The Waking Dreamer: Perseverance

Showing posts with label Perseverance. Show all posts

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Endurance

Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19[1]

Some of you know that I’m a fan of cycling. I’ve been riding a bike since I was six years old! I’ve been riding seriously for about thirty years. When I started, I was riding with the Fort Worth Bicycling Association. We did a 35-to-45-mile ride every week, and a 60-to-70-mile ride about once a month. Of course, I didn’t start out riding that far. And these days I don’t ride as much or as fast as I did then, but I still enjoy getting out on the bike in the beauty of the world along with the health benefits that putting in miles on the bike provides me. You may know I’m also a fan of watching cycling. I particularly enjoy watching the three “Grand Tours” every Summer. They’re the Tour of Italy in May, the Tour of France in July, and the Tour of Spain in August. Each of them covers about 2000 miles over 21 days, including flat stages for the sprinters and some of the steepest mountains in Europe for the climbers. What blows my mind is that they ride a stage per day, usually over 100 miles, at average speeds that are typically (at least) twice as fast as I could ride, and then they turn around the next day and do it all over again. It’s like running 21 marathons in 3 weeks!

That kind of endurance is impressive on so many levels. I would say, however, that it not only applies to the world of sports. There are some among us who complete the equivalent of a Tour de France every month. Not by how many miles we ride on a bicycle, but by how we handle the circumstances of our lives that are well beyond our control. For example, most of you know that farming is something that takes a long perspective to be able to do year in and year out. But that can be true for any of us in our personal lives. There are challenges that some of us face that are out in public, for all to see. And then there are challenges that some of us face that are inside, and perhaps nobody else knows just how hard it can be just to make it through a day. Endurance is a part of life for many of us.

Our Scripture lessons for today present us with two different perspectives on the hope that St. Paul reminds us results from endurance. He says it this way: our problems and trials “help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation (Rom 5:4-5, NLT). Both of our lessons today present a perspective on the ultimate outcome of our faith. As I’ve mentioned before, there seems to be a lot of confusion about our what our hope is. There are those who speak of the “end of the world” in terms of the majority of humanity “left behind” to face whatever painful tribulations an angry God is going to unleash upon them for their unbelief. Then there are those who speak of the final victory of God’s saving love in a world where all people have the joy of sharing a life, peace, and freedom together. These two views can be found not only in books and sermons, but also in Scripture.

Just a quick reading of our lessons for today sounds like they’re contradicting each other. The one from the prophet Isaiah holds out a beautiful hope for a new heaven and a new earth. Isaiah’s vision is filled with the language of freedom, new life, and hope. In a setting where conquerors continually displaced people, taking their children away from them, throwing them out of their homes and off their own lands, Isaiah envisions a people returned from exile to live in their own land free from fear. But Isaiah’s vision doesn’t just concern Israel; their restoration leads to the restoration of the whole world. Beyond that, this vision of restoration and renewal extends to all creation—even the animal kingdom is to be transformed when God fulfills his promises and liberates the people. Isaiah’s vision is that what God will do at the end of all things will be consistent with what God did at the beginning: create a world full of beauty and love.

On the other hand, in the lesson from Luke’s Gospel Jesus seems to warn his disciples that the end of all things will be gloom and doom. Rather than being spared from the “tribulations” of the end time, it seems that Jesus was saying his followers would be right in the middle of it all. He said they would be arrested and persecuted (Lk. 21:12), that they would be betrayed even by members of their own family (Lk. 21:16), and that they would be “hated by all because of my name” (Lk. 21:17). It’s pretty clear that Jesus envisioned Christians enduring whatever painful hardships and trials the future holds along with everyone else.

Unfortunately, his warnings are easy to misread. For one thing, some of what he says refers to events that would happen in their lifetimes: the Jewish people falling by the sword and Jerusalem being trampled by the Gentiles (Lk. 21:23-24). In fact, about 40 years later the Jewish people fought and lost a war to free themselves from their Roman conquerors. And many people got caught up in the violence—Jewish people and Christian alike. So some of what Jesus has to say talks about what would happen in their lifetimes. But some of what Jesus has to say points to a time in the distant future when all the nations would see “‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory” (Lk. 21:27).

So it’s hard to know if Jesus was warning his disciples about hardships of the near future or those of the end times. I think the answer is that he was talking about both. He knew that the Jewish war would be just as devastating for Christians as it was for the Jewish people, and he used that catastrophic event to warn them about the hardships that they would face until the final turmoil when he would return. Jesus urged his disciples to “be alert,” praying for strength, so that they wouldn’t be caught off guard when the day of his return actually came (Lk. 21:34-36). And he urged them to hold on until the end, promising that the final outcome of the trials and hardships they might go through would not be their destruction but their salvation! In our lesson for today he says it this way: “By your endurance you will gain your souls” (Lk 21:8).

I think the best answer to the question of our final destiny is that it includes both hardships and final victory. I started studying the Bible seriously over 40 years ago when I was a Freshman in college. As a seminary Professor I taught the class on the book of Revelation. So I’ve given the matter a fair amount of thought. The result of all that is that I believe God isn’t some cruel bully just waiting for the chance to torment the vast majority of humankind. When it comes to God’s final purpose for us, I think we have to remember that God showed us who he is by creating a beautiful world for us all to enjoy. And the Scripture promises that one day he will renew that world. We also have to remember that God showed us who he is by coming as one of us to heal our brokenness and our suffering by taking it on himself. And the Scripture promises that one day he will complete that work of restoring all things and all people.

Endurance is something that we all need. You know, I didn’t start out riding all those miles the first time I joined the Fort Worth Bicycling Association. My first ride was pretty much a disaster. I “blew up,” to use one phrase that cyclists use. I ran out of energy halfway into the ride. Fortunately, one of the members of the club was there to shepherd me back home, because I didn’t know the way. But I didn’t go home that day and hang up my bicycle and say, “I’m not doing this ever again.” I kept training on my own. I kept riding with the club. Sometimes I would get dropped, but eventually I was able to finish with a group of riders who were at my level.

