Waiting?

 Waiting?

Luke 12:32-46[1]

Most of us don’t care much for talk about the “second coming of Christ.” Part of the reason for this is because of the people out there who are talking so much about it. They do so in a way that is confusing at best and offensive and even dangerous at worst. Over fifty years ago Hal Lindsay published the book, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” where he famously (or infamously) predicted that Jesus would return in 1978, or at the latest 1988. And of course, Jesus’ “return” would usher in all kinds of catastrophes for “unbelievers.” None of that happened, but people still followed his teachings and bought his books. He wasn’t the first to try to predict a specific date, and I’m sure he won’t be the last. Many self-styled “prophets” throughout history have wreaked havoc and at times even cost the lives of their devotees. One recent example was David Koresh, the messianic pretender whose “predictions” and “proclamations” about the “end times” led a splinter group of Seventh-Day Adventists to a violent clash with federal authorities near Waco, TX. Most of us don’t want to be associated with that kind of corruption.

I think another factor that inhibits our enthusiasm about the so-called “second coming” is that those who tend to make a big deal about it seem to use it as a “scare tactic.” You know, Jesus could come this very day, so you better get right with God or you might be “left behind.” By now, the “Left Behind” series of books written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is “old news.” But back in the day, they were all the rage. Although they were novels, way too many people believed that what they portrayed was an accurate presentation of biblical teaching. The central feature of the series is the premise that those who trust in Jesus will be “rescued” from the catastrophes to come, while the others will be “left behind” to suffer. Again, this kind of fear-mongering is something most of us don’t want to be associated with.

Part of the problem is that most of us start out with several false premises when we’re dealing with this question. In the first place, talk of the “second coming” of Jesus is confusing. If Jesus has to “return,” then where did he go? Didn’t he promise, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20)? The standard answer is that Jesus is with God, but he will return one day. But that presupposes that somehow God and Jesus are somewhere else, “separated” from us right now. By contrast, the Bible clearly teaches that God is present with us always, actively working for good in our lives and in the whole creation. I would say it’s more consistent with our faith in Jesus as “God who is always with us” to speak about his future “coming in power and glory” to finish the work he’s still doing among us.[2]  

A further problem is that people who are preoccupied with “figuring out” the end time want to know all the details: when, how, and what will happen.[3] But typically, that obsession stems from a sometimes desperate effort to assure themselves that they will be “safe” and their destiny is “secure.” When you combine that with the fact that they’re convinced that those who are “outside” the church will be violently destroyed along with the whole creation, it creates an image of Christian Faith, not to mention an image of God, that not only blatantly contradicts the Bible, but is downright offensive. The Reformed theologian Shirley Guthrie, who literally wrote the book on Christian Theology for Presbyterians over fifty years ago, points out two problems with this approach. First, when we’re dealing with the Bible, it’s always best to rely on the clear teachings of the whole of Scripture rather than obscure books like Daniel or Revelation.[4] Second, when we ground our hopes regarding the future in God’s whole story, we have more than enough reason to look for Jesus’ future coming as a time not for violent destruction but for the “renewal of life” for us and for all creation. In short, the whole Bible assures us that God is for us, not against us!

And the Bible does have a lot to say about this future coming. All the hopes that the Hebrew prophets had raised about God renewing and restoring this world to the peace and justice and freedom of his merciful reign are focused in the New Testament on the future coming of Christ in power and glory. But the Bible consistently avoids paying any attention to all the juicy details that self-styled “prophets” have used throughout the ages to manipulate their followers. Rather, the message is that since we look forward to the day when Christ will come and set things right, then we ought to live our lives accordingly. It’s that simple and that hard. Time after time we are called to be “ready,” as Jesus does in our Gospel lesson for today. But none it has much of anything to do with all the talk of fear-mongers who threaten people with being “left behind.” 

