Always in God's Care

Always in God’s Care

Psalm 31[1]

This morning I’d like to share with you another of my occasional stories about my experience with a particular passage of Scripture. I’d like to share with you my journey with Psalm 31. Like many of you, I probably first heard the words “Into your hands I commend my Spirit” from the story of Jesus’ death on the cross in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 23:46). My first serious Bible was a King James Version, and it had every verse divided separately, so it was hard to tell when people in the New Testament were quoting from the Old Testament. I soon switched to the New International Version, and they print things differently, so you can tell when someone is quoting from the Old Testament. That’s probably where I first noticed that Jesus was quoting from the Psalm. I don’t remember the exact timeframe for this, but it was a while ago.

I took my first Hebrew class in College, and then I took the required year of Hebrew in Seminary. But I found Hebrew to be harder and more confusing than Greek, and I wanted to try to master it. So I took a “Hebrew Exegesis” class to help level up my skills. It wasn’t until I started digging into the Hebrew Bible more consistently when I was in my mid- to late-twenties that I began to notice some interesting things going on with the language of the Hebrew Bible that weren’t always reflected in the English translations. And I was especially drawn to the Psalms. Along with Isaiah, they’re probably my favorite part of the Old Testament.

A case in point is the English translation of Psalm 31:5, “Into your hands I commend my Spirit.” It sounds like a prayer someone might pray when they’re dying. That’s likely influenced by the fact that Jesus prayed that prayer as he was dying. But just the language of “giving up” one’s “spirit” seems to lend itself to that understanding. When I read the verse with that in mind, I’m not sure I really paid all that much attention to the rest of the Psalm.

It was during the year that I spent living and studying in Germany in 1989-90 that I really began digging into the Psalms. One of the things I discovered about Psalm 31 is that the Hebrew word typically translated in English as “spirit” here refers to the psalmsinger’s whole life. That insight enabled me to read Psalm 31:5 more like “Into your hands I commend my life,” or as the Good News Version we read today puts it, “I place myself in your care.” It helped me see that, at least in the original context of the Psalm this is a prayer for living!

That helped me to hear the words of the whole of Psalm 31 better. A lot of us still have a problem with just lifting out verses of the Bible that we like. The reason that’s a problem is because we’re meant to read the whole Bible. And in this case, that means we’re meant to read Psalm 31 as a whole. The Psalm as a whole is the prayer of a person of faith struggling with the painful and sometimes unfair ways people can treat us. And as I mentioned above, Psalm 31:5 is not a prayer for dying, but a prayer for living with faith in God, no matter. We see that in other ways in the Psalm. The psalmsinger recounts all the hardships of his life, enemies who sought to undo him, the anxiety and sorrow he experienced from opponents. And yet, in spite of all the afflictions he endured, at the end of the day he could pray, “my times are in your hand” (Ps. 31:15). Or, as the Good News Version translates it, “I am always in your care.” With all of that in mind, it’s hard not to conclude that the whole Psalm is a prayer of trust, a prayer of confidence in the “faithful God” (Ps. 31:5). And the prayer “into your hands I commend my spirit” is a motto for living, not a prayer for dying.

In Psalm 31, as in other Psalms, the psalmsinger expresses the decision to entrust his life—his whole life—into God’s hands. That’s not an easy decision to make. Most of us like to keep the “important parts” of our lives in our control. But when try to do that, we learn that there is so much about life that is outside our control. For me, knowing that we can entrust all of that, all the things that seem too big for us, to God’s loving care relieves us of the heavy burdens we try to carry ourselves.

One of the last stages in my journey with Psalm 31 was when I read through the commentary on the Psalms by James Luther Mays in the Presbyterian commentary series called Interpretation. Yes, I did actually read through a whole commentary. I’ve done it more than once! One of the things I like about that commentary is that Mays, who himself was a Presbyterian Old Testament professor, really seems to pull together all the Psalms around some key themes. It helped me to read each Psalm, not as a whole in itself, but in the context of the entire collection of Psalms. And that only reinforced my conviction that the prayer, “into your hands I commend my life” is a motto for living, not a prayer for dying.

One of the things that Mays does is to inform the readers of his commentary how various Psalms have been used not only in the New Testament, but also throughout the history of the church. It should come as no surprise that, following Jesus’ example, a number of prominent Church leaders, including Martin Luther, used this prayer at the end of their lives. But as Mays says in his commentary, “in Hebrew and in the context of the psalm” the prayer is a confession of ultimate “dependence and trust” in God. He adds that this prayer, “Into your hands I commend my life” is essentially “a way of saying in the midst of affliction, ‘It is up to you, God, what becomes of me, and I am willing to have it so.’”[2] I find that to be a wonderful way to affirm my trust in God. I think Jesus paraphrased that prayer with his prayer in the Garden, “not my will but thine be done.”

If you think of it, what better place could we ever want to be than in God’s loving care? What more could we want than what God wants for us? That’s what I think about with this prayer, “It is up to you, God, what becomes of me, and I’m willing to have it so.” When you put it that way, the prayer, “into your hands I commend my life” really does become a prayer for living. In fact, it has been one of my primary prayers for living for over fifteen years. I haven’t prayed it every day. But I’ve prayed it most days. And many days I’ve prayed it more than once. I think one of the significant spiritual breakthroughs in my life’s journey was when I finally realized that I needed to consciously turn to God and entrust my life, all my hopes and dreams, into his care on a regular basis. This prayer has gotten me through a lot of up’s and down’s in life, and I think it will continue to see me through whatever may come in the future. Telling this story is my way of inviting you to join me in praying the prayer, “into your hands I commend my life,” following Jesus’ example, and the example of many faithful people who have gone before us. It’s a way of entrusting all of our lives into God’s hands. As we do so, may we discover that our lives are always in God’s care, and that there’s no better place we could be.

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[1] © Alan Brehm 2026. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 3/29/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] James Luther Mays, Psalms, 144.

