The Power of God's Love

The Power of God’s Love

Psalm 8, Matthew 28:16-20[1]

We have a complicated relationship with power. On the one hand, we seem to be fascinated with those whom we consider to be the most “powerful” people. Even to the point that our admiration can at times approach a kind of “worship.” There are many powerful people in this world who have an almost “cult” like following among their fans. On the other hand, we seem to be inherently distrusting of power. Especially when we believe someone is abusing their power. Anytime someone in power “bullies” those who are more vulnerable, we think of it as an abuse of power. And in our world we may see that kind of thing so often that we become distrusting of all power, regardless of how it’s used.

Our Scripture lessons for today speak to us about God’s power. The creation story in Genesis portrays God’s power to simply “speak” all things into existence. That’s a kind of power that most of us may want, but I dare say none of us would use well. But God most certainly used it well. That’s the point of the refrain that occurs throughout the creation story: “and God saw that it was good.” God used his extraordinary power to create a world and all the living things in it that was not only “good,” but indeed “very good,” as God observes at the end of the process (Gen 1:31). It may be hard for some people to imagine even God using that magnitude of power for good, but that’s precisely what the Bible teaches us! God always uses his power for good!

In our reading from the Psalms, we find this perspective on God’s power confirmed. Like many of us, the Psalmsinger found himself confronted by the majestic power of the God who created all the heavens and the earth simply with a word. I would say that the more we understand about how vast this cosmos really is, the more we are confronted by God’s majesty and power in creation. Even in ancient times, a simple glance at the night sky led the Psalmsinger to wonder, “what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:4). And yet, despite the fact that he frames his faith in the form of a question, we shouldn’t overlook the affirmation that lies behind it: God is mindful of us all; God does care for us, both deeply and continually. That is also the nature of God’s power!

The Psalmsinger had good reason to believe this. It’s the heart of what Hebrew Bible affirms about God: “I am the Lord God. I am merciful and very patient with my people. I show great love, and I can be trusted” (Exodus 34:6, CEV). It is the revelation God gave to Moses in the “cleft of the rock” when he asked to see God’s glory. And it echoes like a refrain throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, because it is the truth that serves as the foundation for biblical faith. The message of the Scriptures is that God’s power points us to the fact that God loves us with a love that will never let us go. It may be difficult for us to grasp, but the truth of our Scripture lesson is that we are constantly surrounded by the love of the God who is powerful enough to create all things simply by speaking the word. As one of our affirmations of faith puts it, the Bible leads us to believe in a God whose love for us is “powerful beyond measure.”

We see this theme of power reflected a little differently in our Gospel reading for today. It’s the story of Jesus’ final appearance to his disciples according to Matthew. When he appeared to them on a mountain in Galilee, he said something that would have been startling for them. And it should still catch our attention today: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28:18). We’re used to hearing that language because it’s part of the “Great Commission.” But in that day, “all authority” belonged to God. Any human being claiming “all authority in heaven and on earth” would have been viewed as directly contradicting God’s authority. In fact, there are many in our world to this day who struggle with the image Jesus as having “all authority in heaven and on earth.”

I think what made the difference is that it was the risen and living Jesus who made this startling claim. They had seen him die, and they had seen him alive more than once after he rose from the dead. It was the resurrection that confirmed that this authority had come from God. I think we could say that Jesus received this authority in response to the fact that he had “fulfilled all righteousness” as Matthew’s Gospel puts it (Mt 3:15), or in other words that he had carried out God’s plan to “set right” all things and all people by his death and resurrection. Because of that, God himself gave this authority to Jesus. So it is that, in the New Testament, there is no contradiction whatsoever between the affirmation that all authority belongs to God, and that God has given that authority to Jesus Christ.

One reason for that is because Jesus uses that authority to carry out God’s purpose in the world. That’s not something we expect these days. It goes against the norm in our day. In our world, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”[2] That’s the way we view power. Many of those who have the most power in our day use it to benefit themselves. But Jesus used the authority given to him by God not for his own benefit, but to extend the peace, justice, and freedom of God’s kingdom to all people. And he continues to use that authority to fulfill God’s work of “making all things new” (Rev 21:5). And at the end of it all, Paul said that Jesus would surrender all authority back to God, so that God “will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere” (1 Cor 15:28, NLT), bringing the new life of God’s kingdom to everyone and everything!

I think the point of all this was to inspire confidence in those of us who follow Jesus in a world that is set against God’s authority and power, in a world that remains set against the peace, justice, and freedom of God’s kingdom to this day. We see that opposition almost daily. Part of the assurance that God’s love triumphs in this world through Jesus lies in the promise that “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). Yes, we live in a world where the work of God’s kingdom isn’t complete. Yes, we live in a world where people continue to abuse power for their own benefit, and they hurt innocent people in the process. But rather than letting that cause us to doubt God’s purpose, or cause us to question Jesus’ power and authority, we can be confident because Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord is the one to whom God has entrusted “authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world” (Dan 7:13, NLT). And with that authority, Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord rules right now over “everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen” (Col 1:16, NLT). And the promise is that “His rule is eternal—it will never end” (Dan 7:14, NLT).

When we get caught up in what’s happening around us in this world, we can easily lose sight of all this. We can wonder where God’s rule, God’s power, and God’s authority are in this world. It’s still there! Jesus the Christ and our Savior and Lord is reigning with “all authority” at the right hand of God, right now! And he promised that he would be with us until the end of the age, continuing to fulfill the promise of God’s kingdom with the authority and power that God has given him. And part of the promise is that the power of God’s love will never fade. The promise is that the rule of love that Jesus carries out in our lives now will never end. One day, the power of God’s love, the rule of love that Jesus carries out in our lives now will extend to all people and encompass everything. On that day, then the whole creation will return to where it was in the beginning, when God “spoke” it into being, and everything was “very good.”

