My Religion is Kindness

 My Religion is Kindness

Matthew 9:9-13[1]

Even though most churches were full when I was growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I wouldn’t say it was a time when people were particularly devoted to following Jesus. Because of that a lot of people were jaded by the gap between the words people were saying in church and the lives they were living outside the sanctuary. Without the “walk” to back it up, many saw all the religious “talk” as just a lot of words that didn’t mean much. Instead, a lot of the people I grew up with decided to find their lives in slogans like “if it feels good, do it.” When I look at where some of those people are today, I must confess I’m more than a little surprised. Some of the people who “partied” the hardest back then have turned into some of the most staunchly religious people today. But the irony is that they don’t seem to be any more committed to actually following Jesus now than they were back in the day. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that a whole new generation is turning away from church. Or that a major factor in their leaving is because they believe that the church is out of step with one of their most important values: treating all people with kindness and respect.[2]  

You’d think that would be something that Christian churches would excel at. As our lesson from the Gospel of Matthew for today reminds us, Jesus modeled a life of treating all people with kindness, compassion, and dignity. Here Jesus demonstrates that fundamental orientation of his life by calling “Matthew,” a man who was a tax collector. As I’ve mentioned before, tax collectors in Jewish society were hated by the people in general and despised by the religious leaders. In fact, the phrase, “tax collectors and sinners” in that day was one that pretty much included everyone who was viewed as immoral, dishonest, tainted, or in any way “undesirable.” And there Jesus was, calling this man to be one of his hand-picked apprentices in carrying out the ministry of the kingdom of God!

That created a dilemma for the “religious” people of his day. On the one hand, his proclamation of God’s grace, of God’s kingdom of peace and freedom, and of the realization of God’s promise to show them mercy must have sounded like the best news they’d ever heard. It excited them and inspired them. Kind of like us. But on the other hand, the fact that he offered all that to the destitute, the undesirables, the down-and-out, and the sinners alongside the “religious” people raised serious objections. They’d been taught that God blesses those who obey and punishes those who disobey. Like us they’d probably spent a lifetime of trying to live up to God’s expectations. And Jesus told them that the reward they expected was going to be handed to those who never even expended one iota of effort to gain it! That offended them. Kind of like us!

That’s the backdrop for Jesus’ shocking statement, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” (Mt 9:13). Jesus didn’t just pull that out of thin air. He was quoting Scripture. Specifically, Hosea 6:6. The irony is that he was talking to the Jewish religious leaders, who spent all their time studying Scripture! But Jesus told them that in spite of their efforts they had missed the point: putting the mercy they had received from God into practice in the way they treated others—all others.

They would have known Hosea 6:6. They would have also known that in the Hebrew Bible, the word translated “mercy” was a “loaded” word. It referred to both God’s unfailing love and also the abiding commitment to love that God’s love calls forth on the part of those who receive it. And they would have known that Scripture defined that commitment in terms of loving God “with all your heart” (Dt 6:5) and loving “your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Unfortunately, they had convinced themselves that they only “had” to put that love into practice with their Jewish neighbors. And in fact, they only had to put that love into practice with some of their Jewish neighbors. But in the Old Testament, “mercy” is the equivalent of “love.” It’s a fundamental life orientation toward treating all people with kindness, compassion, and dignity. In the Scripture passage from Hosea 6:6 that Jesus called on to answer his critics for the fact that he extended kindness even to “tax collectors and sinners,” “mercy” is the equivalent of “love.” The word in the Greek New Testament that we’re used to hearing for that kind of approach to other people is “agape.” It’s the love that Jesus showed for all of us by dying on the cross!

All of this makes me wonder what it says about the church in this day and time that a growing number of young people are leaving, and one of the main reasons they give is the fact that they find the church to be lacking in the one quality that Jesus said would demonstrate that we’re his disciples (Jn 13:35). There’s so much division going on these days, so much disagreement, so much conflict. People are going take different stands on social and political issues, hopefully respectfully and with civility. But when it comes to how we treat people, there is no “alternative” for those of us who claim to follow Jesus. There is only one option: we who have received the unconditional love God has shown by claiming us forever as his beloved children are commanded by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to show that unconditional love to everyone we meet.

Many of you may know that the Dalai Lama is famous for saying “My religion is kindness.” He’s said it many times and in many places. I have a lot of respect for the Dalai Lama, but I find it sad to think that many young people in our day may be more familiar with the Dalai Lama’s devotion to kindness than they are with Jesus’ devotion to kindness. If that’s the case, I’m afraid we’re responsible. Jesus lived out the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” by showing kindness, compassion, and respect for everyone he encountered. His “religion” was kindness just as much as the Dalai Lama’s. Perhaps more so. Not only in his words, but also by the way he treated people, he offered God’s mercy to the destitute, the undesirables, the down-and-out, and the sinners—as well as the “religious” people.

None of this is anything you haven’t heard before. None of this is anything you haven’t heard from me before. But I think we have to go beyond just talking about it. I think we have to take a hard look at ourselves to figure what’s missing in our efforts to put our faith into practice. More than that, there’s something to be said for living a life that’s consistent with what we say we believe. At least as consistent as possible for flawed and fallible human beings. That makes it possible for us to look ourselves in the mirror and know that, at the end of the day, we’ve done our best. All of us who have lived much of life are going to have some regrets. The reality is that we all fall short. But when we can say with the Apostle Paul that our “conscience is clear” before God (1 Cor 4:4), it frees us to move past our hurts and fears and the petty and sometimes selfish ways of living our hurts and fears can bring out in us. It frees us to love all our neighbors: our neighbors who don’t look like us, think like us, love like us, speak like us, pray like us, or vote like us. It frees us to make kindness our religion—not just as a slogan, but for real.

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 6/11/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. “Exodus: Why Americans are Leaving Religion—and Why They’re Unlikely to Come Back,” Public Religion Research Institute, 22 September 2016. Accessed at https://www.prri.org/research/prri-rns-poll-nones-atheist-leaving-religion/ .

 

(Not) All About Me

 (Not) All About Me

Luke 18:9-14[1]

We all search for meaning in life in a variety of ways. Many of us center our sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging in our hopes and dreams. Most of you know that I was never very close to my parents. Some of you know that life in my childhood home was more like “All in the Family” than “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Actually, that’s understating things, but I’m trying to be respectful toward my parents. As a result, from an early age a big part of my sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging focused on my “dream” that I would do things “right” with my family. Of course, in my child’s mind the “dream” I had for my family wasn’t quite realistic. But more to the point, my “dream” was really all about me.