I think that’s how it is for us in life. The old saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step” is true. I know it may be so commonly repeated that we don’t hear it anymore. But it’s still true. And I think we might add that “You finish a journey of a thousand miles by continuing to take one step after another.” Even and especially on the days when you don’t feel like it. That’s what we call “endurance.” Many of us have won the equivalent of “gold medals” for endurance over the course of our lives. Maybe many times.

Our faith is based on the promises in Scripture. And as we continue holding onto our faith, no matter what we may have to go through in this life, we develop endurance. And as St. Paul reminds us, our endurance gives us hope. But I think you can turn it around and say our hope also helps us endure whatever we may have to go through in this life. Endurance gives us hope, but our hope also helps us to continue to endure. Our hope helps us keep trusting that God’s good and loving plans for the human family will ultimately win out over all the evil that may be present among us now. Our hope gives us the endurance to keep trusting God, to keep following Jesus, and to keep serving others. And we do that by continuing to take the next step. That’s how we complete the journey.

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Try and Try Again

2 Corinthians 4:8-18[1]

You may or may not know that I enjoy solving puzzles. All kinds of puzzles, from sudoku, to crosswords, to card games, to actual jigsaw puzzles, to Lego sets. Yes, I am an “Adult fan of Lego” (Afol). I enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to put it all together. I enjoy keeping my mind and my hands busy, so to speak. Solving a puzzle is something that I can do and lose track of time. I enjoy other activities as well, as you know. I can lose myself in a really good work of fiction. I can lose myself playing guitar, especially when I’m trying to learn something that’s challenging. But puzzles have been a “go to” activity for me for a long time.

One of the reasons why I enjoy solving puzzles so much is because you have to look at the “big picture” in order to solve a puzzle. That’s especially true with sudoku. Every column, every row, every segment can only have one sequence of the numbers one through nine. I also enjoy the fact that solving puzzles requires “thinking outside the box.” Or perhaps I should say looking at things from a different perspective. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the right puzzle piece in the right place, but it was turned around the wrong way. I enjoy the challenge of a puzzle because it makes me look at both the “big picture” and the “small details,” and it makes me “turn things around” in my head until I find the solution.

I would say that the question of how a church can thrive in this current setting is something like that. We have to look at the “big picture” in order to solve the puzzle. We need to see how all the pieces fit together. We also have to look at the “small details.” Some aspects of our life together as a congregation that we may have taken for granted, perhaps for years, may need more careful attention. The way things are in our current context also means that we have to “think outside the box.” Some of the things we have always done continue to work for us. Some of them may not, and we may need to be willing to look at new solutions to the new problems we’re facing. Maybe the most important element to solving the question of how a church can thrive in this current context is the ability to look at things from a different perspective. We get used to seeing things on a regular basis (or not seeing them). All of this is going to require that we adopt the basic attitude that “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”!

I think that’s what St. Paul’s testimony about his life was about. From our perspective, it’s all too easy to think of “Saint” Paul as someone who walked around with a halo and lived “above” this world and all its troubles. But Paul makes it clear in his letters that was not the case! Later in this same letter he tells us that he endured “troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.” He continues, “We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food” (2 Cor 6:4-5 NLT). He summarized his experience by saying, “I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.” (2 Cor. 11:26, NLT).

In our lesson for today he describes his experience of serving Christ as an Apostle in a particularly memorable way: “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed” (2 Cor 4:8-9, NLT). I’ve always found this passage to be both troubling and comforting. It’s troubling because in essence Paul says that when we follow Christ, we are bound to have this kind of experience! In another passage, he says that we “must expect such things” if we follow Christ (1 Thess 3:3, Phillips)!

Given all of that, you might think that anyone in their right mind in Paul’s shoes would seek “greener pastures”! But I think this is where he was able to view his situation from the “big picture” and see all those hardships from a different perspective. In doing so, he was able to recognize that God was using the hardships he endured for good in the lives of the believers he was serving. He viewed his sufferings as part of Christ’s sufferings, and so he could say, “we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you” (2 Cor 4:12, NLT). I think his ability to adopt this perspective reminds us that we may not truly know how God is using the hard things we may have to endure for the benefit of others. But I think Jesus’ death on the cross makes one thing clear: that’s how God does his most powerful work in this world!

That brings me back to the comforting part of the passage I quoted earlier: “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed” (2 Cor 4:8-9, NLT). Paul could face everything he had to endure with the assurance that God never abandoned him. And with God’s help, he was able to bear everything that came his way. He knew the weight of suffering, but it did not crush him. He knew the confusion of not understanding why some things happened to him, but he never gave up hope. Instead, he was confident that through everything he had to endure, God’s grace was reaching “more and more people” (2 Cor 4:15, NLT). And so he could say “we never give up” (2 Cor 4:16, NLT)!

For many of us, the condition of the church as a whole these days is perhaps the worst we’ve ever seen it in our lives. There are people who are paid to come up with reasons for it, and their insights are helpful. But I think we have to adopt the mindset of solving a puzzle in order to address this challenging and confusing time. We can look at the “big picture,” and think about what God may be doing in and through us in the midst of these struggles. We may not know what that is, but we can be assured that God is doing something in and through us in this difficult time. We can turn the pieces of the puzzle around and look at things differently to try to figure out the key question: how can we draw people who are content with their lives as they are into our community? In all of this, we can trust that God never has and never will abandon us. And this hope can give us the energy to try and try again.

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Stay in the Boat

Staying in the Boat

Matthew 14:22-33[1]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, October 17, 2022

(Not) Losing Heart

Luke 18:1-8[1]

I think all of us at some point find ourselves in a place where we just want to give up. Most of us know that life can be hard at times. But one of the “uncomfortable” truths is that it can be so hard that we wind up feeling like we’re just beating our heads against a wall. When life gets that hard, we may find ourselves just wanting to quit. We have all kinds of ways of doing that. Usually, it’s about indulging in our preferred means of escape. And, truth be told, we all need to take a break at times. No one can stand up to the relentless pace of life, especially when it feels like we’re getting nowhere.

