Casting Our Cares on God

 Casting Our Cares on God

1 Peter 5:6-7[1]

Life brings us all kinds of unexpected experiences. Some of them are better than we could ever possibly imagine. I can still remember holding my oldest son Derek on the day he was born. He’s pushing 40 these days, and there’ve been a lot of wonderful memories with him and with my other children since then, but that memory stands out. It was fulfilling and awe-inspiring at the same time to hold my firstborn son. Other experiences in our lives are worse than we could ever possibly imagine. I never dreamed I would be divorced on that day when I was holding my son. It just wasn’t something I could have even wrapped my head around. I can’t say that I was ever a perfect husband, but I gave my all and my best to my marriage. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that these things just happen to us sometimes.

Of course, there have been a lot of experiences that fall somewhere in between “the best day of my life” and the “worst day of my life.” Many of them have been good and wonderful. Others have been stressful, hurtful, discouraging, and even frightening. Through it all, like many of you, my testimony is that God has always been faithful. Always! And through it all, I’ve continually tried to follow the instruction of our Scripture reading for today from 1 Peter to “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Pet 5:7, NLT). Those of us who first learned this Scripture verse decades ago will remember it in the older Bible translations: “casting all your cares on him, for he cares for you.” However you translate it, it’s an important part of the life of faith that Peter was trying to teach to the believers of his day. We learn to trust God precisely by entrusting to him the cares and worries of our lives.

In those older translations, it may be easier to see that enacting our faith by entrusting all our cares and worries into God’s care is connected with our overall approach to life. In the preceding verses, Peter makes that connection clear: “all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor” (1 Pet 5:5-6, NLT). And then he goes on to say, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” In the context, Peter is addressing relationships within their community of faith. But he’s talking about principles that apply generally to the life of faith. The faith to entrust all our cares and worries into God’s care is inherently connected to the attitude of humility Peter encourages them to practice. You really can’t have one without the other!

I’m not sure that we always make that connection these days. Part of the problem is that we need a working knowledge of the Bible do so. And there are a lot of those connections in the Psalms. That’s why the Psalms have been viewed by the faithful throughout the ages not only as an important source for learning to pray, but also for learning faith. The passage I think of when I read our lesson from 1 Peter is Psalm 55:22, “Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you” (NLT). Again, many of us may remember that verse in a more traditional version: “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” What we may not know is that assurance in the Psalm was set in the context of a prayer for deliverance from friends who turned out to be enemies. If you’ve ever experienced that, you may know how deeply unsettling it can be, and how hard it can be to entrust your “burdens” and your “cares” to God when it happens to you!

I’ve mentioned before that John Calvin connected this passage to a different Psalm. He saw it as a reflection of Psalm 38. That Psalm has a similar setting. The Psalmsinger is at wit’s end because he’s being attacked by those who were “foes without cause” and who had repaid him “evil for good” (Ps 38:19-20). His suffering was so great that he could say, “I am utterly spent and crushed” by the turmoil he was undergoing (Ps 38:8). It was so great that even his friends and family kept their distance from him, likely only increasing the burden (Ps. 38:11). It was in that setting that the Psalmsinger reminded himself and us that God sustains us even in the most difficult of times, even in times that are harder than we could ever imagine. He says it this way, “For I hope in You, O Lord; You will answer, O Lord my God” (Ps 38:15, NASB).

One of the challenging twists in this Psalm is that the Psalmsinger sees all of this turmoil and hardship as “discipline” from the Lord! Psalm 38 opens with a plea: “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath” (Ps 38:1). We’re familiar with the idea that God “disciplines those he loves” (Prov 3:12). But associating that with God’s anger and wrath may not only be unfamiliar, it may be troubling to us. I know when I was in college, and I read Jonathan Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which is widely considered to be one of the great American sermons of all time, I found the image of God portrayed there to be disturbing to say the least. It was as if God took delight in dangling “sinners” over the “open fires” of “hell.” When we read about God’s anger and God’s wrath toward his people in the Hebrew Bible, it may cause us to wonder how much we can really trust that God’s love for us never fails!

But here’s where it all ties together. In the Hebrew Bible, God’s “anger” and “wrath” are a kind of “last resort” response when God’s people stubbornly refuse to follow God’s ways. Paul says that when anyone refuses to honor God as God, he “hands them over” to the consequences of their choices (Rom 1?). The language the Bible uses for that is “pride.” I don’t think the Bible is talking about a natural human sense of satisfaction we gain from a job well done, or from seeing someone we love succeed. I don’t think it refers to the “pride” we may feel when hold our newborn children and grandchildren. I think “pride” in the Bible refers to when we know what the right thing to do is, and we simply refuse to do it. It refers to a deliberate rejection of God and God’s ways. “Pride” is a deliberate refusal to honor God as God by humbling ourselves enough to not only hear God’s truth but also to repent when we’ve gone astray. Simply put, “Pride” means intentionally rejecting God’s will for our lives.

That brings us back to the connection between humility and faith in our lesson from 1 Peter for today. Peter reminds us that we cannot practice the faith to entrust all the cares and worries of our lives into God’s care without humility! And that’s the lesson that John Calvin draws from this passage. He reminds us that those who are humble are those who recognize that they cannot rely on their own abilities or insights or resources alone, but rather they seek their refuge and help and strength “from God alone,”[2] especially in times of trouble. I’ll be the first one to admit that’s easier said than done! But it seems to me that’s the heart of the challenge that our lesson from Peter presents to us today. It’s a challenge to set aside our natural inclination to believe that we know what’s best, to think that we can fix things ourselves, or to insist that if we could just get everything under our control, it would all work out fine. Rather, learning to cast all our cares on God, as Peter instructs us, requires us to learn the lesson of the Psalms, that we can only entrust our lives into God’s care when we humble ourselves enough to recognize that only God can sustain us through the twist and turns this life can bring our way!

