Foundations

 Foundations

Matthew 16:13-20[1]

Most of you know that I moved here from Houston, Texas. What you may not know is that owning a home in Houston poses unique challenges. Besides the issues with Hurricanes and flooding, there’s the simple fact that Houston was built in a swamp. Yes, you heard right. It was built in a swamp. Owning a home in what is essentially swamp land can be an adventure in its own right. The ground is a mixture of sand and clay. The locals call it “gumbo” after the soup. It has a little bit of everything mixed in. The problem is that when it rains, that “gumbo” mixture expands and heaves up. And when it’s dry, the ground “shrinks.” That combination of expanding and shrinking wreaks havoc on foundations. The “joke” is that if you haven’t had foundation work on your house, you will. It’s not really funny, because it usually costs thousands of dollars.

Our gospel lesson for today is about foundations. But it’s not about the foundation for your home, it’s about the foundation for your life. It begins with Jesus asking the question, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” (Mt 16:13, GNT). Up to this point, there have been a lot of rumors and guesses about Jesus among the crowds. The disciples answer Jesus by voicing those rumors and guesses: “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, while others say Jeremiah or some other prophet” (Mt 16:14, GNT). But the crowd’s rumors and guesses weren’t enough. Jesus was more than a prophet.

So Jesus asked the disciples to tell him who they thought he was. It was Peter who answered for the group, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16, GNT). In Mark and Luke, this is the main point of the passage. But in Matthew’s Gospel, there’s something else going on. First of all, Peter confesses his faith that “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” In Matthew’s Gospel that’s not the first time the disciples have affirmed their faith in Jesus. After the episode where Jesus walked to them on the water, they all confessed, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Mt 14:33). So Peter is confirming what they all have already confessed.

But the focus in Matthew’s Gospel isn’t just on Jesus here, it’s also on Peter. Matthew was concerned to demonstrate that Peter was going to play an important role in building the new community, the church. We see this primarily in the “blessing” that Jesus gives to Peter: “I tell you, Peter: you are a rock, and on this rock foundation I will build my church, and not even death will ever be able to overcome it” (Mt 16:18, GNT). Unfortunately, this statement is one that divides Christians today. Some say that Peter himself was the “rock” upon which Jesus promised to build his church. And that tradition is maintained by the line of Popes in Rome. Others say that the one and only rock is Jesus (1 Cor 3:11) or what Jesus taught (Mt 7:24).

I think at the end of the day, however you read this passage, the point is about building your life on the foundation of Jesus. Following Jesus means building our lives on his words and his example. In Matthew’s Gospel, it’s not enough to call Jesus, “Lord” and do all kinds of good deeds “in his name” if we do not obey “the will of the father in heaven” as Jesus did (Mt 7:21-23). And the final declaration of what that looks like comes in the parable about the separation of the sheep and goats: “I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” (Mt 25:35-36, NLT). When he refers to himself being in need, he’s really talking about those who are “overlooked or ignored” (Mt 25:40, MSG). As the Message translation puts it: “that was me—you did it to me.” In Matthew’s Gospel, that’s what it looks like to build your life on the foundation of Jesus’ words and his example.

This is not something that comes easily or naturally. We have a whole list of other pursuits that come before following Jesus. For most of us, family comes before everything. We build our lives around our career. Financial security ranks high in our lives. But then so do comfort, entertainment, and a sense of feeling safe. We build our lives on these things. But inevitably we discover that as good as they all may be, they can become like shifting sand. And when we build our lives on that kind of foundation, we may find ourselves in the situation Jesus warned about: “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” (Mt 7:27).

I guess the real question is where we start in trying to build our lives on the foundation of Jesus. One of the vows our confirmation students take is “Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying his Word and showing his love?” It sounds straightforward enough. But as I’ve pointed out to them, in order to obey Jesus’ word, we have to actually read the New Testament. I’m not talking about reading for information, or reading to check off a box that says “I’ve read through the Bible.” We have to read it as if our very lives depend on it! And we have to go beyond “reading” and study it in order to make it a part of who we are so that we can truly live it out. We read it reflectively, we roll it around and let it sink into the core of who we are so that we can follow Jesus’ words and his example.