I think all of us have some kind of “dream” for our lives. It may be about the “right” career and the rewards that will bring us. It may be about having a certain lifestyle. Living in the “right” house, driving the “right” car, having the “right” friends. “Success” for most of us has a very definite look to it. Often, our dream brings with it the underlying assumption that we’re going to make the “right” amount of money. Many of us have hopes and dreams about family, perhaps involving marriage and children. Of course, life rarely turns out just like we imagine it in our hopes and dreams. But if we’re completely honest, we’d all have to admit that the real problem with orienting our lives in this way is that it’s always all about ourselves.

For many, faith and church are a part of our “strategy” for achieving those hopes and dreams. We try to ensure that what we want will come true by saying all the right words and doing all the right things. That includes how we practice our faith. We go to church so that we can be confident of going to Heaven when we die. But we also do so because we hope it will give us some measure of control over the way our lives turn out. We think that if we go to church, our family will turn out “right,” our career will be a “success,” and life will go “according to plan.” But that’s taking faith and church and trying to make it into some kind of magic way to get all we want in life. And in the end, it’s still all about ourselves.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells us a story about two men who went up to the Temple to pray. One man was a Pharisee, and he would have been a respected member of the community. Pharisees were known for their devotion to studying and obeying God’s word in all aspects of their lives. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with obeying God in all aspects of life. But the problem with this Pharisee was that he was living his life in a manner that was all about himself. If you pay close attention to his prayer, it’s hard not to think that he was bragging about himself to God!

The other man was a tax collector. As such he would have been despised by more than just the Pharisee. He would have been viewed as a thief and a traitor to his people. Now, some of us might still think that way about tax collectors, but the situation in that day and time was different. There were a variety of taxes, and some of them were collected by people who basically “bid” for the right to do so. Since it involved paying a fee up front, tax collectors like this man could keep whatever they could extract from people. It’s not hard to see why the tax collector would have been viewed as a thief and a traitor by the public.

Two very different men came to the temple to pray. Both had made their lives all about themselves. The Pharisee had set out to be seen by others as a respected leader of his community by following the letter of the law. And all indications are that he had succeeded in that. For the tax collector, it was about taking the “fast track” to getting rich. He had thrown honesty and decency to the wind, and was basically robbing his own people. But for both of these men, the fact that they were living all about themselves made their success hollow.

Two men came to the temple to pray. Two men not so different in their attempts to live their lives all about themselves, although the paths they took were on opposite ends of the religious and social scale. But I think the real difference was this: one of them was thoroughly satisfied with the way he lived his life. He was quite convinced that his life was right and even pleasing to God. The other one came to the temple not satisfied, or pleased, or confident, but broken. He was so broken that he wouldn’t even look up and he kept beating his chest in remorse. And that’s the whole point of the story according to Luke: Jesus “told this parable to some who trusted in themselves” (Lk 18:9).

That’s one of the most important choices we have to make in this life. It comes down to whether we put our trust in ourselves, in our hopes and dreams, and in our own efforts or we put our trust in God, in his faithfulness, mercy, and love. 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 shocked 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). Jesus said this because the tax collector had learned a lesson that’s important for us all. When we make our lives “all about me,” our hopes and dreams may thrive for a while, but they will eventually collapse. Only when we base our sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging on our trust in God do we really find the life we’re looking for.

That’s the message of a Bible verse that may be familiar to you: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths (Prov 3:6-7). I don’t think we set out to live our lives “all about ourselves.” It kind of sneaks up on us. For some of us, perhaps our families of origin were such that the only “safe” place we had was inside our own hearts and minds. And that’s where our hopes and dreams took root and grew so strong. And so we put our trust in those hopes and dreams because that’s all we had. For others, we may have noticed that our ideas differed from most of the ones we heard from other people. And so we began to trust primarily in our own viewpoints. This process becomes like second nature to us, and I would say it goes unnoticed. But that’s still a form of making life all about me. And that’s not what life is all about. It’s all about God, and what God wants to do in and through us in this world.

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/23/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/kRzsxfzmyck .

True Worship of God

 True Worship of God 

John 2:13-22[1]

Religion can be wonderful, and it can also be oppressive. And in both cases, those who practice their religion believe they are being “true” to God. Part of this is due to our human nature. As Bill Moyers famously observed, “we all know that religion has a healing side. But we also know it has a killing side.”[2] All the major religions in the world—Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and even Christianity—have led their follows on “crusades” to kill in the name of “God.” It is a sad commentary on our capacity to completely distort even that which is intended to bring out the best in us.

If you’ve been reading the Bible with us this year, you know that there are some unsettling contents in some places. Whole books of the Bible are devoted to a concern for religious purity that is rigid and exclusive. In some places there is almost an obsession with what is “clean” and what is “unclean.” What drove that obsession was the belief that they had to keep what is holy separate from what is common. The result was a system of boundaries that feels very rigid and exclusive. It doesn’t sound much like the image of God we find in Jesus, who not only welcomed sinners, but also sought them out!

Right at the heart of the Jewish religion in Jesus’ day stood the Temple. It was a massive edifice that was built as a monument to the separation between the “holy” and the “common.” It literally set in stone the idea that ordinary people like you and me could only approach God’s presence through an officially designated priest. Our Gospel lesson for today has all of this in the background. It tells the story of how Jesus drove out of the temple courts those who were exchanging money and selling sacrificial animals.

The reason this market even existed at the Temple was that Jewish pilgrims came from all over the Mediterranean world to worship at Jerusalem. They could not bring with them sacrificial animals that had to be “without blemish” in order to offer them at the Temple. So first they had to exchange their Roman denarii or their Greek drachmae for the Temple Shekel. The problem with this was that it was taking place in what was known as “the Court of the Gentiles.” Essentially, the Temple was a series of “courtyards” that surrounded the “sanctuary” where God’s presence was believed to reside. The outermost courtyard was “the Court of the Gentiles.” This was the only place non-Jewish people could come to worship the one true and living God, and the Jewish religious leaders had allowed it to become a “marketplace”!

But there was a deeper problem than that. Like the prophets before him—Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos—Jesus would not accept worship that consisted of “going through the motions.” I think that’s what we’re meant to hear when John tells us that Jesus did this out of his “zeal” for the true worship of God. The worship God seeks from us has always been something that changes our lives. In fact, Jesus will say later in this Gospel that “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. … the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:21, 23). That kind of “true worship of God” will leave its mark on the way a person lives.

While the other Gospels tell a different story about Jesus cleansing the Temple, they all seem to wind up in the same place. The Temple, with its elaborate system of sacrifices, and with its very structure reinforcing the notion that people had to keep their distance from God, would no longer be the focal point for the “true worship” of God. In one sense, Jesus’ very presence and his ministry had already begun this process. Instead of the idea that one could only approach God at a particular place, and at a particular time, and in a particular way, Jesus made it clear that God’s presence is available to all people, priests and commoners, men and women, Jewish and gentile, “righteous” and “sinners” alike.

Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for those of us who seek to follow Jesus today to get caught up in some of the same limiting notions about God as the people of that day. In our concern for moral purity, we can become critical, rigid, and exclusive instead of welcoming and embracing all people in the name of Jesus. Those of us who have spent our whole lives in the church can easily develop an attitude that “despises” those who are “outside” the church.

But we cannot embrace the death, resurrection, ascension, and reign of the living Christ without recognizing that it has created a fundamental shift in the way we understand how to worship God.[3] The “true worship of God” should lead us to so deeply encounter God’s grace, mercy, and love, that we cannot help but share what we have received with all others, regardless of who they are or how they live. When we "truly" worship God, it will show up in the way we treat others.

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[1] © 2021 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 3/7/2021 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] “Bill Moyers and Salman Rushdie,” interview for Bill Moyers On Faith & Reason, June 23, 2006, accessed on 4 Mar 2021 at https://www.pbs.org/moyers/ faithandreason/print/faithandreason101_print.html

[3] Cf. George R. Beasley-Murray, John, p. 39, where he says that Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple “provides a vital clue for grasping the nature and the course of our Lord’s work, his words and actions, his death and resurrection, and the outcome of it all in a new worship of God, born out of a new relation to God in and through the crucified-risen Christ.”

Heaven Opened

 Heaven Opened

Mark 1:1-11[1]

There is a sense in which we have all closed ourselves off in this modern world. Our lives have become so complicated, so unpredictable, and so “different” from what we were used to that we naturally want to protect ourselves. That’s especially true when it comes to “strangers.” We tend to close ourselves off from those whom we may perceive to be a threat. That is, I think, part of the cause for the impasse in our country right now. We surround ourselves only with those who confirm our own biases, and we don’t even listen to those who have a different take on things. We all, to some extent, live in a world we have closed off to what is “other.”

In some ways, we get this from the Bible. There are passages and even whole books of the Bible that convey the idea that “we” have to protect ourselves against “them,” whoever “they” may be. Reading those parts of the Bible leads us to think that God’s purpose is not at all the broad, inclusive gift of love we hear Jesus talking about. Rather, it sounds much more constricted, reserved for a very few who practice certain well-defined standards of living. It seems rigidly uncompromising in that there is no tolerance for any kind of “falling short.” With that kind of a view of heaven itself as basically “closed,” it’s easy to transfer a “closed” mindset to life in general.

You may be asking what this has to do with our Gospel lesson for today. I can’t say for sure, but I wonder whether Jesus’ baptism may have been a formative experience for him, providing at least some inspiration for his unique message that God’s love is open to us all. Mark tells us that when he was baptized, Jesus saw “the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him” (Mk. 1:10). Then a voice came to Jesus: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:11). I’ll be the first to admit that these aren’t ordinary experiences for us, and it may be hard to understand what it all means.

In the first place, I think we have to notice that, in contrast to the account of Jesus’ baptism in the other Gospels, here everything that happens is directed toward Jesus. He sees the heavens torn open; he sees the Spirit descend on him as a dove. He hears the voice that addresses him: “you are my Son,” and “with you I am well pleased.” If we remember that Jesus was “fully human,” I wonder whether this kind of experience may have been crucial for someone who was about to launch a reorientation of people’s whole relationship with God! We tend to assume that a “fully divine” Jesus wouldn’t need that kind of assurance. But if he truly was “fully human,” perhaps he did!

In Mark’s Gospel, the opening of the heavens, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus, and the divine voice all point to the message that Jesus is “the son of God” (Mk. 1:1). Ironically, however, in Mark’s Gospel that message is only recognized after Jesus dies on the cross—and by a Roman Centurion! I think the main reason for this is Jesus fulfilled the role of “son of God” in a very different way than most people expected. They expected Jesus to reinforce their idea of heaven “closed” to all but those who, like them, were “righteous” in a very particular way. But Jesus “opened” heaven by extending God’s grace to those who seemed undeserving.

To a significant degree, that also had to do with the message Jesus proclaimed. In the next few verses, he says it this way: “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news” (Mk 1:15). That in and of itself wasn’t unique. But the way Jesus filled out what that meant for people was very different indeed. It meant that he had come to offer God’s grace and mercy and love to the least and the last and the left out.

Again, when you listen to Jesus, it seems that he is talking about God from the perspective of heaven “opened” rather than closed. We may never know, but it’s interesting to wonder whether Jesus’ vision of heaven “opened” at his baptism inspired his ministry and his message.[2] It would explain how he was able to fulfill his ministry of reorienting people’s whole relationship with God, despite all the pressure he faced from those who wanted to keep the doors to heaven shut tight. It also helps us understand how he was able to continue to pursue that goal of “opening” heaven even when it led him to the cross.

As we think about what this means for us, I believe we who claim to follow the one who opened heaven for all people must offer that same openness to the people in our lives. I know that’s not easy. The appeal of a closed heaven in which only those who are righteous “like me” are included is that it is predictable and safe. We can get so overwhelmed at times that it’s only natural for us to respond with fear and anger. And we “close” ourselves to those whom we see as “other.” That’s not the way Jesus lived, though. He offered a heaven opened to all—including his enemies who were working to have him killed. Again, I know that’s not easy. If we are going to open ourselves like Jesus did, like God did, we have to be willing to take the suffering and pain that people endure on ourselves—just like Jesus did.[3] Though it can be a hard road, I believe Jesus called those who know the blessings of heaven opened to share that same spirit of openness with others.

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[1] © 2021 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 1/10/2021 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2]2 Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions, 89–91. Among other things, he says that Jesus baptism shaped his message that “in the kingdom of Jesus’ Father, what rules is the justice of mercy for all the weary and heavy-laden.”

[3] Cf. The Study Catechism, question 45, answer the question, “Why did Jesus have to suffer as he did?” In part the answer is, “In giving Jesus Christ to die for us, God took the burden of our sin into God's own self to remove it once and for all. The cross in all its severity reveals an abyss of sin swallowed up by the suffering of divine love.”

Practicing What We Preach

 

Practicing What We Preach

Matthew 23:1-12[1]

There are a lot of reasons why people engage in religion. For some, it’s simply what their family has always done, and so they do it too. For others, attending church or synagogue or mosque is an integral part of their ethnic identity. But there are other motivations. Some practice their religion as a way of “keeping up appearances.” For others, their religious accomplishments are a source of personal pride, and they parade them every chance they get. In recent times, especially in this country, the Christian faith has become a sanctified means of wish fulfillment: if you pray the right way or follow the right steps, all your dreams will come true. I would have to say that some of our motivations for faith are problematic!