The question becomes how we take a break. There are some “escapes” that are good for us. I readily own up to the fact that I spend hours on my bicycle because it’s one of the ways I take a break and clear my head. Other “escapes” are relatively benign; they don’t help us, but they also don’t hurt us. The problem comes in when our primary means of “escaping” from the frustration, discouragement, or even just plain boredom we can face in life is through something that actively harms us. All we have to do is look at the statistics regarding substance abuse to see that too many of us take that route.

Our Gospel lesson addresses the question of how we deal with life when it gets hard. Particularly the Christian life. I think many of us expect our faith to make life easier. And, of course, our faith does make it easier to bear with life when it gets hard. But faith doesn’t offer us any guarantees that we’ll somehow be magically spared from struggles. In fact, I would say that if we pay attention to the Bible, those of us who embrace faith as a way of life can expect it to bring some of the very hardships that we’d hoped to escape. And when that harsh truth sinks in, many “lose heart,” give up, and walk away from faith.

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus tells a story. Sometimes it can be tough to figure out what Jesus’ parable stories are about. But Luke gives us clues. He introduces this story by telling us that “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart” (Lk 18:1). To figure out who “them” was, we have to look back into the verses that come before. There, Jesus was warning his disciples about the hardships they would face as they followed him in a world that operates very differently from the kingdom of God. Because they can fall on anyone at any time, Jesus calls those who follow him to “pray always and not lose heart.”

The story itself is about a woman and a judge. The judge would have been responsible for resolving disputes in the community, like a justice of the peace, or perhaps even a county court judge. The woman was a widow who was supposed to receive special care from the community. At least that was what it said in the “Law of Moses” that the leaders of the Jewish people were always claiming to be so devoted to. But this widow had to keep coming back to this judge to demand what was due her until he got worried that she was publicly humiliating him. That should tell us something: leaders aren’t always so keen on what the Bible says.

Jesus describes the judge as a man “who neither feared God nor cared about people” (Lk 18:2, NLT). That’s quite a contrast from loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself. Even the judge said he cared nothing for God nor for anyone else. It would seem all that he cared about was himself. This woman who had lost her husband had to hound this dishonest, corrupt, and godless judge very likely just to be able to access the property she was due from her husband’s estate. In the end, a man who defrauded his own people every chance he got gave in not because it was the right thing to do, but because he was worried about his image getting tarnished in public

It’s easy to mistake the point of this passage. We may be tempted to think that God is like the judge in the story. But the opposite is true. Jesus reminds us time and again that God is always loving, always faithful, always generous. God knows what we need before we even know to ask and delights in caring for us. The point of Jesus’ story is that if a dishonest, corrupt, and godless man would grant the request of someone he didn’t even care about, how much more can we trust that God not only hears us when we “cry out to him day and night” (Lk 18:7, CEB), but also that he will keep his promise to make right all the wrongs we may have endured.

Of course, one of the problems we have with trusting God is that sometimes it seems like God “delays” in keeping that promise. We may wonder about God’s notion of what it means to answer us “quickly,” as Jesus insists he will (Lk 18:8). We may even wonder whether God is listening, whether God really does care about us, or even whether God is there at all! When our prayers aren’t answered “soon enough,” it’s tempting to lose heart, just give up and walk away.

But this is where the real point of the story comes in. Just like the widow who never gave up, so we are called to live a life of “persistent faith” (Lk 18:8, MSG). That means coming to God with all our cares, all our fears, and all our doubts. And we keep coming back to God no matter what life throws in our path because we not only pray by ourselves, but we also have each other for encouragement when we feel like giving up. We keep coming back because we’ve learned by experience that none of the other “escapes” we use to deal with life really satisfy us in the end. We keep coming to God because we trust in Jesus’ promise that God will set things right for us in God’s way and in God’s time.

[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/16/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/Njg2A8yXcxM .

Monday, November 15, 2021

Faith, Hope, and Love

Mark 13:1-13[1]

Whether we are aware of it, I think the events of the past year and a half have triggered fear and even panic in many of us. Much of what we knew as “normal life” before Covid has changed. From school to work to shopping to entertainment to church to family, the “foundation stones” of our lives have been shaken and, in some cases, toppled over. All of this leaves us wondering if things will ever be the same. Even those of us with the strongest faith can find ourselves dealing with fear and even panic over what the future holds. And panic can make our commitment to Christ, and with it our faith, hope, and love seem to evaporate into thin air.

Sadly, times of great change and the fear and panic they inspire have done just that to many good people. Some have provoked panic with their cries that “the end is near!” Great change, panic, and cries of “the end is near” seem to go together historically. Many of us here remember the “Y2K” scare twenty years ago. Due to concerns of a massive glitch in the system, the fear was that most of the world’s computers would crash at 12:01am on January 1, 2000. This was supposed to have affected everything from banking to power to our homes to the food supply. Of course, that date came and went, just like all the other “end is near” moments throughout history. All the fuss was for nothing.

Believe it or not, our Gospel lesson from Mark relates to this. The reading for today is the introduction to a whole chapter that addresses the fears that were going around Judea in those days. What we need to understand is that the Jewish people had lived under the rule of foreign powers for centuries. It shouldn’t surprise us to know that they resented and resisted those powers. By the time the Romans came on the scene in the century before Jesus was born Judea was like a powder keg. And there were several who tried to “light the fuse” to overthrow the Romans through violent revolt. Most of them claimed to be the “messiah,” which was the equivalent of crying “the end is near” in that day.

That was the backdrop of Jesus’ conversation with his disciples. In response to their admiration of the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus made a prediction that probably would have shocked them. He said, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down” (Mk 13:2). The Temple not only represented the place where God was thought to dwell, it was the core of the Jewish faith and the Jewish nation. For the temple with its massive buildings to be “thrown down” would have been the equivalent of saying “the end is near!” That was the only setting in which they could imagine such a catastrophe.