Our Gospel lesson gives us a different perspective on what it means to be “ready.” Here Jesus tells a parable about servants waiting for their master to return from a journey, and the servants cannot possibly know the exact day or hour of their master’s return. Jesus says that those servants will be “ready” if they are found “waiting” when the master returns. But I don’t think that means that they were just sitting around passively waiting for the gate to open. Obviously, these servants had tasks that needed to be performed on a daily basis. And so their “waiting” and their “readiness” involved continuing to do their jobs, taking care of the master’s household, tending the garden, tending the livestock, performing any maintenance that the estate needed. In other words, being “ready,” being “alert” means doing what they have been instructed to do as if the master were right there with them. I would say that when live every day like that, we don’t have to worry about being “left behind,” or wonder about the details of our final destiny.[5] We know it’s secure in the hands of our loving God and our faithful Savior!

I would say this perspective on what it means to be “ready” for the future coming of Christ is much more consistent with biblical teachings. Despite those who revel in their charts, we really cannot know when that day will come. And contrary to the fear-mongers who try to scare people into doing their bidding, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). That doesn’t mean it will be easy. It doesn’t mean we can sit around doing nothing. It means that we are called to do what we’ve been instructed to do. We’re called to live in the manner we’ve been taught to live.[6] And we’re to do that every day, knowing that in a very real sense our “master” is here with us right now. And so we can go about our business, the business of the mercy, and peace, and freedom, and compassion of God’s kingdom, in the confidence that what we do is pleasing in God’s sight. It seems to me, as we do that every day, we remain ready, waiting actively for Jesus’ final victory!

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[1] © Alan Brehm 2025. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/10/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Technically, the NT speaks of the future “coming” of Christ as his final victory It is therefore not correct to speak of a “second coming” or a “return,” since “Christ ... remains present in the Spirit.” See Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 529.

[3] Cf. Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, 2d ed., 386, where he states bluntly that “Christians ought not place their hope in all kinds of fantastic speculations about a future they cannot really know anything about.” Earlier he quotes John Calvin to the same effect (ibid., 382): “it is foolish and rash to inquire concerning unknown matters more deeply than God wants us to know”! This quote is from John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.25.6 (found in vol 2, p. 997 of the 1960 Library of Christian Classic edition by John T. McNeill), where Calvin is discussing the “intermediate state,” or what happens to us between our death and the final resurrection. Even though that is a different matter than we’re discussing, I think Calvin’s words aptly summarize Jesus’ words in Acts 1:17 in response to the disciples’ question about the timing of the kingdom: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.” I don’t think it’s a coincidence that what Jesus tells them to focus their attention on is the instruction to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:18).

[4] Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, 385: “the clearest biblical sources for helping us to understand the Christian hope for the future are not Daniel and Revelation.” Instead (ibid., 386) we look to “the God whose plans and promises are made known to us in the whole story of Israel and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.”

[5] Cf. Fred Craddock, Luke, 165: “readiness ... consists of continuing faithfulness to one’s duties.  When that is the case, uncertainties are no cause for alarm or anxiety.” 

[6] Donald K. McKim, another major contributor to the teaching of Christian Theology to Presbyterians, wrote in Introducing the Reformed Faith, 177: “If we believe the ultimate future is about God’s liberating rule, then the church and all followers of Jesus Christ will do whatever we can to point toward this future reign and to enact God’s coming kingdom in history today.” 

A Whole New Wardrobe

A Whole New Wardrobe

Colossians 3:1-17[1]

I usually learn a few things from teaching confirmation class. Not necessarily about faith, mind you, but about popular culture and where our young people are. A couple of years ago, one of our students told me that I dress in a manner he called “bougie.” I’d never heard of that word, so I didn’t know what it meant. One of the other students assured me that it’s a good thing. As I understand it, the idea is that he thought my wardrobe is stylish. That’s the way many young people use the word “bougie” these days. Well, as you may know, I’m interested in words, so I looked into it. As is often the case with “new” words in our language, others use it in a different way. To some “bougie” means “fancy,” or “flamboyant,” or even “overly pretentious.” I looked up “bougie” and discovered that it comes from the term “bourgeois.” That’s a philosophical word used to describe the “showy” behavior of middle-class people with recently acquired wealth. And, originally, when “bougie” became a slang word in American English in the 1970’s, it referred to people trying to “act rich.” But as words change, these days, “bougie” simply means “stylish.” What began as a rather sarcastic criticism has become a compliment.

