Unworthy?

Unworthy?     

Matthew 15:21-28[1]

We have all kinds of ways of drawing lines between “us” and “them.” It’s tempting to add “these days” to that statement, but I think in fact the human family has always had plenty of ways to draw lines between “us” and “them.” I’m sure there was a time when that was purely a matter of survival. But that time has long passed for most of us. Yet we persist in seeing those who are “too” different from us as “others” and perhaps even “enemies.” It seems to me that we do that most in uncertain times. Especially when influential people use their voices to stoke our fears and anxieties and to convince us that they’re the only ones we should trust with power. This happens at all levels and on all sides of the lines we draw between “us” and “them.”

Part of the problem with this mindset is that when we label someone as “other” or as an “enemy,” it opens the door for us to devalue their humanity. That’s true in times of war. It’s almost impossible to put someone into battle and expect them to actually kill other human beings without convincing them that their “enemies” don’t deserve to live. But it’s also true in other aspects of life. I find it troubling that our political discourse takes this approach. The attitude these days seems to be “If you disagree with me, you’re not worth my time.” At least that’s the tone of what I see and hear on social media, and again, it’s on all sides. But even more troubling to me is the fact that we bring this mindset into our religion as well. If someone’s religion makes them too “different” from us, we tend to dismiss not only their faith but their humanity as well. That means they’re not even worthy of our friendship, let alone our love!

Unfortunately, this attitude toward people who hold different faiths has infected people of all religious persuasions throughout history. “We,” whoever we may be, are most worthy of God’s love because we worship “the right way.” “They,” whoever they may be, may be loved by God, but they don’t really deserve it because they don’t worship “the right way.” This attitude may show up as a preference, or as a sense of superiority, or even as stated doctrine! Unfortunately, the various declarations of God’s love in the Hebrew Bible convinced many Jewish people that they were “special” in this way. They missed the fact that what made them special was that they were “chosen” to extend God’s love to “all the families of the earth” (Gen 12:3).  Like many people through the ages, because they believed they were “special,” they concluded that those who were different were not only “beneath” them but not even worthy of God’s love.

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’s disturbing if not downright offensive. 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, “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 this disturbing story because, if we take what Jesus said here literally, it would mean that he responded to a mother who was desperate to save her child and who came to him in faith with some of the harshest words he ever said to anyone! That makes this story stand 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-filled 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. 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 with this story? Some think perhaps that Jesus was “testing” this woman to make sure she had “enough” faith. But I’ve never believed that fits this story. Everything about it demonstrates her faith. She approaches him from the very beginning by calling him “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”!  We should remember that last week we heard Jesus calling Peter, who would become the leader of the Apostles, “you of little faith” (Mt 14:31). By contrast, he said to this woman, “you have great faith!” I think the woman in this story had plenty of faith!

I think that the ones who were being “tested” here were Jesus’ disciples. You can tell by the way they reacted to her that they didn’t think she deserved Jesus’ help. As she was crying out 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). I think we would be right to assume that the ministry apprentices Jesus had handpicked to carry on his work also carried all the entitlement that so many religious people had in that day, and have claimed for themselves throughout the ages. I think it’s pretty clear that they looked down on this “Canaanite” woman as someone who was not only beneath Jesus’ help, but also beneath even being in their presence! “Send her away!,” they said. The point of this encounter was to confront Jesus’ disciples for their prejudice. That means that the seemingly harsh words Jesus said were not meant to be taken literally, but rather he was speaking somewhat ironically in order to teach his disciples that their notions of God’s mercy were too limited. I’m sure there were plenty of other people in their world besides this mother whom they deemed “unworthy” to even be in Jesus’ presence, let alone to receive his mercy and compassion. They needed to learn better![2]

One of the lessons I’ve learned from studying the world of the Bible is that we humans haven’t changed much. We may have technology that changes our lives, but our fundamental nature hasn’t changed over the millennia. We still draw lines that divide those of “us” who are “worthy” of God’s love from the “others” who are “unworthy” not only of God’s love but even of our attention. This Scripture lesson confronts us by reminding us that God’s mercy cannot be limited by the lines we draw to exclude people we consider to be “unworthy.” Right after this episode, while he was still in that “foreign” territory, Matthew tells us that Jesus healed everyone who came to him. I can’t imagine that he first checked to make sure they had the “right” to God’s mercy. He simply healed them all (Mt 15:30). Jesus knew in the depth of his very being that God’s mercy has no limits. In God’s sight we’re all worthy of God’s love simply because God loves us!

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[1] © 2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/16/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Some take a very different approach. Interpreting Jesus’ words literally, they believe that this encounter was actually a test for Jesus to “free” him from limited notions of his mission and from patriarchal attitudes toward women. Cf. Sharon Ringe, “A Gentile Woman’s Story,” in Letty M. Russell, ed., Feminist Interpretation of the Bible, 67-68. However, Gene Boring, “Gospel of Matthew,” New Interpreters Bible IX: 337-38 rightly criticizes her for reading too much of an ideological agenda into the situation. As he observes, the story is about the sexism and racism of the Gospel readers (and I would say the disciples).

Living in Freedom

Living in Freedom

Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:34-42[1]

Sometimes I think organized religion may be more of a hindrance to people who are looking for God’s love than a help. You may find that strange for someone who’s spent his whole career working in organized religion to say! Nevertheless, after spending almost five decades working in the church, I would say that religious organizations tend to get in the way. We create structures and rules to ensure that everyone winds up at the same place in their spiritual journey. But structures and rules always have to be tweaked. It might be tempting for us to point the finger at those “other” religions out there, for “straining a gnat and swallowing a camel” (Matt 23:24), as Jesus put it. But the reality is that all religions are human attempts to understand ultimate things like God and eternity. And because they’re created by flawed and fallible people like you and me, they all in one way or another tend to get in the way of those who are looking for God in this life.[2]

In the Hebrew Bible, we see an approach to God that essentially defines the spiritual quest in terms of carefully conducted rituals and equally careful observance of rules about staying “pure.” Holiness is defined by eating the right foods and having the “right kind” of relationship the “right kind” of person. That may have been a good place to start, but I would say that many very deeply religious people no longer believe that we please God by observing the right rituals, or eating only the right foods, or having the “right kind” of relationships with the “right kind” of people. And yet, even in our day there are still some who cling to those old rules. As if Jesus endorsed all of that! They may not believe that having a plate of oysters somehow makes us unclean in God’s sight. But there are still many Christians these days who believe that the essence of sin is having the “wrong kind” of relationship with the “wrong kind” of person. Many still believe that marrying a person outside your faith, or person of another race, or anyone who is somehow “tainted” by our human standards makes you “sinful” in God’s sight.