So they asked Jesus, “when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” (Mk 13:4). They were asking him for “the inside track” so they would know what was going to happen and when. But Jesus didn’t indulge them. Instead, he simply told them that there would continue to be upheavals and crises that would seem like everything was coming to an end, just as there had been all along. Nation rising against nation, earthquakes and famines, and other disruptions like them have been around throughout the history of the world. But Jesus told them not to give way to panic because these things “do not mean that the end has come” (Mk 13:7, TEV).

Instead, Jesus called them to persevere in following him through all the hardships they would face. And he didn’t hesitate to warn them that they would certainly face hardships if they followed him. They would be “handed over” to the authorities and called on the carpet for their faith. Even members of their own families would betray them. Jesus warned them, “you will be hated by all because of my name” (Mk 13:13). A quick survey of the book of Acts confirms that these things actually happened to the first Christians. But Jesus promised them, “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mk 13:13). Rather than giving in to fear and panic, Jesus called them to persevere in their faith and continue to follow him.

I think it’s easy to understand why there are people who may look at what is happening in our world and think that the “end is near.” Some have lost careers and homes and family members to this pandemic. When it seems like all the foundations of our lives are crumbling, it’s easy to panic. When we give in to fear it’s incredibly difficult to practice the faith and hope and love that define what it means to follow Jesus. Instead we withdraw, we disconnect from the community of disciples, we lose faith, and along with our faith we lose hope. When we let panic overwhelm us, it’s hard to live out our faith by loving God and loving others.

But that’s why Jesus calls us not to give into panic, especially in times of great change. In fact, he said that if we respond to the upheavals of this life by holding fast and staying the course, it will offer a “testimony” to those around us (Mk 13:9). When it seems like the foundations of our world are crumbling, and we don’t know what the future holds, we can trust in the one who holds the future firmly in his loving hands. That faith can help us hold on as well to the hope that no matter how hard things may get for us, God will turn it all to good one day. And our faith and hope can give us the courage to put love into practice. Instead of withdrawing into the fears and suspicions panic provokes, that’s how we “endure to the end”: through faith, hope, and love.

Monday, August 16, 2021

A Light in Dark Places

Ephesians 5:8-21[1]

We all have times in our lives when we go through what may be called “dark places.” Life takes an unexpected turn, and we may feel lost, or afraid, or unable to go on, or all of the above at the same time. Some of what we have to deal with in life may leave us thinking that we can’t possibly get through it. And those unwanted “surprises” can rob us of hope, joy, energy, and even love. Life can seem like drudgery, and we may feel weary and think that we can’t possibly face even one more day. Many of you know that I’ve been through some of those dark places in my own life. They can drain the very will to live right out of you.

If we have just a glimpse of hope to help us move through those dark places in life, it can make all the difference. We even have a saying about it: “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.” But I think the question today is what we do when we can’t see the end of the tunnel. How do we find a “light” that can give us the hope, the strength, the energy, and the will to keep going? Many of us speak of our faith as something that sustains us in hard times. That’s a good thing. But we usually say that after we’ve made it through. Again, I think the more pressing question is the one we ask ourselves when we can’t see the “light” at the end of the tunnel. We want to know how we’re supposed to make it through another day.

Our lesson from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus addresses this question, although from a different point of view. His main concern was the moral and ethical darkness in the world as he saw it. At first glance, what he has to say can sound rigid, and even harsh. But we have to remember that Paul was not addressing a church that was an established institution in society. It was a church living on the margins, and how they lived impacted the ability of the community to survive. So he urged them to avoid behaviors that would weaken their community and practice those behaviors that would strengthen it.

Using images from Easter, St. Paul speaks of the living Christ as a light that has shined upon them. He quotes what may have been an early Christian hymn, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph. 5:24). Using the imagery of light, he makes what sounds like an obvious statement: “everything exposed by the light becomes visible” (Eph 5:13). When light shines on what is in the darkness, it reveals what is actually there. But more than that, Paul speaks of the light of Christ as a light that changes things. He also says, “everything that becomes visible is light” (Eph. 5:13-14). I think we have to look beyond the obvious here and recognize that when we open ourselves to the light of Christ, it changes us. It transforms us into people who reflect the light ourselves.

If we look at the positive teachings in our lesson for today, I think they may help us see more clearly what this looks like in practice. We are to “Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph. 5:10). We are to “be careful” how we live, seeking to be wise (Eph. 5:15). We are to “be filled with the Spirit”, which means “singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything,” and “being subject to one another out of reverence to Christ” (Eph 5:18-21). That last part may raise some eyebrows, but I believe it just means treating others with humility and respect. And the guiding principle behind all of this is found in the appeal to “live as children of light”, which means doing “all that is good and right and true” (Eph. 5:8-9).

You may be wondering how any of this helps when you’re in a dark place and struggling to keep going. For one thing, I think the promise is that no matter where we find ourselves in this life, Jesus Christ is always there with us, shining the light of God’s unfailing love. That can be a light for us in dark places. For another thing, we’re not left to try to do this in our own strength. One of the most important things the Spirit does in our lives is to give us strength to do what we may not have otherwise thought we could do. But finally, many have recognized that learning to practice joy in life, focusing our attention on what we’re grateful for, and treating others with love, kindness, humility, and respect, are all very practical strategies for getting through hard times.

For most of us, the last 18 months have felt like a dark place. The fear, uncertainty, and isolation of the Covid pandemic continue to affect us all deeply. If you’re like me, the news that the local risk dial continues to rise has felt like a gut punch. The very idea of returning to the way things were last year is too much to bear. So I think that St. Paul’s message is a timely one for us all. But if you are skeptical whether the prescription of joy, gratitude, humility, and love can really make a difference for you, I would remind you of the artist known as “Nightbirde.” Many of us have heard her story and been deeply moved by the joy, hope, and courage she displays in the face of overwhelming odds in her battle against cancer. If have, you know that she knows what it’s like to be in a dark place, but you’ve also seen the beautiful light of faith, hope, joy, and love that shines so brightly in her face. I pondered whether to mention her in my sermon, mainly out of respect for her and for you. But I cannot think of a better representative for what it looks like to be transformed by the light of Christ in the dark places we go through. May that light encourage, and strengthen, and guide us all!