In our lesson from Colossians for today, Paul talks about changing of clothes. In reality, what he’s really talking about is changing one’s life, which is a lot harder for us than changing clothes. Throughout his letters, Paul addresses the change of life that ought to accompany a person’s profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. All the ways in which we can live that harm or diminish ourselves or others are like clothes that have been so stained as to become unwearable. Or they are like clothes that have become worn out or that simply don’t fit us anymore. When you have clothes that you can’t wear anymore, you get rid of them. Paul’s meaning is that in place of those harmful ways of living, we’re to “clothe” ourselves with the qualities that defined Jesus’ way of life.

In particular, Paul calls us to live with “compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline” (Col 3:12, MSG).[2] That in and of itself is a tall order, if you really think about what it means to make those qualities the defining marks of your life. Above all, he says that we’re to “wear love” like a “basic, all-purpose garment” (Col 3:14, MSG) That shouldn’t come as a surprise to us, since the whole Bible teaches us that God wants us to love our brothers and sisters—all our brothers and sisters. None of this is new to most of us. But I’m not sure whether we understand the motivation for it all. It’s not just that you’re supposed to be a good and kind and nice person. Since Christ died for us, we’re also called to die to all that characterizes a life that is selfish and harmful to others (Col 3:5-9). More than that, because Christ has been raised to new life, and we have been “raised with Christ” (Col 3:1), we have his new life within us.[3] What Paul is really asking us to do is to clothe ourselves with Jesus. His way of life, his love, his character, and all that goes with it, are to be the “new clothes” in our wardrobe.

That might sound easy enough for us. Changing clothes is something we do all the time. But what we have to remember is that most people in that day only had one set of clothes. Having more than one set of clothes was a sign of wealth. The wardrobe that many of us tend to keep in our closets would have been available only to the richest of the rich. Everyone else literally wore the same set of clothes day after day. So when Paul talked about a change of clothes, that would have been significant. Working-class people may have been able to replace their clothing more than once a year.[4] But most people simply wore their clothing until it was too stained or too threadbare to wear in public.

I think the point we should take away from this is that “changing clothes” wasn’t something that happened often for most people. It was a significant act. That’s why Paul could use it as an analogy for the difference our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord should make in our lives. It should be a big deal. In fact, it was such a big deal in that day that some people were shunned from their families, some were fired from their jobs, and some were even expelled from their communities as a result. Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord may have changed everything in their lives! In our day, I’m not sure that’s the case for us these days. Ironically, our faith in Jesus Christ may be just as insignificant as changing clothes is for us. We typically change clothes more than once a day, at least. We have work clothes, we have gym clothes, we have dress clothes, we have casual clothes, and we have comfortable clothes we only wear at home. Changing clothes for us is no big deal. I wonder whether professing our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord has become as insignificant to us as changing our clothes.

Lately I’ve been exploring some of the reasons why people outside the church don’t come to church. I think this may be another reason. Our faith just doesn’t seem to make much of a difference in the way we live. In fact, sociologists have documented that the lifestyles of those who are in the church aren’t much different from those who are outside the church. When we fail to demonstrate the difference our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord makes in our lives, we fail to give anyone a reason to be here. Participating in church is just another option for Sunday morning, like the varied options of clothing we have. To some people, it’s just a waste of time. If we don’t have anything better to do, we go to church. But who wants to waste their time with something that doesn’t really make a difference in their lives or in the lives of anybody else? I’m not sure I have the answer to that question, but that’s a question that I wonder about when I think about Paul comparing the difference our faith in Jesus Christ makes in our lives to changing clothes.