As Jesus pointed out in many ways, the main problem with this approach to religion is that it becomes about what we avoid and whom we exclude. Last week I talked about one aspect of what makes it difficult to read Paul’s letters. I think another challenge we face is that Paul’s letters still reflect some of this kind of thinking. I see it when we read our lesson from Romans for today. While we are clearly indebted to the great Apostle for many of the building blocks of our faith, I think his views on sin may have some problems. In a very real sense, I would say Paul has a very “First-Century Jewish” notion of sin. Of course we don’t want to be “slaves of sin” but “servants of righteousness,” as Paul urges us to be in our lesson for today. But the problem comes when you ask how Paul defines “sin.” It sounds very much like it’s about what we avoid and whom we exclude.

But I would say that while Paul may have hung on to some of those notions, he was a follower of Jesus. And that meant ultimately he was much more concerned with putting faith into practice by treating other people as Jesus did. I think that should give us some sense of focus when we talk about how “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). I want to ask where you see sin leading to death in our world. Well, I see power-hungry dictators unleashing drones and missiles against innocent people. And the result of that sin is death. I see impoverished people living in ramshackle slums that are swept away completely—men, women, and children—whenever an earthquake or a flood or a hurricane comes through. And the result is death. I see the death that results from the sin of the wealthy hoarding all the resources so that the weakest and poorest of their people literally starve. I realize that Paul was talking about a “spiritual” kind of death. But I think it would do us well to ask ourselves where we see sin leading to death in this world. I would have to say, in all honesty, that I don’t much “death” resulting from failing to exclude the “wrong kind” of person. 

I’d have to say that this is one area where some of the most “religious” people of our day still “miss the point.” I would go further and say that whenever we make the essence of our relationship with God a matter of following religious rules, not about the love we have received from God through Jesus Christ, we continue to miss the point. But more importantly, our manmade and rigid religious rules always become obstacles to loving other people. Jesus called them “burdens too heavy to lift” (Mt 23:4) and points the finger at religious perfectionists of all stripes for ignoring their own sins and focusing on the mistakes of others (Mt 7:3-5). It all becomes just an elaborate way of justifying oneself by condemning others. But at the end of the day, even religious perfectionists can’t bear the burdens they create for others. And so, as Jesus said, they condemn themselves when they condemn others! That’s not only because they fail to live up to the expectations they demand of others. It’s also because making our devotion to God about what we avoid and whom we exclude inevitably turns into hostility toward them, whoever “they” may be. You can’t love your neighbor if you really hate them down deep inside!

Jesus had a way of cutting through all this religious hypocrisy. He said that true holiness is about loving God and loving others (Mt 22:37-40). He said that true spirituality is about embracing a child (Mt 18:1-5). True religion is about not only having empathy for the weak and outcast, but also about taking steps to care for them (Mt 25:34-40).[3] It’s about feeding a hungry person, visiting the sick, and being a companion to those who are in prison. For Jesus, a truly spiritual way of living is about being willing to give someone a cup of cold water on a hot day (Mt 10:42). It’s really no more complicated than that. No elaborate systems, no obsessions with keeping tedious rules. At the end of the day, it’s not about what we avoid or whom we exclude, but rather it’s about having a heart that’s willing to give to others the same mercy that we have received.

That doesn’t mean it’s “easy.” In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus describes this kind of life as “losing your life for my sake” (Mt 10:39). But he also said that was the way to truly “find” your life. I think that’s the lesson we can take away from Paul talking the freedom to live for God. Through the love we encounter in Jesus Christ, we’re set free from all the habits and attitudes that bring “death” not only to ourselves but also to those around us. Through the love from God that we encounter in Jesus Christ, we’re set free from all the habits and attitudes that harm not only others but also ourselves. That’s how I would define “freedom from sin.” It’s the freedom to stop draining the life out of ourselves and others by our actions and attitudes. And in the process, we’re set free to live for God, to live a life of love and mercy, which is the life we were always meant to live.

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[1] © 2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 6/28/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, 1933, 242: “Religion compels us to the perception that God is not to be found in religion.”

[3] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 126-9, where he says in effect that those who truly follow Christ are to be serving where Christ awaits us, “amid the downtrodden, the sick, and the captives.” 

Every Race, Tribe, Nation, and Language

Every Race, Tribe, Nation, and Language

Revelation 7:9-17; Galatians 3:28[1]

Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets. Many of us may know if him by his poem “The Road Not Taken.” One of his poems called “Mending Wall” questions the validity of the boundaries in this world. In the poem, Frost puts it this way: “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.”[2] Now, what we have to understand is that in Frost’s New England stone “walls” were the “fences” between properties. The poem is about the annual ritual that he and his neighbor performed—walking the wall to replace stones that have fallen off.

In the poem, the “neighbor” insists on holding firmly to the notion handed down to him that “Good fences make good neighbors.” But Frost saw the very forces of nature working against the continued existence of stone fences. Whether it was the ground swelling and contracting, toppling the stones, or it was the action of ice freezing and breaking up the stones, Frost saw the very elements themselves as conspiring to bring down the walls and fences that conventional wisdom insists “make good neighbors.” From Frost’s perspective, God has built into nature itself the intention to continually uproot and overturn walls and fences. But, of course, Frost’s poem was about more than just physical walls. He was talking about all the boundaries and divisions we feel compelled to uphold.