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Through It All

Mark 6:6-30[1]

I think it’s fair to say that our society is one that lives in the fast lane. Or at least many of us do. We’re constantly rushing to get wherever we’re going. We like fast food, instant pots, quick meals, and anything that’s microwaveable. We’re accustomed to being able to simply speak any question into an electronic device and have an answer in seconds. We are hooked on shopping online with next-day delivery. We “deepen” our time by doing two (or perhaps three) things at once. We’re in a hurry with just about every aspect of life. Instant gratification is the name of the game. And we don’t like waiting for anything, ever!

But those of us who have taking more than a few trips around the sun can attest that life just doesn’t work that way. And I can assure you that’s not the way it works if you want to live as a follower of Jesus. A fitting analogy for what it means to commit yourself to a life of discipleship is planting a tree. For some varieties of trees, if you plant a seedling when you’re in elementary school, you may be retired before it reaches maturity! That’s the way the Christian life works. It’s a project that you continue to work on, through all that life may throw at you. “Instant gratification” isn’t part of this picture at all. The life of following Jesus in discipleship is one that takes time, and consistent commitment, and practice over a whole lifespan.

You may be wondering how this relates to our lesson from the Gospel of Mark for today. It’s a strange episode, to say the least. To be quite honest, it seems out of place in any story of Jesus’ life. At first glance, anyway. The bulk of it is a rather gruesome story about the death of John the Baptist at the hands of Herod Antipas, the Roman puppet ruler of Galilee. If we were to just take this story on it’s own merits, it wouldn’t seem to have much to say to us, other than the fact that John lost his life as a result of his service to God. But I think we have to use a different set of Bible reading skills to make sense of this lesson. We have to read this story in light of story of Jesus as a whole in Mark’s Gospel.

In the first place, there is an interesting connection between John and Jesus. The story begins with speculations about Jesus’ identity based on the fact that what Jesus was doing had come to the attention of Herod Antipas. And the speculations included that he may have been a resurrected John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the other prophets of old (Mk. 6:14-16). And then Mark proceeds to explain how John had been executed at Herod’s hands. But later in the Gospel, when Jesus asks his disciples who the crowds said he was, they answered, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets” (Mk. 8:28). This is significant because right after that Jesus tells them for the first time that he would have to die. So one function of this story about John the Baptist may have been to prepare us for the fact that Jesus was going to have to undergo an even more horrible death.

Another clue to the meaning of this lesson may be found in that it is introduced and concluded by Jesus sending out the twelve to extend his ministry. He sent them to tell the good news and to care for others in the same ways he was doing. It may be that Mark tells this story about John’s fate because he wants to warn those who would follow Jesus that their commitment to him would be costly. Just as John only gained a hearing from “the powers that be” when it suited them, so they could expect similar treatment. Later in the Gospel Jesus warns his disciples that they would be “handed over” to the authorities to give an account for themselves (Mk 13:9-13). And just as John lost his life because he was true to God, so Jesus warns his disciples that at times they would face the same threat.

I think we’re meant to understand this story from another perspective as well. Everyone who heard this story about John the Baptist would have already known what happened to Jesus. They would know that he had died a cruel death on the cross, but also that was not the end for him. God raised him from the dead, making it clear to all that his death was undeserved, and that in fact Jesus truly was the one whom God had chosen to bring the new life of the kingdom to all people. But beyond that, I think we’re meant to see the resurrection as an event that points forward to the complete fulfillment of the kingdom when God would right all wrongs. That includes righting the injustice that was done to John the Baptist by a foolish man. But as Jesus alludes to in Matt 13:35, it also includes righting the wrongs done to all those who have suffered injustice from the beginning of time to the present day.

I realize that comparing the Christian life to plating a tree that may take a lifetime to mature isn’t a very “marketable” approach in our world. It doesn’t fit in at all with our preoccupation with “instant” everything. But the message of the Bible is that dedicating your life to serving God and following Christ is not something that fits with “instant gratification.” The Bible alerts us in many ways that those who commit themselves to following Jesus and to working for the kingdom of God in this world will face many obstacles in life. That’s a hard truth to hear. But we can persevere through it all if we take a broader point of view. That means recognizing the resurrection of Jesus as an event that not only vindicated him, but also points forward to the day when God will right every wrong. If we can hold firmly to that perspective, and not be so caught up in what happens right now, then we too can continue to serve God and follow Christ through it all.

Tuesday, November 05, 2019

God's Care

God’s Care

Luke 18:1-8[1]

There is a question that has haunted the human family since the beginning. We have wondered from ancient times whether there is a God, and whether that God cares at all about us. When science and the church taught that the earth was at the very center of the universe, it might have been a bit easier to believe in a God who cares for us. When we began to finally understand how small the earth is compared to the rest of creation, I think it became more difficult. Even before that, there have always been catastrophes and tragedies that made us question whether there is a God, and whether that God cares at all about us.

It’s a dilemma that has been expressed in the centuries-old question: If God is both loving and all-powerful, how can there be evil in the world? The presence of tragedy in our lives suggests that God loves us but he’s not powerful enough to stop these things from happening. Or it suggests that God is powerful enough to stop them, but since he doesn’t he must not be loving. This question was addressed in the Bible in various ways, most notably the book of Job. It’s a question that allows no rational explanation, because the only answer to the tragedies of life is to find a way to trust that God does indeed care about us.

That’s one aspect of our Gospel lesson for today. In it, Jesus tells a parable that Luke says was meant to encourage us “to pray and not to lose heart” (Lk. 18:1). The parable is about a woman who was a widow, very likely in danger of losing her livelihood because women could not inherit property. This is an important matter because in the Bible widows were to be the objects of special care and were to be protected from their oppressors. Unfortunately, not everyone who was a leader in Israel was motivated by the desire to follow God’s ways of compassion and true justice.