I know that reading and studying the Bible can be a difficult discipline to maintain. So maybe the way to do it is to start small. Take your bulletin home with you and read the Scripture lessons throughout the coming week. Maybe several different times, in several different versions. Or if you want more, start reading through the New Testament alone. Or maybe you want to read the Psalms as well. I would also suggest that you pick a different version than the one you usually read. A different way of putting things sheds new light we may not have thought about. You might try the New Living Translation, which is the version we give to the confirmation classes.

I think the point is that we recover the discipline of daily Bible reading. Again, we don’t do that to check off a box. We do it because, without Jesus as the foundation for every aspect of our lives, all the foundations we’re building our lives on amount to swampy, sandy “gumbo.” And we may have to learn the hard way that the consequences can be costly. What is true for our individual lives is also true for our church. In my experience, churches thrive to the extent that the members are committed to Bible study. Not for the sake of appearances, but so that we can be “Christ’s faithful disciples.” It’s not only important for us in our individual lives, but also for our church. If we want a different outcome than what we’re getting now, it’s going to mean a major shift in our priorities and a change in the foundations upon which we are building our lives.

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[1] © Alan Brehm, 2023. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/27/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Exceptional?

Exceptional?

Matthew 15:21-28[1]

My generation was raised with the promise that we could do whatever we had it in our imagination to do, and we could be whoever we wanted to be. It was a wonderful encouragement for us as we were growing up. I think I’ve shared with you that in my youthful imagination, I saw myself becoming a Naval Officer. Of course, I think what really drew me to that idea was the fact that I really liked the uniforms. I don’t know if you are aware of this, but they actually have to pay for their own uniforms! They get an allowance, but it doesn’t cover the whole expense. They pay a great deal out of their own pockets. Talk about bursting my imagination!

I think many of us may grow up with the notion that we’re exceptional in some way. Maybe people don’t recognize it, but we’re convinced that if we had the chance, we could do something great with our lives. We believe we’re special, and that we have a “special” role to play in this world. While I would say that each and every one of us is unique and we all make a contribution to life that is irreplaceable, whether or not we get to make as big of a “splash” in the world as we may want isn’t really in our control. As I alluded to last week, I think that sometimes the truly “great” things we can do with our lives may not gain us much recognition.

The Jewish people in Jesus’ day had been taught for centuries that they were special. They were God’s “chosen” people. Unfortunately, they turned that special act of God’s grace into a privilege. They saw themselves as “exceptional,” and looked down on those whom they believed were “beneath” them. And they believed that everyone who wasn’t Jewish was “beneath” them. That attitude caused them to miss the fact that the whole point of their being God’s “chosen” people was so that they might be a “light” to all other people. What God intended as a calling, they mistook for a privilege. And that led them to think that they were “special,” more worthy than all the “others” they looked down on.

This is important background for our gospel lesson for today. When you read it as a straightforward story and assume that Jesus meant what he said to be taken literally, it can be troubling to hear. We’re shocked when this woman, who was a “foreigner” from “Tyre and Sidon” in gentile territory, came begging Jesus for mercy and he ignored her request. Or at least so it would seem. When she fell on her face and worshipped him, he responded by saying “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24). And when she persisted in her faith, and continued to ask for his mercy, instead of helping her he said, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Mt 15:26)!

We overlook the troubling part of this story because we always assume that everything Jesus said was meant to be taken literally. But if we take what Jesus said literally here, he responded to this woman who was in crisis and who came to him in faith asking him to show mercy with some of the harshest words he ever said to anyone! The only other time we hear of Jesus being so harsh is when he cleansed the Temple. And in that case, his motivation was that he was angry that the Jewish religious leaders had taken the one part of the temple where God-fearing gentiles could come to worship the living God and turned it in to a bazaar!

If we take what Jesus said literally, this story stands out like a sore thumb. How could Jesus have been so uncaring, so unkind, so downright mean as to respond to her heartfelt and faith-fueled request for mercy by saying she didn’t “deserve” it because she was a “dog”? That just doesn’t fit with what we know of Jesus elsewhere. He’s the one who looks at the crowds who were “like sheep without a shepherd” and has compassion on them. So much so that he feeds thousands of them in one sitting! He’s the one who has mercy on the ultimate outcasts, lepers, and restores them to health. He’s the one who forgives the thief on the cross and invites him, even as he was dying, to join him in paradise.