Training

 Training

Ephesians 6:10, 13-21[1]

As I mentioned last week, anyone who’s made the effort to learn a skill knows that it takes practice. But those of us who’ve been serious about trying to learn that skill know that it also takes training. I’ve learned that lesson in my on-again, off-again career as an amateur guitar player. I started trying to play guitar back in 1979. I went off to college that year, setting about teaching myself how to play guitar. I learned some chords, and I could play well enough to lead camp songs, but that was about as far as it went. And it didn’t take long before my guitar sat in a corner mostly unplayed.

Twenty years later I decided to try again to learn to play guitar. This time I took lessons. I started with classical lessons, because I wanted to learn to play the notes on the guitar, not just the chords. I did that for about a year and a half. Life’s changes interrupted my classical lessons, but I kept at it. Several years later, I decided I wanted to learn to play an electric guitar also. The technique is quite different. So I started taking weekly lessons. I did that for about five years. I learned a lot about basic technique. I learned to play some solos, like the one from “Hotel California.” More importantly, I learned something about the music theory behind Blues and Jazz, and I learned to improvise a bit. I still have a lot to learn about playing guitar. But I know that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without some training.

We’ve been talking a lot lately about what it looks like to try to live the Christian life. In his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul has urged us to “lead a life worthy of your calling” (Eph 4:1, NLT). And we learned over the last several weeks that we demonstrate the quality of our faith by the quality of our relationships. We saw that Paul gets uncomfortably specific about what that looks like. And we heard him encourage us to conduct our relationships in such a way that we seek to do good to others, and not to harm, we try to help others, not hurt them, and we look for ways to give to others, rather than trying to take from them. And last week we discussed what it looks like to “live wisely, and not foolishly” (Eph 5:15, CEB) by practicing things like honoring God, and gratitude, and respect for others. And as we have been discussing all along, this way of life takes constant practice.

But I would suggest that living the Christian life also takes training. It’s not something that we can just teach ourselves. We learn to live this way over time, over years and even decades of training and practice. St. Paul alludes to this training in our lesson for today. He uses the analogy of a soldier equipped for battle, with armor, a shield, and even a weapon. These days, using military analogies for the Christian life can be troubling. Unfortunately, throughout the ages too many Christians have taken the “battle” image Paul uses here too literally. And that makes it hard for us to compare a life that seeks to follow Jesus with warfare. But I think the main point of this passage is that it takes training to prepare for living the Christian life.

If we recognize that Paul is using the image of a soldier to encourage us to engage in training, perhaps we can learn something from this passage without endorsing any kind of violence in the name of Jesus. Take, for example, his encouragement to “Let the truth be like a belt around your waist, and let God’s justice protect you like armor” (Eph. 6:14, CEV). I think this suggests one area of training for the Christian life. It has to do with learning to discern and follow God’s will as you understand it. That’s something that takes training, and even discipline. We have to commit to it like a learning a musical instrument, or developing athletic skills, or following a fitness regimen. We commit to seeking to determine the right thing to do, in so far as it is humanly possible. And we try to do the right thing, again in so far as it is humanly possible.

A second line of training may be suggested by Paul’s call for us to “Let your faith be like a shield” and to “Let God's saving power be like a helmet” (Eph 6:16-17, CEV). The good news about our salvation by grace and the hope of the coming kingdom of God is not easy to understand. This suggests another area of training for the Christian life. We have to make an effort to dig into what the gospel means for us and for our lives. That includes Bible study. And Bible study starts with reading the Bible on a regular basis.[2] I think that’s what Jesus was talking about when he called people to “eat” his flesh as the bread of life. He was talking about ingesting his words, meditating on them, internalizing them, and remaining attentive to God’s voice. But we all need help understanding what we’re reading and hearing in the Bible. That’s where organized study comes in. We can participate in a group Bible Study. We can also read books that help make the gospel more understandable and more real to us. I find that helpful after 40 years of study. There are some authors who make it all “come to life.”[3]

Paul suggests a third focus of training in the discipline of prayer. I like the way Gene Peterson renders it in The Message: “pray hard and long” (Eph 6:18). Prayer keeps us connected to God.[4] It’s a source of strength and wisdom. Prayer opens us to the resources that God provides to help us live the Christian life every day, especially when life gets hard. But prayer also opens us up to other people, especially when we pray for them. And we need to pray especially for the people who may be the most difficult for us to love. When we do, it opens our closed hearts and helps us to understand where people are coming from, even when they may do something we find hurtful. Prayer opens us up and helps us live the Christian life.

It takes practice to live the Christian life. I’m still practicing, still trying to learn how to get it right. But more than that, it takes training. When we try the do-it-yourself method of learning to live the Christian life, the results may be just as unreliable as when I tried to teach myself to play the guitar. We need training to learn how to discern God’s will and put it into practice in our lives, in so far as it is humanly possible. We need training to figure out what the right thing to do is, and to figure out how to try to do it. We need training to understand the good news about Jesus that is the foundation for living the Christian life. And we need training to learn how to “pray hard and long.” The Christian life is not a do-it-yourself project. It’s not something we can successfully achieve on our own. Just as I needed a teacher to learn to play the guitar, so we all need to look to those in the body of Christ who can train us in the disciplines that enable us to live the Christian life in the face of the real-life situations we deal with every day. And part of the good news about this is that every day is a day when we can start again to learn how to live our lives more like Christ.

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 8/25/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol 5, 59-60: “brief passages cannot and must not take the place of reaching the Scripture as a whole. … The full witness to Jesus Christ the Lord can be clearly heard only in its immeasurable inner relationships, in the connection of Old and New Testaments, of promise and fulfillment, sacrifice and law, Law and Gospel, cross and resurrection, faith and obedience, having and hoping

[3] Cf. Henri Nouwen, Here and Now: Living in the Spirit, 72: “Reading in a spiritual way is reading with a desire to let God come closer to us. Most of us read to acquire knowledge or to satisfy our curiosity. … The purpose of spiritual reading, however, is not to master knowledge or information, but to let God’s Spirit master us.”