That’s one the points in the vision of the great multitude in Revelation. In that vast throng of people worshipping the one on the throne and the Lamb, all the boundaries and lines and divisions that separate people from one another are erased. Of course, that vision is contrary to the way of the world. In fact, it was contrary to the way of the world from the time it was written down. The way of the world says that only members are allowed. The way of the world says you must wear shoes and a shirt to receive service. The way of the world insists that differences in color and culture constitute absolute boundaries that must be upheld at all cost. This world wants clear boundaries and fences—and laws that reinforce them!

In the Kingdom of God, however, the standard operating procedure is “neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free” (Gal 3:28). To expand on that statement today, we would have to say that the way of the Kingdom of God is neither white nor black nor brown nor yellow nor red; neither rich nor poor, neither employed nor unemployed, neither middle class nor unhoused; neither native born citizen, nor refugee, nor immigrant, “legal” or otherwise. All are included in God’s vision of new life for the human family. Like Frost’s notion of nature itself conspiring to bring down the walls in our world, God’s Kingdom is designed so that nothing will be left that can possibly divide us!

The vision of the great multitude in Revelation is a startling one. I think the majority of us in mainline protestant churches may have read this passage as if the crowd were composed only of white, anglo-saxon, protestant Christian, middle- to upper-class voting citizens of the USA! In other words, people who look just like us. But the seer of Revelation says that this multitude comes from “every race, tribe, nation, and language” (Rev. 7:9 CEV). In the First-Century world, that was a description of just about every distinction that could possibly divide the human family. It’s an understatement to say that in our day we’ve added to that list! But the point of the vision is that the “great multitude” cuts across all the ways in which we like to divide humanity to “protect” ourselves from “others” who are different from us.

After almost fifty years of studying the Bible, it’s my considered opinion that this vision of the kingdom of God including all people is the focus of the biblical message. Many have tried to frame the “great multitude” in Revelation as a vast throng of Christians from every people group. But I would insist that way of thinking is foreign to the Bible. From start to finish, the Bible tells us about God’s purpose to restore the whole human family, no exceptions. At the start of that great work, Abraham hears the promise that “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).[3] And the end of God’s project, depicted by the vision of the vast and diverse crowd around the throne in the book of Revelation, gives us an actual image of what that could look like: the whole human family gathered around the throne as “servants of God” (Rev. 7:3)![4]

This vision lies at the heart of the call in the book of Revelation to follow the way of the Lamb who was slain. But Revelation also makes it clear that all who follow that way expose themselves to danger. It’s dangerous to follow a man who was executed for turning the world upside down. It’s dangerous to hold faithfully to the testimony of the Lamb who was slain. It's dangerous to follow the one who wins the victory not by force but by giving himself over to death. And it’s dangerous to choose to follow the way that seeks to erase all the “differences” we use to divide the human family. That’s what the “Lamb who was slain” calls us to do.

We live in a time when it feels like the “powers that be” are obsessed with reinforcing the way of the world and all its divisions. When we embrace people from every race, tribe, nation, and language—as well as all the other “groups” into which we divide the human family, we must expect opposition, hostility, and perhaps even violence. But I would say that it makes a difference every time one of us chooses to follow the radically inclusive way of the Lamb. I would say every time one of us chooses to follow this way, we are continuing the process of “turning the world upside down” that Jesus began. And we can take comfort from the assurance that the Lamb who was slain will one day be revealed as the one who has won the victory! On that day, the biblical vision of God’s Kingdom will be fulfilled, where all the walls and fences and boundaries and divisions are torn down. In the meantime, the assurance is that when we choose to cross a boundary to show God’s love to any who are excluded as “different,” we are making a contribution to that final victory.[5]

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/11/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Robert Frost, “Mending Wall,” from North of Boston.

[3] Cf. Richard Bauckham, “The List of the Tribes in Revelation 7, Again,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 42 (1991):99-115; cf. 103, where he emphasizes the vision of the innumerable multitude as a fulfillment of the promise to Abraham and his descendants.

[4] Cf. Balmer H. Kelly, “Revelation 7:9-17,” Interpretation 40 (July, 1986): 294, where he says this passage presents “an unalloyed ‘gospel,’ a seeing and hearing of the final justification of Christian hope.”

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 293: since the Christian community is “the sign, the instrument, and the breaking-in” of Christ’s reign and therefore of the new creation, it “is therefore not an exclusive community of the saved, but the initial and inclusive materialization of the world freed by the risen Christ.”

Everything and Everyone

 Everything and Everyone

Ephesians 1:3-11[1]

From the perspective of someone who is “outside” the church, I think there has always been something about our “gospel” that doesn’t sound like very good news. The “standard” script has been something like this: “we’re all sinners, and we deserve to be punished; God really does love us, though, so he sent Jesus to take the punishment we deserve, so that we could be forgiven and go to heaven when we die.” Since we’ve heard that message all our lives, it makes sense to us. But I think what most people “outside” the church hear is, “You’re no good the way you are; If you don’t change, God is going to get you; If you believe like me, act like me, hang out with me, become like me, then you get to go to heaven when you die. If you don’t, you’re going to hell.” To me, that doesn’t sound like very good news at all!

I believe the Scriptures contain a very different gospel—one that truly is good news. Our Psalm text for today alludes to it. “The earth is the Lord’s” means that everything and everyone belongs to God, both by virtue of the fact that he created us in the first place, and by virtue of the fact that he gave his son Jesus Christ to redeem us all. It means that God reigns over everything and everyone. That word “reign” might not mean much to us, but from the perspective of the Bible, God’s reign means peace, it means salvation, it means life for everything and everyone![2] It means that God also cares for all things and for the whole human family. It means that God not only deserves praise from all peoples, but also that God will be praised by all peoples.[3]

The idea in the Bible that all peoples are blessed, they witness God’s saving work, and they acclaim him in worship may sound strange to us who have been taught the traditional “gospel.” However, this understanding of God’s redemptive purpose runs through the whole Bible. From Genesis to Isaiah to Jesus to the Book of Revelation, the good news is that God is working to establish his saving reign world-wide, a kingdom which will bring mercy and freedom and new life to everything and everyone, everywhere.