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[1] © 2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/31/2026 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Famously penned by Lord John Dalberg-Acton, Letter to Mandell Creighton (5 April 1887), referring to the declaration by Pope Pius IX of the Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility. He said, “I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. … Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. … There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which … the end learns to justify the means.” Cf. Historical Essays and Studies, by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (1907), edited by John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence, Appendix, p. 504. Accessed at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Acton.

Is Anyone There?

 Is Anyone There?

Psalm 121; Luke 18:1-8[1]

There is a question that has haunted the human family since the beginning. If you look at the religious beliefs and practices through the ages, and if you “read between the lines,” I think you’ll find that question. From ancient times we have wondered whether there is a God, and whether that God cares about us at all. I think this question was even at the heart of the earliest religions, when people worshipped many “gods.” The stories they told themselves about their “gods” betray a fundamental anxiety about our place in the world. The “gods” of ancient mythologies aren’t even good people, let alone “gods”! And underneath it all lies the question whether whatever “higher power” there may “out there” be is able to help us at all, and whether that power cares enough about us to do so.

When science and the church taught that the earth was at the very center of the universe, I think it may have been easier to believe in a God who cares for us. Our relative importance in the whole scheme of things was huge, and we felt more confident about our faith in God. But even in those times, there were catastrophes and tragedies that made people ask that question whether God can really do anything to help us, and whether God cares enough to do so. In more recent days, with our scientific perspective on how small the earth is compared to the rest of universe, I think that question has become even more pressing. At least for some people. Given the incomprehensible vastness of the universe, we can easily question whether there is a God, and whether any God there might be could or would pay much attention to us.

Even in a Christian context, this anxiety has been expressed through a centuries-old question: If God is both loving and all-powerful, how can there be evil in the world? The presence of tragedy in our lives suggests that God loves us but he’s not powerful enough to stop these things from happening. Or it suggests that God is powerful enough to stop them, but since he doesn’t he must not be loving. Although many have tried to address this question, I don’t think any of the “answers” really help. Most of them offer some sort of rational explanation. But that doesn’t really do much for the feeling of anxiety that the traumas and tragedies that life can bring. The only answer to the heartbreaks of life is to find a way to trust that God does indeed have the power to help us and does indeed care enough about us to do so.

Our Psalm for today addresses this question. The Psalmsinger looks to the mountains to try to figure out whether there is anyone there to help. The reason for looking to the mountains is because in ancient times people believed that the “gods” lived in the high places of the world. So when the Psalmsinger looks to the mountains and asks himself where he can find help, he’s looking for God. In this case, looking to the mountains reminds the Psalmsinger that “My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!” (Ps 121:2, NLT). I think at least a part of the meaning here is that God is bigger than any mountain, because God created all the heavens and the earth. The Psalmsinger’s hopes aren’t confined to a so-called a “deity” that lives on a particular mountain. His hope and his help come from the God who made all the heavens and the earth, the whole cosmos and everything in it!

I think there are a couple of linked ideas here that can help us. As powerful as a mountain can appear, God’s power is far greater. I think many of us experience mountains as a display not only of grandeur but also of power. But God’s power is far greater, because God is the creator of all the heavens and the earth. That’s one of the most basic ideas of the Bible. It’s where Genesis begins: God created all the heavens and the earth. And that means whatever you can find in creation or in the whole cosmos that impresses you with its beauty, its grandeur, or its display of power, God’s power is greater. The Psalmsinger reminds himself and us that our faith that the God who created all the heavens and the earth is the God who is our help and our hope means that he most certainly does have the power to help us!

But the other part of the question concerns whether God cares enough to use that power to help us. That’s at least part of the lesson from our Gospel reading for today. In it, Jesus tells a parable about a woman who was a widow, very likely in danger of losing her home because she was at the mercy of a corrupt judge, who had no interest in protecting her. Jesus’s parable tells us that this man doesn’t care about God, and he doesn’t care about people. It seems clear that the only reason he held his position was to enrich himself. But this is no ordinary widow. She persisted relentlessly in demanding that this judge grant her what was rightfully hers, and she kept doing so until she annoyed him! That’s why the traditional title for this passage is “The parable of the importunate widow.” That’s what “importunate” means: demanding what’s rightfully yours and doing until you annoy somebody. That’s what she did. And this corrupt judge confessed, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming” (Lk. 18:4-5)!

One point of this parable is the contrast between the unjust judge and the God whom Jesus demonstrates as gracious, loving, and caring. If a godless, inhumane judge will finally give in to a powerless widow’s unceasing requests for justice, how much more will our merciful and loving God “grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night” (Lk 18:7). And I think the answer is that he will most certainly do so! The promise of God’s justice throughout the Bible is that God will make things right, ultimately if not immediately. But perhaps that’s precisely where the problem lies. We have lots of affirmations in the Bible that God cares about us and will take care of us. We have promises that God will set things right. But life doesn’t always confirm those promises. Sometimes, bad things happen to good people. Sometimes bad people do bad things to good people. And when that happens and we cry out to God for help, there are times when when all we can hear is silence. And that experience can leave us wondering whether there’s anyone there. That’s when we come back to the age-old question whether there is a God, and whether that God cares at all about us.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid that at times like those, our perspective can get quite narrow. All we can see is the hardship or tragedy or the loss we’re dealing with. And all we can ask is, “Why?” or “How long?”, stuck in our pain and our fears. But in this parable, I think Jesus wants to help us focus our attention elsewhere. He wants to remind us that we believe in a God who is a loving Father who knows what we need, who wants what is best for us, and who is working constantly for our good. And he does all of this despite our inability to understand how our lives are unfolding. There are simply some questions we may never be able to answer. That’s one of the lessons faith teaches us. It’s okay to ask those questions. We just have understand we may never get an answer.