Talking about motivations may seem confusing. We’re used to thinking about our faith in terms of what we do. And while that’s important, I’m afraid it’s easy to fall into the routines of what we do and overlook what’s going on in our hearts. To do that is to risk making our faith superficial, hollow, and even somewhat phony. As we follow up on the Gospel lesson where Jesus teaches us about the two great commandments, to love God and to love others, I think one of the ways they can help us is by clarifying our motivations.

Our Gospel lesson for today is all about motivations. This chapter stands at the conclusion of the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders in Matthew’s gospel. At this point, it reaches a fairly high pitch. If we were to read the whole chapter, we would find that it’s filled with references to the Jewish leaders’ hypocrisy. Simply put, they did not practice what they preached (Matt. 23:3). What’s more, it would seem that their main motivation was their own ego. Jesus said, “They do all their deeds to be seen by others” and “they love to have the place of honor” (Matt. 23:5-6). I would say those two—ego and hypocrisy—tend to go hand-in-hand in religious circles.

Now, I think it’s important to say that while no one would dispute that there were “pious frauds” among the Jewish leaders, it would be unfair to assume that all of them were hypocrites.[2] It’s also important to recognize that this kind of hypocrisy has found a home in all religions, including the Christian faith! As one commentary puts it, “all the vices here attributed to the scribes and Pharisees have attached themselves to Christians, and in abundance”![3] A brief overview of Christian history demonstrates that. And our own experience in the church confirms it!

Given that caution, when you look at all the ways Jesus criticized some of the Jewish leaders, it seems clear that they were motivated by their own ego. In all the ways that he pointed out their hypocrisy, it seems that where they went astray was that they used their religion to get “strokes” to make themselves feel important. The truth of the matter is that, whether we want to admit it or not, religion has always been susceptible to being corrupted into just another way for us to feed the unhealthy pride that lurks in the corners of our insecurities.  It’s what tempts us to try to make ourselves look more important or more moral or simply better than others.

But when we indulge that temptation to “exalt ourselves” at the expense of others, we’re really only reinforcing our own insecurities. If my sense of self depends on being better than you, then I always have to find ways of reassuring myself that I am indeed better than you. And I do mean always. And so it becomes a vicious circle—insecurity, pride, ego, hypocrisy. It becomes something of an obsession. Or perhaps even an addiction.

The remedy to this pandemic of hypocrisy in religion is simple but not easy: we humble ourselves and serve others. Jesus said it this way: “The greatest among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matt. 23:11-12). The antidote to the vicious circle of ego and hypocrisy is humble service. When we experience God’s love so deeply that we can truly love him with all our hearts, we will find that we can love our neighbors. Instead of viewing them as “competition,” we can see them through the eyes of compassion. Then we can humble ourselves enough to serve them. It’s important to note that even here, where Jesus harshly criticizes the pious frauds of his day, he also expresses his compassion for them (Matt. 23:37-39).

Our motivations truly determine the quality of our faith and the way in which we put it into practice in our lives. If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we all have some of the “Pharisee” in us. We all have that part of us that practices our faith because it makes us feel good about ourselves. We all have that part that looks down on certain people as “inferior.” When we practice our faith from those motivations, we can easily fall into the trap of hypocrisy. But when we can squarely face our own insecurities and open ourselves to God’s love, we can have a change of heart. We can begin to love God and love others. We can view them with compassion instead of envy. And when we view them with compassion we can humble ourselves enough to serve them. When we do that, we will be following Jesus’ example: we will be practicing what we preach.

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[1] © Alan Brehm 2020. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 11/1/2020 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Douglas Hare, Matthew, 263.

[3] W. D. Davies and D. C. Allison, Matthew 19-28, 262.

Time for the Fruits

 

Time for the Fruits

Matthew 21:33-46[1]

Faith is an aspect of human life that has many facets. Our “beliefs” play an important role in faith. Gathering for worship is central as well. The music, the Scriptures, and the words we say together are both an expression of our faith and a way to encourage faith. We “act out” our faith together when we celebrate the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Our personal spiritual practices also build up and provide an outlet for our faith. While it’s possible to have faith without a community, we gather with others because they help us hold on to faith when life gets difficult.

At the end of the day, however, the call to follow Jesus is not simply about what we say or about how we worship. It is a call to live life in the way that he did. When Jesus calls us to be his disciples, he doesn’t just ask us to say the right words. Rather, he calls us to “take up our cross” (Matt. 16:24). I think that means that we are to commit to living our lives in the way Jesus did: loving God so completely that we choose to follow his ways no matter what it costs, and loving others even to the point of sacrificing ourselves for them. Following Jesus means “bearing fruit”: the fruit of a life that looks like his.

I believe our Gospel lesson for today addresses this challenge. Jesus tells a story that is traditionally called “the Parable of the Wicked Tenants.” It’s a story of a man who built a vineyard and leased it to tenant farmers. When it came time to collect his share of the produce, he sent his servants, but the tenants beat them and threw them out. Finally, the landlord sent his son, and they killed him. When Jesus asks what the owner of such a vineyard would do to the tenant farmers, the Jewish leaders answer in a way that is predictable—he will take his revenge by killing them.

The problem with this lies with the way we have traditionally interpreted this parable. We have tended to see it as a metaphor for the way God works—the landlord is God, the vineyard is Israel, the tenants are the Jewish leaders, the servants are the prophets, and the son is Jesus. But if we read the parable that way, it makes God into an absentee landlord who makes unjust demands of those he has put in charge of his vineyard. What’s more, God doesn’t seem to be a very competent landlord, because he sends his servants to collect the rent without any protection. And in the end, God acts just like the oppressive land owners of the day by taking revenge on the tenant farmers.

That image doesn’t work for me when it comes to my understanding of God. In the first place, the original command to love our neighbors in the Bible specifically prohibits revenge: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Furthermore, Jesus teaches us instead of taking “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” not to retaliate even against evildoers (Matt. 5:39)! And when Jesus describes who God is, he says “your Father in heaven … makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). When you put it all together, the traditional way of understanding this parable doesn’t work for me.

I think we need to look at it differently. Jesus tells a story about an absentee landlord who follows the standard customs regarding tenant farmers. He takes such a large cut of the crops as to leave the farmers who are actually working the land with barely enough to keep their families alive. As a result, the tenants rise up and determine to overthrow their tyrant of a landlord. In response, he sends in an army and wipes them out. That’s not how the kingdom of God works! I think Jesus is teaching us about the kingdom of God by telling a story about the opposite way in which the world works.