[4] Cf. Nouwen, Here and Now, 68: prayer is “the discipline that helps us to bring God back again and again to the center of our life.”

Every Hour I Need You!

Every Hour I Need You!

Psalm 107:1-22[1]

You may have noticed that we talk a lot about God’s “unfailing love” in our worship. As is the case with other elements of our service that I repeat week after week, that’s an intentional choice on my part. My understanding of God based on the central affirmations of the Bible is that God loves us all with a love that will never let us go. God loves us all, along with the whole human family, with a love that is unconditional, unchanging, and irrevocable. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it (and as I am fond of quoting), “There is nothing you can do to make God love you more. There is nothing you can do to make God love you less.” That’s my understanding of God’s love, but it’s also an understanding that’s based on and informed by almost 50 years of studying the Bible.

A statement like “50 years of studying the Bible” might sound impressive. It might sound like after 50 years of personal, professional, academic, and spiritual study of the Bible, I should have it all down. But I don’t. There are still lots of questions that I can’t answer. There are still questions about God’s unfailing love that I can’t answer. One question that I often struggle with is the fact that the Bible speaks about God’s love in “expansive” language. For example, as I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite verses is Psalm 36:5, which says that God’s “unfailing love is as vast as the heavens.” The idea is that there is nothing in all of creation that’s beyond the reach of God’s unfailing love. It’s a comforting reminder. But when I think about the vastness of all creation, I can sometimes wonder with the author of Psalm 8, “what are mere mortals that you should think about them” (Ps 8:4, NLT)? How can my problems really matter to a God whose love fills the whole universe?

That tension lies at the heart of what the Bible teaches about God. God is so far beyond us that his love can extend to the vast reaches of the whole universe. But God is also so close to each and every one of us that his love reaches into the everyday details of our lives. Another of my favorite Bible verses says it this way: “I am the high and holy God, who lives forever. I live in a high and holy place, but I also live with people who are humble and repentant, so that I can restore their confidence and hope” (Isa 57:15, GNT). It may be hard for us to understand how God’s love can extend to everything in all the vast universe and also at the same time can relate to the everyday concerns of our lives. But that is precisely what the Bible affirms about who God is and how God loves us.

I think our lesson from Psalm 107 for today addresses this question. The whole Psalm is a reflection on God’s love for people in various real-life situations they may have faced. And the point of it all is that God “is good to us, and his love never fails” (Psalm 107:2, CEV). Just to make sure that the message sinks in, there are several “stanzas” to this Psalm that demonstrate God’s goodness and unfailing love. The Psalmist reminds us that God’s love is such that “To everyone who is thirsty, he gives something to drink; to everyone who is hungry, he gives good things to eat” (Ps. 107:9). God’s love means “He breaks down bronze gates and shatters iron locks” to set free those who are unjustly imprisoned (Ps. 107:16). God in his love can “turn deserts into lakes and scorched land into flowing streams.” (Ps. 107:35). God’s love is such that “When you are suffering and in need, he will come to your rescue” (Ps. 107:41). The idea is that there is no situation in which we may find ourselves that God’s love cannot reach us and restore us.

More than that, this Psalm reminds us that God’s love for us is such that he seeks us out when we’re lost. That seems to be the point of spelling out the various real-life situations in the Psalm. The point is not only that God helps those who turn to him, but rather that God himself actually seeks out those who are in distress. Of course, there’s a balance here as well. God seeks us out, but it’s also up to us to turn to him. There’s a “refrain” that repeats through the Psalm. In each and every challenge, it says, “You were in serious trouble, but you prayed to the LORD, and he rescued you” (Ps. 107:6, 13, 19, 28). No matter where we may find ourselves in this life, we can turn to the Lord and ask him for help. And when we do, what we find is that God is always seeking us out in all the places of distress, shame, and even danger into which we may have wandered or gone astray. This is also what it means when the Psalm affirms that God loves us with a love that never lets us go.

The promise is that no matter where our lives may have taken us, God not only seeks us out, but he restores us to life. Of course, one of the big questions that I can’t answer is what to make of it when we turn to the Lord, and nothing seems to change. We go on being hungry and thirsty, we go on wandering in the wilderness, we go on suffering and there’s no rescue from it. It’s one of the biggest questions with the Bible’s teaching about God’s love, and I don’t think anyone can really answer it. Sometimes we turn to the Lord and call out to him to help us, and all we seem to get in response is silence. But I think it’s important, especially in those times, for us to hear the message of Psalm 107: God is always “good to us” and “his love never fails.” Even and particularly when it seems like God has turned a deaf ear to our cries for help, even and particularly when we feel like God has abandoned us instead of answering our cries for him to help us, we need to remember that God loves us with a love that will never let us go.

Some of you may wonder why I spend so much time preaching on passages like this one from the Hebrew Bible. I know that there’s a tradition of preaching from the Gospel lessons every Sunday in the Presbyterian world. I would answer that question by saying that in my opinion we have to understand the Bible as a whole in order to understand any of its parts. The foundations for the faith that Jesus proclaimed in his life and ministry are found in the Hebrew Bible. Without an understanding of how Jesus viewed God, we can easily turn everything he said into a rigid system that restricts access to God’s love only to those who “live up” to a certain standard. In other words, the very same kind of system for which Jesus challenged the Jewish religious leaders of his day. The point of his challenge was that God’s love is unconditional, unchanging, and irrevocable for everyone, not just for those who “measure up.”

For me, the lesson of this passage is that wherever we may find ourselves in this life, whether in good times or in hard times, the truth about us is that God loves us, always has and always will. And the truth about us is that we can look to God to care for us in any and every hardship we may be facing. When I read this Psalm, I think of that great old hymn, “I need thee every hour.” I think that’s the lesson of this passage for us today: every hour of every day, we all need the Lord. We need the Lord’s love in our lives every hour of every day. We need to know that the Lord is looking out for us, no matter what circumstance in which we may find ourselves. We need to be able to trust that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there’s nothing we can do to make God love us less. And that love isn’t just some nice sentiment. It makes all the difference in our ability to cope with all that we may have to face in our lives. We can face it all knowing that God is always “good to us” and “his love never fails.”