Sometimes people asked Jesus those kinds of questions. In response, Jesus pointed them to the God whose care we can trust in all the circumstances of our lives. Regardless of what we may have to go through here and now, the promise remains: God has all the power he needs to help us, and because he cares for us he will most definitely do so, if not immediately, then ultimately. We see that promise confirmed most clearly in Jesus. Through his life and his example, through his death and resurrection, we learn that God’s love is stronger than anything. The mountains do indeed remind us that God has the power to help us, but the cross and resurrection show us that he cares enough to use that power to help us. When we wonder whether there’s anyone there, we can remember God’s love never gives up, and never will until God accomplishes all the good he has planned for us all, for the whole human family, and for all creation.

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/19/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

Cheating?

 Cheating?

1 Timothy 2:1-7[1]

We have a saying, “Cheaters never prosper.” Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in this world who “cheat” in some way or another and get away with it. That doesn’t sit well with most of us. We don’t like it when someone takes unfair advantage and gets away with it. Of course, except when we do it. And, of course, when we do it, it’s not “cheating” or “taking unfair advantage.” It’s “being smart.” Or “maximizing our opportunities.” Or “getting ahead.” We don’t like “cheaters,” but what most of us tend to overlook is the fact that we all have advantages that we didn’t necessarily work for. They were handed to us at birth. And in this world, our advantages represent a kind of “cheat” to those who don’t have them.

We tend to look at religion the same way. We believe that “heaven” is reserved for those who, like us, do things the “right” way. And those who fail to live up to the standards we have worked hard all our lives to maintain rightfully deserve to be denied access to “heaven” and its blessings. I think we have a hard time grasping the idea of a God who loves all people  with no strings attached.[2] It seems that in our experience with life, there are always strings attached. Or expectations we have to live up to. The idea that God simply loves us, and that there’s nothing we can do to change that love, is one that just doesn’t compute with many of us. In fact, we may think of it as “cheating” that some people who don’t live up to our standards get to enjoy the same love that we do. The idea that God loves us all unconditionally and irrevocably just doesn’t seem quite right, or perhaps even quite fair.

Despite all that, That God loves us all is precisely the message of our Scripture lesson for today from First Timothy. Simply put, “God our Savior … desires everyone to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:3-4). And to that end, “Christ Jesus … gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). The language is clearly all-inclusive, embracing “everyone.” That may come as a surprise to you, because it’s not the typical way in which we understand God’s “plan of salvation.” We tend to think of salvation not as a gift of God’s grace, but as a transaction. Those of us who do the right things, like believing in Jesus, going to church, and living the right kind of life, receive salvation as a reward for our efforts. Those who don’t get what they “deserve”

This view of salvation has been around for a long time. From the earliest days of the church, the accepted view was that “outside the church there is no salvation.” This makes the statement from our Scripture lesson problematic, to say the least. When you take that point of view, it’s hard to believe that God “desires everyone to be saved.” And so we have come up with ways to “adjust” this bold declaration to make it more palatable. Some will say “God desires everyone to be saved,” but “everyone” equals all kinds of people, not all people. Others say “God desires everyone to be saved,” but “everyone” equals all those whom God has chosen for salvation, not all people. The conclusion seems unavoidable that what they are really saying is that “God does not desire everyone to be saved”![3] 

I think there are a variety of reasons why we take this verse of Scripture and twist it around to mean the opposite of what it says. For one thing, we want life to be fair. If you’re like me, and you’ve been in church all your life, it can seem unfair that God offers salvation to everyone without conditions. I’ve had a long-standing member of a Presbyterian church ask the question, “If God is going to save everyone, then why do we go to church?” Of course, this betrays the assumption that we can somehow earn God’s love by attending church. In reality, that kind of thinking has it all backwards. We don’t go to church in order to earn God’s love. We go to church because we’ve encountered the incredible love God gives all of us, and in response we want to live our lives by loving God in every way we can.

I think another reason for this kind of thinking is that we think that people ought to get what they deserve. It can seem like “cheating” for someone who has lived however they pleased to get to experience God’s salvation just the same as those who have tried to practice kindness and justice. I also had a church member tell me “There are some people I want to go to hell!” Again, this misses the point of the gospel. The gift of salvation isn’t something we can somehow do enough good to “deserve.” The message of Scripture is that none of us can ever “deserve” God’s love. That’s why it’s a gift—for everyone. That’s a good thing for all of us—regardless of what we think we “deserve.”

I can accept and endorse the fact that there are different interpretations of the Christian faith.  There always have been, and there always will be.  But I never have and never will embrace a view of God that excludes the vast majority of humanity from the gift of salvation through Christ. I choose to take the Scripture at face value when it says “God desires everyone to be saved”!  And I believe it is valid both biblically and theologically to hope for and believe in God’s eventual redemption of all people.[4] The foundation for this faith is nothing less than God’s character: it’s who God is—God our Savior. [5]

I realize this sermon may leave some of you scratching your heads. It may not sound like any sermon you’ve ever heard before. Unfortunately, the idea that we have to earn God’s love by doing enough good to deserve salvation has been around for a long time. But I would say that idea is not consistent with the message of Scripture. The Bible teaches us that God loves us simply because that’s who God is. And there’s nothing we can ever do to deserve that love. The flip side of it is that there is nothing we can ever do to lose God’s love. The good news of the Gospel is that God loves us all, and because of that love he “desires for everyone to be saved.” That is the purpose and the goal toward which God has been working throughout the centuries. And nothing and no one will  be able to prevent God from accomplishing that goal. It may seem like “cheating” to some, but I call it “grace.”