The kingdom of God works very differently: enemies become friends. Those who rebel may indeed find themselves broken and crushed by their defiance, but they also find that God is the one who heals the broken and lifts up those who are crushed (Ps. 145:14; 147:3). In the kingdom of God, there is no more “eye for an eye,” because operative rule is to forgive as you have been forgiven, to be merciful as you have been shown mercy. There is no place for revenge, because we’re commanded to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

I think Jesus used this unusual method of teaching to shock the “religious people” of his day out of their complacency. They were so used to considering themselves “righteous” and believing the way they lived was blessed by God that they ignored the fact that they were blatantly contradicting the clear teachings of Scripture. It’s easy to fall into that trap: most of us like the comfort of believing the way our world works is what God endorses. But if we look closely, and pay more careful attention to the Scriptures, we may the truth to be unsettling.

I think Jesus may have been warning the “religious people” of his day and ours that the “time for the fruits” is at hand. That’s the literal phrase that is translated “the harvest time” in the parable. “Bearing fruit” is an important theme in Matthew. The idea is that our faith is meant to make a difference in the way we live our lives. If it doesn’t, then it’s not “bearing fruit.” And the fruit that God looks for from all of us is that we love him so fully that we choose to follow his ways no matter what the cost, and we love others even to the point of sacrificing ourselves. I would say it’s likely that means we all may need to make some changes in our lifestyle. We all need to recognize that now is always the time for the fruits!

[1] © 2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph. D. on 10/4/2020 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

"Righteous"

 

“Righteous”

Matthew 21:12-32[1]

Most of us have opinions that we believe to be right. That’s a perfectly normal part of being a living, thinking person. There are just some things that make sense to us, and others that don’t make sense. When it comes to matters that are near and dear to the heart, we can often tighten our grip on our opinions. We may even blur the difference between “opinion” and “truth.” Granted, our opinions can be more or less “informed,” but they are nevertheless opinions. Assuming that our opinions are “true” can set us up for some unfortunate conflicts with our fellow human beings. Especially when they also have opinions they believe are “true.”

Again, so far we’re just dealing with normal life. This has been going on as long as there have been people. Things can get a bit dicey when we go from assuming our opinions are “right” to assuming that they (and we who hold them) are “righteous.” That adds another dimension to the problem. When we take that step, not only are those who hold different opinions “wrong,” we may view them as “enemies.” When we see ourselves as “righteous,” it’s not far from seeing those who disagree with us as dangerous. And when we perceive people to be a threat, it becomes easier to attack them.

I think Jesus was addressing this problem in our Gospel lesson for today. It’s no secret that Jesus had a tense relationship with the Jewish religious leaders. In our lesson for today, he “got in their face” about their hypocrisy by driving the merchants out of the temple. Now, we have to understand that the base of power for the Jewish religious leaders was the temple and the synagogue. Part of what that means is that by definition they got to define who was considered “righteous” and who was branded a “sinner.” And of course, in that setup, they were the ones who got to be “righteous,” and they were the ones who got to target others as a “threat.”

So when Jesus dared to criticize the religious leaders on their own turf, they responded in a way that is perfectly predictable. They asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matt. 21:23). This is predictable because they assumed they were the ones whom God had given authority in religious matters, and that Jesus had no such authority. But Jesus saw through their intentions, and so he asked a counter question. He asked them where John got his authority to baptize. He knew they didn’t recognize John’s baptism any more than they recognized his authority. And their response is interesting and instructive.

The “argument” that followed among them showed where their true concern was. They weren’t concerned about the authority of Jesus’ ministry, any more than John’s. They weren’t even concerned about what was true. Their sole concern was about maintaining their power and prestige and about how they looked to the people! So they kept their place firmly on the fence and simply answered, “We do not know.” Now, these are men who were used to answering questions with definitive answers that were to be taken as God’s truth. I would say they rarely, if ever, spoke those words to anyone.

So Jesus told a parable that exposes their hypocrisy. In the parable, a father asks a son to go work in the vineyard and he refuses, but then changes his mind and goes. The father asks his second son to go to work and he says yes, but then doesn’t go. The clear implication is that it’s not always those who make a lot of noise about being righteous who actually practice what they preach. In fact, Jesus told the “righteous” religious leaders that the tax collectors and prostitutes—those who were at the top of their list of “sinners”—were way ahead of them when it came to actually doing God’s will!

For all their presumption of being “righteous” and the pious play-acting that went along with it, they had rejected what Jesus called “the way of righteousness” (Matt. 21:32). What’s more, the people they scapegoated as being “sinners” were actually the ones who believed John and Jesus and accepted the good news of the Kingdom of God they came to preach. The very fact that the leaders considered themselves “righteous” was simply a convenient way for them to keep up appearances with their sham religion by diverting the attention to others. In fact, their whole system of religion was an elaborate self-justification for their self-designation as “righteous.”[2]

This behavior was not the exclusive prerogative of the “righteous” people in Jesus’ day. People of faith throughout the ages have identified others as “sinners” simply as a way of justifying themselves. We all can fall into the trap of deflecting attention away from ourselves so we can keep up the appearance of being “righteous” and avoid facing our own sins. But whenever we use our religion to make ourselves look good at the expense of others, we’re not only hurting them, we’re also hurting ourselves. The more tightly we draw the circle of who is “righteous,” the more pressure we feel to live up to expectations that no one can fulfill. Instead, Jesus offers us God’s full and free acceptance as a gift. When that gift takes hold in our hearts, it no longer matters who is “righteous,” because none of us are!

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[1] © 2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 9/27/2020 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, 114: Jesus was “breaking through the vicious circle of their discrimination in the system of values set up by the righteous.” 

Wise and Innocent

Wise and Innocent

Matthew 10:1-23[1]

We live in a world where appearances can be deceiving. That statement applies as much to the Church as it does to any other area of life. I find it amazing that sometimes the people who present themselves as most pious, holy, and upright are in reality those who can be the most cruel, the least generous, and certainly not people who are merciful and compassionate. And conversely, sometimes those who best live out God’s generous and unrestricted grace and mercy and love can seem to be the most impious people. I suspect that may be one of the reasons why the Christian faith has been so discredited in our culture.

Unfortunately, those of us who have spent our lives in the Church can be people who try to “keep up appearances.” I believe that we have times of upheaval in our society because the “appearances” have never fully concealed the reality that lay underneath—prejudice, hypocrisy, dishonesty, greed, selfishness, and violence. Many of us may look back to the “good old days” as a time when life was better. But those days weren’t so good for everyone. I would say that the cultural upheaval we experience from time to time is so forceful because so much injustice has been covered over by “appearances.”