I believe that’s what Paul is talking about in our lesson from Ephesians for today when he speaks of gathering all things together under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul believed that the return of Christ would be a day when the entire created order would be reconciled to God and restored to its rightful place under the lordship of Christ.[4] He says it this way: “God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth” (Eph. 1:9-10, NLT).[5] That doesn’t sound to me like it leaves out anyone or anything. I like a phrase from The Message translation, where it says that God takes “such delight” in carrying out this plan for everything and everyone.

I’m not ashamed to say that I believe that God’s ultimate purpose is to redeem all humanity. I really fail to see what is good about the news that those of us who are “in” will inherit an eternity of blessing in the presence of God, while those who are “out” are going to suffer an eternity of torment. I never have seen the “good news” in that message. The Christian hope is that God’s redemptive purpose will prevail—for everything and everyone. This is the message of the Psalms, the message of the prophets, and it is the message of Jesus:  the fulfillment of God’s reign which brings salvation. The good news insists that, despite all indications to the contrary, “God’s cause will prevail in the world.”[6]

I realize that all of this may sound either outrageous or too good to be true. Some of us who have spent our lives seeking to live for God may bristle at the thought that those who never gave God a second thought may receive the same “reward” as we will. But then, it’s not really about “rewards” at all. Our gospel is a gospel of grace—of receiving something undeserved. That’s true for all of us. It’s a gospel of unconditional love, which creates in us the confidence to take the risk of believing something that may sound too good to be true. After all, if God’s love is unconditional, then it’s unconditional for everyone, not just for you and me. And that’s what gives us the assurance to believe that God not only chooses to save everything and everyone, but also that God has the power to accomplish that seemingly outrageous plan![7]

I realize some of you may be scratching your heads at this point.[8] We’ve heard the “good news” that those of us who believe in Jesus will be saved while those who don’t will be “left behind” for so long that when we’re confronted with this aspect of biblical teaching it seems either outrageous or too good to be true. But the “full” gospel is that God intends not just to save a chosen few, but rather every one of his beloved children and every inch of his precious creation. It’s the message that begins with Abraham, and it runs through the whole Bible. And so in the New Testament the Apostles looked forward to the day when “every knee” would bow in worship and acknowledge Christ as Lord (Phil. 2:10-11). They believed that the plan behind all of this is that God is in the process of “making all things new” (Rev. 21:5, NJB).

How that will happen I don’t profess to understand completely. There are complications involved. But despite that, it is a breathtaking message; a message that truly is “good news.” To me it seems like these days most of the news is “all bad, all the time.” I think we could do with some good news. I think the people around us could do with some good news. And so perhaps the challenge of this passage is that we become a people who reflect the hope of this outrageous good news![9] God’s plan is that through Christ he’s going to redeem everything and everyone. And as the Scripture says in The Message translation, God takes “great delight” in seeing to it that this plan will be fulfilled!

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 7/14/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church.

[2] James L. Mays, Psalms, 311. Cf. also Shirley C. Guthrie, “The Way, the Truth, and the Life,” Presbyterian Outlook (Feb. 11, 2002), who says that God’s kingdom will bring “justice and compassion for all people, everywhere.”

[3] Psalm 48:10; 57:5, 11; 66:4; 72:19; 86:9; 96:1, 7; 97:6; 98:4, 7; 108:5; 145:21.

[4] 1 Corinthians 15:28; Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:20; Philippians 2:10-11.

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, 39-40: “our hope is directed towards that divine future in which God will have all his creatures beside him to all eternity. That is to say, our hope is for the day when all things will be restored and gathered in a new, eternal order.” Cf. also Pheme Perkins “The Letter to the Ephesians,” New Interpreters Bible XI:378: “Ephesians assures us that … somehow the universe is ordered so that all things return to God in Christ.”

[6] Hans Küng, The Christian Challenge, 120.

[7] Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of the Church, Faith, and the Consummation, 344: “this love lasts forever and that it will not rest until it possesses us wholly.”

[8] Cf. Karl Barth, Romans, 38, 108-9, where he acknowledges that idea that a God of grace and mercy loves us unconditionally with a love that will never let us go is something “so unheard of, so unexpected” that it can only appear to us as something “incomprehensible and meaningless,” as a “vast impossibility.”.

[9] Cf. also Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 292-93, where he speaks of the Christian community as “the sign, the instrument, and the breaking-in of the new order of all things” and therefore not as “the exclusive community of the saved,” but “the initial and inclusive” expression of “the world freed by the risen Christ.”

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.

The Vision Will Surely Come

 The Vision Will Surely Come

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Luke 19:1-10[1]

One of the challenges facing the church today is that we live in a marketplace that is filled with very different perspectives on life. I mentioned last week that we all search for meaning, purpose, and a sense of belonging in our lives. But the fact that there are so many different options for finding that sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging makes our choices all the more complicated. We no longer live in a time when everyone shares a common vision for what life is about. It’s hard to find a way to figure out how the church can be relevant to people searching for meaning in life when the very definitions have changed so dramatically. All of that means that it’s not so easy for people to find meaning, purpose, and belonging in our world.

Part of the reason for this is there are so many different versions of what it looks like. Some people are just trying to make ends meet, hoping not to run out of paycheck before they run out of month. Others are hoping to make a mark in this world, to ensure that people remember their name for their great achievements. Some want nothing more than to raise a family that’s healthy and happy, and they devote most of their time and energy toward achieving that goal. Others are simply fighting like crazy to fend off the boredom or the loneliness that threatens to engulf them most days. Some people are trying to juggle multiple options for making sense out of life, because they’re afraid of putting all their eggs in one basket. It’s all quite a bit more than confusing.

In our lesson from Habakkuk for today, the prophet was trying to figure out the meaning of what was happening in his world as well. His problem was that Israel and Judah were being effectively dismantled by powerful empires like the Assyrians and the Babylonians. What troubled him is that this was a judgment from God. The Assyrians and Babylonians were some of the most violent people in the world of that day. It didn’t make any sense to Habakkuk that God was using such violent and ungodly people to carry out his judgment. So Habakkuk questions God’s fairness and then basically decides to watch and wait to see how God would answer.