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/21/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Hendrikus Berkhof, Christian Faith, 136, where he (as a Reformed theologian) points out that the doctrine of dual predestination “has caused much uncertainty and has robbed many Christians of the joy of the Christian faith.”

[3] Cf. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.23.1: “since election itself could not stand except as set over against reprobation … those whom God passes over, he condemns.” Calvin was influenced by Augustine of Hippo, who argued that God’s desire for “all people to be saved” only applies to those whom God has predestined to salvation, and excludes all others, even infants who die without being baptized. See Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace, 14.44; On the Predestination of the Saints, 18.36; Enchiridion, 27, 103; cf. Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition I:321; Johannes Quasten, Patrology IV:443.  On infants, see Augustine, On the Soul and its Origin, 4.11.16; cf. Pelikan, Christian Tradition I:297-98.

[4] Many throughout the history of the church have endorsed this view, beginning with Origen of Caesarea, and including Gregory of Nyssa, Juliana of Norwich. See J. Pelikan, The Christian Tradition, I: 151-52; V:116-17, 224; J. Quasten, Patrology II:87-91; III:289-90. In more recent times this view was represented by Catholic theologians like Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar, and by Protestant Theologians of all traditions. In the Reformed tradition, both Karl Barth (eventually) and Jürgen Moltmann, both of whom were influenced by the 19^th Century German pietist Christoph Blumhardt, endorsed this viewpoint.

[5] Cf. James D. G. Dunn, “The First and Second Letters to Timothy and The Letter to Titus” New Interpreters Bible XI:798, where he says that this is “a statement that is as clear as any assertion of ‘Christian universalism’: God wills the salvation of everyone.”

The Great Mystery

The Great Mystery

Colossians 1:15-28[1]

One of the blessings and curses of our culture is the way we put everything in a “box.” That was how philosophers and scientists taught us to make sense out of the explosion of knowledge that began a couple of hundred years ago. We might not even be aware of the “categories” we use to understand our world, but of course it is the role of philosophers and scientists to point out these things to us. Some of us are familiar with the mail-order catalogues that used to come from department stores like Sears and Roebuck or J C Penney. I’m not talking about the flimsy little ones we get these days. These were catalogues that included “everything, including the kitchen sink”! They were the “Amazon” of their day. But unlike Amazon, where you can just start typing what you’re looking for into a search box, those massive catalogues had a huge index at the back. That’s how you found what you were looking for. The index was an alphabetical listing of all the items for sale with an indication of the page number where you could find what you wanted. But even the index was so big it was divided into categories.

I think most of us have just become used to looking that the world through the lens of a huge “catalogue.” It just seems “natural” to us to break things down into their parts and sort them into the “right” categories. But there are other cultures that emphasize the connections all things and all beings have with one another. It’s a different way of looking at the world. I would say the world into which Paul wrote the lesson from Colossians for today was more like that than like our world. I think that’s especially the case with the way Paul connects Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord with everything and everyone. Because he is the “is the visible image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15, NLT), he’s connected to all of creation. That includes not only the world and everything and everyone in it, but the entire universe. I know that’s hard for us to wrap our heads around, but Paul can say not only that “through him God created everything” but also that “he holds all creation together” (Col 1:17, NLT). Paul’s view of Jesus Christ goes far beyond the simple teacher from Nazareth who died on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem. He’s that, but he’s also so much more.

What makes the difference here is Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of God. That pointed the Apostles back to Jesus’ existence as God’s son from all eternity, and therefore his role in the work of creation. But it also convinced them that Jesus is the one who rules over all things in God’s name now, and who one day will bring all God’s plans to fulfillment. This is the “great mystery” that belongs to Jesus the Christ. We see this in our lesson from Colossians as well: the purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection was for God to “reconcile everything to himself” (Col 1:20, NLT), or as version we read for today puts it, “so that all beings in heaven and on earth would be brought back to God” (Col 1:20, CEV). We might say, “all beings in the whole universe.”[2]

Again, that language might sound strange to us. There are some places in the New Testament where the language of the Gospel, including Paul’s preaching and teaching, seems to limit salvation to only a few. In the Jewish world, salvation was for Jewish people, and only for Jewish people. All the gentiles, or the “heathen,” were condemned for their ignorance. Unfortunately, there have been many theologians up to this day who have promoted that mindset. Tertullian, a Third-Century teacher said it first, “extra ecclesia nulla salus est.” That means “outside the church there is no salvation.” Only those in the church experience salvation, and no one else. That line of thinking was carried on by some of the most influential theologians in the history of our faith, and many believe it to be the “received truth” of the Christian faith to this day.

But there have always been other Christian scholars and teachers who have taken the language of our lesson for today more at face value. While we cannot ignore Jesus’ real humanity, there is much more to who Jesus Christ is. Paul alludes to this in our lesson for today when he tells gentile believers that God’s “wonderful and glorious mystery” is that “Christ lives in you, and he is your hope of sharing in God’s glory” (Col. 1:27, CEV). What we may have a hard time imagining is just how hard it would have been for any Jewish person living in the First Century to say that about any Gentile person. I agree with a number of others who think that the fact that people who would have been assumed to be permanent outsiders responded to the Gospel in faith made the Apostles rethink a lot about their faith, especially whom they included and whom they excluded.