So what’s going on in this story? Some think perhaps that Jesus was “testing” this woman to make sure she had “enough” faith. But that doesn’t fit. Everything about this story demonstrates her faith. She approaches him by from the very beginning by calling him “Lord.” We might not think much of that, but in Matthew’s Gospel only those who have faith call Jesus “Lord.” She also falls on her face and worships him when she asks for his mercy. And in the end, Jesus declares that she has “great faith”! That’s something Jesus never says about the disciples in Matthew’s Gospel! They were people of “little faith.” I think this “foreign” woman had plenty of faith!

I think that the ones who were being “tested” in this story were the disciples. You can tell by the way they reacted to the woman’s (likely repeated) cry for help that they didn’t think she deserved his help. It didn’t take long for them to get fed up and ask Jesus to “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us” (Mt 10:23). Not much compassion there! I think we would be right to assume that the Jesus hand-picked ministry apprentices carried all the sense of entitlement that the rest of the Jewish people did. They were not only God’s “chosen” people, these twelve were also the ones whom Jesus personally selected to carry out his work. Surely that meant they were better than this “foreign” woman! I think it’s pretty clear that they looked down on her as someone who was not only beneath Jesus’ help, but also beneath even being in their presence! One point of this story, where Jesus commends her for her “great faith,” was to confront his own disciples for their prejudice against her.

  What does this have to do with us? Like the Canaanite woman in our story, the people we think of as “beneath” us are often people of “great faith.” They actually set an example for us, just like this woman did for Jesus’ disciples. We think we’re helping them, but if we take the time to see their “great faith,” we find that they’re actually helping us. There’s even a name for it. It’s called the “reverse mission.” Anyone who has been to a “Third World” country has experienced this. Those of us who have the means to help people in need find that in the process their “great faith” challenges and inspires us. More than that, they bring us face-to-face with our not-so-healthy attitudes about life, about other people, and about ourselves, and in so doing they offer us the opportunity to change. Our encounters with them help us become better followers of Jesus and better human beings. They remind us that there’s no one we can consider “unworthy” of God’s love, because God’s love is for everyone!

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[1] ©2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/20/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Stay in the Boat

Staying in the Boat

Matthew 14:22-33[1]

There are a lot of reasons why we do the things we do. Not all of them are always healthy. In my case, I grew up in a home where coming home with top grades at school was expected, so there wasn’t really much recognition for that. The only time I was singled out for attention was when my report card (I’m dating myself here!) had something other than straight “A’s.” I was taught early on to associate my self-worth with my achievements. Because I was often subject to intense criticism (and sometimes even punishment) for the least misstep, I embraced the path of doing my best in school to prove my parents wrong about their seemingly obsessive fault-finding. And I wound up earning a Ph. D. in the process! I don’t regret doing any of that, but I’ve had to recognize that my motivation wasn’t the healthiest.

That kind of motivation isn’t sufficient to sustain anyone in the push and pull of real life. The ups and downs of life, day in and day out, week to week, month to month, and year to year require something more positive to enable us to stay the course. Especially when it gets tough. We need some kind of positive reason to keep going in the tough times, and to finish well. For me, that reason is God’s unfailing love. Where the love of my parents failed me, I learned by experience that God’s love never fails. Of course, I don’t always feel completely confident of that love. There are times when my faith falters. But I keep coming back to God’s love that never fails.

When I think about our Gospel lesson for today, I wonder what motivated Peter. I mean, think about it, in the middle of a storm at the dead of night he asked Jesus to let him walk on water! We’re used to hearing about Peter’s impulsive nature. But I wonder if there wasn’t something deeper going on. What drove him to always speak up, to promise Jesus he would die for him, to constantly be seeking Jesus’ approval? When I think of Peter, that’s what strikes me. He seems to be trying to go above and beyond all the others to win Jesus’ approval. But in the midst of a raging storm, he needed more than that to keep him from sinking into the waves.