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[1] ©2024 Alan Brehm.  A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 3/10/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church.

In Jesus' Name

 In Jesus’ Name

John 14:1-14[1]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Not) Losing Heart

 (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.

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[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 .

Praying With Confidence

 Praying With Confidence

Luke 11:1-13[1]

When I was thinking about the message for today, I wondered if the title, “Praying with Confidence,” might sound strange. In fact, I wondered if it might sound “cheesy.” I’m not sure we’re used to associating “praying” with “confidence.” I think we tend to connect “praying” with “humility.” Truth be told, I’ve always questioned preachers and teachers who have spoken casually about how confidently we should all be praying. It made me wonder whether they were paying attention to what’s going on in the world. It made me wonder if they had ever had any real problems in life. I’ve never been comfortable with that kind of shallow, fake-sounding prayer as a cliché!

And in the spirit of “true confession,” I’d have to admit that I’ve always had a problem with praying. It’s not that I think that God isn’t there, or that God isn’t listening, or that God doesn’t care. My problem with praying has centered on the experience of pouring out my heart—sometimes for years—and having my prayers go unanswered. Or at least so it seemed at the time. I know the old saying: “God always answers prayer: sometimes yes, sometimes no, and sometimes wait.” When you’re praying like your life depends on it and nothing changes, that just doesn’t cut it. I think I’m probably not the only one who’s had to face this problem with prayer. And when we do, it’s natural for us to wonder “why”.

Our Gospel lesson for today presents Luke’s version of Jesus’ teaching on prayer. The whole thing is meant to remind us that when we pray, we can do so in the assurance that God knows our needs, cares about us, and delights in providing what is good for us all. You may have noticed that I always conclude my pastoral prayer with “we thank you that we can pray in the assurance that, before we even know to ask or a word is on our lips, you are already working in each and every life to bring your grace and peace, and your love and mercy, and your joy and new life.” I don’t do that because I can’t think of a different way to end my prayer. I do that to remind us all that this is the way Jesus taught us to pray.

At the heart of this passage is Luke’s version of the “Lord’s Prayer.” It sounds incomplete to our ears. The fact is there are three versions of the “Lord’s Prayer”: this one, the somewhat expanded one in Mt 6:9-13, and the one from a second century Christian document called the “Didache” (or teaching), where we find the “full version” of the prayer we pray today. I don’t believe the “additions” to the prayer in Luke change its tone in any way. All forms of the Lord’s Prayer, including the one we pray today, remind us to pray in the recognition that all that we are depends on God, and to pray in the confident trust that God will provide for us.

I think that’s one of the most important reasons for us to pray in the way that Jesus instructs us: it reminds us who God is. We’re not praying to a God who is too far above us to hear or care about our prayers. We’re not praying to a God who disapproves not only our actions but who we are. We’re not praying to a God who gives only grudgingly. Jesus reminds us that when we pray, we’re praying to a loving Father who already knows exactly what we need, who cares deeply about each and every one of us, and who delights in providing what is good for us. So we don’t have pray as if we’re “begging” for God’s attention. Jesus teaches us to pray in the confidence that we’re always at the center of God’s loving care.

I think the other reason we pray in the way that Jesus teaches us is because it makes a difference in the kind of people we become. When we live our lives in the humble confidence that God knows, cares, and delights in providing for our needs, we can practice the same kind of care and generosity toward others. This also shapes the kind of community we create. When we come together as a community of believers who pray with this humble confidence, we shine the warmth of God’s unfailing love through the very spirit in which we gather, as well as through our caring for one another and for our community.

You may have found it surprising for a pastor to admit in a sermon that I’ve had a problem with praying. Truth be told, I’ve had problems with the Bible, problems with church, and problems with God at various times in my life. I hope that helps me be a better preacher and teacher. Or at least a more honest one. There was a time years ago when I was struggling with church. I had been through some major disruptions in my life and I wasn’t in the best place spiritually. I was actually preaching for a friend that day, which I find highly ironic. And when it came time to pray the Lord’s prayer, the beauty and the power of that prayer just came over me. I’ve always loved the Lord’s prayer, but it hit me in that moment: where else do we pray this prayer other than at church? Where else do we pray this prayer?

I still love praying the Lord’s prayer. It captures all the spirit of trusting in a God who like a loving Father knows our needs, cares about us, and delights in providing all that is good for us. I’m like most of you, though, in that I don’t always pay attention when I’m praying the Lord’s prayer. But I love the fact that we keep praying that prayer. To me, it demonstrates that we’re all still trying to become people who trust God enough not only to pray with confidence, but also to live out our trust in God through the generous and grace-filled way we relate to one another and to our world.

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 7/24/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/tyR6Q8WB2Ao

In Jesus' Name

In Jesus’ Name

John 14:1-14[1]

Prayer is a puzzle to most of us, I think.  I’m not sure many of us even know why it is that we pray.  In this self-oriented culture of ours, some people pray as a form of sanctified wish-fulfillment.  They think they can put a prayer coin in the slot machine and have all their dreams come true—if they pray the right way. Then there are others who reject prayer altogether as a remnant from the days when people thought God was directly responsible for things like the weather.  They see it as just a mind game we’re playing with ourselves.  I think the solution to the problem of prayer lies somewhere in the middle between self-interest and cynicism.

