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps” (1 Pet 2:21, NLT). And Peter specifically refers to the example Jesus set by dying for us on the cross: “He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered.” (1 Pet 2:23, NLT). Yes, the example Jesus set for us to “follow in his steps” was by suffering on the cross!

I don’t think this was a coincidence. From the very beginning, Jesus called his disciples to follow him on a path that would take him to a cross. Following Jesus meant they were going to have to embrace a life of sacrifice and suffering themselves. It is the way of the kingdom of God. It is the way God brings about the loving transformation that brings wholeness and new life to all people. The cross was not just Jesus’ path; it is a path that he marked out for all of us. And as we recognize that our sacrifices and sufferings are part of something bigger than our individual lives, it helps us to see that the hardships we may have to go through can become part of what St. Paul calls the “sufferings of Christ” (Col 1:24) for the sake of others.

I think what that means is that we look at our suffering and sacrifice, our trouble and pain in this world, as part of our commitment to following Christ. When we do that, what we may have to go through in this life can contribute to the healing work that God is doing in everyone. I think that’s especially true when we look at our experiences through the lens of the example Jesus left for us at the cross. As one of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen, puts it, the cross “invites us to see grace where there is pain.” That means viewing everything in our lives, even the pain and suffering, as part of our following in Jesus’ steps on “the way of the cross that leads to new life.”[2]

At the same time, we no longer live in an empire. We live in a democracy where we say we believe that it’s never acceptable for anyone to have to suffer mistreatment for any reason. And we certainly don’t believe that anyone should be “beaten for doing wrong” as Peter put it. Of course, one of the “inconvenient truths” of our society is that there are some who are systematically denied the rights we say we believe in every time we recite the pledge of allegiance. The myth of America’s “greatness” stumbles on the reality that we are all fallen and fallible.

For some, this means that this passage sends the wrong message about tolerating abuse or mistreatment. But I think we have to view it not only historically and realistically, but also in light of our faith. When viewed historically, we realize that the early Christians had no power to change the structure of their world, at least not immediately. When viewed realistically, we have to admit that we still don’t live up to the ideals we want to believe are the basis for our society. When viewed in the light of our faith, we recognize that in a fallen world, we’re going to experience suffering and pain, sometimes unjustly. And while we have the right to do something about the structures of injustice, there are some things we are still powerless to change.

Pain and suffering are inevitable in this life. When we can view our painful experiences in light of Jesus’ example, when we can see that our suffering for “doing good” is a part of what it means to follow Christ, we can find meaning in knowing that it’s part of something bigger. It’s part of what God is doing through us in this troubled world to bring wholeness and new life to all people.[3] And that means what we may have to endure in life, whether justly or unjustly, can contribute to the healing work that God is doing in everyone. I believe that’s at least a part of what it means to follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

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[1] © 2023. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 4/30/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Henri J. M. Nouwen, Turn My Mourning into Dancing, 18.

[3] Nouwen, Mourning into Dancing, 11: In Christ we see God suffering—for us. And calling us to share in God’s suffering for a hurting world.”