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[1] © 2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/17/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, 148.

Pleased With Ourselves?

 Pleased With Ourselves?

Luke 18:9-14[1]

As you may recall, I’ve spoken occasionally this year about some of the criticisms of religion. Especially those people who avoid church use to justify that choice. And you may recall that I’ve mentioned that Luke’s Gospel, which is the foundation for the Lectionary readings this year, lends itself to this topic. Like the other Gospel writers, Luke recounts the conflicts Jesus had with the Jewish religious leaders. Because of this, many have concluded that the Jewish leaders of that day were just bad people. Beyond that, some throughout history have used these passages to conclude that all Jewish people are corrupt. But those who do so read into the Gospels something that’s not there. To be sure, Jesus exposed the flaws in the Jewish religious leaders’ traditions and the way they selectively observed them. And they attacked him for it. Some of them even engineered his death. But that was more about a grasping for power that is a human trait than anything inherent to Jewish people.

In fact, if you read the Gospels thoughtfully, you have to recall that they were not only written to record Jesus’ life and teachings, but also to instruct early Christian churches about the practice of their faith. What most Gospel scholars like myself conclude from this is that the attention paid to the flaws of the Jewish religious leaders was, at least in part, meant to serve as a warning and even a rebuke to Christian leaders. It’s likely that Luke, like the other Gospel writers, already saw the same behaviors emerging in early Christian churches. They called attention to Jesus’ conflicts with the Jewish religious leaders of his day in order to correct the missteps of the Christian religious leaders of their day.

I think what we have to acknowledge is that all the criticisms and shortfalls of religion that we’ve been discussing don’t just apply to certain groups of (other) people. That would be much too convenient for all of us. No, the truth of the matter is that all of the flaws in religion we’ve addressed are pitfalls we all can fall into. “Religion,” as some theologians like Karl Barth have often pointed out, is a human endeavor. Faith, on the other hand, can be a spiritual matter, something that God brings about in and through us. But the ways we express our faith are all inherently human. And because we are all flawed people, the pitfalls of religion apply to us all.

I wanted to say all of this as part of my sermon today because it deals with a topic that can potentially be offensive. And I think it’s important from the outset to recognize that all the pitfalls of religion can apply to all of us. None of us are immune. I would say that one of the reasons why some people avoid church is because they have encountered Christians who are really quite pleased with themselves. Often you see it in a kind of “humble bragging” about one’s faith and how thankful a person is for the “perfect” life that God has “blessed” them with. It can come across as a kind of smugly condescending look, a pity-filled smirk that basically communicates to those “outside” the church that it’s just too bad they haven’t made all the right choices (like we have). At times, it can come across as outright arrogance. Like when someone asks you, “if you died tonight, do you know for sure you would go to heaven?” The very question assumes that they do! And it comes across as if they’re assuming the person to whom they ask the question doesn’t!

Our Gospel lesson for today presents us with two men.  One man, a Pharisee, would have been a respected member of the community. He was respected because of his devotion to studying and obeying God’s word in all aspects of their lives. Now, in and of itself, that’s what we’re all called to do. But the problem was that this particular man was very satisfied with himself. I like the way Gene Peterson puts it in The Message: Jesus told this parable about some who were “pleased with themselves over their moral performance” (Lk. 18:9). Judging from his prayer, this fellow was very pleased with himself. It’s hard not to think that he was bragging about himself to God![2] But perhaps more importantly, his spiritual arrogance translated into looking down on the other man who had come to pray as inferior. I would say that’s a clue that there’s something wrong with his religion. Again, we’re not talking about a uniquely Jewish problem. It’s a problem we all can have with our religion.

The other man in the Gospel lesson is the exact opposite. In fact, as a tax collector, he would have been despised by more than just the Pharisee. He would have been viewed as a traitor to his people and a thief. That’s because of the way taxes were collected in that day and time. It was an inherently corrupt system. Whoever was in control gave the right to collect taxes to the highest bidder. As long as the tax collector paid off his “bid,” he could keep anything else he could extract from people. And so he would hire a whole team of people who would work under him, each collecting a portion of the taxes. And as long as they paid their quota, each of them could keep whatever they could get. and it’s not hard to imagine why people despised tax collectors in that day.

Two very different men came to the temple to pray. The one had become a respected leader of his community by following the letter of the law. The other had thrown virtue and decency to the wind, and was basically robbing his own people, taking the fast-track toward getting rich. But the point of the parable was that the first man was quite convinced that his life was right and righteous and even pleasing to God. The other man came to the temple not satisfied, or pleased, but broken.

And while the people to whom Jesus told this story would have expected him to say what a good man the Pharisee was and what a rotten scoundrel the tax collector was, he surprised them. In fact, he shocked the living daylights out of them. Speaking about the tax collector, he said, “I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other” (Lk 18:14). That was the exact opposite of what they expected. But he was pointing them to something important: when we are “pleased” with ourselves and our religion, it raises a huge red flag regarding the genuineness of our faith. Biblical faith, the kind of faith that actually makes a difference in our lives, comes from experiencing the healing power of God’s mercy in response to our brokenness. And when we experience God’s mercy that way, our faith will look more like the humility of the tax collector than the smugness of the Pharisee.