When Jesus sent his disciples out to spread the good news that “the Kingdom of God is at hand” to the cities of Judea, he wanted them to be clear about what they would be facing. Betrayal. Suspicion. Possible arrest for “disturbing the peace.” Being put on trial before local authorities, who would not be receptive to their message. And perhaps even enduring violence against them, as implied by the statement, “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves” (Matt. 10:16). It doesn’t take much common sense to figure out that kind of situation usually doesn’t end well for the “sheep”!

Some of the other instructions may be a bit more confusing. The fact that they could expect betrayal at the hands of their own family seems shocking to us. And yet, at the time, any Jewish person who embraced faith in Jesus was likely going to be thrown out of the synagogue and shunned by family and friends. I think Jesus wanted them to be clear that they could expect the same opposition he faced. It may be hard for us to imagine them being “hated by all because of my name” (Matt. 10:22). But that was what they were facing when they went out to share the good news with their fellow Judeans.

One of the more difficult instructions Jesus gives the disciples is that they were to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16). Just on the surface of it, it seems contradictory. How can one be like a “serpent” and a “dove” at the same time? But if you dig deeper, you find that the Greek word for “wise” when associated with a “serpent” has some history in the Bible. The “serpent” in the Garden of Eden was said to be “wiser” or “more crafty” than any other creature (Gen. 3:1; using the same Greek word as Matt. 10:16). And the serpent demonstrated that “craftiness” by deceiving Adam and Eve. That makes the apparent contradiction even stronger.

In the context of Jesus’ teachings, it’s hard to imagine that Jesus wanted his disciples to be “crafty” in that sense of the term. A better translation would be that they were to be “prudent.” They needed to know that their lives were in danger. And they needed to know that they couldn’t trust everyone they met. In light of those unfortunate realities, they would have to be “prudent” about the way they went about the work of proclaiming the good news. They needed to know that not every house that invited them in would truly be welcoming. They needed be prepared for the dangers they would face and take appropriate steps to protect themselves when possible.

On the other hand, Jesus made it clear that they were to be “innocent as doves.” This instruction may be more challenging to us. The idea is that they were to go about the work of proclaiming the gospel with pure motives. There were plenty of wandering preachers in that day whose sole intent was to make a buck. Jesus didn’t want his disciples to be viewed in that way. So he told them demonstrate their pure motives by not even taking the most basic necessities. As Jesus was defenseless against the attacks that ultimately claimed his life, he sent out his disciples as “sheep among wolves.” This was by design. The very pattern of Jesus’ life was a demonstration of how far the society of that day had strayed from God’s ways.[2] And their opposition and even violence against him only strengthened that indictment.

It may seem hard to know how we can be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” We may not face opposition and even violence for being a Christian. Nevertheless, the injustice that reacted violently to Jesus in his day is still a part of our human experience. And that injustice still follows the same violent pattern whenever anyone stands up and declares God’s truth. I think that’s where the wisdom comes in. We have to understand that there are people in this world who will oppose us when we stand up for God’s truth. We also have to be prudent about how we go about that, knowing when to stand up and when to stand fast. But that’s also where the innocence comes in. We can only share the good news of the Kingdom as we demonstrate it by the integrity of our lives.

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[1] © 2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 6/14/2020 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Ulrich Luz, Matthew: A Commentary, ed. H. Koester, 82: “To live as a disciple is to live as Jesus does. That is why telling about this Jesus is so important for Matthew. Jesus’ way of living is a prophetic sign that embodies the truth of his message of the kingdom of God.”

As If

As If

Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 5:13-20[1]

If you’re familiar with the twelve-step movement, you’ll know that one of the principles for recovering a healthy pattern of living is called “acting as if.” In many cases, the way we feel or even our own thoughts are unreliable guides to healthy living. How many of us have skipped exercising because we just didn’t “feel” like it? Or how many of us have rationalized getting a second plate of food? The recovery movement recognizes that sometimes we have to take the actions we know to be right, establishing habits that are healthy, whether we “feel” like it or not. And when you “act as if” in this way, often your feelings and thoughts will follow your actions.

By contrast, “acting as if” is not a healthy way to approach spirituality. In fact, I would say that some of the worst atrocities committed in the name of God throughout history have been perpetrated by those who were “acting as if” they were devout believers. I think of the Salem witch trials in the early days of this country. Or the crusades, where the motto “God wills it” referred to the slaughter of Muslim men, women and children. And those simply seeking to wield power over communities and even nations have not hesitated to “act as if” they were motivated solely by their devotion to God. “Acting as if” has no place in the life of faith.

In our lesson from Isaiah for today, the prophet rebukes the people for “acting as if” they were sincerely devoted to God. They went through all the right “motions” of seeking God, but their actions betrayed their true motives: it was all about themselves and their own interests (Isa. 58:3). In fact, the prophet scolds them for thinking their “worship” of God was consistent with things like abusing their workers (very likely by withholding their rightful pay), quarreling and violence, and treating others with contempt and vicious gossip (Isa. 58:3-4, 9). This kind of “worship” of God was only a tragic form of “acting as if.”

But the prophet warned them that kind of spirituality is worse than a sham. Not only were they fooling themselves, more than that they were taking the Lord’s name in vain! In fact, when the prophets speak about the people blaspheming God’s name, it had nothing whatsoever to do with uttering any curse phrases. Rather, it was the fact that they claimed to be a people devoted to God, but their actions contradicted God’s explicit truth. They were “taking the Lord’s name in vain” because others would judge the character of God by the character of those who claimed to be his people. When we “talk the talk” but don’t “walk the walk,” we not only fool ourselves, we dishonor God.

The kind of spirituality that God has always sought is one that originates with our hearts being aligned with God’s ways. And it takes shape in actions that relieve human suffering in the real world. In our lesson from Isaiah, the prophet defines what this looks like in specific terms: they were to restore justice to the powerless, they were to feed the hungry, they were to show mercy to the destitute, they were to provide clothing for the naked, and they were to break every chain that kept the “outcasts” bound in misery and remove every burden that crushed the poor. In many ways and through many voices the Bible insists that those who truly know God will love others by practicing this kind of justice and mercy toward all, most especially the least and the last and the left out.

There’s another important word in our scripture readings for today: “unless.” Jesus said “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:20). I like the way the Good News Bible puts it: “you will be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven only if you are more faithful … in doing what God requires” (TEV). In other words, a true relationship with God will show itself in consistently living according to God’s character, God’s truth, and God’s ways. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes on to speak about what that looks like in a way similar to the prophet. He doesn’t just warn against harmful actions, but also harmful attitudes. For Jesus as well, merely acting “as if” doesn’t cut it!