God’s answer to Habakkuk is that even though it might seem like the events around him invalidated his faith in God as well as his hope for any future for his people, God did indeed have a future in store for them. It might not look like exactly like what Habakkuk expected, but that didn’t mean there was nothing left to hope for. God’s vision for what he planned to do in this world was still very real, and his message to Habakkuk was to write the vision so plainly that it could be read at a glance and carried by runners to all who needed to hear it. And the reason for this was the promise that “This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place” (Hab 2:3, NLT). In spite of the people’s continual unfaithfulness to God, God would remain faithful to them.

As we’ve been working through Luke’s Gospel this year, we’ve seen a unique perspective on the vision of the kingdom of God. It started with Jesus’ announcement at the synagogue in Nazareth that the promise of Isaiah had been fulfilled: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free” (Lk. 4:18). In our Gospel lesson for today, we see that God’s “salvation” is extended even to Zacchaeus, who was one of the most despised of the despised. In fact, Zacchaeus was so despised that all who witnessed his encounter with Jesus “grumbled” about it. In Luke’s Gospel, this includes not only the crowds but perhaps also the disciples themselves!

The point of this story is that it’s a kind of “finale” to all that Luke wants to convey to us about Jesus and the kingdom of God. Luke’s story of Jesus began with the promise that the poor, the blind, and the captives were all included in God’s salvation. As Jesus’ ministry progresses, we find that the despised are included as well—Samaritans, tax collectors, and all who were considered “unclean” for any reason. Jesus encounters misfits and outcasts, those whom both society and religion had rejected as “unworthy,” and he embraces every one of them with the love of God that never fails. And in our lesson for today, we learn that this was all intentional: Jesus as the “Son of Man” came “to seek out and to save” every one of them (Lk. 19:10), especially the least and the last and the left out.

Trying to be the church in our world gets harder every year. There are so many different versions of “a meaningful life” that compete with the message of the gospel. It’s hard for the church to stay relevant when the meaning of the word “relevance” keeps changing! And as our traditional measures for how well the church is doing in our world continue to diminish before our eyes, all of this can create a crisis for us as well. Some may find it too discouraging to keep on trying. Some may think they have to go out and find a “better” church somewhere. Some may wonder whether supporting this or any other church is throwing away good money for a lost cause. But the vision of the kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed and enacted in the lives of people like Zacchaeus is still just as real as ever.

As we approach our stewardship campaign, some of you may be asking whether God has a future for this church. I would answer with the words that God gave to Habakkuk: God does indeed have a vision for the future of this church, and “if it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.” God’s vision for this church may not look like what we expect, but it is real nevertheless. It’s the vision of the kingdom of God that brings salvation to all who would trust in Jesus, including the poor, the blind, and the captives; including the despised people of our world; and including especially the least and the last and the left out. That’s what motivates me to give as much as I can to support the work of this church and of the larger church in the world. This vision gives meaning and purpose to what we do, and I believe it will surely come in God’s time.

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[1] ©2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/30/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/XU-xHhcPxYg 

All About Mercy

All About Mercy

Luke 16:14-31[1]

I’ve mentioned recently that we live in a world divided. That may be an understatement. I would say that our world is more divided today than perhaps at any time in most of our lives. We’re divided by race, divided by class, divided by politics. We’re divided by national allegiance, divided by language, divided by whole outlooks on life. We’re divided by our sources for the news of what’s happening in the world. We’re divided by what we believe constitutes “truth.” Many have observed that what we once believed was a “social contract” that held our world together has dissolved. In a world such as that, it’s no wonder that people are going their separate ways, positively angry toward those who differ with them on a whole list of issues.

When that division spills over into our faith, it creates some problems. Perhaps the most serious of them is that we presume to know what is in another person’s heart. Because of that we think we have a right to criticize them for their actions. That kind of backbiting is out of place in the Body of Christ! The Bible makes it clear that it’s only God who knows our hearts (Lk 16:15)! Any effort on our part to stand in judgment of another person is at best premature, and at worst we are usurping a role that belongs only to God. As St. Paul said, God is the one who “will show the real reasons why people do what they do” (1 Cor 4:5, NIrV).

It may seem like a stretch to relate all of this to our Gospel lesson for today. But the reason why Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus was because the Pharisees’ hard-hearted attitude toward those they judged to be “sinners.” Jesus had “proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom” to them and had spelled out its implications for their lives. He told them that living for the kingdom of God meant being faithful with their wealth, it meant showing mercy to “sinners,” and it meant sharing generously with all people. He ignored their petty rules about what should or shouldn’t be done on the sabbath and used the day to extend God’s mercy to those who needed it most. And they ridiculed him for it, and ultimately had him killed.

 The reason for this response was that they saw Jesus’ kindness and mercy toward “sinners” as breaking God’s commands and therefore dishonoring God. Their whole outlook on what it meant to be faithful to God was centered around who was “clean” and who was “unclean.” Of course, in their own eyes they were not only “clean,” but they were also “righteous” before God because of the way they rigidly kept their own rules. Anyone who didn’t keep those rules just as strictly as they did was a “sinner” in their eyes. And they believed those whom they labeled as “sinners” were unfit for God’s grace, or mercy, or love.

In their eyes, Lazarus would have been one of these “sinners.” He was not only “poor,” he was destitute. Very likely, he was “laid at the gate” of a rich man because of some physical disability. The contrast between the two men couldn’t have been more striking. The rich man wore the finest of fine clothing, while Lazarus was covered with sores. The rich man feasted extravagantly every day, while Lazarus only longed for the scraps from his table. The rich man would have been seen as a “pillar” of the community, while Lazarus would have been judged as a “sinner” who must have done something to deserve his fate in life. And he certainly would have been excluded from God’s mercy in the eyes of self-righteous people.