Again, it’s too easy for us to walk away from a parable like this and think that those silly Pharisees really missed the point of it all. But the truth is that one man’s self-satisfied arrogance in this story is there to remind us all that we can fall into the same temptation. There was a time when I fell into this temptation. Everything in my life was going just the way I hoped it would. My life was going “according to plan.” A few years later, it all came crashing down, and it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.

There is room in our faith for genuine satisfaction that comes from looking back over our lives and recognizing how far we’ve come. But for it to be truly genuine, it will always be mixed with generous helpings of humility and gratitude. That’s why religious smugness is so offensive. We might as well be wearing a neon sign that says, “you need God, but I’m doing just fine!” But the truth is that we all need God as much as anybody else. The truth is that at the end of the day none of us are really “pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps.” We all are who we are only by the grace and mercy of God. And anyone who truly knows that will never be “pleased” with themselves, in the smug way that first man in the parable was. Rather, like the other man we will humbly and gratefully acknowledge that God’s mercy is a gift beyond what we could ever deserve.

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/26/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] In fact, although many English Bibles translate the passage to say that he prayed “standing by himself,” and many others say that he prayed “with himself,” there are several that render it with a significant difference: he “stood and prayed about himself” (Lk 18:11, CEB, NET, NASB). There is actually a textual variant in the Greek New Testament that alters the word order to emphasize the latter interpretation.  Cf. Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 143. J. A. Fitzmyer, Luke X-XXIV, 1186, differs from the majority view and supports the variant because it has some of the most important early witnesses to the text of the New Testament in support.

Humble and Kind

 Humble and Kind

James 3:13-4:10[1]

Most of you know that I’m a music fan. I grew up in the 1960’s listening to “Top 40” music on my transistor radio. As a teenager in the 1970’s, I “graduated” to a “stereo,” complete with huge speakers and arguments with my parents about whether the music was too loud. But besides classic rock, Chuck Mangione had come along and made listening to Jazz “cool” again for my generation, so I delved into that. My musical tastes have grown and expanded over the years, and throughout my journey, the people in my life influenced me. When I went off to college, my roommate was into what was then known as “soul” music. Later in my twenties, I also began exploring classical music, something my grandfather had encouraged. When my kids became teenagers, they were listening to a whole new style of music. I actually liked some of it, so I tried to keep up with the best of what was “new” in music. As you know my son Michael is a performing musician working with the Navy Band, and he’s usually cluing me into new Jazz artists. And these days, I’m taking some of my cues from my grandchildren! Perhaps I’m not alone in that.

If you were listening closely, you may have missed one genre of music. I didn’t listen to Country music early on, but I gradually added it to my musical repertoire over the years. One of my favorite songs is actually a Country song: “Humble and Kind,” by Tim McGraw. I first heard it in 2018 at Maxine Verhoeff’s funeral (true story), and I loved it, and I’ve listened to it regularly ever since. I love the simple truths it conveys, principles that I was taught from earliest childhood. Like “Hold the door, say please, say thank you, Don’t steal, don’t cheat, and don’t lie.” It reflects a way of life that’s simply “good.” “Don’t hold a grudge or a chip” because “Bitterness keeps you from flying” is wisdom we all need to hear. “When you get where you’re goin’, Don’t forget turn back around, Help the next one in line” reminds us that we actually do have a responsibility for how we treat other people.

The refrain of that song, “Always stay humble and kind,” could be a tag line for our scripture reading from James for today. That might seem strange at first. What James advocates is “being humble and wise in everything you do” (Jas 3:13, CEV). There were some in his community of faith who were speaking and acting in ways that were wreaking havoc. We should probably hear everything James says about “wisdom” in this passage with the echo of everything he has said about the power of words to do great damage, as we heard last week.[2] But at the end of the day, I would say that James saw a person’s speech as one of the most obvious displays of their character. And the gist of the “wisdom” James advocates is being “humble and kind.”

It may be challenging for us to make that connection. We associate “wisdom” with the book of Proverbs in the Bible. If you’ve ever read Proverbs, you know that it’s easy to get lost in all the details. But I would say that the “wisdom” that both Proverbs and James promote is about taking faith and making it real in your everyday living. That may not be your first impression after reading the book of Proverbs, because the way it’s organized can be confusing. That’s why I think most of us tend to ignore Proverbs. But if you read it with a note pad by your side and just jot down themes as you come to them, you’ll soon notice a pattern—wisdom is about trusting and honoring God. And there’s a great deal in there about staying humble and kind in the way you treat others. 

We really shouldn’t be surprised that James sounds a lot like the book of Proverbs when he insists that we take our faith and make it real in everyday life. In this respect, James also sounds a lot like his brother, his Lord, and his Savior. In fact, I would say that the portion of Scripture the book of James most resembles besides Proverbs is the “Sermon on the Mount.” That’s because Jesus also valued the wisdom taught by the book of Proverbs. As James says in our lesson for today, it’s a kind of wisdom that “leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere” (Jas 3:17, CEV). I don’t think it’s an accident that wisdom and humility and kindness are all connected to one another. Practicing kindness takes humility. That doesn’t mean we make ourselves into doormats for other people to walk all over. Rather I think it points to a basic orientation toward life that enables us to treat other people with respect.