For too many people, the church in our culture has been known primarily for whom we exclude, especially to those who are outside the church. I would say this is another reason why some people avoid church so much these days. But I believe that we can take seriously the hints that in Jesus Christ, God is up to something bigger than perhaps we’ve ever dared to imagine or dream. That “something bigger” is nothing less than fulfilling the promise of the resurrection that says that “In Adam all of us die. In the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again” (1 Cor 15:22, NCV). Paul says it a little differently elsewhere: “Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone” (Rom 5:18, NLT). And in our lesson from Colossians for today, we hear the astounding statement that the Gospel ultimately extends to everyone and everything in the whole universe! Paul calls this the “mystery of Christ.”[3]

What difference does this “great mystery” about God’s work through Jesus Christ make for us in our daily lives? Well, for one thing I think it calls us to be open to the fact that our faith contains more than we can put into our “boxes.” God is bigger than we can imagine or conceive. And in our lesson for today, we learn that so is Jesus Christ! Despite what the psalmsinger said, God does not resolve the problem of injustice in our world by “breaking down forever” the villains (Ps 52:5). In Jesus Christ, God resolves the problem of injustice by reconciling all things to God. God undoes the evil of those who arrogantly presume to abuse their power, as the prophet Amos describes. But he does so by “making peace” through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Essentially, he brings us all, oppressed and oppressors alike, back to God. That version of salvation is hard to put into any “box.”

I would say another important lesson for us is that that we, as members of Christ’s “body” on earth, all participate in this “great mystery” right now. And more than that, we all have a role in fulfilling God’s big plan to save the whole creation. If you doubt that, perhaps your Jesus is too small.[4] Part of this great mystery is that every time we act with integrity and kindness, every time we seek to make love for God and love for others the principle of our lives, everything we do in this world to spread just a little of the justice, freedom, and peace of God’s kingdom to someone who needs it, we’re contributing to the fulfillment of God’s big plan. That’s not because we’re anything special, but rather it’s because Jesus Christ who reigns over all things as Lord even now is working in and through us to fulfill God’s big plan to save the whole creation. It may be hard for us to wrap our heads around all this, but I think our Scripture lesson calls us to marvel at the wonder of it all, and to be grateful that we have the chance to participate in something so awe-inspiring!

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 7/20/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.3:756 speaks of “the alteration of the whole situation of man and his cosmos as already accomplished in Jesus Christ” as he is in the process of fulfilling God’s determination ” to reconcile everything to himself” (Col. 1:20). Some would dispute this theme in Barth’s Dogmatics. It’s true that he takes a different approach in the earlier volumes. But it seems unavoidable to recognize it in volume 4. It would seem that Barth underwent a transition in his thinking about the extent of salvation during the twenty plus years of writing the Dogmatics.

[3] Jürgen Moltmann in Sun of Righteousness, Arise!: God’s Future for Humanity and the Earth, 140, quotes Christoph Blumhardt, a 19^th century German theologian who believed the impact of God’s redemption extended beyond individual salvation, as saying that this is his “confession of hope”: “That God might give up anything or anyone in the whole world—about that there can be no question, neither today nor in all eternity … The end has to be: Behold, everything is God’s!”

[4] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions, 276: “in personal faith a rebirth is experienced which will one day extend to heaven and earth; and the church prefigures and foreshadows the temple of the Holy Spirit which the whole cosmos is destined to become. It is only the cosmic dimension which gives the human, historical experiences of Christ their all-embracing meaning. We can only think of Christ inclusively. Anyone who thinks of Christ exclusively, not for other people but against them, has not understood the Reconciler of the world” (emphasis original). Cf. also ibid., 278: “Christology can only arrive at its completion at all in a cosmic christology. All other christologies fall short and do not provide an adequate content for the experiences of the Easter witnesses with the risen Christ. If Christ is the first-born from the dead, then he cannot be merely ‘the new Adam’ of a new humanity. He must also be understood as the first-born of the whole creation.” He continues to discuss Karl Barth’s “cautious consideration” of this “possibility” in the passage cited above and intentionally “develops” it. As a result, he concludes, ibid., 285: “the church must be seen as the beginning of the reconciled cosmos which has arrived at peace.”

Every Race, Tribe, Nation, and Language

Every Race, Tribe, Nation, and Language

Revelation 7:9-17; Galatians 3:28[1]

Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets. Many of us may know if him by his poem “The Road Not Taken.” One of his poems called “Mending Wall” questions the validity of the boundaries in this world. In the poem, Frost puts it this way: “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.”[2] Now, what we have to understand is that in Frost’s New England stone “walls” were the “fences” between properties. The poem is about the annual ritual that he and his neighbor performed—walking the wall to replace stones that have fallen off.

In the poem, the “neighbor” insists on holding firmly to the notion handed down to him that “Good fences make good neighbors.” But Frost saw the very forces of nature working against the continued existence of stone fences. Whether it was the ground swelling and contracting, toppling the stones, or it was the action of ice freezing and breaking up the stones, Frost saw the very elements themselves as conspiring to bring down the walls and fences that conventional wisdom insists “make good neighbors.” From Frost’s perspective, God has built into nature itself the intention to continually uproot and overturn walls and fences. But, of course, Frost’s poem was about more than just physical walls. He was talking about all the boundaries and divisions we feel compelled to uphold.

That’s one the points in the vision of the great multitude in Revelation. In that vast throng of people worshipping the one on the throne and the Lamb, all the boundaries and lines and divisions that separate people from one another are erased. Of course, that vision is contrary to the way of the world. In fact, it was contrary to the way of the world from the time it was written down. The way of the world says that only members are allowed. The way of the world says you must wear shoes and a shirt to receive service. The way of the world insists that differences in color and culture constitute absolute boundaries that must be upheld at all cost. This world wants clear boundaries and fences—and laws that reinforce them!

In the Kingdom of God, however, the standard operating procedure is “neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free” (Gal 3:28). To expand on that statement today, we would have to say that the way of the Kingdom of God is neither white nor black nor brown nor yellow nor red; neither rich nor poor, neither employed nor unemployed, neither middle class nor unhoused; neither native born citizen, nor refugee, nor immigrant, “legal” or otherwise. All are included in God’s vision of new life for the human family. Like Frost’s notion of nature itself conspiring to bring down the walls in our world, God’s Kingdom is designed so that nothing will be left that can possibly divide us!