That is in fact the case in this parable. The woman is at the mercy of a corrupt judge, who had no interest in protecting her. According to the Bible, one who served in the role of a judge was to exercise their authority with fairness and compassion in imitation of God’s character. But this man is the opposite of what any judge was supposed to be. He doesn’t care about God, and he doesn’t care about people, either. Apparently, like many in his day, he had acquired this position by “pulling strings” or by bribing someone, or perhaps both. It seems clear that the only reason he was a judge was to enrich himself.

But this is no ordinary widow. She’s called the “importunate” widow in the title that’s traditionally assigned to this parable. That’s a word most of us don’t use, but it means “persistent,” “demanding” “unrelenting,” and even “annoying.” And that’s precisely what she was. She persisted relentlessly in demanding that this judge grant her what was rightfully hers, and she kept doing so until she annoyed him! He confessed, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming” (Lk. 18:4-5)! She simply would not give up until he made things right.

At this point Jesus contrasts the unjust judge with the God whom he has taught clearly is gracious, loving, and caring. Jesus asks a question: “will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?” (Lk. 18:7). Jesus answers his own question: “I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them” (Lk. 18:8). The point of the parable is a contrast: if a godless, inhumane judge will finally give in to a powerless widow’s unceasing requests for justice, how much more will our merciful and loving God “grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night.” God will make things right, ultimately if not immediately.

But that’s precisely wherein lies the rub! We have lots of affirmations in the Bible that God cares about us and will take care of us. We have promises that God will set things right. But life doesn’t always confirm those promises. Sometimes, bad things happen to good people. Sometimes bad people do bad things to good people. And when that happens we can wonder where God is. In fact, in the parable, instead of asking the question “Will he delay long?” some translate that verse as a concession: “even if he delays long”! That might just make more sense in the context. The problem with “praying and not losing heart” is when we do that and it seems like God “delays long,” or perhaps turns a deaf ear altogether! When life comes crashing down around us, we come back to the age-old question whether there is a God, and whether that God cares at all about us.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid that at times like those, our perspective can get quite narrow. All we can see is the hardship or tragedy we’re dealing with. And all we can ask is, “Why?” or, “How long?” stuck in our pain and our fears. But in this parable, I think Jesus wants to help us focus our attention elsewhere. He wants to remind us that we believe in a God who is a loving Father who knows what we need, who wants what is best for us, and who is working constantly for our good. And he does all of this despite our inability to understand our circumstances. There are simply some questions we may never be able to answer. But in this passage, Jesus redirects our questioning. He reminds us that the crucial question is, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” In this way, Jesus points us to what really matters: finding the faith to entrust ourselves to God’s care in all the circumstances of our lives.

In the Power of God

2 Timothy 1:1-14[1]

One of the great challenges of life is what to do when it feels like your values are under attack. For most of my life, I have heard people say that the Christian faith is under attack in our country. I’m not so sure I would agree with that sentiment. I know that there are some who speak against religion in general. Ironically, I would say Jesus echoed some of their criticisms of religion. In our day, it seems to me that the greater problem is that the Christian faith has become irrelevant. I don’t think that’s the fault of the faith, mind you. I think that’s because of the way “church people” like us represent the Christian faith. Or perhaps it would be better to say that we fail to represent the faith.

Unfortunately, part of what happens when we think of ourselves as under attack is that we go into a “defensive” mode. When we see ourselves as the victims of attack, it’s easy to see threats where none exist. When we go into this “defensive” mode, one thing we do is pull back from engaging people who are “other.” We retreat to the safety of our “own” group. And we have certain “litmus tests” to be able to make sure someone really is a part of our group. Whether it’s a list of beliefs, or certain stances on social issues, or sheer tribalism (where we trust only those of our own race, creed, and nation), this kind of stance makes it hard to live out our faith in the world.

That was the situation to which 2 Timothy was addressed. Timothy and the believers in his care were discouraged. It would seem that they found themselves in a setting where the challenge of living the Christian life was getting them down. As a result, they were retreating into a mode of “guarding” themselves, of “avoiding” those who were perceived to be a threat, and of drawing lines to keep out those who were on the “outside.” It’s hard to understand why they turned in on themselves this way, but it would seem that the underlying problem was that they were struggling with a sense of being ashamed of their faith (2 Tim. 1:8).

This may seem strange to us. Apparently Timothy and the band of struggling believers he was serving were feeling ashamed because they were losing out to competitors preaching a different gospel. We don’t know all that these “impostors” stood for, but what we do know is that they imposed strict demands on their converts’ behavior, while indulging their own desires to do whatever they pleased. They wormed their way into congregations, and then milked the people for money. It would seem Timothy and his flock felt ashamed of the gospel because these “impostors” were so successful at gaining converts, while they were struggling to survive. As a result, they had gone into a “defensive” mode.

Unfortunately, there are aspects of 2 Timothy that seem to positively encourage this retreat into a “defensive” mode. The Scripture actually uses language that I would say only reinforced their natural inclination to withdraw from perceived threats. It advises the believers to “guard” themselves, to “avoid” and “shun” others, to mark off those who are not a part of the “chosen,” and to effectively “consign” others to their fate. Much of this language is reactive, not proactive. It doesn’t sound very much like Jesus’ challenge to courageous discipleship!

But there are other ideas here that are more helpful. First, Timothy is encouraged to “rekindle the gift of God” (2 Tim. 1:6). The image here is of fanning the embers of a fire that is no longer burning. There is still heat in the coals, but they have to be coaxed into actively burning again. In the face of discouragement, Timothy was challenged to “tend the fire” of his calling and gifts. I think at least a part of that meant for him to remind himself who it was who called and gifted him in the first place.

Second, Timothy is reminded that “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7). This is one of those passages where I think the King James translators got it right: the spirit God has given us is one of “power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” In other words, the charge to Timothy was to recognize that it was the Spirit of God who gave him the power and love and good sense to be able to face the challenges that came his way. He didn’t face these hardships alone, but rather the way for him to fulfill his life and his service was by “relying on the power of God” (2 Tim. 1:8).