Unfortunately, that kind of respect and humility seems to be sorely lacking these days. In these days of dividing lines, bitterness and rage, and public shootings, at the very least we see ourselves as better than those “on the other side.” At the worst, we see “them” as enemies. James warns us about that in our lesson as well: he says, “Whenever people are jealous or selfish, they cause trouble and do all sorts of cruel things” (Jas 3:16, CEV). I like Gene Peterson’s translation: “Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats” (Jas. 3:16, The Message)! The opposite of living by the wisdom of “always stay humble and kind” is an arrogance leads to things falling apart and has everyone at each other’s throats!

That kind of prideful arrogance is never good for anyone. Later in our lesson for today, James quotes from Proverbs: “God opposes everyone who is proud, but he blesses all who are humble with undeserved grace” (Jas 4:6 CEV). The language of the original verse in Proverbs is even stronger: “The Lord mocks the mockers but is gracious to the humble” (Prov 3:34, NLT). That brings us back to the importance of humility as a foundation for life. Practicing kindness means we have to give something of ourselves to others. We can’t do that if we’re stuck in pride or arrogance. Arrogance is a essentially mindset that withholds basic respect from people we think are “beneath” us. Only through humility can we see others as people whom God loves as much as he loves us. And only when we can see them in that way can we give them the gift of kindness.

“Always stay humble and kind.” I don’t know whether Tim McGraw tries to live that way in real life.[3] But I love the sentiment of the song. I think the life of simple goodness it portrays lines up with our Scripture lesson from James for today. We can only be kind if we’re humble enough to treat people with respect and courtesy. To do that, we have to recognize that we fall short just as much as anyone else. We have to let go of the need to “win,” whether that means being right or getting our own way or seeing ourselves as better than others. Only when we practice this kind of humility can we respect other people enough to give them the kindness that has defined godly wisdom from the very beginning.

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/22/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Robert W. Wall, Community of the Wise, 186: “James’s description of false wisdom continues in accordance with the moral calculus that bad ideas are embodied in antisocial actions: garbage in, garbage out. If the words of an unwise teacher, who lacks understanding of the word of God, are fueled and formed by ‘jealousy and rivalry,’ then ‘chaos and every vile practice’ will surely result among those who follow his [sic] lead.” By contrast (ibid., 190), “Words that are ‘full of mercy’ are consistent with the merciful God; they are words of a tamed tongue which have the power to edify and guide a congregation to wholeness.”

[3] The author of the lyrics, Lori McKenna, who won a Grammy Award in 2017 for Best Country Song for “Humble and Kind,” recounts that she wrote it for her children as a way of reminding them of all the things she and her husband wanted them to remember. See the interview with her by Dave Paulson in The Nashville Tennessean, “Story Behind the Song: Tim McGraw’s ‘Humble and Kind’”, Jan 25, 2024, accessed at https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/story-behind-the-song/2021/01/25/story-behind-song-tim-mcgraws-humble-and-kind/4228236001/ .

All of LIfe

Mark 12:38-44

All of Life[1]

I’ve told many of you about my Grandfather, Harold Brehm, who was born and raised in Talmage. He served both as an elder and a trustee in the Methodist church. When I was a young “preacher boy” studying for the ministry in college, he proudly told me that his minister never once mentioned money from the pulpit.  At the time, that impressed me. Later I realized that the Bible, and especially Jesus, have a lot to say about money. I realized it wasn’t such a good idea never to mention money from the pulpit if I wanted to make the Bible’s message the focus of my preaching.

The reality is that our attitude toward our possessions—including our money—is a very important part of our lives. And that includes our spiritual lives. How we relate to the things of this world reveals a great deal about our relationship to God, our convictions about the meaning of life, and what really determines the choices we make.[2] I’m not sure that we are always aware of this fact. Our culture encourages us to measure our worth as a person by the kind of car we drive, or which designer’s name is on our clothes and accessories, or by the size of our financial portfolio. The Bible makes it clear, however, that the quality of our lives comes from what’s in our hearts, not the labels we wear on our clothes.

In our lesson from the Gospel of Mark for today, Jesus addresses this issue. It would seem that there were religious leaders who were so driven by their own conceit that they made a great show with their beautiful robes and their “presence” in worship.[3] He made it clear that it was all for show. He said that their “long prayers” were simply “for the sake of appearance” (Mk.12:40). In other words, they wanted to look like they were spiritual.[4] But the fact that their real agenda was about themselves was revealed by the indictment Jesus made that they “devour widows’ houses”![5] In scripture, widows, like orphans and resident immigrants, came under God’s special care.[6] But these “spiritual leaders” were somehow defrauding some of the most vulnerable people in their society. It seems clear where their hearts really were—wrapped up in their own self-interest, their own image, and their own greed.[7]

The light of Jesus’ words exposed not only the religious leaders, but the prominent people in the community as well. The Gospel lesson tells about an episode when he was at the Temple, watching the crowd making their contributions. We don’t know exactly what kind of mechanism they used for this, but apparently it was something that was very public.[8] And there were “many rich people” who “put in large sums” (Mk. 12:41). Now, in that day and time, contributions were made in coins, and so it would have been obvious to all present that these “pillars of the community” were contributing large amounts of money.