The vision of the great multitude in Revelation is a startling one. I think the majority of us in mainline protestant churches may have read this passage as if the crowd were composed only of white, anglo-saxon, protestant Christian, middle- to upper-class voting citizens of the USA! In other words, people who look just like us. But the seer of Revelation says that this multitude comes from “every race, tribe, nation, and language” (Rev. 7:9 CEV). In the First-Century world, that was a description of just about every distinction that could possibly divide the human family. It’s an understatement to say that in our day we’ve added to that list! But the point of the vision is that the “great multitude” cuts across all the ways in which we like to divide humanity to “protect” ourselves from “others” who are different from us.

After almost fifty years of studying the Bible, it’s my considered opinion that this vision of the kingdom of God including all people is the focus of the biblical message. Many have tried to frame the “great multitude” in Revelation as a vast throng of Christians from every people group. But I would insist that way of thinking is foreign to the Bible. From start to finish, the Bible tells us about God’s purpose to restore the whole human family, no exceptions. At the start of that great work, Abraham hears the promise that “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).[3] And the end of God’s project, depicted by the vision of the vast and diverse crowd around the throne in the book of Revelation, gives us an actual image of what that could look like: the whole human family gathered around the throne as “servants of God” (Rev. 7:3)![4]

This vision lies at the heart of the call in the book of Revelation to follow the way of the Lamb who was slain. But Revelation also makes it clear that all who follow that way expose themselves to danger. It’s dangerous to follow a man who was executed for turning the world upside down. It’s dangerous to hold faithfully to the testimony of the Lamb who was slain. It's dangerous to follow the one who wins the victory not by force but by giving himself over to death. And it’s dangerous to choose to follow the way that seeks to erase all the “differences” we use to divide the human family. That’s what the “Lamb who was slain” calls us to do.

We live in a time when it feels like the “powers that be” are obsessed with reinforcing the way of the world and all its divisions. When we embrace people from every race, tribe, nation, and language—as well as all the other “groups” into which we divide the human family, we must expect opposition, hostility, and perhaps even violence. But I would say that it makes a difference every time one of us chooses to follow the radically inclusive way of the Lamb. I would say every time one of us chooses to follow this way, we are continuing the process of “turning the world upside down” that Jesus began. And we can take comfort from the assurance that the Lamb who was slain will one day be revealed as the one who has won the victory! On that day, the biblical vision of God’s Kingdom will be fulfilled, where all the walls and fences and boundaries and divisions are torn down. In the meantime, the assurance is that when we choose to cross a boundary to show God’s love to any who are excluded as “different,” we are making a contribution to that final victory.[5]

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[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/11/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Robert Frost, “Mending Wall,” from North of Boston.

[3] Cf. Richard Bauckham, “The List of the Tribes in Revelation 7, Again,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 42 (1991):99-115; cf. 103, where he emphasizes the vision of the innumerable multitude as a fulfillment of the promise to Abraham and his descendants.

[4] Cf. Balmer H. Kelly, “Revelation 7:9-17,” Interpretation 40 (July, 1986): 294, where he says this passage presents “an unalloyed ‘gospel,’ a seeing and hearing of the final justification of Christian hope.”

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 293: since the Christian community is “the sign, the instrument, and the breaking-in” of Christ’s reign and therefore of the new creation, it “is therefore not an exclusive community of the saved, but the initial and inclusive materialization of the world freed by the risen Christ.”

Everything and Everyone

 Everything and Everyone

Ephesians 1:3-11[1]

From the perspective of someone who is “outside” the church, I think there has always been something about our “gospel” that doesn’t sound like very good news. The “standard” script has been something like this: “we’re all sinners, and we deserve to be punished; God really does love us, though, so he sent Jesus to take the punishment we deserve, so that we could be forgiven and go to heaven when we die.” Since we’ve heard that message all our lives, it makes sense to us. But I think what most people “outside” the church hear is, “You’re no good the way you are; If you don’t change, God is going to get you; If you believe like me, act like me, hang out with me, become like me, then you get to go to heaven when you die. If you don’t, you’re going to hell.” To me, that doesn’t sound like very good news at all!

I believe the Scriptures contain a very different gospel—one that truly is good news. Our Psalm text for today alludes to it. “The earth is the Lord’s” means that everything and everyone belongs to God, both by virtue of the fact that he created us in the first place, and by virtue of the fact that he gave his son Jesus Christ to redeem us all. It means that God reigns over everything and everyone. That word “reign” might not mean much to us, but from the perspective of the Bible, God’s reign means peace, it means salvation, it means life for everything and everyone![2] It means that God also cares for all things and for the whole human family. It means that God not only deserves praise from all peoples, but also that God will be praised by all peoples.[3]

The idea in the Bible that all peoples are blessed, they witness God’s saving work, and they acclaim him in worship may sound strange to us who have been taught the traditional “gospel.” However, this understanding of God’s redemptive purpose runs through the whole Bible. From Genesis to Isaiah to Jesus to the Book of Revelation, the good news is that God is working to establish his saving reign world-wide, a kingdom which will bring mercy and freedom and new life to everything and everyone, everywhere.

I believe that’s what Paul is talking about in our lesson from Ephesians for today when he speaks of gathering all things together under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul believed that the return of Christ would be a day when the entire created order would be reconciled to God and restored to its rightful place under the lordship of Christ.[4] He says it this way: “God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure. And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth” (Eph. 1:9-10, NLT).[5] That doesn’t sound to me like it leaves out anyone or anything. I like a phrase from The Message translation, where it says that God takes “such delight” in carrying out this plan for everything and everyone.

