Powerless?

Powerless?

2 Timothy 1:1-14[1]

We are living in times that can leave us feeling powerless over the forces at work around us, and helpless to do anything about it. I don’t usually do this, but I can’t not say something about recent events. At least some American citizens have at times been detained without a warrant simply because of the color of their skin, or the language they speak, or the part of town in which they live.[2] They have had their constitutional rights stripped from them by federal agents. And when they can do that to anyone, they can to it to anyone—literally! Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it far more eloquently: “injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere.” When men with guns can strip anyone of their civil rights, rights guaranteed by the constitution, they can literally do that to every one of us.

It can leave us feeling powerless and helpless. And when we feel powerless and helpless, we tend to convert it into something negative. Fear that retreats from the public square, that refrains from speaking out or taking action because of potential consequences. Like losing your job over your opinion about an issue or a particular player in the cultural debate. We also tend to convert feelings of powerlessness and helplessness to anger. But as the Scripture teaches us, “If you are angry, you cannot do any of the good things God wants done” (James 1:20, CEV). In fact, when we’re motivated by anger, we’re more likely to do harm than good. Of course, there are different kinds of anger, but in my experience, anger has a way of taking over everything else, until we can’t really see a situation for what it is.

Our Scripture reading from Timothy addresses early Christians who felt powerless and helpless. As I’ve mentioned before, they lived in a world where the Roman empire had the first word, the last word, and all the words in between. Roman officials could pretty much get away with whatever they wanted because they had legions of armed troops at their disposal. That’s what empires do when anyone objects: they respond with force. Like Pontius Pilate did when the Jewish people objected to his offensive actions. He sent armed soldiers to quell the crowds of protesters. When faced with that kind of brutality, it’s no wonder that people felt powerless and helpless.

Unfortunately, part of what happens when we’re in that kind of situation is that we go into a “defensive” mode. When we go into this “defensive” mode, one thing we do is pull back from engaging at all with people who are “other.” People who look different from us. People who speak a different language. People who live in different places. People whom we perceive to be “different” or “other.” We retreat to the safety of our “own” group. And we have certain “litmus tests” to be able to make sure someone really is a part of our group. Whether it’s a list of beliefs, or certain stances on social issues, or sheer tribalism (where we trust only those of our own race, creed, and nation), this kind of stance makes it hard to live out the gospel in the world at large.

That was the situation to which 2 Timothy was addressed. Timothy and the believers in his care were discouraged. They found themselves in a setting where the challenge of living the Christian life was getting them down. As a result, they were retreating into a mode of “guarding” themselves, of “avoiding” those who were perceived to be a threat, and of drawing lines to keep out those who were on the “outside.” It’s hard to understand why they turned in on themselves this way, but when you think about our experiences, maybe not so much. When you read 2 Timothy, it would seem that at least part of the underlying problem was that they were struggling with feeling ashamed of the gospel (2 Tim. 1:8).

This may seem strange to us. The early Christians weren’t supposed to feel ashamed of the gospel! Apparently Timothy and the band of struggling believers he was serving were feeling ashamed because they were losing out to competitors preaching a different “gospel.” We don’t know all that these “impostors” stood for, but what we do know is that they wormed their way into congregations and then milked the people for money. It would seem Timothy and his flock felt ashamed of the gospel because these “impostors” were much more successful at gaining converts, while they were struggling to survive. As a result, they had gone into a kind of “defensive” mode.

Unfortunately, there are aspects of 2 Timothy that seem to positively encourage this retreat into a “defensive” mode. The Scripture actually uses language that I would say only reinforced their natural inclination to withdraw from perceived threats. It advises believers to “guard” themselves, to “avoid” and “shun” others, to mark off those who are not a part of the “chosen,” and to effectively “consign” them to their fate. It can be hard for us to deal with a situation like this. We’re used to looking to the Bible for direction. But here the humanity of the biblical authors may get in the way of that. The problem is that this approach is reactive, not proactive. It doesn’t sound very much like Jesus’ challenge to courageous discipleship!

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

As we read together earlier, Timothy is also reminded that “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and [sound judgment].” (2 Tim. 1:7, NLT). This is one of those passages where I think the King James translators did a better job than many modern translators: the spirit God has given us is one of “power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” In other words, the charge to Timothy was to recognize that it was the Spirit of God who gave him the power and love and wisdom he needed to face the challenges that came his way. He didn’t face these hardships alone, but rather the way for him to fulfill his life and his service was “with the strength God gives you” (2 Tim. 1:8, NLT).

I think that this advice to Timothy can help all of us. The Bible tells us that every one of us has been given a “gift of God” with which to serve others. That means we do not fulfill the life of discipleship to Christ in our own strength alone. Rather, central to the idea that God has chosen us as his beloved children is the promise that we have all received the Spirit of God, who gives us more than enough power and more than enough love and more than enough good sense to be able to follow the path of faith no matter what we may face along the way.