Jesus doesn’t actually say anything directly about these people or their gifts. He doesn’t necessarily say that they were giving large contributions just to gain attention. But he contrasts their substantial gifts with the seemingly insignificant contribution of a poor widow. The conversion of ancient currency into modern equivalents is not exactly precise, but I think the translation captures the situation: she “put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny” (Mk. 12:42). What is not spelled out is that these contributions were given to support the Temple, which was a magnificent structure even by the standards of our time. And it supported a rather elaborate structure of priests and other attendants who served in the Temple. Someone could easily ask what difference her meager contribution could possibly have made to such a massive institution.[9]

But Jesus takes a different approach. He doesn’t consider what percent of the Temple’s budget her two coins supported. He focuses on what her contribution represented in terms of her personal wealth. As it turns out, these two small coins were all she had to live on! By contrast, the “large sums” given by leading members of the community were offerings that they could spare! Jesus said it this way: “For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mk. 12:44).

I must confess that it’s hard to understand what would motivate someone who had so little to give everything she had as an offering to the Temple. But perhaps there are a couple of clues here. First, these two coins represented a fraction of what it would cost to even feed herself for one day. And second, the Greek word that is translated “what she had to live on” also means “her life.”[10] It may be that she had reached the place where she had exhausted her own resources, and she was offering herself completely to God, trusting him to care for her needs.

It’s funny how we wait to do that until we are in dire straits. When we lack for nothing, we can forget that all that we have and all that we are comes from God’s hand as a gift. But I think Jesus’ reflections about this widow’s offering serves as a dramatic reminder of the truth that our attitudes about our possessions reveal the true nature of our relationship with God. Those who gave what they could spare may very well have felt satisfied with themselves. But they hadn’t offered themselves completely to God as the widow did. That’s the real meaning of stewardship. Whether you give what you can spare or all that you have, the point is that we pledge our gifts as a way of reflecting our commitment to dedicate all of life to God.[11]

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[1] ©2015 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 11/8/2015 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 88-89, where he discusses stewardship under the heading of the discipline of “simplicity.” He says that it is an inner attitude that becomes an outward way of life, and he defines this attitude in three ways: “to receive what we have as a gift from God”; “to know that it is God’s business, not ours, to care for what we have”; and “to have our goods available to others.” Cf. also Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, 200-201, where he discusses stewardship under the heading of the doctrine of creation. He says, “To say that we are God’s creatures is to emphasize our total dependence on God. … Acknowledgement of total dependence—with thanksgiving—is the first characteristic of a right relationship with God.” He goes on to say (p. 201) that we are also creatures whom “God has equipped and empowered to be God’s partners and to participate in Gods’ own work in and for the world.”

[3] Cf. Pheme Perkins, “The Gospel of Mark,” New Interpreters Bible VIII:681. She says, “Although not all scribes would be in the position to indulge in ostentatious display of this sort, those who were retainers of the wealthy high priestly families around Jerusalem might have taken on the trappings of wealth and power.” For example, the scribes in Galilee appear to be somewhere in the middle of the social scale, and would not have been able to make such a show. From a different perspective, Joel Marcus, Mark 8-16, 852, says that the “stole” in Jewish usage was associated with priests, therefore, Marcus concludes that “the NT scribes were probably priests and Levites” (cf. further ibid., 855-56). Nevertheless, Perkins, “Mark,” NIB VIII:682 acknowledges that “The story of the wise scribe (12:28-34) makes it clear that this description of the scribes should not be treated as being stereotypical of all scribes in the Jewish community. It describes the rich and powerful at their worst.” Cf. similarly Marcus, Mark 8-16, 852.

[4] Cf. Marcus, Mark 8-16, 854: “In the honor-conscious Greco-Roman society, such distinctions would have been important signs of status, but in the Markan context they fall under the judgment that in God’s end-time dominion, the first (protoi) will become last (cf. 10:31).”

[5] Cf. Marcus, Mark 8-16, 855, where he says that this was probably related to actions taken by the scribes after a woman’s husband has died and bequeathed her the estate. He cites Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, 1318, who suggests that “the scribe, acting as a probate lawyer, has cheated the widow out of the estate by overcharging for his services.” Marcus suggests (Mark 8-16, 856), “Another possibility is that the passage has in view the forcible seizure of property by the priests, who are also scribes, for nonpayment of tithes.” He cites  Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20.206 in support.

[6] Cf. Marcus, Mark 8-16, 855: “Widows, along with orphans, resident aliens, and the poor in general are often mentioned in the OT as objects of special concern to God since they are without the usual social support systems. Their well-being, therefore, is a sacred trust, and to violate it, for example by defrauding them, is an especially heinous crime (see, e.g., Jer 7:6-7; Ezek 22:7; Zech 7:10-14; Mal 3:5).”

[7] Cf. Lamar Williamson, Jr., Mark, 233, where he observes that in this passage the greed of the religious leaders is exposed, “its ugliness compounded by the hypocrisy of trying to hide their avarice behind ostentatious piety.”

[8] See Perkins, “The Gospel of Mark,” NIB VIII:682. Contrast Marcus, Mark 8-16, 857-59, where he offers the opinion that this story is a “historicized parable.”

[9] Cf. Williamson, Mark, 234, where he observes the irony that “She gave this to the Temple, the extravagance and imminent destruction of which will be the subject of the very next verses.”

[10] Cf. Marcus, Mark 8-16, 858.