Nowhere does the problem of prayer appear so acutely as in the promises that if we pray with enough faith, we will be granted “anything” we want. This is especially the case with praying “in Jesus’ name.” I think for most of us, “in Jesus’ name” has become just a way to end a prayer. But stories of the Apostles doing amazing things “in Jesus’ name” make us at least wonder if there’s something more to it than that. And the promises in John’s Gospel that if we ask anything “in Jesus’ name” it will be granted to us create the impression that praying “in Jesus’ name” is some kind of method for guaranteeing we’ll get the outcome we want. From that point of view, it sounds more like magic than prayer to me.

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

It is this dialogue that leads up to the promise that the Father will grant them anything they ask in Jesus’ name. And yet, it’s important to note that the point of this passage is that if Jesus’ disciples believe in him they “will also do the works that I do, and in fact, will do greater works than these” (John 14:12). I’m not sure which one poses a greater challenge for faith: really believing that Jesus is one with the Father, or really believing that that our faith will enable us to do “greater works” than he did! I think it’s challenging enough to hope that we could do the works that Jesus did. But to do “greater works”? I’m not sure I have that much faith.

It’s in that context that Jesus promised “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). I think Jesus probably knew that his disciples were having a hard enough time believing all that he had done. Most of his work with them involved helping them understand what he was doing, because it was not at all what they had expected. In that light, I would think he also knew that they felt overwhelmed by the statement that they would do “greater things” than Jesus had done.

I think that is the basis for Jesus’ promise, “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:14). He was reassuring them that they could ask for the insight, the faith, the courage, and the strength to do the “greater things” that he promised them they would do. Think of it: how else could “the Father be glorified in the Son” than for Jesus to empower his disciples to continue to do the work he had begun. In a very real sense, the story of disciples’ ministry in the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament shows us how they did just that. What they did “in Jesus’ name” was to continue his work of bringing the peace and justice and freedom of God’s kingdom to those who needed it most.

Unfortunately, many believers have separated this verse from its context and turned it into a means for getting whatever they want. People who call themselves “Christian” pray for all kinds of things in Jesus’ name: from healing, to help making ends meet, to the perfect mate, to a house on an acreage, even to things like a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. That’s what happens when you pick and choose verses from the Bible. Some of this is legitimate, especially when it involves meeting basic life needs. But there’s a big difference between what we need and what we want.

The lesson the Gospel has for us this week is that praying in Jesus’ name primarily involves praying for his work to be fulfilled through us. I want to repeat what I said last week: in all of this, I don’t think the lesson is that we shouldn’t pray for our needs or even at times our desires. What is more natural than to turn to our creator and redeemer to express the deepest desires of our hearts?  But Jesus’ approach to prayer suggests that the desires of our hearts ought to be shaped not by the values of our culture, or our own selfish interests, but by the principles of the kingdom—compassion, peace, justice, freedom, and new life.  I think when our prayers “in Jesus’ name” are shaped in this way, we will be praying for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done. When we do that, we can pray with the confidence that God will hear and answer in a way that best promotes his purposes in our world. When we do that, then we’re praying in Jesus’ name.

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[1] ©2017 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 5/14/2017 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Knowing His Voice

Knowing His Voice

John 10:1-10[1]

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you for me to say that prayer is a vital part of the Christian life. A brief glance at any one of our worship bulletins reveals the importance of prayer. I teach our confirmation students that prayer is as simple as talking to God about what concerns you. But many of us know that a life of prayer as a part of practicing our faith is not always that simple. We have to contend with all kinds of challenges: especially the challenge of prayer that seems to go unanswered. Some of us have experienced prayers that have felt as if they have gone unanswered for years! I’m afraid I’d have to say that even though prayer is such an important part of our faith, many of us struggle with prayer.

Part of the problem with prayer is that we have to learn to sort out the competing voices in our world and even within ourselves. As I mentioned recently, one way to do that is to listen more attentively to the Scriptures. But the Scriptures don’t always address the matters that concern us in prayer: what job to take, or whether to commit to a relationship, or how to make ends meet, or what direction to take when a door closes. I think when it comes to the nuts and bolts of our prayers, we have to develop a kind of intuition or wisdom about prayer that only comes with practice—in many cases, years of practice. I think knowing God’s voice is something we all have to learn.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus describes the relationship we have with him as that of sheep with a “good shepherd.” In that day, many shepherds kept their sheep in a “sheepfold” where the sheep would be safe overnight. The next day, each shepherd would come to collect his flock, and only the sheep that belonged to him would follow him. Jesus puts it this way: “the sheep follow him because they know his voice” (Jn. 10:4). Later in the chapter, he makes an amazing statement: “I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (Jn. 10:14-15). Those who belong to Jesus know him in the same way that Jesus and the Father know each other. They know his voice and follow him.

Of course, that’s easier said than done.  Talk of hearing voices in a religious or spiritual context can make people think you’ve lost touch with reality.   And, of course, the claim that “God told me” has been used and abused in every conceivable way.  And yet, when it comes down to it, Jesus characterizes the relationship we have with him by saying: “I know my own and my own know me” and “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me” (Jn. 10:27).  Those who know Jesus know his voice.

But then the real question we face here is how we can possibly “know his voice.” In my experience, one of the most difficult aspects of trying to do this is distinguishing our voice from God’s voice. For most of us our prayers consist of expressing our desires, our wishes, and our hopes to God. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that. God invites us to do just that: to cast all our cares on him because he cares for us (1 Pet. 5:7). But the problem is that many times we feel those hopes and wishes so deeply that they can become the sole focus of our attention. When that happens, it can be surprisingly easy to mistake the voice of our wants for the voice of God.

I think we all need some practical guidelines for what it means to listen for God’s voice in our prayers. One principle that I’ve heard all my life and that I find helpful is that God’s voice brings us peace. When our prayers are filled with urgency and worry, that’s a pretty good sign that we’ve gotten caught in our own desires. Another helpful principle is that when it comes down to it, God’s will for all of us really is no mystery: God intends for us to live in such a way that we love God with all our hearts and that we love our neighbors as ourselves. While that doesn’t constitute an obvious answer to every prayer, it does give us guidance in discerning whether the “answer” we think we hear is truly God’s voice.