When we look at our Gospel lesson for today, we find that Matthew has a unique perspective on the story about Jesus walking on the water. In the other Gospels, it’s all about Jesus. But in Matthew’s Gospel, there’s another dimension to this story. It’s about the disciples and their commitment to following Jesus. Matthew has a much more positive view on the disciples, their faith, and their commitment to Jesus than we find in Mark. And yet, we should note that in Matthew, discipleship is always practiced by real human beings who are called “you of little faith.” That’s what Jesus called “the Apostles”! That means they’re subject to fear when they’re in a boat that’s being “battered” by a storm “at the very dead of night” (Mt 14:25, NTE)! Jesus’ question, “why did you doubt?” is not so much a rebuke as a call to remember why they followed him in the first place!

One of the ways that Matthew emphasizes the importance of trusting and faithful discipleship is by telling us the story of Peter asking to walk on the water. Only Matthew tells us this story. It has been commonly observed that Peter’s “faith” was demonstrated by being willing to get out of the boat (in the midst of a storm!), and that his “doubt” refers to when he shifted his attention from Jesus to the wind and the waves and began to sink. The idea is that if he had had enough faith, he would have been able to walk on the water just like Jesus did.

But I think that Peter’s “doubt” refers to the fact that when Jesus called out, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid” (Mt 14:27), he didn’t trust Jesus’ word. Instead, he wanted “proof.” In response to Jesus’ word of assurance, Peter said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Mt 14:28)! I tend to agree with those who, like John Calvin, think that the trusting and faithful response on Peter’s part would have been to heed the assurance that Jesus gave him and stay in the boat![2] Peter needed that boat to keep from sinking into the waves during a raging storm!

The reason why I think that about Peter is because the point of trusting and faithful discipleship is to stay the course, no matter what we may have to face. That is why, in the centuries since Matthew originally told this story, the symbol of a boat in the midst of a storm has been used as a symbol of the church. We could view this story individually, drawing comfort from Jesus’ assurance to us personally that he will be with us and will give us the strength to get through whatever we may have to endure in life. But I think Matthew wanted us to view this story from the perspective of the community of those who are committed to follow Jesus. That is the “boat” we all need to keep us from sinking into the waves during the raging storms.

There are times in our lives when things happen that are so painful that we may find it difficult to keep going. We’ve all been through those times I’ve been through some of those times myself. There have been a couple of times when I thought my career in ministry was over. Most recently, in 2014. I had been searching for a new ministry call for about 18 months and had come up empty. Because of some malicious accusations that were found to be baseless by a Presbytery investigation, I was forced to leave one of the two congregations I had been serving. I had been living on a half salary for almost a year, making up the difference from my savings. And I was getting very discouraged.

I had been through a lot in my ministry career long before 2014. But at that point, I was running out of money, there was no opening on the horizon. I couldn’t see any way forward. I thought maybe my ministry career was over. I met with my Presbyter, who had been a good friend and mentor to me. He made some recommendations about my profile in the PCUSA system. Within less than a month I was talking to the Pastor Nominating Committee of this church. And within 6 months I was on the job here. That was 9 years ago. My good friend from the community of faith helped me to stay the course, and I’m grateful. He was a part of the boat, and I needed him to keep from sinking in the waves.

We all go through hard times in this life. That’s when we need the boat the most. That’s when we need the support of the community of faith the most. Unfortunately, that’s when we can be most tempted to walk away. At the same time, the support our family of faith offers us often isn’t be perfect. When I think about who was in that boat that night on the Sea of Galilee, it’s a wonder that the church survived long after Jesus’ death on the cross. We all may be tempted to leave the boat for all kinds of reasons. But when I face that temptation, I remind myself that this is the place where we join to pray for all people to acknowledge God’s name as holy, where we pray for God’s kingdom to come and right all the wrongs, where we pray for God’s will for us to find peace and joy and love to be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the place where we come to remind and encourage one another that the path of trusting and faithful discipleship leads us to stay the course, to stay in the boat, come what may. What enables us to do that is God’s love for us that never fails and Jesus’ promise to be with us always.

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[1] ©2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/13/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, vol. 2, 240–241. Cf. also Gene Boring, “Gospel of Matthew” New Interpreters Bible IX:329-30: “Faith is not being able to walk on the water—only God can do that—but daring to believe, in the face of all evidence, that God is with us in the boat, … as it makes its way through the storm, battered by the waves.”