[11] Cf. The Book of Confessions, “The Heidelberg Catechism” 4.086 (p. 58), which asks the question why we are called to good works in general if we are redeemed by grace. The answer could also provide a motivation for stewardship as a specific type of “good work”: “Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also restoring us by his Spirit into his image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits, so that he may be praised through us, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ.”  Cf. also  The Book of Order 2015-2017 W-7.5003 (p.149): “As stewards of God’s creation who hold the earth in trust, the people of God are called to a. use the earth’s resources responsibly without plundering, polluting, or destroying, b. develop technological methods and processes that work together with the earth’s environment to preserve and enhance life, c. produce and consume in ways that make available to all people what is sufficient for life, d. work for responsible attitudes and practices in procreation and reproduction, e. use and shape earth’s goods to create beauty, order, health, and peace in ways that reflect God’s love for all creatures.” On the basis of this very full and specific statement, the paragraph concludes, “In gratitude for the gifts of creation, the faithful bring material goods to God in worship as a means of expressing praise, as a symbol of their self-offering, and as a token of their commitment to share earth’s goods.”

Pride's Conceit

Pride’s Conceit

Psalm 123[1]

Another of the fundamental problems I see in our society today is pride. I don’t mean the healthy sense of satisfaction we all have with a job well done. I’m talking about the arrogance by which some people think they have the right to look down on others. That kind of pride is an indication that something has gone wrong with our fundamental outlook on life. Instead of humbly recognizing that we are dependent on God for every aspect of our lives, those who fall to the temptation of pride seem to think that they don’t have to depend on anyone for anything. That is pride’s conceit. And it is a radical character flaw that leads to the deadly sin known by its Latin name, hubris.[2]

I think we see all kinds of signs of this kind of pride in our day and time. Corporate CEO’s make 100 times or more what their employees earn to scrape out a living. Politicians consistently pass legislation that benefits their wealthy campaign contributors instead of doing what’s right for the American people. “Talking heads” in our society take an “I’m right and you’re stupid” approach to the events of our day. And yes, even in religion, pride has a way of raising its ugly head. Many religious leaders seem more anxious to get their names in the paper or their faces on the news than caring about the welfare of the people they serve.

Our Psalm for today addresses this problem as it impacts those who seek to live faithfully in a time when arrogance seems to prevail. In fact, it’s easy to get the impression that perhaps the Psalmist had it even worse! While we can’t be sure of the setting, it would seem that this Psalm came out of the Jewish Dispersion, the scattering of the Jewish people throughout the world after the Babylonians destroyed their homeland.[3] In ancient times, as today, there were Jewish communities scattered throughout the civilized world. While some of them inevitably compromised their faith in response to the pressures they faced, many made every effort to remain true to the God who had carried them for centuries.[4] And for that, it’s not hard to imagine that they had to endure “the contempt of the proud” (Ps. 123:4).

After all, there they were, living in a foreign land. In that time, people still believed that “gods” were tied to a certain territory. From that perspective, it would stand to reason that the Jewish people had obviously been forsaken and forgotten by their God, left to make their own way in the lands of other gods. The fact that they continued to worship the God of their ancestors must have seemed humiliating to the peoples among whom they lived. Worse than that, many of them saw it as laughable, and they didn’t hesitate to taunt the Jewish people, asking them constantly, “Where is your God?”[5]

And yet the Jewish people clung tenaciously to the God of their ancestors—praying consistently for God to be gracious to them, as the Psalmist does here. Most translations render the appeal as “have mercy upon us, O Lord” (Ps. 123:3), which might suggest that the people are seeking forgiveness for some kind of wrongdoing. However, most scholars render this cry as “be gracious to us, O Lord” (NASB), which implies something more like a cry for deliverance from those who were mocking them.[6] The rest of the verse seems to back up this perspective: “for we have had more than enough of contempt”!

Perhaps more importantly, the Psalm also called the Jewish people to take a very different stance toward life than their arrogant neighbors. They were to see themselves as “servants” of God, as those who were ultimately dependent upon God for everything, including their very lives.[7] And so instead of looking down their noses at the people who heaped scorn on them, they they were called to look in a very different direction. They looked humbly to God for everything—from the basics like their livelihood to the ability to cope with living in a situation that demanded every ounce of faith they could muster. They were called to turn away from pride’s conceit to the humility of faith.[8]

That’s not always an easy thing in our world. “Dependence” is not necessarily a positive word to us. We like to think of ourselves as independent, as able to stand on our own two feet, and standing on equal footing with anyone we meet. Humility may not come easily to us. Sometimes we’d rather have our teeth pulled out than have to admit that we’ve made a mistake. And yet, the Psalmist reminds us that we are not the self-made, self-sufficient individuals we’d like to think we are. We are all “servants” of God. We are all ultimately dependent upon God for all of life, even life itself.

It seems to me that we live in a world where we have all kinds of reminders of pride’s conceit. There’s simply no disputing the fact that, with few notable exceptions, the wealthiest segment of our society doesn’t hesitate to use their power to control everything from the markets to the government to the media, ensuring that they get exactly what they want no matter what the cost. I think we could say with the Psalmist that we’ve had “too much of the scorn of the indolent rich” (Psalm 123:4). But instead of fighting fire with fire, the Psalmist calls us to a different approach. Rather than looking down our noses at those who think nothing of trampling on us, the Psalmist calls us to look in a different direction—to the God upon whom we depend for all of life. Instead of indulging in pride’s conceit, the Scripture calls us to look humbly to the God who will always keep us in his grace and love and mercy.