Going back to where we started, I personally don’t think the way I dress is all that special. I’ve had the suit I’m wearing today for twenty years! I try to keep my wardrobe fresh, but the way I do it is by shopping clearance sales. Sometimes that works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. My daughter assures me that I most definitely do not dress “bougie.” I’m okay with that. I want to look my best, but I also want my clothes to be practical. And by that I mean that I can get away with wearing them for a long time by just adding fresh touches here and there. I pay attention to my wardrobe, but I’m not much of a shopper, so I don’t make a big deal out of it.

As we reflect on our lesson for today, I think most of us would like to hope that our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord is far more important than the clothes we wear. Perhaps a better analogy for us would be a completely new wardrobe. Not many of us ever completely change our whole wardrobe at once. That’s what Paul is calling us to do. But I would say that for most of us it’s all too easy to get caught up in the push and pull of our lives. So much so that we really don’t pay that much attention to how we live. We don’t put much thought into what we say, and whether or not our words harm others or help them. We don’t put much thought into how we interact with people. Our own experiences, the stresses and the frustrations, the fears and the hardships, as well as the joys and celebrations of our lives just occupy us so much that we may forget to think about being intentional about “clothing” ourselves with Jesus Christ each day. Some of us may need to clear out a whole wardrobe that does not fit well with our faith. In place, we may need a whole new wardrobe. Paul calls us to put on the qualities that define Jesus’ life: his love, his compassion, his kindness, his humility. When we live this way, I believe that people will be drawn to join us. Not because of who we are, but because of the way we demonstrate the life of Jesus Christ in the way we live each and every day.

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[1] © 2025. Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/3/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. E. Lohse, Colossians and Philemon: A commentary on the Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 147: “All of the five terms that describe the new man’s conduct are used in other passages to designate acts of God or of Christ.” (compassion: Rom 12:1; 2 Cor 1:3; kindness: Rom 2:4; 11:22; Eph 2:7; Tit 3:4; humility: Phil 2:8; 2 Cor 10:1; patience: Rom 2:4; 9:22).

[3] Cf. Michael Barram, “Colossians 3:1-17,” Interpretation, 59 (April 2005): 190, where he says that “the living Christ provides the basis for all Christian conduct”; and further, these behaviors become “the norm for believers because Christ is alive and reigning with God.”

[4] For a summary of research about this, see Dafna Shlezinger-Katsman, “Clothing,” in The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine, 362-81, and on the availability of clothing related to wealth and poverty see Gildas Hamel, “Poverty and Charity,” in ibid., 308-324, esp. 318-19.

The Great Mystery

The Great Mystery

Colossians 1:15-28[1]

One of the blessings and curses of our culture is the way we put everything in a “box.” That was how philosophers and scientists taught us to make sense out of the explosion of knowledge that began a couple of hundred years ago. We might not even be aware of the “categories” we use to understand our world, but of course it is the role of philosophers and scientists to point out these things to us. Some of us are familiar with the mail-order catalogues that used to come from department stores like Sears and Roebuck or J C Penney. I’m not talking about the flimsy little ones we get these days. These were catalogues that included “everything, including the kitchen sink”! They were the “Amazon” of their day. But unlike Amazon, where you can just start typing what you’re looking for into a search box, those massive catalogues had a huge index at the back. That’s how you found what you were looking for. The index was an alphabetical listing of all the items for sale with an indication of the page number where you could find what you wanted. But even the index was so big it was divided into categories.