But we have to remember that Jesus had announced at the beginning of his ministry that he had come to proclaim the “good news” of God’s kingdom precisely to the “poor” (Lk 4:18). It was about setting “the burdened and battered free” (Lk 4:18, MSG). It was about calling sinners to turn to God, not so-called “respectable people” (Lk 5:32, TEV). It was about being kind and merciful to others, all others, just as God is kind and merciful to us (Lk 6:36). It was about seeking and saving those who were “lost” (Lk 19:10). And, above all, it was about hearing God’s word and obeying it (Lk 8:21, NLT).

You may be wondering why I haven’t said anything about “heaven” or “hell” in connection with this parable. I’ve done that because the point of this parable isn’t about the afterlife. It’s about the way the “religious” people of that day, like the rich man and his brothers, had ignored “Moses and the prophets” and their clear teachings about showing kindness and mercy especially to the destitute. This parable is about the fact that in the kingdom of God the lowly are lifted up and the rich are sent away empty-handed (Lk 1:52-53). As Jesus said, “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk 14:11).

Jesus told this story to confront the religious people of his day for their hard-hearted, mean, and stingy attitude toward those they had judged to be “sinners.” This attitude was a direct result of the fact that they “justified themselves in sight of others” (Lk 16:15). And because of that, they believed Jesus’ actions toward the poor, the outcasts, the unwanted, and the rejected were an abomination in God’s sight. But Jesus was “showing the real reasons” for their attitude: their own hypocrisy. And he turned it all around on them: he said that it was their self-righteous and stingy hoarding of God’s mercy for themselves that was the true abomination! But when it comes to the kingdom of God, Jesus said, “everyone is urged to enter it” (Lk 16:16). Everyone. The kingdom of God that Jesus preached is all about mercy for the poor, the outcasts, the unwanted, and the rejected. It’s for everyone!

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[1] ©2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/25/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/r76nVDKjMmU

A Seat at the Table

 A Seat at the Table

Luke 14:1-14[1]

It has long been noted that Sunday morning worship time is “the most segregated hour in America.”[2] That view originally related to the racial separation that is still painfully obvious in most churches across the country. While there are some notable exceptions, most people worshipping on Sunday morning still divide up into congregations with people who look like them. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. observed almost 70 years ago that this situation was “appalling” and a “shameful tragedy.”[3] While we’ve certainly made progress with racial justice in this country, I’m afraid we still have quite a ways to go.

Of course, one of the changes that has happened over the last 70 years is that we have a number of ethnic congregations that enable people in this country to worship in their native languages and using cultural forms that they’re familiar with. And I would offer the idea that this is a good thing, especially for people who have only recently come to our country. We have many congregations in the PCUSA that are dedicated to serving a particular population, and I support that. But, of course, the ultimate goal of the kingdom of God is peoples of “from every race, tribe, nation, and language” joining together to worship God (Rev. 7:9, CEV).

One of the ways we still tend to separate ourselves on Sunday morning is that the members of most churches tend to belong to a particular class, both socially and economically. We have “rich” churches, we have churches that are “middle class,” we have “working class” churches, and we have churches that target the poor. But there is precious little crossing of the lines drawn by what you do for a living and how much you live on a year. I wonder if perhaps this economic segregation isn’t as much a pressing problem as racial segregation.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus went to the home of a “leader of the Pharisees” for a meal on the sabbath day. Very likely he had been the guest teacher at the synagogue. And while Luke tells us that they “were watching him closely,” probably to find something they could use against him, Jesus went right ahead and jumped into the deep water. You see, then as now, meals were a “social” event. Then as now, you only invited people you wanted to come into your home to a meal you were planning. That was not only part of their way of life, it was part of their observance of ritual purity, which they believed was a way to honor God. But it really just became another way to separate themselves from people who were “beneath” them.

Once again, Jesus turned the tables on them all. In that day, the seating arrangement was all about showing off who was where on the social ladder. The better the seat, the higher you were. And this meal was no exception to that rule. So he reminded the guests who very likely had come to this dinner hoping to show off their status that in God’s kingdom, “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk 14:11). In the kingdom of God, your social status, your bank account, or your record of “holiness” don’t count. In the kingdom of God, what counts is putting into practice God’s mercy freely extended to all.

After addressing the guests, Jesus turned to the host. After all, this “leader of the Pharisees” was the one who had set up this dinner party. And he had invited only people who were part of his “circle of friends,” because then as now, that’s what you did. It’s a way of reassuring yourself and others of how high you are on the social ladder. And that was true not only because of the people who show up to your party, but also because you could expect to be invited to theirs. But Jesus told this dinner host to do something radically different: to invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (Lk 14:13). And he told him to do that precisely because they would never be able to throw a dinner party where they could invite him!

Jesus envisioned a kingdom that “collapses” all the barriers between sinner and saint, rich and poor, white collar and blue collar, Republican and Democrat, black, white, golden, or brown skin, and all the others you can think of that separate people today. In the process, he redefined what hospitality looks like. Jesus didn’t just talk about the kingdom as a bunch of lofty ideals. He taught those who would follow him to put those ideals into practice in their everyday lives. And he applied them to things like dinner parties. That can get pretty tricky.

We like to have meals in this church. That’s a good thing, because it strengthens our fellowship. But most of our meals are after worship, which means that we’re the only ones who show up. I’ll have to admit that this gospel lesson leaves me wondering about that. I think about our little food pantry: it’s been used so much that we have to restock it almost daily. We know that there are people here who need food. I find myself wondering what more we can do to meet that need. More than that, I find myself wondering how we can make sure everyone in this community knows they have a seat at our table. After all, that’s what the kingdom of God looks like: a seat at the table for everyone, and everyone gathered at the same table.

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/28/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/Vxiu6sSjZpA

[2] While Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is best known for this quote, he credited the original observation to Dr. Helen Kenyon in an article entitled “Worship Hour Found Time of Segregation” published by the New York Times on November 4, 1952, p. 26. Dr. Kenyon was a former Moderator of the Congregational-Christian Churches, one of the denominations that formed the United Church of Christ in 1957.