It’s often said that God answers prayers in three ways: yes, no, or wait. But I’d have to say that my experience with prayer has been nowhere near that clear-cut. If you pay close attention to the Psalms and the Prophets, you find people of faith wrestling with God in prayer, anguishing over life’s twists and turns. Even Jesus was “deeply distressed” as he poured out his heart to God in the Garden of Gethsemane. I don’t think we can set his prayer in the context of a simple answer. In fact, in the end, Jesus had to give up his desire to be set free from the “cup” he was to drink and surrender his will to God’s will.

I think that’s the key to developing a life of prayer that sustains faith. When our prayers become dominated by our own desires, they can become an experience in constant disappointment. And so perhaps the most important lesson we have to learn as we develop the discipline of prayer is to surrender our own wants and desires. Again, it’s not that we cannot or should not pray for them, but when we let them dominate our prayers, we tend to do all the talking and not much listening. The more we can develop the kind of faith that enables us to present our requests to God and then entrust the outcome into his loving care, the more we will develop the wisdom and discernment it takes to know his voice.

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[1] ©2017 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 5/7/2017 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Tunnel Vision

Tunnel Vision

Psalm 42[1]

One of the great pitfalls in any spiritual practice is that it can narrow our focus. If we’re not aware of this potential problem, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of thinking and praying primarily about our own concerns. When we do not find a way to check this tendency, our “spirituality” can actually become an extension of our self-interest, if not a kind of self-absorption.[2] I think one test we can apply is to pay attention how often we find ourselves praying with words like I, me, my, and mine. I would imagine most of us probably use those words in our prayers more that we realize, or would be comfortable admitting.

To some extent, I would have to say that when we use the Psalms as a source for our spiritual practice, they can actually contribute to this problem. So often the Psalms express the prayers of individuals, many times pouring out their hearts in fear or anguish or grief or even anger to God. We can learn a great deal from the way the psalmists pray—namely that we can bring all of our concerns and thoughts and feelings to God, and God is not offended by them. But if we’re not careful, we can also fall into a pattern of praying mainly for ourselves. We can develop a kind of spiritual tunnel vision.

Our Psalm for today is a beautiful prayer. It is actually one of my favorites. The psalmist pours out his heart to God in prayer, expressing a deep longing for God’s presence. The words are beautiful: “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?” (Psalm 42:1-2). This prayer conveys the psalmists longing for God’s presence in his life.[3] In fact, the psalmist is asking for God to restore him.[4] We don’t know what has happened, but apparently he is no longer able to take part in the procession to worship God. He has encountered some kind of significant loss.[5] And for that reason, he says “my soul is cast down within me” (Ps. 42:6).

It is a natural and healthy thing to turn to God in that kind of situation. Many of us have found ourselves in precisely that position, and may have voiced our prayer to God using the words of this very Psalm. And the hope in this Psalm is expressed in the refrain, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God” (Ps. 42:5-6). It offers a reassurance we all find ourselves in need of from time to time—the promise that God has not abandoned us, and that at some point in the future we will indeed find our lives healed, restored, and renewed.

It is precisely because the Psalms express these sentiments in such beautiful ways that many throughout the ages have used them as a basis for pouring out their own prayers to God. And that is a good thing as well. But I’m afraid the fact that the language of the Psalms can at times take on an individual perspective—using words like I, me, my, and mine—is a factor that we have to be aware of if we’re going to use the Psalms in our prayers. If do not use them thoughtfully, we can find ourselves falling into a kind of self-absorption that is indeed one of the pitfalls of any faith.

In our lesson from the Hebrew Bible for today, we see precisely that kind of self-interest reflected in no less than the prophet Elijah! The ministry of Elijah marked one of the times in which the word of the LORD was most effective in the life of Israel. Among the prophets, he stands with Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. And yet, after his dramatic stand-off with the prophets of Baal, he finds himself running for his life from Queen Jezebel. He flees into the wilderness, where he collapses from exhaustion. After being fed by an angel, he goes on to the mountain of God, and when God appears he asks Elijah, “What are you doing here?”

Elijah’s answer reflects the kind of tunnel vision we’re talking about today: “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10). This is one of the most common tendencies with spiritual tunnel vision: thinking that “I alone am left”! The LORD God reminds Elijah dramatically that in fact he had seven thousand faithful followers in Israel—Elijah was far from the only one![6] But after all the conflict and struggle he had been through, it was easy for him to think that he was alone.

When we go through hard times, we can feel like the Psalmist—we’re thirsty for God’s presence like one who is wandering in the desert. And in those times, it’s a good thing to turn to the words of the Psalms to give voice to our prayers. In fact, they have been a “school of prayer” for countless faithful believers throughout the ages.[7] But as we use the words of the Psalms to voice our prayers, we have to be aware that while they are the words of Scripture, they are also very human prayers. The benefit in the humanity of the Psalms is that we learn we can pour out our hearts to God, no matter what we’re feeling or thinking. The problem is that we can develop the kind of spiritual tunnel vision that Elijah displayed in his complaint to God. I think part of the answer to this problem is that we keep our focus on the God who is our hope and our help. God’s purposes in this world are much larger than our personal lives, and keeping our focus on that larger purpose can help us avoid the tendency we can all have to fall into tunnel vision.[8]

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[1] ©2016 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 6/19/2016 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Frederick W. Schmidt, What God Wants for Your Life, 3, where he laments that we live in “an increasingly first-person-singular world” and says (ibid., 4-5), “That is why the lives of some otherwise very sincere people often appear self-serving or self-absorbed—in spite of their interest in the will of God. They may focus energy on spiritual concerns in a way that they never have in the past, but the first-person-singular is still there, deeply at work in their spiritual DNA. The result is dissonance: spiritualized conversation about self-seeking goals, self-actualization disguised as service, lives that lack everything except the appearance of piety.” Cf. similarly, John D. Caputo, On Religion, 2-3, “a lot of supposedly religious people love nothing more than getting their own way and bending others to their own will (‘in the name of God’).”