I think most of us have just become used to looking that the world through the lens of a huge “catalogue.” It just seems “natural” to us to break things down into their parts and sort them into the “right” categories. But there are other cultures that emphasize the connections all things and all beings have with one another. It’s a different way of looking at the world. I would say the world into which Paul wrote the lesson from Colossians for today was more like that than like our world. I think that’s especially the case with the way Paul connects Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord with everything and everyone. Because he is the “is the visible image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15, NLT), he’s connected to all of creation. That includes not only the world and everything and everyone in it, but the entire universe. I know that’s hard for us to wrap our heads around, but Paul can say not only that “through him God created everything” but also that “he holds all creation together” (Col 1:17, NLT). Paul’s view of Jesus Christ goes far beyond the simple teacher from Nazareth who died on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem. He’s that, but he’s also so much more.

What makes the difference here is Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of God. That pointed the Apostles back to Jesus’ existence as God’s son from all eternity, and therefore his role in the work of creation. But it also convinced them that Jesus is the one who rules over all things in God’s name now, and who one day will bring all God’s plans to fulfillment. This is the “great mystery” that belongs to Jesus the Christ. We see this in our lesson from Colossians as well: the purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection was for God to “reconcile everything to himself” (Col 1:20, NLT), or as version we read for today puts it, “so that all beings in heaven and on earth would be brought back to God” (Col 1:20, CEV). We might say, “all beings in the whole universe.”[2]

Again, that language might sound strange to us. There are some places in the New Testament where the language of the Gospel, including Paul’s preaching and teaching, seems to limit salvation to only a few. In the Jewish world, salvation was for Jewish people, and only for Jewish people. All the gentiles, or the “heathen,” were condemned for their ignorance. Unfortunately, there have been many theologians up to this day who have promoted that mindset. Tertullian, a Third-Century teacher said it first, “extra ecclesia nulla salus est.” That means “outside the church there is no salvation.” Only those in the church experience salvation, and no one else. That line of thinking was carried on by some of the most influential theologians in the history of our faith, and many believe it to be the “received truth” of the Christian faith to this day.

But there have always been other Christian scholars and teachers who have taken the language of our lesson for today more at face value. While we cannot ignore Jesus’ real humanity, there is much more to who Jesus Christ is. Paul alludes to this in our lesson for today when he tells gentile believers that God’s “wonderful and glorious mystery” is that “Christ lives in you, and he is your hope of sharing in God’s glory” (Col. 1:27, CEV). What we may have a hard time imagining is just how hard it would have been for any Jewish person living in the First Century to say that about any Gentile person. I agree with a number of others who think that the fact that people who would have been assumed to be permanent outsiders responded to the Gospel in faith made the Apostles rethink a lot about their faith, especially whom they included and whom they excluded.

For too many people, the church in our culture has been known primarily for whom we exclude, especially to those who are outside the church. I would say this is another reason why some people avoid church so much these days. But I believe that we can take seriously the hints that in Jesus Christ, God is up to something bigger than perhaps we’ve ever dared to imagine or dream. That “something bigger” is nothing less than fulfilling the promise of the resurrection that says that “In Adam all of us die. In the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again” (1 Cor 15:22, NCV). Paul says it a little differently elsewhere: “Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone” (Rom 5:18, NLT). And in our lesson from Colossians for today, we hear the astounding statement that the Gospel ultimately extends to everyone and everything in the whole universe! Paul calls this the “mystery of Christ.”[3]

What difference does this “great mystery” about God’s work through Jesus Christ make for us in our daily lives? Well, for one thing I think it calls us to be open to the fact that our faith contains more than we can put into our “boxes.” God is bigger than we can imagine or conceive. And in our lesson for today, we learn that so is Jesus Christ! Despite what the psalmsinger said, God does not resolve the problem of injustice in our world by “breaking down forever” the villains (Ps 52:5). In Jesus Christ, God resolves the problem of injustice by reconciling all things to God. God undoes the evil of those who arrogantly presume to abuse their power, as the prophet Amos describes. But he does so by “making peace” through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Essentially, he brings us all, oppressed and oppressors alike, back to God. That version of salvation is hard to put into any “box.”