One way to get through the challenges of the times we’re experiencing is to remember the wisdom of the Scriptures. It’s a wisdom many of us have relied on our whole lives. It’s the wisdom that reminds us that we cannot “do any of the good things God wants done” (James 1:20, CEV) through our anger. In fact, we may do more harm than good. It’s also the wisdom that reminds us that despite what the empires of this world may claim, God is the one who truly has the first word, the last word, and all the words in between. And as our Psalm lesson for today reminds us, the evil that powerful people do to the vulnerable among us will be their undoing (Ps 37:1-10). That principle is found throughout the Bible. But perhaps one of the most important pieces of wisdom to remember when we feel powerless and helpless is the lesson that St. Paul learned: “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10, NLT). We learn that lesson as a direct result of following as our Savior and Lord the one who gave his life in the weakness and humiliation of the cross. Even that seemingly most powerless act, was not truly powerless at all. Rather through the power of God’s love, it changed the world, and it continues to change the world to this day. As we find ourselves living in challenging times, times that can leave us feeling powerless and helpless, perhaps afraid and angry, may God fill us with his Spirit of power, and love, and wisdom. And may we respond in ways that are helpful, in ways that are consistent with the gospel, in ways that are true to our commitment to following Christ.

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/5/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] On this matter, see: “Lawsuit filed against immigration authorities after U.S. citizen’s arrests in raids” Associated Press, 1 Oct 2025; accessed at  https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-crackdown-lawsuit-courts-citizens-latino-alabama-a6bfae9528e03243ec08e9ade182da2f ; “Inside ICE’s Aggressive Approach to Arresting Migrants,” The Journal Podcast 10 June 2025, accessed at https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/inside-ices-aggressive-approach-to-arresting-migrants/ ; “ICE Runs Risk of Catching More U.S. Citizens in Deportation Push” The Wall Street Journal 26 Apr 2025; accessed at https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/inside-ices-aggressive-approach-to-arresting-migrants/73d06674-bba3-487b-91e7-db8c51628ebb?  “As More Citizens are swept up in immigration raids, Democrats demand answers,” Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug 2025; accessed at: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-08-08/how-many-citizens-have-been-arrested-in-immigration-crackdown  ; “ICE agents allegedly fill out warrants after an arrest; U.S. citizen among those detained,” WBEZ Chicago, 17 Mar 2025, accessed at https://www.wbez.org/reset-with-sasha-ann-simons/2025/03/17/ice-agents-allegedly-making-arrests-without-warrants .

Open Hearts, Open Hands

 Open Hearts, Open Hands

Luke 6:27-36[1]

I’ve mentioned before our natural human tendency to interact with people who look like us, who talk like us, and who live like us. If we spend most of our lives in the company of our “own,” we may feel deeply uncomfortable being around those who are “other.” In fact, it may be difficult for us to even see them as persons. It’s much more convenient for us to assume that they aren’t like “us” and to keep our distance. And that mindset can easily lead us to withhold basic human kindness, even basic human courtesy from those whom we see as “different.” Because they’re “different,” they are outside the line that separates the circle of our family and friends from everyone else. That means we can close our hearts to them, as well as our hands.

 “Charity begins at home,” the saying goes, and in this culture, many believe that as firmly as they do the Apostles’ Creed. But there are others who just as naturally want to reach out and give generously to everyone in need, even those who are different. In Jesus’ day, everyone knew the “great commandment”: “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). But for the Jewish people, it meant loving those who were Jewish. The real truth, however, is that there were a lot of Jewish people who were excluded from the basic kindness and courtesy of “loving your neighbor as yourself.” And then there was the whole world of people who were not Jewish! They believed they were “off the hook” when it came to showing love to the vast majority of the human family!

Into that setting, our Gospel lesson for today shows us how Jesus completely redefines what it means to “love your neighbor as yourself.” He points us to a love for others that goes well beyond what comes “naturally” for most of us. He knew that we all tend to love those who will love us back. Things haven’t changed much with the human family in 2000 years! We still “do good” to those who are “like us.” We still love “our own.” It’s very human for us to love and care about those who can love us back. But Jesus pushes us to go beyond a love that is limited only to our friends and family, only to those whom we see as “like us,” only to “our own.”

He was really quite blunt about it: he said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Lk 6:27-28). Now, we know that there is a huge problem with abuse these days, especially in the home. That’s not what Jesus was talking about. He was talking about a more general kind of hostility from those who see us as “less than” them. Even at that, I’d have to say that’s just not the way we live! If someone treats me in a way that is hateful, I tend to avoid them. If someone “curses” me, if they hit the right “buttons,” I might get mad and say something not so kind back. But Jesus said that loving our neighbors means treating even those who treat us as “less than” as if they were right in the middle of the circle of those whom we love!