[3] Cf. H.-J. Kraus, A Continental Commentary: Psalms 1–59, 439, where he says the image of an animal yearning for water is “an effective picture of the torment and the consuming desire with which the petitioner stretches out toward Yahweh.”

[4] Cf. James L. Mays, Psalms, 173: “The prayer is about the need of human life for the life that the living God bestows, revives, and preserves. Here it is understood and said very clearly that life depends on God.”

[5] Cf. Mays, Psalms, 174, where he points out that the question “Where is your God?” indicates “a situation in which those who trust in the LORD are put to shame in the presence of others because of some trouble that calls their faith into question. … The social, personal, and theological experience of the absence of God is the soul’s thirst.” Cf. also Peter S. Hawkins, “A Howl of Despair,” The Christian Century (June 6, 2001): 12, where he says, “The psalmist recalls times when his sense of the divine presence was so immediate and full that he felt as if he were beholding nothing less than the face of God. But that was then. Now all that he hears is the sound of his own dereliction—‘Why have you forgotten me?’— coming back to him in the relentless taunts of others: ‘Where is your God?’” Cf. further Kraus, Psalms 1-59, 439, where he mentions the common suggestion that the affliction involves some kind of physical illness.

[6] In the text of 1 Kings 19, Elijah experiences a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire, but “God was not in” any of them. Finally, he experiences a “gentle whisper” (1 Kg. 19:13, NIV) or “a hushed sound” (cf. Choon-Leong Seow, “The First and Second Books of Kings,” New Interpreters Bible III:142). Cf. Volkmar Fritz, A Continental Commentary: 1 & 2 Kings, 198: “Elijah recognizes the presence of Yahweh only in the hardly audible murmur. This statement is influenced by a reflection on the event of the presence of Yahweh and thus mediates a new image of God that moves beyond traditional views. One can experience God only in the silence that focuses the individual on himself or herself and on the act of listening; this silence is appropriate to the nature of God and to the experience of God through his word. God reveals himself mysteriously.”

[7] Cf. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 47: “The Psalter is the great school of prayer.” Cf. Mays, Psalms, 126: “The life of prayer is incomplete unless there are supplications that say, ‘Teach me, instruct me, guide me, let me know.’” Cf. further Lawrence S. Cunningham, “Praying the Psalms,” Theology Today 46 (April 1989): 42, where he says that we are “members of a believing community who have inherited [the Psalms] as the prayerbook of the church. They are part of our lives because they were the prayers with which Jesus was familiar. They are part of our worship because they form an essential part of the church's fabric of prayer.

[8] Cf. J. Clinton McCann, Jr., “The Book of Psalms,” New Interpreters Bible IV: 641, where he recounts the story of how after Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld’s tragic death in a plane crash in 1961, they recovered among his personal effects a copy of the New Testament, a copy of the Psalms, and a copy of the United Nations Charter. He says, “Hammarskjöld apparently understood—quite correctly—that the book of Psalms presents nothing short of God’s claim upon the whole world and that it articulates God’s will for justice, righteousness, and peace among all peoples and all nations.” Cf. also Schmidt, What God Wants, 10-11: “Both the best and the worst of every culture and religious tradition either enlarge or constrict our ability to discern the presence of God in the world.” Cf. also ibid, 27, where he says that when we don’t focus on God’s larger purpose in this world by seeking to give the kind of love that meets others needs, “Our prayer life and our spiritual life becomes little more than the quest to find a life that we can find gratifying.”

Staying Awake

Staying Awake

Luke 21:25-36[1]

I don’t have to tell you that speculations about the end of time have fueled a wide range of responses, from curiosity to fear to outright paranoia. You might think this is a recent trend, but actually it has been around almost since the beginning of the Christian faith. Throughout the ages people have tried to put two and two together to figure out exactly how or when the end will come. Unfortunately, their calculations have usually resulted in two plus two equals five. We have a notoriously flawed ability to predict the future, and I think the more scripture verses someone gathers to try to back up their theories, the more likely they are to be wrong![2]

And yet, the fact of the matter is that the Bible speaks in a number of places about “the Day of the Lord.” In the Hebrew Bible, it refers to the day when God will come to establish his rule in our world. And that will mean righting the wrongs, comforting those who suffer and discomforting those who are at ease. It’s a message with a double edge to it. Although the New Testament redirects those expectations to the return of Christ, it has no less of a dual message to it.[3] For those who are oppressed and suffering now, the coming of Christ means relief and restoration. For those who are complacent, or who have compromised their faith, it has a different tone.

We heard the scripture last week that said, “Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail” (Rev. 1:7). We might like to think that the “wailing” refers to unbelievers. But if we pay close attention to the message of the Bible about the coming “Day of the Lord,” I would say the overwhelming power of that experience will leave no one unmoved. I think we will all be feeling something like the prophet Isaiah felt when he saw the Lord in all his glory filling the temple: “I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.” (Isa. 6:5). When we appear before the Lord at his coming, we will all be wailing with repentance and remorse.[4]

It may seem a strange thing to talk about on the first Sunday of Advent. After all, we’re supposed to be looking forward to a “holly, jolly Christmas,” aren’t we?  Why should the Scripture lesson for today talk about things that may make us feel uncomfortable? I think the primary reason is that the season of Advent, which precedes the season of Christmas, is intended to lead us to reflection about our lives. It’s like the season of Lent in relation to Easter. The whole point of Advent is to be a time for us to prepare ourselves to welcome the coming of the Lord at Christmas.

So it is with our Gospel lesson for today. There is definitely a note of apprehension in Jesus’ description of the day of the Lord: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves” (Lk. 21:25). I would say that the language used here is probably meant to be understood more symbolically than literally.[5] But regardless, the end result is that “People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world” (Lk. 21:26)! Think of it: can you imagine the shock and awe that we will all experience when we “see ‘the Son of Man coming …’ with power and great glory” (Lk. 21:27)?