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[1] ©2015 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 7/5/2015 at Hickman Presbyterian Church.

[2] See H. Berkhof, Christian Faith, 194-197, for a brief overview of the theological discussion of sin as pride; see also Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology II:49-51.

[3] Cf. H. –J. Kraus, Psalms 60-150, 437: “Ridicule and mockery, disgrace and shame weigh heavily on the community …The people of God live in the Dispersion and are mocked because their God fails to provide proofs of his goodness and power in historical life.” It may have also come from the time immediately after the exile, when the Jewish refugees returned to their homeland to find it a shambles. Cf. J. Clinton McCann, Jr. “The Book of Psalms,” New Interpreters Bible IV:1187, where he cites several links between the contempt and scorn of the Psalm and the situation described in the book of Nehemiah. In that situation, they were in constant danger from tribal chiefs who had taken control of the land. They also bore the brunt of constant ridicule for even attempting to rebuild their lives. 

[4] Many believe the “Psalms of Ascent” were originally written for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the high and holy feast days. Cf. McCann, “The Book of Psalms,” NIV IV:1176. The very fact that they would continue to use these Psalms in exile or even after their return to Jerusalem, when they faced the total devastation of their land, is a testament to the Jewish people’s efforts to be faithful.

[5] Cf. James L. Mays, Psalms, 395: “the scorn was a challenge to their faith that had the form of the taunt, ‘Where is your God?’”

[6] Cf. McCann, “Book of Psalms,” NIB IV:1187. The petition to “have mercy”  “is a frequent one in the psalms, often translated ‘be gracious’ … . While it may imply the specific need and desire for forgiveness, it more general is an indication that the psalmist or the people depend on God for life itself.”

[7] Cf. McCann, “Book of Psalms,” NIB IV: 1187. The image of the psalmist as a “servant” and the emphasis on the “eyes” both “clearly portray the humble dependence that characterizes the psalmist’s approach to God.” Cf. also Kraus, Psalms 60-150, 437.

[8] Cf. Mays, Psalms, 395: “The pilgrims look from a world that questions their god to the God who rules the world.”

Choosing to Love

Choosing to Love

1 Corinthians 8:1-13[1]

I grew up in a family where it was very important to be smart. Like many families, education was seen as a means of advancement. The more education you could get, the more successful you were likely to be. Or so we thought. And since I wasn’t much of an athlete, and didn’t really see any prospects for myself outside “being smart,” I embraced that view with a vengeance. In High School, I was like a lot of my friends—I only did what I needed to do. But in college and in my graduate programs, I went the extra mile to perform at the top of my class. I used to spend hours looking up one little detail. To some extent, it was due to my curiosity. But underneath it was the conviction that in order to succeed I had to be “smart.”

Of course, in and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with being smart. The problem comes when “being smart” becomes your whole reason for being, that which gives you a sense of worth in life. And along with that temptation there’s another, more subtle temptation: the tendency to look down on those who aren’t as “smart” as you are. Being “in the know” can bring with it a tendency toward arrogance. Sometimes this is obvious—we’ve all known people who (at least in their own minds) are smarter that we are and don’t fail to remind us of that every chance they get! But even for those of us who work hard to better ourselves through education and don’t flaunt it, there can still be an underlying tendency to look down on others. It may be so subtle that we’re not even aware of it ourselves!

The problem is that when we look down on others, it’s difficult to be truly kind. It’s difficult to practice the kind of love that seeks what is best for others. That’s what was going on behind our lesson from St. Paul. There was a group in the church, possibly the wealthiest and most successful people,[2] who claimed that their knowledge allowed them to do what others found offensive. In this case, it had to do with taking part in meals that were held in the temples of local deities, eating food that had been dedicated to false gods. Well, this group, the ones who thought themselves to be “smarter” than others, insisted that from a biblical perspective there is only one true God. And that means that the idols that their friends worshipped had no real existence. The “intelligent” conclusion was that taking part in such meals, which may have been simply a part of their social calendar, would do them no real harm.

St. Paul must have found himself to some extent between a rock and a hard place on this one. I think that’s one reason why this passage is a bit complicated. The problem was that the “smart” people were right in what they claimed. And Paul affirms with them that “we know that ‘no idol in the world really exists,’ and that ‘there is no God but one’” (1 Cor. 8:4). Not to do so would be to go against the entire witness of the Hebrew Bible. It is a continual theme that idols are false and powerless and it is useless to worship them. And so, from their perspective, the “smart” people in Corinth had a valid claim that there was nothing wrong with attending these meals with their pagan friends.

But Paul wanted to make it clear to them that this wasn’t the only factor involved. It wasn’t just about them. There were others in the congregation who had some serious problems with the idea of a Christian participating in a meal in the temple of a pagan idol.[3] Very likely they were Gentile Christians who had been converted from worshipping those false gods. So the fact that the “smart” folks in the church were, from their point of view, essentially participating in idolatry might influence them to waver in their commitment to the Christian faith.[4] As a result, Paul says to the “smart” ones, “by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed” (1 Cor. 8:11).[5]

St. Paul insists that kindness is always more important than being “smart.” Love always trumps the arrogance that can come from knowledge. As St. Paul says it, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1).[6] That is, when we define our lives by how much we know, it tends to make us “puffed up” with pride. But love “builds up” by influencing us to think not just about ourselves, but about what we can do to help others.[7] I like the way the Phillips translation puts it: “while knowledge may make a man look big, it is only love that can make him grow to his full stature” (1 Cor. 8:1, Phillips).