In fact, the Bible reserves its harshest warnings of judgment for those who merely put on a show of being faithful to God. There has always been a temptation to wrap oneself in the external appearance of being spiritual. And the temptation has been to judge one’s relationship with God based on these outward trappings of religion. But merely going through the motions without a heart that is truly devoted to God and God’s ways is not only dishonest, it also dishonors God. Throughout history, leaders of all stripes have engaged in this kind of mockery of what is truly right in God’s sight. And throughout history, God’s prophets have consistently called them out for their hypocrisy.

There is no room for “acting as if” in the Christian life. In truth, however, we all do it to some extent. But one of the hard lessons of Isaiah is that when the worship of God does not lead us to respect and restore the dignity and well-being of our brothers and sisters in the human family, it is not the worship of God! Sharing the love we have received from God is the only criterion for evaluating the genuineness of our faith according to Scripture. If our faith is real, we will continue to work at loving God enough to love others—even our “enemies.” If it’s real, we will not be content with “acting as if,” we will take practical steps to put love into action.

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[1] © Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 2/9/2020 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

What is Right?

What is Right?

Micah 6:6-8[1]

There was a time when, if asked the question, “What is right?” most people would give a similar answer. Love God and others. Go to church. Take care of your family. Work hard at your job. Pay your bills. Help out those who are in need. Live by the “golden rule.” There might be variations in the details, but the main outlines would have been the same. I don’t believe everyone actually did those things, they just all pretty much agreed on the “correct answer.” In part because of that contradiction between what we said and what we did, there came a time when it seemed at all notions of “right” and “wrong” were simply tossed out the window. There were no clear answers.

I think we have returned to a time when people will give you a definite answer to the question, “What is right?” Unfortunately, that answer might flagrantly contradict the answer of the person sitting right next to you. We’re convinced that we know what’s right, but we certainly do not all agree on what that looks like. I think part of the problem is that in the time when there were no clear answers, “truth” was replaced with “spin.” Everybody has their own perspective on what constitutes right and wrong. And we tend to listen to those voices in our culture that agree with our already-made-up minds. I would say we still have a great deal of confusion about what’s right.

Our lesson from the book of the prophet Micah for today contains a bold assertion: God has already made clear what is right and what is wrong. I like the way the CEV translates it: “The Lord God has told us what is right and what he demands: ‘See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God’” (Mic. 6:8). “Right” is defined by justice, or seeing that all people have an equal chance to live life the way God intends. “Right” is defined by mercy, which is genuine compassion for others put into practice. And “Right” is defined by obeying God. On the surface, it might seem clear. Unfortunately, we don’t all agree on what this means when you put it in action.

It’s unfortunate, because when we debate about what practicing justice, mercy, and obedience look like in real life, we are missing the clear witness of Scripture. From Moses to Micah to Matthew, the witness of the Bible makes clear that God wants our undivided loyalty, and wants us to treat one another with kindness. When we recognize that foundational teaching of Scripture, we discover the “truth that sets us free.” These “demands” of the Lord (as Micah calls them) aren’t meant to restrict us, but rather to enable us to find fulfillment in life. And we find that fulfillment when we support what is just for all people, when we treat others with love and kindness, and when we recognize that we are not the masters of our own fate, but rather we belong to God.  

Essentially, this verse from the book of the prophet Micah is an eloquent summary of the truth that saturates the Bible. There are other summaries: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5); and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). The prophet Isaiah said this: “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isa. 1:16-17). The Psalmist says this way of life is demonstrated in “Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart” (Ps. 15:2). And, of course Jesus said it in the “golden rule”: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matt. 7:12). 

In all of these summaries, the same message comes through clearly. It’s the message that we find true freedom when we surrender our will to the will of God. It’s the message that we find what we’re looking for in life when we give ourselves away in kindness and compassion for others, rather than trying to take as much as we can get for ourselves. It’s the message that the only way we can guarantee our ability to thrive in this world is if we ensure that all people are treated justly and fairly.

Sadly, many of us would rather debate what all of this “really means” than act upon it with the choices we make in life. This is just my opinion, but I find the more elaborate the effort to justify one’s actions, the farther one strays from these fundamental truths handed down to us for generations. It’s not hard to see that many in our day prefer to take a different path than the one laid out in Scripture: living for themselves and their own selfish desires, treating others as a means to attain what they want from them, placing themselves firmly on the throne of their lives. It doesn’t seem that they care much about what the Bible clearly defines as “Right.” Many of us much prefer to follow our own desires.

Of course, life choices are rarely clear-cut. We often struggle to know what is right. We may work hard to justify following our own desires. And unfortunately, many of us really don’t seem to have time to be too concerned about others. But as I have shared before, there are some clear benchmarks that can guide us. “What would Jesus do?” is not just a sentimental cliché, it’s a very practical question. Another guide is that if what we are contemplating is inconsistent with love for God and love for others, then we’re probably headed in the wrong direction. Life’s choices are often difficult, but we can at least make a good faith effort to follow the clear teaching of the Bible about what is right: to treat others fairly, to practice kindness, and to walk humbly with God.

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[1] ©2020 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 2/2/2020 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Notorious

Notorious

Luke 19:1-10[1]

I’m fascinated by the way we use language. Specifically, the way the same word can mean something completely different in different times or different settings. For example, I’m sure some of the women would find it rather funny if I were to say that back in the day I used to wear thongs. Of course, those “thongs” were for your feet. We call them “flip-flops” now. And, back in the day, one’s “cell” number referred to the part of a prison where you served your jail time. In those days, if you asked someone for their “cell” number, they might take great offense, as if you were assuming they were a criminal! Of course, now it is just a common part of life to ask for a “cell” number.

The word notorious is one of those flexible words. For many people, “notorious” has meant the worst of the worst law-breakers. These days, it can mean that someone is famous. This was true even back in the day. Some of the worst law-breakers were not only notorious because they committed monstrous crimes. They were also notorious in that they were folk heroes, celebrated and even idolized by many. Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker carried out one of the most vicious crime sprees of the 1930’s. Yet thousands of people attended their funerals to mourn them! In their case, the fact that they were “notorious” meant that they were “worshipped” as heroes.

Our Scripture lesson for today involves some bending of words. This story, of course, is not about the Zacchaeus of the children’s song, a lovable “wee little man” who loves Jesus. Rather, it’s about a man who had become obscenely wealthy by cheating his own people. Zacchaeus was not just a tax collector; he was a “chief tax collector.” He would have been one of those who bid for the contract to collect taxes in Jericho. Obviously, he expected to make a lot of money off of it. And the way he was going to make that money was by forcing his own people to pay every last cent he could get from them. Zacchaeus was not lovable; he was a “notorious sinner.”