I think that this advice to Timothy can help us as well. The Bible tells us that each and every one of us has been given a “gift of God” with which to serve others. That means that living a life of faith and service is not a “self-help” project. Rather, we live and serve through the gifts God has given us. And sometimes we have to “tend the fire” of our calling and gifts. More than that, however, we do not fulfill the life of discipleship to Christ in our own strength alone. Rather, the Scriptures make it clear that we have all received the Spirit of God, who gives us more than enough power and love and good sense to be able to follow the path of faith no matter what we may face along the way.

While I don’t believe it’s helpful for us to think of ourselves as “under attack,” it’s clearly the case that striving to live the Christian life and to give of ourselves in service to Christ is a path that can be discouraging at times. It can feel as if we’re constantly swimming against the stream, and we can grow weary with fatigue. But the Scriptures continually remind us that we don’t serve in our own strength alone. We serve with the power and love and good sense that God gives us. We fulfill our calling to live for Christ and to serve others by “relying on the power of God.”

Monday, September 17, 2018

We Do Not Lose Heart

2 Corinthians 4:13-18[1]

St. Paul is famous for having said “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim. 6:10). He’s famous for this because he’s been so often misquoted as saying that the love of money is the root of all evil. No doubt, greed motivates people to do things they might otherwise not think of doing. But so does fear. I believe that fear can be just a powerful a motivator to do evil as greed or lust. We fear what we do not understand, what we cannot anticipate, and what we cannot control. And in our world, there is so much that we don’t understand, can’t anticipate, and have no way to control. I would have to admit that the things I’m most ashamed of having done I’ve done out of fear.

I think one of the main reasons why fear can affect so deeply is because fear converts to anger. To be afraid of something or someone is a powerless feeling, and most of us don’t like feeling powerless. So we convert our fears into anger, because anger feels more powerful than fear. And we usually do so without even knowing it. This dynamic in our human psychology has allowed zealots and tyrants of every stripe to manipulate whole nations of people to do unspeakable evil. It still makes us susceptible to those who point the finger at some particular group as the ones who are to blame for the challenges that we fear so much in our world.

If anyone had a right to give in to fear, it was St. Paul. He recounts that during the course of his service to Christ, he endured “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger” (2 Cor 6:4-5). He said it well elsewhere: he was in “danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters” and he carried out his ministry “in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked” (2 Cor. 11:26-27). I think if anyone had a right to give in to fear, it was St. Paul.

Beyond that, he had endured public humiliation and even being run out of town by the people of the church at Corinth. Now this was a church that he had founded, and he continued to serve as a pastor to them for many years through his letters which we have in the NT. But the relationship between them was not always the best. The Apostle recounts one particular occasion when he visited the church in Corinth and was forced to leave by those who opposed him openly. He also chides the church at Corinth for receiving so-called “super-Apostles” who claimed that Paul was a fraud because he was he didn’t “throw his weight around.”

Part of the problem was a question of authority. The “super-Apostles” who attacked St. Paul claimed that his authority was lame and ineffective. They insisted their credentials and performance as preachers of the gospel put Paul to shame. And it would appear that, at least for a while, the people of the church at Corinth were taken in by this scam. But in our lesson for today, St. Paul addresses this: he says, “everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 4:15).

You might think that Paul would give in to fear and move on to greener pastures. But he never gave up on the church at Corinth. He never stopped trying to lead them into the truth of the Gospel, no matter what obstacles there may have been in his way. And finally, after many months of conflict, his efforts were rewarded. That was the whole reason why he wrote the letter we know as 2 Corinthians. And that helps us to understand better the context in which he could say, “we do not lose heart” (2 Cor. 4:16).

This wasn’t the first time or the last that St. Paul was attacked by those who claimed he had no authority to act as an Apostle. Elsewhere, in response to those who were boasting of their perfect “pedigree,” he insists that none of that counts. In a church that follows a crucified savior, St. Paul insists that “the only thing that counts is faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). I might paraphrase that as “faith serving through love.” Because St. Paul knew he was a living example of “faith serving through love,” he didn’t let those who tried to discredit him divert him from his task. Because his motives were pure and his ultimate confidence was in Jesus Christ, he could say “we do not lose heart.”

I think that’s a lesson that we can learn from in our day. It is a difficult time to be the church. 60 years ago, we were right in the middle of the mainstream of our culture. These days it’s all we can do to try to keep moving forward against the current of our culture. And there are so many voices out there claiming that our mandate for being the church in our world is lame and that we are ineffective at best when it comes to carrying out our mission.

It would be easy to give into fear in this setting. There’s so much about our future as a church that we don’t understand, we can’t anticipate, and we can’t control. But now is not the time to give into fear; it’s the time to follow St. Paul’s example by putting into practice “faith serving through love.” I think that can be one of the most effective antidotes to the fear-mongers in our world who would paralyze us and attack us for carrying out our calling. When we devote ourselves to a life of “faith serving through love,” then we can also have the courage to say, come what may, “we do not lose heart.”

Monday, November 02, 2015

Not Losing Hope

Not Losing Heart

Hebrews 2:1-10, 14-15[1]

We are taught from an early age to finish what we start. Some of us may do better than others, but perseverance is a virtue that is impressed upon us in many ways. We have all kinds of slogans to reinforce it, slogans that may haunt us. But for all that, the fact of the matter is that at some point in life, all of us will feel like giving up. As Ernest Hemingway puts it so pointedly, “the world breaks everyone.”[2] Of course, Hemingway was not known for his optimistic outlook on life, but it would seem that in this he has captured a bit of truth. Our lives unfold in ways we never imagined, and sometimes the circumstances are so burdensome as to break our will to persevere. We all at some time in our lives find ourselves losing heart.