That brings up another factor. When we define our lives by how “smart” we are, it can very well stunt our own development. The pride and arrogance that go along with the quest for knowledge can block the kindness and love that enable us to truly reach our full potential as human beings. Now, of course, as a person with a Ph. D., I’m not advocating that education is a bad thing. I value my education and I know that it played a significant role in making me who I am today. I’m all for anybody who tries to improve themselves through education. But knowledge alone, being “smart” by itself, cannot truly fulfill our lives. As we engage in the quest for knowledge, we must do so not just to make ourselves “look big,” but rather so that we will have something to give to our world. St. Paul reminds us all of the love God poured out into our lives through Jesus Christ so that we can choose to love those around us, which is the true meaning of our lives.

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[1] ©2015 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 2/1/2015 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians, 137, where he discusses the possibility that there may have been a socio-economic distinction between the “strong” Christians who used their “knowledge” that there is only one God and that idols have no real existence to justify participating in idol feast and the “weak” Christians who were recent converts from paganism.  He says, “The wealthier Corinthians would have been invited to meals in such places as a regular part of their social life, to celebrate birthdays, weddings, healings attributed to the god, or other important occasions.”  He continues, “To eat the sacrificial meat served on such occasions was simple social courtesy; to refuse to share in the meal would be an affront to the host.” Cf. also David E. Garland, “The Dispute Over Food Sacrificed to Idols (1 Cor 8:1-11:1),” Perspectives in Religious Studies 30 (Summer 2003): 174-76.

[3] Cf. Garland, “Dispute Over Food,” 183-84, where he makes a convincing argument that Paul shared this conviction. He says, “For Paul, idolatry is the vice that leads to all vices (Rom 1:19-32) and prominent in the catalog of the works of the flesh (Gal 5:20). Idolaters (among others) will not inherit the kingdom of God ( 1 Cor 6:9). He conveys his disapproval of idol food by the very term he uses for it—είδωλόθυτον. Idol worshipers normally used Ίερόθυτον (10:28) to refer to something ‘offered in sacrifice to a deity,’ and the term είδωλόθυτον [something offered in sacrifice to an idol] does not appear in papyri or literature before 1 Corinthians.  It has a caustic, polemical edge since the word είδωλα [idol] connoted to both Jews and most Christians something detestable (Deut 29:17), opposed to the living God (1 Thess 1:9; 2 Cor 6:16), lifeless and ‘dumb’ (1 Cor 12:2), and demonic (Rev 9:20).” Cf. similarly, E. Coye Still, Iii, “Paul's Aims Regarding Ειδωλοθυτα: A New Proposal For Interpreting 1 Corinthians 8:1-11:1,” Novum Testamentum 44 (no 4, 2002):333-43.

[4] Cf. Garland, “Dispute Over Food,” 188: “The Christian with a weak conscience does not have the knowledge to make correct moral judgments. Paul worries that this person's conscience might follow the example of those presumed to have knowledge and eat idol food as truly offered to an idol, that is, as a sacrificial act. He will be led astray in his moral judgment to think that it is permissible for Christians to pay homage to both Christ and pagan deities.” Cf. also Hays, First Corinthians, 141.

[5] Cf. Hays, First Corinthians, 142, where he says that Paul in effect confronts them with “biting irony”: “Christ died for this person, and you can’t even change your diet?” Cf. also Garland, “Dispute Over Food,” 187: “Christ died for them (8:11). This act of love that brought them into God's family requires that they respond to others in the family with love—putting others' needs and interests ahead of their own.”

[6] Cf. Hays, First Corinthians, 145: “The central message of this chapter is a simple one: Love is more important than knowledge. Paul calls for a shift from gnosis [knowledge] to agape [love] as the ordering principle for Christian discernment and conduct. Rather than asserting rights and privileges, we are to shape our actions toward edification of our brothers and sisters in the community of faith.”

[7] Cf. Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians: A commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 141: “οἰκοδομεῖν [to build up] in Paul does not refer primarily to the “edification” of the individual … , but to the building up of the community.” Cf. also Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:635-36: “It is love (for one’s neighbour) which builds the community.   p 636  If this does not do it, the community will not be built.”

Merton on the Illusion of Pride

Merton warns against the selfish pride that tends to imagine we can only be fully human by "asserting [our] own desires and ambitions and appetites." Those who take this path to "find themselves" thing the only way to achieve it is to build "a barrier of contrast and distinction between themselves and [others]." Their pride manifests itself in thinking, "I have what you have not. I am what you are not. ... Therefore you suffer and I am happy, ... you are nothing and I am something, and I am all the more something because you are nothing."

Merton observes that this tendency is most dangerous when it becomes spiritual pride--thinking that my good deeds constitute a "sweet distinction" in me "from the common run of sinners in this world." Merton describes it as "the complacency of a will that loves its own excellence," to "burn with self-admiration" and think it is one's love for God, to relish "acts that make [us] admirable in [our] own eyes" and think our satisfaction is "the unction of the Holy Spirit." In short, Merton says such a person "thinks his own pride is the Holy Ghost"!

It seems that the antidote for this temptation may lie in Merton's observation that "I must look for my identity, somehow, not only in God but in [others]. I will never be able to find myself if I isolate myself from the rest of [humankind] as if I were a different kind of being." New Seeds of Contemplation, 47-51.