That’s what the people who witnessed this interaction between Jesus and Zacchaeus said: they “grumbled” that Jesus had gone to be the guest of a “notorious sinner” (Lk. 19:7, NLT). Now, we’ve seen before in Luke’s Gospel that the Jewish leaders grumbled about Jesus being the friend of tax collectors and sinners. And we’ve seen that Jesus told parables to make it clear that the proper response to the “lost” who find their lives restored is to celebrate, not grumble. But here, it’s not just the Jewish leaders who grumble about Jesus. It’s the crowd! Apparently associating with one so “notorious” as Zacchaeus was going too far even for the people who were drawn to Jesus! Even they were beginning to view Jesus as “notorious” for breaking their sacred taboos!

 There are other twists in this passage as well. We just talked about the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector going to the Temple to pray. In that passage, Jesus says, “all who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk. 18:14). In our lesson for today, we have perhaps one of the richest men in Judea climbing up a tree to get a look at Jesus. That was something a rich man didn’t do! I’m sure a fair number of the crowd got a laugh out of that. But Zacchaeus was intent on seeing Jesus—perhaps more so than anyone there. And he was willing to humble himself to do so! Once again, an outcast shows the religious people how to respond to Jesus!

The previous chapter of Luke’s Gospel also contains the story of Jesus’ encounter with the rich ruler who would not give his fortune to the poor. On that occasion, Jesus said, “how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Lk. 18:24). In fact, he compared it to a camel going through the eye of a needle—in other words, something impossible. The “ruler” in that story was very likely a religious leader for the Jewish people. But here we have the story of a “notorious” tax collector who probably had a greater fortune eagerly giving half of it away to the poor! While it may be difficult for those with wealth to find their salvation in God (and not their riches), Zacchaeus shows that “what is impossible for mortals is possible for God” (Lk. 18:26).

In a very real sense, this passage summarizes all that Luke wants to convey to us about Jesus and the way he embraced outcasts.^[2] That was where Luke’s story of Jesus began: with his announcement at the synagogue in Nazareth that the promise of Isaiah had been fulfilled: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free” (Lk. 4:18). The poor, the blind, and the captives were all included in God’s salvation. The despised as well—Samaritans, tax collectors, and all who were considered “unclean” for any reason. Jesus as the “Son of Man” came “to seek out and to save” every one of them (Lk. 19:10).

In order to carry out God’s purpose “to seek out and to save the lost,” Jesus embraced with God’s love those who had been written off as beyond help. In the process, Jesus crossed lines and violated traditions that offended not only the Jewish religious leaders, but also the crowds who followed him! In the end, they came to view Jesus as “notorious.” I think at least part of the message for us is that if we follow Jesus in trying to fulfill God’s purpose “to seek out and to save the lost,” crossing lines and violating traditions, we too will be viewed as “notorious.”

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[1] ©2019 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 11/3/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] R. Alan Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” New Interpreters Bible IX:357, 359.

We Trust in Whom?

We Trust in Whom?

Luke 18:9-14[1]

There is a slogan that’s been going around for a while. The slogan is “In Cops We Trust.” Now, I get the point of it: in a time when police officers are under fire, people are trying to express their support for members of the law enforcement community. I think what troubles me about this is that the “original” version of this slogan is “In God We Trust”! This motto has been a part of our national conscience since Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem. It has appeared on coins since the 1860’s, and it has been our official “national motto” since 1956. While I support those who serve to keep our communities safe, I find it disturbing that there are those who see nothing wrong with revising “In God We Trust” so casually.

But then the question of the true basis for our faith is one that predates our national motto. We human beings seem to want to be able to trust in something more “real” than a God whom we cannot physically see or hear or touch. And for many of us, what we really trust in is our own ability to see things through. As the old saying goes, “If you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself.” That betrays some fairly obvious presumptions: that we know the “right” way to do something, and that we have the ability to do it. When push comes to shove, I’m afraid that many of us really trust in ourselves, not in God.

Our Gospel lesson for today addresses the question of where we place our trust. The parable tells the story of two very different men who went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, who would have been widely respected for devoting his life to studying and obeying God’s word. The other was a Tax Collector, a man who would have been widely despised as a traitor to his people as well as a thief. At the outset, it would have been easy to assume that the “hero” of the story was the one who had devoted his life to God. But as is often the case, Luke gives us a clue to what’s going on in this the parable with his introduction: Jesus “told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt” (Luke 18:9).

The problem with the Pharisee in this parable was not his apparent devotion to keeping God’s word in every aspect of his life. Rather it was the fact that he “trusted” in himself that he was “righteous” before God. I like the way Gene Peterson puts it in The Message: people like him 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! But perhaps more importantly, “Those who trust in their own righteousness will regard others with contempt, and those who regard others with contempt cannot bring themselves to rely on God’s grace.”^[2] This kind of self-righteousness leaves little room for trusting in God.

The tax collector is the opposite: he would have been despised by more than just the Pharisee. In the ancient world, a conquering power like Rome gave the right to collect taxes to whomever was the highest bidder. As long as he collected what he promised to pay, 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 one could keep whatever they collected. So it’s not hard to see why this man would have been despised by most people as a thief and a traitor.

Two very different men came to the temple to pray. But they were not so different in that each was a “self-made” man. The Pharisee had become a respected leader of his community by following the letter of the law. The Tax Collector had taken a fast-track to getting rich, regardless of the fact that it meant compounding the poverty and the oppression his people endured. And yet, there was a difference between them. One of them was thoroughly satisfied with himself. He was quite convinced that his life was right and even pleasing to God. The other one came to the temple not satisfied, or pleased, but broken. He was so broken that all he could do was to cry out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Lk. 18:13). 

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 shocked them. He said that the tax collector “went down to his home justified” (Lk 18:14) rather than the Pharisee. But Jesus wasn’t just trying to shock them; he was making a fundamental point about faith. If we place our trust in anything or anyone other than God, that trust will be disappointed. Even and especially if we place our trust in our own efforts to be right before God. On the other hand, when we place our trust in the unfailing mercy of God, that faith will be sustained by the one who has promised never to fail us or forsake us.

When we encounter a parable like this, it’s easy to assume that it doesn’t apply to us. We automatically see the Pharisee as the one in the wrong, and so we may overlook the lesson of the parable. But the truth of the matter is that we are always vulnerable to the kind of self-righteous arrogance this Pharisee represents. We all are prone to place our trust in ourselves and our own abilities, regardless of the pious words we may recite. So I would say this parable has a message for all of us. That message is the call for us to continually place our faith in God’s mercy rather than our own efforts.

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[1] ©2019 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 10/27/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] R. Alan Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” New Interpreters Bible IX: 343.