[3] Cf. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Communism’s Challenge to Christianity,” a sermon delivered on Aug 9, 1953 at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA; cf. also Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story 202; cf. also Interview on “Meet the Press,” April 17, 1960.

No Constraints

 No Constraints

Luke 4:14-30[1]

It’s a feature of human life that we tend to associate with those who are like us. There’s something about it that creates a sense of safety. And it’s only natural for us to want to be safe. But the problem comes when we think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. When we take that step, we can start drawing lines to separate “us” from “them.” More than that, we can assume that those who belong to “our” group are “better” than those who don’t belong. It doesn’t take a very strong push to go from there to full-fledged prejudice toward anyone we see as “other” or outside “our” group.

While we’d like to think that we are above all that in the church, I’m afraid we bring this human tendency with us. We say out loud that we are saved by God’s grace alone, but inside we have a very different story. We tend to translate our years of faithful attendance and service in the church into the notion that we “deserve” God’s grace because we’ve “earned” it. And since the “others” haven’t done what we have, they haven’t “earned” God’s grace, and they don’t really “deserve” it. Of course, we don’t say any of this out loud, but it’s still there, however deeply buried it may be. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we draw lines that exclude “other” people from God’s grace.

I would say that was what was going on in the story of Jesus’ not-so-friendly encounter with the people in the synagogue at Nazareth. As we saw last week, Jesus went to the synagogue in his hometown and announced a message full of hope and promise: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk. 4:18-19). He even said, “today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). In other words, he declared to them that “the year of the Lord’s favor” had come, or “the time of God’s great acceptance.”

The problem was that the good people of the synagogue at Nazareth knew that Jesus had done wondrous things in Capernaum, a city they considered “heathen” territory. It was a scandal to them that he would share God’s blessings with “others” and not his “own” people. But that was where they got it all wrong. Jesus made it clear that God’s “favor” was meant especially for outcasts they themselves had excluded. The freedom and release he promised was for those who had been beaten down by the hard-hearted attitudes of some of the very people sitting there in the synagogue. And when he made it clear that God’s grace could not be constrained by their expectations, it enraged them so much they tried to kill him.

To some extent, we could say that Jesus “provoked” the people of Nazareth. As one commentator puts it, he literally “threw the book at them.”[2] He cited two stories that would have been very familiar to them from their own Scriptures. The first one came from the life of the prophet Elijah. Jesus reminds them that when there was a famine that lasted over three years, Elijah was sent to a widow in a different country, the land of Phoenicia. And to provide for his faithful prophet, God extended his grace to this “foreigner” by providing food for her and her son.

The second story came from the life of the prophet Elisha. When Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, came to him to be cleansed of his leprosy, God extended his grace to him through Elisha. Now, the folks at Nazareth might have been able to accept the story about the widow of Zarephath. After all, she was a widow on the point of starving. But Naaman was another story altogether. He was the commander of the Syrian army. Syria and Israel were allies at times, but they were just as likely to be enemies. That God would extend his grace to the man who led the enemy army would have pushed them over the edge.

The fine, upstanding people in the synagogue at Nazareth were full of amazement and wonder at Jesus’ “gracious words” while they were envisioning him bringing the “year of the Lord’s favor” to them. They expected God’s blessings for themselves. They believed they had earned them and were convinced that they deserved God’s grace. But Jesus reminded them that God gives his grace to everyone. What makes it grace is that no one deserves it!

The problem with the very human tendency to limit God’s grace by our own standards is that it flies in the face of biblical truth. God’s grace will not be constrained! And when God puts his grace to work among us, and those we prefer to exclude are included, it can offend us to the core. More than that, when people who are too far outside the boundaries that define who we think belong here actually come into our community, our neighborhood, or our church, it can bring out the worst in us, like it did in the people of the synagogue at Nazareth. But Jesus came to offer God’s blessings to everyone, regardless of what we think of them. And he gave his life on the cross to make it clear that God’s grace will not be constrained by our expectations. If we would follow him, we would do well to extend that grace to others, with no constraints whatsoever.

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph. D. on 1/30/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] William Willimon, “Book ‘Em,” The Christian Century (January 27, 2004), 20.

Seeing Others, Seeing Ourselves

Seeing Others, Seeing Ourselves

Mark 7:24-37; James 2:1-17[1]

If you asked people what the marks of genuine faith are, the vast majority would say something about being kind to others. And that would be true the world over, regardless of race or religion. It has been taught world-wide from the beginnings of human religious devotion. Unfortunately, however much we may say that kindness and compassion ought to define our lives, we’ve never quite been able to put that into practice. From the beginning of time, we have drawn lines and built fences to separate “Us” from “Them.” And we’ve done it because have always seen those who are “Other” as a threat to our survival.

The practical truth, however, is that our continued building of barriers and drawing of lines does not enhance our safety. Rather, dividing the world into “Us” and “Them” poses the greatest threat to human survival. We see it locally where communities are tearing themselves apart over everything from public safety to the current health crisis to schooling for our children. We see it globally in the changing weather patterns that are putting people in harm’s way from fire and flooding, from drought and superstorms. “Us” versus “Them” is not only not compassionate, it also undermines the future of humanity, because we can only solve these problems by working together!

With that in mind, we may find it surprising that in our Gospel lesson for today Jesus appears to endorse an “us versus them” mentality in his encounter with a woman who was a “foreigner.” When she heard he was near, she went and begged him to help her daughter. Begged! In response, Jesus said: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs” (Mk. 7:27). Not only does that sound unkind, it was also downright insulting. It sounds like the typical Jewish mindset that only Jewish people qualified as the “neighbors” God commanded them to love. Everyone else was a Gentile “dog.”

I find it hard to believe that was who Jesus was. As we saw last week, Jesus made it clear being accepted and loved by God is not about washing your hands “properly” or eating the “right” foods. And Jesus also made it clear that how you treat people is the measure for how well you honor God. With that in mind, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that our Gospel lesson for today is about Jesus healing people who would have been considered “unclean” simply because of where they were born. Although it’s not obvious here, Jesus’ interactions elsewhere with all those who would have been considered “Other” shows how wrong-headed it is to draw lines that exclude certain people from God’s love.