More than that, Jesus goes on to spell out how to love them: he tells us not to “retaliate” by responding in kind. Rather, the measure of how we’re to love “others” our willingness to give freely to them. He not only says, “Give to everyone who begs from you,” which is hard enough. He goes beyond that and says, “if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again” (Lk 6:30)! That one pushes all of us! We believe that our right to our own property is virtually sacred, and we certainly want to get back any possession of ours that may be taken from us. Jesus’ teaching about the command to love pushes us far beyond what we would consider “normal.”

The other side of this kind of love is just as difficult: “love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return” (Lk 6:35)! The way Jesus defines love for our “neighbors,” for our “enemies,” for those who are “different,” is love that “expects nothing in return.” That goes against the grain of everything we have been taught. If someone does something nice for us, we feel obliged to do something nice in return, at the least sending a “thank you” card. That mindset has been ingrained in the human family for millennia: if we do something good for someone else, we have a right to expect them to return the favor.

All of this is difficult for most of us, to say the least. And we might wonder why Jesus defines what it means “love your neighbor as yourself” in this way. I think we find the answer when he points to God’s love for us: “he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Lk 6:35). We “know” that; we believe that God loves everyone unconditionally and irrevocably. But where it gets difficult is when we make God’s love the measure of how we love. Jesus challenges us to “be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). And that means opening our hearts and our hands to everyone.

It has been said that the true test of any people is the way they treat the most vulnerable among them. There are many among us who naturally reach out to love those who are “different.” We support ministries for a wide variety of people who don’t “look like us.” In many cases, however, we’re still taking care of our “own.” Whether they’re in Haiti or Nicaragua or Cameroon or Kenya, Christian brothers and sisters are part of the body of Christ and therefore are still our “own”! But Jesus challenges us to go beyond even that! He calls us to follow him in extending mercy, kindness, and dignity beyond those who are “like us,” beyond those who are “our own.” And for those of us who may need a reason to do that, Jesus points us to the way God loves us, which goes far beyond anything we could expect or deserve. That’s what it takes for all of us to live as “children of the Most High”: to open our hearts so that we may open our hands in love, mercy, and kindness toward all people.

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[1] © Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 2/20/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

No Constraints

 No Constraints

Luke 4:14-30[1]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Serving the Lord, Serving Others

Serving the Lord, Serving Others

Romans 12:9-21[1]

We who practice faith can have a problem coming across as a bit fuzzy or even vague about what it is that constitutes our faith. Sometimes, I’m afraid that when we start talking about our faith, it can sound like we’re beating around the bush. We may talk about the warm feelings we have when we pray or read the Bible or come to church. Or we may say things like, “Going to church just gets my week off to a good start.” I think that leaves average people who have no church background scratching their heads. The fact of the matter is that the New Testament speaks in very specific language about what it means to practice the Christian faith. St. Paul makes some very definite statements about what living the Christian life looks like in concrete terms. And what it boils down to is that we are called to serve the Lord by serving one another.

When it comes to getting more specific about what this looks like, in our lesson for today the Apostle starts with the instruction to practice mutual love that is genuine (Rom. 12:9). And this isn’t just any kind of “love.” When we love someone we normally expect them to love us in return.[2] But the love that Christians are to have for one another is a love that gives without any expectations. It’s modeled after the love that God has for us all, the love by which God sacrificed his Son in order to bring us all back home.[3] The love that we are called to practice is a love that takes the initiative, that makes the first step, that seeks out those who have broken the relationship, and does whatever is necessary to repair the breach.[4]

This kind of love calls us to do things we might not normally do: to “outdo one another in showing honor” (Rom. 12:10); to “contribute to the needs of the saints” (12:13), that is sisters and brothers in the Christian community; to “extend hospitality to strangers” (12:13), or those outside the community of faith. This kind of love calls us to “rejoice with those who rejoice” and to “weep with those who weep” (12:15). It calls us to “live in harmony with one another” (12:16) as well as to “live peaceably” with all people (12:18).  It calls us to renounce pride and arrogance and to embrace the “lowly” (12:16).  And this kind of love calls us to refrain from repaying evil in kind, but rather to practice what is “noble in the sight of all” (12:17).[5]

Now, because we’ve heard most of this before, I think we may have the idea that this is all pretty standard. We know we’re supposed to “love our neighbors as ourselves” and that the prime example of what that looks like in real life is Jesus. But when we translate this unusual kind of love into our context, I wonder if we take seriously how far outside our comfort zones St. Paul is taking us.[6] I’m afraid that the hard truth about most churches in our society is that when it comes down to it, we really practice this kind of love with our friends and neighbors. We tend to reserve this kind of compassion and generosity for those who look like us and talk like us and live like us.[7]

When it comes to extending that kind of love to those who are truly different from us, whether it’s the way they look or the way they talk or where they come from or how they live, I’m afraid we’re not so willing to go that extra mile. I’m not just pointing my finger at others here. Last Summer I went on a Presbytery-sponsored youth mission trip to Austin. There we worked with young people who are homeless and living on the edge of the University of Texas campus. It’s truly ironic--you have people who are simply trying to scrape together $20 a day in order to survive living on the streets, and all around them are University students who come from “good families,” many of whom are living in luxury apartments, with their every desire met by their fairly well-off parents.