I’m not ashamed to say that I believe that God’s ultimate purpose is to redeem all humanity. I really fail to see what is good about the news that those of us who are “in” will inherit an eternity of blessing in the presence of God, while those who are “out” are going to suffer an eternity of torment. I never have seen the “good news” in that message. The Christian hope is that God’s redemptive purpose will prevail—for everything and everyone. This is the message of the Psalms, the message of the prophets, and it is the message of Jesus:  the fulfillment of God’s reign which brings salvation. The good news insists that, despite all indications to the contrary, “God’s cause will prevail in the world.”[6]

I realize that all of this may sound either outrageous or too good to be true. Some of us who have spent our lives seeking to live for God may bristle at the thought that those who never gave God a second thought may receive the same “reward” as we will. But then, it’s not really about “rewards” at all. Our gospel is a gospel of grace—of receiving something undeserved. That’s true for all of us. It’s a gospel of unconditional love, which creates in us the confidence to take the risk of believing something that may sound too good to be true. After all, if God’s love is unconditional, then it’s unconditional for everyone, not just for you and me. And that’s what gives us the assurance to believe that God not only chooses to save everything and everyone, but also that God has the power to accomplish that seemingly outrageous plan![7]

I realize some of you may be scratching your heads at this point.[8] We’ve heard the “good news” that those of us who believe in Jesus will be saved while those who don’t will be “left behind” for so long that when we’re confronted with this aspect of biblical teaching it seems either outrageous or too good to be true. But the “full” gospel is that God intends not just to save a chosen few, but rather every one of his beloved children and every inch of his precious creation. It’s the message that begins with Abraham, and it runs through the whole Bible. And so in the New Testament the Apostles looked forward to the day when “every knee” would bow in worship and acknowledge Christ as Lord (Phil. 2:10-11). They believed that the plan behind all of this is that God is in the process of “making all things new” (Rev. 21:5, NJB).

How that will happen I don’t profess to understand completely. There are complications involved. But despite that, it is a breathtaking message; a message that truly is “good news.” To me it seems like these days most of the news is “all bad, all the time.” I think we could do with some good news. I think the people around us could do with some good news. And so perhaps the challenge of this passage is that we become a people who reflect the hope of this outrageous good news![9] God’s plan is that through Christ he’s going to redeem everything and everyone. And as the Scripture says in The Message translation, God takes “great delight” in seeing to it that this plan will be fulfilled!

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 7/14/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church.

[2] James L. Mays, Psalms, 311. Cf. also Shirley C. Guthrie, “The Way, the Truth, and the Life,” Presbyterian Outlook (Feb. 11, 2002), who says that God’s kingdom will bring “justice and compassion for all people, everywhere.”

[3] Psalm 48:10; 57:5, 11; 66:4; 72:19; 86:9; 96:1, 7; 97:6; 98:4, 7; 108:5; 145:21.

[4] 1 Corinthians 15:28; Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:20; Philippians 2:10-11.

[5] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, 39-40: “our hope is directed towards that divine future in which God will have all his creatures beside him to all eternity. That is to say, our hope is for the day when all things will be restored and gathered in a new, eternal order.” Cf. also Pheme Perkins “The Letter to the Ephesians,” New Interpreters Bible XI:378: “Ephesians assures us that … somehow the universe is ordered so that all things return to God in Christ.”

[6] Hans Küng, The Christian Challenge, 120.

[7] Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of the Church, Faith, and the Consummation, 344: “this love lasts forever and that it will not rest until it possesses us wholly.”

[8] Cf. Karl Barth, Romans, 38, 108-9, where he acknowledges that idea that a God of grace and mercy loves us unconditionally with a love that will never let us go is something “so unheard of, so unexpected” that it can only appear to us as something “incomprehensible and meaningless,” as a “vast impossibility.”.

[9] Cf. also Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 292-93, where he speaks of the Christian community as “the sign, the instrument, and the breaking-in of the new order of all things” and therefore not as “the exclusive community of the saved,” but “the initial and inclusive” expression of “the world freed by the risen Christ.”

Complete Victory

Complete Victory

1 John 5:1-6[1]

When I was growing up, the only games we had to play were the ones where there were winners and losers. The whole reason why you played the game was to win! Of course, what happens when you approach a game from that point of view is that it’s easy to lose sight of the simple pleasure of playing the game. In more recent times, we’ve seen the rise of “cooperative” games. In those games, the “opponent” is a situation or adversary that is literally “in the cards.” All the players cooperate, because they only win together or lose together. Either they win or the game wins. Some might ask “what’s the point?” The answer is the fun you have working together to “beat” the game!

When it comes to Christians talking about the “victory” they experience through their faith in Jesus Christ, I’m afraid it can sound like “winners” and “losers.” When we claim to be the “winners,” it follows then that those who are not among “us” are the “losers.” And, in fact, there is a whole strain of Christian history and theology that very much sounds like the “good news” is that “we’re in” and “you’re out.” It’s called Christian triumphalism. You can hear it in some hymns written around the turn of the 20^th century. That’s one reason why I never choose them for worship. There’s just something about singing a hymn that sounds like singing “we’re number one” that, at least in my opinion, just doesn’t fit in the worship of Jesus Christ.

I think anyone might be excused for adopting that way of thinking based on our lesson from 1 John for today. It promises that “we win the victory over the world by means of our faith” (1 Jn 5:4, NLT). And it insists that “Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” can “defeat the world” (1 Jn 5:5). Here, the “world” refers to those who reject Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In that context, it was talking about some who had been part of the Christian community, but who had broken away over disagreements about how to understand Jesus as both fully human and fully divine. It wouldn’t be the last time the church would divide over a point of theology, and inevitably both sides paint the other one as in the wrong and even as enemies to the cause of Christ. That’s what we see unfortunately in 1 John. The animosity between the two groups was so intense that he could call the “others” “antichrists”(1 Jn 2:22)! That’s pretty strong language!