Despite the fact that Jesus clearly warns us that day will be overwhelming, it is also a cause for rejoicing. In fact, Jesus said it this way: “when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Lk. 21:28).[6] He clearly calls us to view that day as a something to celebrate. And the cause is clear: “when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near” (Lk. 21:31).[7] It may seem contradictory, but the reality is that the message of the Bible about the “Day of the Lord” makes both points: it will be a day when we will all be purged of everything that stands in the way of our relationship with God, which may be painful, but the outcome will be our salvation.[8]

So if attempts to calculate the coming of this astounding event prove to be fruitless, how are we to prepare for it? Jesus answered that question as well: watch, stay awake, and pray. The phrase “be on guard” literally means to keep watching. And the phrase “be alert at all times” means to “stay awake.” I’m not sure these are concepts we’re familiar with when it comes to our spiritual lives. We may know what it’s like to stay awake because of a sick child or a deadline, but not as a spiritual attitude. It’s just not a part of our experience. One reason for that is watching and staying awake are something we actively seek to avoid by filling our lives with things to distract us from having to pay attention.[9] And that’s really all it boils down to: paying attention. Instead of going through the motions of our lives, I think Jesus calls us to be thoughtful about where we are and what we’re doing and why.[10]

I think that’s where prayer can help us. That’s also not something that comes naturally to us. But as we learn to discipline ourselves to pray day and night, as we develop the practice of staying constantly in an attitude of prayer, we can become more thoughtful about the way we live. We can conduct our lives in a much more watchful and wakeful manner. I believe that is the whole purpose of a season like Advent. Yes, there are parties to attend and plans to make, but as we go about the “busy-ness” of this time of year, cultivating a consistent mindset of prayer can help us “stay awake” to the meaning of it all.[11]

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[1] ©2015 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 11/29/2015 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Jr., “The Gospel of Luke,” New Interpreters Bible IX:402, where he laments the “plague of pseudo-religious prophets claiming that the end is at hand.” He insists, to the contrary, that “The gospel offers not a way of predicting the end of the world but the spiritual resources to cope with adversity and hardship.”

[3] Cf. Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, 740, where he points out the connection between the expectation of the coming “Son of Man” (Jesus) and the “Day of the Lord” in the Hebrew Bible.

[4] It is unfortunate that commentators are eager to emphasize the confidence and reassurance Jesus brings out in this passage and ignore the connection with the fact that, according to the prophets, the “Day of the Lord” would be so overwhelming as to bring fear and foreboding on all, even (and perhaps especially) the people of God (cf. Isa. 13:6-8a: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt, and they will be dismayed”; cf. also Amos 5:18-20: “Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”). Cf. Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology II:119-125, where he recounts the theme of the Day of the Lord in the prophets, which no doubt reflects the popular notion that it would be a day of battle for the destruction of Israel’s enemies. However, as Von Rad points out (ibid., 124-125), some like Amos ask the people to consider the possibility that “this day is to bring a darkness that might also be fraught with danger for them”; in other words, they failed to consider the aspect of judgment that day would bring upon them. Cf. similarly, Christopher R. Seitz, Isaiah 1-39, 133, says regarding Isaiah 13: “This ‘day of the Lord’ comes to put an end to all sin (13:9), and the evil of the whole world is to be punished (13:11). All human pride and arrogance is under assault, and even the heavens and the earth will feel the effects of God’s awesome judgment (13:10, 13).”

[5] Cf. Fred B. Craddock, Luke, 246, where he rightly points out that this language is meant to indicate that the coming of God’s kingdom will affect the entire cosmos. He says, “Redemption has a cosmic dimension. … In fact, it was Paul who developed a Christology adequate to embrace all creation in the act of the cross and the resurrection (Phil. 2:6-11; Col. 1:15-20). But both Matthew and Luke tell us that heaven and earth signaled in unusual ways the birth and death of Jesus. Yet, even earlier, prophets had spoken of the day of the Lord as shaking and altering heaven and earth.” Cf. also Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2:289, where he reminds us that the biblical view of the end times is couched in symbols that should be taken seriously but cannot be taken literally “because it is not possible for finite minds to comprehend that which transcends and fulfills history. The finite mind can only use symbols and pointers of the character of the eternal.”

[6] Cf. Culpepper, “Gospel of Luke,” NIB IX:411, where reminds us that “the end of time holds no terror for those who know God’s love because they know the one who determines the reality that lies beyond what we can know here and now.”

[7] Cf. Green, Gospel of Luke, 742, where he points out that Luke’s Gospel emphasizes both the presence of the kingdom of God in Jesus’ ministry as well as its arrival “in its fullness at the end of history.”

[8] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, In the End, the Beginning: The Life of Hope, 143, where he describes the final judgment by saying that “Everything which is, and has been, in contradiction to God will be burnt away, so that the person who is loved by God is saved, and everything which is, and has been, in accord with God in that person’s life is preserved.”

[9] Cf. Moltmann, In the End, the Beginning, 82, says it this way: “We see only our dreams, and our wishful thinking about reality is reality itself. But this again means that we don’t live wakefully in reality; we are asleep in the agreeable dreams of our fantasy world.” By contrast, a life of wakefulness and praying means (ibid., 83) that “We perceive the sighing of creation, and hear the cries of the created victims that have fallen dumb. We also hear the song of praise of the blossoming spring, and feel the divine love for everything that lives. So prayer to God awakens all our senses and alerts our minds and spirits.”

[10] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:555, where he says that Christians are those who “those who constantly stand in need of reawakening and who depend upon the fact that they are continually reawakened. They are thus those who, it is to be hoped, continually waken up.”

[11] Cf. Green, Gospel of Luke, 743 (footnote 60), where he observes “As elsewhere in Luke-Acts, prayer here would seem to involve both discernment of the divine aim (which, in Luke, is regularly mediated through prayer) and orientation of oneself around that purpose.”