I think we have to understand Jesus’ strange comment in light of how he actually treated people who were considered “dogs.” Perhaps he was testing the woman to see if she truly had faith. If so, she passed with flying colors, because she called him “Lord,” and she’s the only person in Mark’s gospel to do so! Perhaps he was testing his disciples to find out whether they understood what it meant to love their neighbors. If so, I’d have to say that, like everything else Jesus tried to teach them, at this point they still didn’t get it. The bottom line is that we can only read this strange comment rightly if we keep in mind that everything Jesus did was about loving God and loving others, especially “outsiders.”

While we all “know” that this is what real faith looks like, our lesson from James may push us a bit on whether we “walk the walk” or only “talk the talk.” I think James is saying that just as we cannot love God without loving others, so we cannot honor God if we dishonor others. And he challenged the churches of his day for dishonoring those who were poor and not so “well-dressed” by being less than “welcoming” when they came for worship. He says it bluntly: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (Jas 2:16).

It would seem that, for James, the true test of our faith is how we love others. And for James, loving your neighbor as yourself cannot be just something we talk about. If it comes from a heart of genuine faith, it will have to move us toward action. So the real question for us is whether we will go beyond talking and actually help people in need. How we do that in practice will be different for all of us, but I think it has to begin with compassion. And real compassion starts with seeing “that every human face is the face of a neighbor.”[2] It starts with seeing ourselves in the face of everyone we label “Other.”

If you read my newsletter column this week, you know that we’re attempting to rise to a new level of meeting that challenge as a church family. We are embarking on a “listening exercise” by reading the stories of people whom we may be tempted to view as “Other.” Our hope is that this will help us learn new ways to love our neighbors, all our neighbors, by going beyond talking about it and doing something to help. Where that begins is recognizing the God-given right “of every person to be considered a person.”[3] It begins with seeing ourselves when we see others.

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[1] © 2021 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer, 41.

[3] Paul Tillich, Love, Power and Justice, 25, 36, 60. This is Tillich’s definition of justice, which he argues must flow from love.

Dogs and Children

Dogs and Children

Matthew 15:21-28[1]

If you’re like me, dogs and children are some of your favorite “people.” I know not everyone is a dog-lover, but I definitely am. There’s something special about the unconditional devotion that a dog gives you. Yes, they can be difficult and challenging at times. But the joy I’ve received from the dogs I’ve known has far outweighed the challenges. I don’t currently live with a dog, because I think it would be unfair to keep any animal cooped up in my apartment. And until recently, I didn’t spend much time at home. Most evenings had been taken up with some kind of meeting or activity. So, I guess I would say my love of dogs precludes me from living with one at this time in my life.

Of course, dogs weren’t always treated like “one of the family.” And that’s true even today. In many places, dogs are kept for the work they do. In some places, people use dogs to churn out puppies for sale. In other places, they use dogs for the money they can make from racing of fighting. These neglected and mistreated animals live a hard life. The fortunate ones find their way to rescue organizations. One of the best dog friends I’ve known was Roscoe, a French pointer mix, whom I “rescued” in Houston. When we first met, he was very timid, but after a couple of weeks he was flourishing. It was a joy to share that experience!

Our Gospel lesson for today speaks about dogs and children in a way that we might find surprising. While Jesus was in what was considered “foreign” territory, a gentile woman approached him and asked him to heal her daughter. At first his response simply seems strange: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt. 15:24). But when the woman continued to ask for his help, Jesus’ response seems downright insulting: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs” (Mt. 15:26). For me, it’s hard to understand why Jesus would call this woman a “dog!”

This encounter is confusing to me because it is so out of character not only with Jesus but also with the rest of the Scriptures. Even biblical scholars don’t quite know what to make of it. Some think Jesus was testing the woman to see if her faith was genuine. But I don’t buy that. When she approached him, she not only called him “Son of David,” acknowledging him as the Messiah (which Jewish leaders refused to believe). She also called him “Lord,” which is important because only those with genuine faith call Jesus “Lord” in Matthew’s Gospel. I would say that any doubt about her faith in Jesus is erased by the fact that she assumed a posture of worship—she knelt before him.

Others have suggested that maybe this was a test for Jesus. They take him literally when he says that he was “sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and assume that Jesus truly believed he was not meant to share God’s blessings with gentiles. And yet this flies in the face of most of what we learn about Jesus in the Gospels. I think it’s pretty clear that Jesus knew his mission was to benefit the whole world, not just the Jewish people.

If this is a test, then the only people left to test are the disciples. And, in fact, I do think that this whole strange interaction between Jesus and this desperate mother was learning opportunity for the disciples who wanted to send her away because she was bothering them! I think Jesus was trying to demonstrate to them that God’s mercy is not limited by ways in which we exclude people we consider to be “other.” The disciples were the ones who thought it wasn’t right to take what belonged to the Jewish people and share it with Gentiles, who in their minds were no better than stray dogs. But Jesus will have none of this kind of thinking!

I think this is the point of the whole chapter in Matthew’s Gospel. It begins with the Jewish leaders asking why Jesus didn’t observe their boundaries about what (and who) was clean or unclean. In reply, Jesus scolds them for “honoring” God with their lips while their actions actually negated God’s commands. He proceeds to set aside their notions of “clean” and “unclean.” I would say that, in this context, Jesus wasn’t primarily talking about food, but rather about how wrong-headed it was to draw lines that exclude people from God’s blessing. And following that, even his own disciples failed to grasp the point when they wanted to send this woman away because she was an “outsider.”

While we may not call those we deem to be outsiders “dogs,” we can still disregard their humanity. I think it’s telling that in the verses following, Jesus healed everyone who came to him in this foreign territory. I can’t imagine that he first checked the color of their skin, or their belief system, or their identity papers, or any of the other things we still use to divide between “us” and “them.” Jesus knew in the depth of his very being that God’s mercy is for all. In God’s sight there are no “dogs” to be kept “outside” in kennels. We’re all beloved children of God!

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[1] ©2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 8/16/2020 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.