Well, most of us fell somewhere in the middle of social continuum between homelessness and being wealthy. But we were on a mission trip, so one day we helped the homeless wash their clothes, and offered them fresh clothes.  Another day we cooked lunch together. And another day we worked in a food pantry that served people who were struggling just to make ends meet. And another day we served breakfast to the homeless in downtown Austin. It was all a great experience, and we all practiced a compassion and generosity that might compare with the best of the saints. But it was a mission trip. You can do those kinds of things on a mission trip. Unfortunately, however when you come home and run into someone like that, most of us tend to make sure our windows are rolled up and our doors are locked.

The truth is that it’s much more difficult to practice the self-giving love that St. Paul is talking about when it’s a matter of encountering those who are different from us in our daily lives. And yet, I think that is precisely what Paul had in mind.[8] When the grace of God really gets under your skin, you live all of a life as a “living sacrifice.” And that goes far beyond just a good feeling from coming to church. It means that we feed the hungry and give a cup of cold water to the thirsty and care for the sick and the lonely--and not just among ourselves. It means that we “associate with the lowly” or “make friends with those who seem unimportant” (12:16, NCV), as one translation puts it.[9] Yes, practicing our faith means serving the Lord by serving one another.  But as hard as it may truly be for us to accept this, perhaps most importantly practicing our faith means serving the Lord by serving those in our world who are different from us.

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[1] ©2014 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/31/2014 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 34: “human love is by its very nature desire ... . So long as it can satisy this desire in some way, it will not give it up ... . But where it can no longer expect its desire to be fulfilled, there it stops short ... .

[3] Cf. Carl E. Braaten, “Romans 12:14-21,” Interpretation 38 (July 1984): 292: “Underlying Paul's exhortation to the Christian community is an ethic of agape-love which continues the downward curve of God's own love, ... . Paul's exhortation is not simply a piece of ethical idealism. It is a description of conduct appropriate to the new age in which God has revealed his love in Christ to a world at odds with his will. Paul is describing the new life in Christ as a reflex of the love God has shown to us, while we were still enemies. The love of God and the life of the Christian are interwoven in Christ. Paul puts it succinctly in Ephesians 5:2; ‘Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.’”

[4] Cf. Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu, Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference, 25: “Perfect love is not an emotion; it is not how we feel. It is what we do. Perfect love is action that is not wrapped up in self-regard, and it has no concern with deserving. Instead, perfect love is love poured out. It is self-offering made out of the joy of giving. It requires no prompting. It seeks no response and no reward.” Cf. also Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 35-36.

[5] Cf. Michael Barram, “Romans 12:9-21,” Interpretation 57 (Oct 2003): 424: “Romans 12:9-21 describes the behaviors that would constitute an adequate response to God’s grace. ... Paul is not talking about ethics in a distant, theoretical sense. His moral reflections address the reality of embodied existence ("a living sacrifice").”  Cf. also Frederick W. Schmidt, What God Wants for Your Life, 179: “doing the will of God is not a matter of grand designs but of daily, commonplace investment in the lives of others.”

[6] Cf. the Heidelberg Catechism of 1562, which defines loving your neighbor as yourself in terms of showing “patience, peace, gentleness, mercy, and friendliness” to all, even your enemies (The Book of Confessions, Heid Cat 4.107)! It means to “work for the good of my neighbor wherever I can and may” (4.111). 

[7] Cf. Braaten, “Romans 12:14-21,” 292: “If we are honest with ourselves, we will confess that it does not come naturally to love the way Paul is spelling out in this passage, because its attraction is not limited to the brothers and the sisters, members of the same body, the same class or caste or color or creed.”

[8] Cf. Barram, “Romans 12:9-21,” 425: “The love Paul hopes to see among the Roman Christians is not a theoretical ideal; it is something manifested in daily behavior.”

[9] Cf. Braaten, “Romans 12:14-21,” 293: “The hallmark of genuine love in the Christian life is the willingness to associate with the lowly. ‘Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.’ Why should I? Where will that get me? Paul gave his theological reason for this unusual command in I Corinthians 1:28; ‘God chose what is low and despised in the world ... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.’ This awareness breeds the humility of love.” Cf. also Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:188-192.