I would say another important lesson for us is that that we, as members of Christ’s “body” on earth, all participate in this “great mystery” right now. And more than that, we all have a role in fulfilling God’s big plan to save the whole creation. If you doubt that, perhaps your Jesus is too small.[4] Part of this great mystery is that every time we act with integrity and kindness, every time we seek to make love for God and love for others the principle of our lives, everything we do in this world to spread just a little of the justice, freedom, and peace of God’s kingdom to someone who needs it, we’re contributing to the fulfillment of God’s big plan. That’s not because we’re anything special, but rather it’s because Jesus Christ who reigns over all things as Lord even now is working in and through us to fulfill God’s big plan to save the whole creation. It may be hard for us to wrap our heads around all this, but I think our Scripture lesson calls us to marvel at the wonder of it all, and to be grateful that we have the chance to participate in something so awe-inspiring!

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 7/20/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.3:756 speaks of “the alteration of the whole situation of man and his cosmos as already accomplished in Jesus Christ” as he is in the process of fulfilling God’s determination ” to reconcile everything to himself” (Col. 1:20). Some would dispute this theme in Barth’s Dogmatics. It’s true that he takes a different approach in the earlier volumes. But it seems unavoidable to recognize it in volume 4. It would seem that Barth underwent a transition in his thinking about the extent of salvation during the twenty plus years of writing the Dogmatics.

[3] Jürgen Moltmann in Sun of Righteousness, Arise!: God’s Future for Humanity and the Earth, 140, quotes Christoph Blumhardt, a 19^th century German theologian who believed the impact of God’s redemption extended beyond individual salvation, as saying that this is his “confession of hope”: “That God might give up anything or anyone in the whole world—about that there can be no question, neither today nor in all eternity … The end has to be: Behold, everything is God’s!”

[4] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions, 276: “in personal faith a rebirth is experienced which will one day extend to heaven and earth; and the church prefigures and foreshadows the temple of the Holy Spirit which the whole cosmos is destined to become. It is only the cosmic dimension which gives the human, historical experiences of Christ their all-embracing meaning. We can only think of Christ inclusively. Anyone who thinks of Christ exclusively, not for other people but against them, has not understood the Reconciler of the world” (emphasis original). Cf. also ibid., 278: “Christology can only arrive at its completion at all in a cosmic christology. All other christologies fall short and do not provide an adequate content for the experiences of the Easter witnesses with the risen Christ. If Christ is the first-born from the dead, then he cannot be merely ‘the new Adam’ of a new humanity. He must also be understood as the first-born of the whole creation.” He continues to discuss Karl Barth’s “cautious consideration” of this “possibility” in the passage cited above and intentionally “develops” it. As a result, he concludes, ibid., 285: “the church must be seen as the beginning of the reconciled cosmos which has arrived at peace.”

Simple Actions

Simple Actions

Colossians 1:1-14, Luke 10:25-37[1]

My Grandmother’s sister, Ruth Jackson, was the first woman to become an orthopedic surgeon. Anywhere. In fact, the association of women Orthopedic Surgeons is called the “Ruth Jackson Society.” She was quite a gutsy lady—just becoming a doctor was hard enough for a woman in those days. Her passion combined with her compassion for people led her to break into one of the most elite “men’s only” clubs in that day. In fact, Orthopedic Surgery is still that way to this day, a century later! When my aunt Ruth was treated for a neck injury, she was unhappy that orthopedics in that day was a “hands-off” discipline. They took x-rays, used neck braces, and prescribed traction for patients without ever actually touching them. So she pioneered a “hands-on” approach to treating neck injuries. She literally wrote the book on the treatment of neck injuries—a book that went through 4 editions and was translated into various languages and was the standard text around the world for many years. 