The situation behind our Scripture lesson from Hebrews for today is one that applies very well to this theme. The Letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage a group of Christians to hold onto their faith, and not lose heart.[3] We don’t really know who they were, but we can detect some of what they were facing. First, for those who may have been Jewish, it would seem that they had converted to faith in Jesus the Christ in a time when the leaders of many Jewish communities had decided to shun anyone who took such a step. So they were very likely cut off from their friends and perhaps even their families by their decision to follow Christ. In some cases perhaps they were forced to leave a community of faith that had been the center of their lives.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t all they had to endure. These were Christians who lived in Greek and Roman cities. Again, it was a time when their Greek and Roman neighbors began to shun them and even at times attack them for their faith. Whether they were Jewish or Greek or Roman, they were ridiculed for believing that a man who had been executed as a criminal could possibly be the Savior of the world.[4] They were thrown out of their trade guilds and stripped of their livelihoods because they refused to offer sacrifices to their patron gods. They were seen as the enemies of society and branded atheists because they wouldn’t worship the pagan deities.

Needless to say, their lot in life was not an easy one. And in the midst of that kind of pressure, it is evident from the Letter to the Hebrews that they were losing heart. How could they not have grown weary from the constant barrage of opposition? I’m not sure we would do much better. In fact I might not hold up as well as they did. I don’t think it’s hard to imagine some of the questions that haunted them. Where was God in the midst of their suffering? Had they done the right thing by embracing Jesus Christ as their Savior? If they had, why were they suffering so?[5]

The one who wrote to these struggling people tried to encourage them to hold firmly to their faith and not to lose heart. It was his conviction that their faith could see them through, and that there were some very good reasons not to give up. In our lesson for today, I think the main point is that no matter what their sufferings might be, they had a friend and even a brother in Jesus who would stand beside them no matter what. In the first place, Jesus was not only willing to be “made lower than the angels,” but he also took on “the suffering of death” for them (Heb. 2:9). There was no suffering they could experience that he did not know. And he took on that suffering to show them that he was not ashamed to take his place among them as their brother (Heb. 2:11).[6]

More than that, the lesson says that he not only humbled himself by sharing “flesh and blood.” Rather, he took it on so that he could set them free from what may have been the greatest fear they had—the fear that they would lose their very lives because of their faith in Jesus. And because they faced that fear, Jesus passed through death to the victory of the resurrection in order to show them that he had destroyed the power death held over them.[7] There was no suffering he was not willing to bear as their brother and friend, not even death itself. And so the Scripture says, “Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (Heb. 2:18).[8]

I think one of the hardest challenges we face when we’re tempted to lose heart is the feeling that we’re all alone. That’s the sentiment of Hemingway’s outlook on the world. His famous quote continues, “The world breaks everyone, and afterwards many are strong at the broken places.” And I know that’s true, as many of you do. But that wasn’t all he said. Like many before and after him, his was a view that ultimately life is tragic, senseless, and ruthless. And when you look at some of what happens to people in this world, it can be hard not to lose heart and lose faith and embrace that kind of despair.

But our Scripture for today gives us at least one reason not to lose heart and faith: no matter what this life may throw at us, no matter how much we may be disappointed, no matter how much the world may break us, we have someone who knows what it’s like. We have someone who is always willing to stand by us in our hardships as our friend, and even more, as our brother. Because his is a spiritual friendship and a spiritual presence, it’s not always obvious to us. But the Scriptures reassure us time and time again, that Jesus is here among us, as a community and individually. In your darkest moments, he is only a prayer away. That prayer may not bring much relief at the time. But the promise is clear: when we feel like we are losing heart we have a friend and a brother who is always with us to encourage us and support us and strengthen us.

[2] Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, 267. The full quote is, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” Unfortunately, many who quote the first part of this passage use it as a statement of hope, while Hemingway clearly did not intend it in that way.

[3] Cf. Anchor Bible Dictionary, s. v. “Hebrews, Epistle to the,” by Harold W. Attridge, p. 100. Cf. also Thomas G. Long, Hebrews, 3, where he says that “the threat here is that, worn down and worn out, they will drop their end of the rope and drift away. Tired of walking the walk, many of them are considering taking a walk, leaving the community and falling away from the faith.”

[4] One of the most (in)famous examples is the “Alexamenos Graffito,” an image that depicts a Christian named Alexamenos worshiping a man with the head of a donkey hanging on a cross, with an inscription, “Alexamenos worships his god.” Cf. http://gospelsmuseum.div.ed.ac.uk/exhibits/show/10/the-alexamenos-graffito .

[5] Cf. Long, Hebrews, 28, where he argues that part of their problem is a theological one: “Everyone can see the shame of Jesus’ death; what we cannot see is how Jesus’ death brings life.” He adds (p. 33), “If we do not have a ny coherent conviction about how God is restoring the broken creation and how our prayers and our efforts are incorporated into this divine action, … then we eventually lose heart, lose energy, and lose faith.”

[6] Cf. Barnabas Lindars, Theology of the Letter to the Hebrews, 39–40, where he discusses the author’s emphasis on Jesus’ humanity. He says that one of the reasons for this is to stress Jesus’ solidarity with humanity.

[7] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, 182, where he says that the fellowship of Christians is on the way to “the annihilation of death in the new creation of all things. Only then will ‘all tears be wiped away’ and perfect joy unite all created beings with God and with one another.” And yet, at the same time he can also say that we already have a taste of this new creation by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus (ibid., 254): “the day of Christ’s resurrection is the first day of the new creation.” As Long observes wisely (Hebrews, 37), this is the “truth about Jesus that must be heard,” that is, through the gospel, but cannot yet be seen.

[8] Cf. Long, Hebrews, 42: “Jesus is made perfect in that suffering joins him completely and empathetically to the human condition. Through his pain Jesus becomes a ‘brother’ to every other human being, and this is a radical theological point. The Preacher is saying that when the gaze of the eternal Son of God encompasses a criminal on death row, when the glorified Son sees a homeless woman crawling into a cardboard box to keep from freezing in the night, when the Lord of all sees a man robbed of dignity and purpose by schizophrenia, when the divine heir of all things sees a mother weeping over the death of her child or a man battling the last savage assault of cancer or the swollen body of a child slowly starving to death, he does not see a charity case, a pitiful victim, or a hopeless cause. He sees a brother, he sees a sister … .”

The Waking Dreamer