Growing up with Aunt Ruth was both wonderful and difficult. She taught me to shoot, to fish, and to drive, among many other things. She could be incredibly demanding of a boy who she wanted to follow in her footsteps. I still remember the time at her dining table when she insisted that any nephew of hers was going to learn proper table manners! I was 6 years old! Obviously, it stuck with me all these years. In fact, the whole family expected me—both implicitly and out loud—to do something “spectacular” just like Aunt Ruth. They didn’t insist that I go into medicine—though she applied a great deal of “arm twisting” to get me to do just that. But whatever field I went into, it was clear that I was expected to do something “spectacular.”

We live in a world where it seems more and more that you have to do something “spectacular” in order to make a difference. I think this is in part due to the fact that instant communications have made our world much bigger for all of us. With access to news about so many problems that are so widespread all over the world, it can be so easy for us to think, “I’m just one person,” and “I can’t really make a difference.” I think this is especially the case in our culture where we almost worship “celebrities.” How many of our kids at certain ages dream not of becoming doctors or lawyers or teachers, but rather famous actors or musicians or athletes? To some extent, that’s just youthful exuberance. But I think some of it comes from our near obsession with people who are “famous.” And for some, that notion that you have to do something spectacular or even become famous can be linked to feeling valued by those you love.

I think that our lesson from Paul’s letter to the Colossians this week gives us some help at this point. In his letters, Paul talks about the Christian life in a way that is pretty down to earth. It’s a matter of “bearing fruit” and doing “good work” (Col. 1:10). I would remind you that “bearing fruit” in the Bible is a metaphor for the quality of your character, not “getting results.” It’s about who we are, not what we accomplish. Here and elsewhere in his letters, Paul talks about the Christian life as a matter of simple actions, like “walking the walk,” and not just “talking the talk.” These and other incredibly ordinary activities are what it means to live in a such way as to “honor and please the Lord” who redeemed us (Col 1:10-14). It sounds like the life that Paul envisions for those of us who would follow Christ is really nothing spectacular at all. It’s a matter of focusing on simple actions in our daily living.

That might seem too cliché to merit our attention, until you think about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. After all, what did the Samaritan do that was so “spectacular”? All that kind soul did was to notice the one who was wounded, actually take time to stop, and care enough to bind up his wounds. And then he saw to it that this wounded man could have the time he needed to recuperate. It’s a story of simple actions: mercy put into practice, compassion that goes the second mile. Stopping, caring for him, putting him up at the inn, were all simple actions. Nothing spectacular. But they made all the difference in the world to “the one who fell among robbers.”

 It seems to me, contrary to our culture that is obsessed with all things “spectacular,” it is when we are engaged in simple actions that we make the most difference in another person’s life. I’ve studied with world-renowned theologians and Bible scholars. But the most influential person in my life was my brother, Douglas, who was mentally and emotionally handicapped. It was just the gentleness of his soul that impacted me so deeply. To paraphrase one of my favorite spiritual writers, Henri Nouwen, the Christian life is “mostly hidden in the ordinariness of everyday living.”[2] It’s not something that makes headlines in the news.

When you get right down to it, that’s the only place we can really make much of a difference in the life of another human being. We mere mortals rarely achieve the level of influence that can truly make a difference for hundreds or thousands of people out there. For the most part, we can touch a life here, a life there. And we do that through the quality of our character as displayed in simple actions, not anything “spectacular” we might do. It’s through the way in which we actually relate to people, the way we actually treat other human beings, not through any great “achievement,” that we really have an effect on others. From that perspective, the Christian life is a matter of simple actions that constitute living out the grace and mercy and compassion of God. I see a lot of pain and suffering in this world. When we live in a world of hurt like that, it makes it all the more important for us to live out God’s grace and mercy and compassion in simple actions every day.

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 7/13/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Henri Nouwen, Here and Now:Living in the Spirit, 103: “The compassionate life is mostly hidden in the ordinariness of everyday living.”