We can’t fully step back into that setting and understand what it was that motivated 1 John to use such harsh language. But I have a hard time seeing it as an expression of the enduring Word of God. I would say that it reflected much more a very specific situation in that day and time. Elsewhere in the NT, that kind of animosity between groups of Christians is not only discouraged, it’s positively rebuked! Even in other NT writings attributed to John, the “world” isn’t always the “enemy.” Remember, John 3:16 tells us that God sent his son precisely because he loved the “world”! This points us in a different direction in our attitude toward those who are “other.”

As I mentioned, the problem I have with the mindset about the “victory” of Christian faith that leaves out the people who have not (yet) come to faith is that it can lead us to look down on them as “less than.” I don’t believe that God is in the business of some grand “Zero-sum game,” especially one in which there are only a “chosen few” who “win” and the vast majority of the “others” “lose.” It was God’s love for the whole world of humanity that led to Jesus’ victory over sin and death at the cross and in the resurrection. That’s the language the NT uses for Jesus’ death and resurrection, although it describes that “victory” with different words.[2] Our affirmation of faith for today says it this way: “Jesus’ resurrection won the victory over all powers that deform and destroy human life.”[3]

We experience that victory not in that we “win” and others “lose,” but in that we already share in the victory of God’s grace over all that diminishes or harms anyone in any way. Even when we make the definition of who gets to participate in Jesus’ Easter victory over sin and death as broad as possible, it still leaves some “winners” and some “losers.” But the NT understanding of Christ’s victory is that it’s over “all things,” which is shorthand for the whole of creation. That includes not only the whole world and everything and everyone in it, but the cosmos and “all the heavens”! One of the leading theologians of the ancient church claimed that even the “inventor of evil” would eventually be restored by God’s grace![4] Talk about a complete victory!

More than that, because it’s not our victory, but Jesus’ victory, we cannot truly experience it unless we do so in the humility that acknowledges that we “win” only as we experience God’s love for us and share that love with all those who are “other.” The victory is not over the “others” who may not share our faith now, or who may live very different lifestyles. The victory is over the powers that oppress all people. And our faith in the victory Jesus won for us all through his death and resurrection enables us to confidently relate to all who are “other” with God’s love.[5]

Even after this careful framing of our “victory” in Jesus, there remains one more consideration. Talk about this kind of victory may seem hollow in a world in which there is still so much suffering taking place. Again, our affirmation of faith acknowledges that in the present day, “The world appears to be dominated by people and systems that do not acknowledge his rule.” One analogy that could be used is the invasion of Normandy on D-Day on June 6, 1944 and the final victory in Europe in the Second World War. Many would say that the invasion of Normandy on D-Day was the crucial victory that spelled the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The war still raged on for almost another year, and many more lives were lost. But after D-Day, the final victory in Europe was perhaps inevitable. Jesus’ victory over the powers of evil, sin, and death in this world is like that. It was the decisive event that made the final victory inevitable.

Most of us have experienced some kind of harm or loss in this life. We may have experience harm at the hands of those who don’t yet follow Jesus. Or perhaps even at the hands of those who follow Jesus, but don’t yet do so perfectly. Many of us have experienced loss in that our lives just didn’t turn out the way we had hoped. Those wounds can haunt us, sometimes for a whole lifetime. But the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that in his death and resurrection, he has decisively defeated all the powers in this world that can harm us. We may still be vulnerable to them in this life, but there will come a day when our victory will be complete, when we stand before Jesus and all our wounds are made whole. That’s a wonderful hope. But perhaps even more importantly, there will come a day when Christ’s victory over all of creation will be made finally complete for all creation, when all the heavens and and everything and everyone on earth are united under one Lord, and we all share together in that victory as confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:11)! That sounds like a complete victory to me!

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[1] © 2024 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 5/5/2024 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. Colossians 2:15; Ephesians 2:21-22; 1 Peter 3:22; Revelation 5:12-13; 11:15.

[3] “A Declaration of Faith” Presbyterian Church in the United States, 117th General Assembly, 1977; reissued by Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1991 §4(5).

[4] Gregory of Nyssa, Catechetical Orations, 26; cf. J. Quasten, Patrology, III:289-90. 

[5] Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:825. He says, “It is love alone that counts, love alone that triumphs, and love alone that endures.” Cf. also ibid., 832-35.

Changed By Grace

Changed by Grace

John 3:1-17[1]

Most of us have a healthy dose of skepticism these days. If something sounds too good to be true, we tend to think it is. And we have good reason to think that, with all the various scams going around. Of course, skepticism is nothing new. People used to say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. That’s because the people who offered you a free meal usually wanted you to buy something from them. While self-reliance can be a part of a healthy outlook on life, you can take it too far. Especially when it comes to faith. One of the problems Jesus encountered in John’s gospel was the skepticism of people who thought that what he was offering was just too good to be true.

I think that’s because they tried to fit Jesus into the box of their preconceived understanding about God. But there’s not much about Jesus or God in John’s Gospel that fits into any kind of man-made box! The basic affirmation of John’s Gospel is that in Jesus, the one who was “with God” and “was God” in the beginning became a human being (Jn 1:1, 14). And by doing so, Jesus has made God known in such a way that those who trust in him and the gift of “eternal life” may have that new life now. And most of them looked at him like he was crazy. Or they walked away shaking their heads at what sounded too good to be true. Or they kept asking him what they were supposed to do, and he kept offering them eternal life as a gift that only God could give them.

Our Gospel lesson is one that most people have at least heard about. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life,” may be the one Bible verse they know. But we tend to read it as if Jesus were offering a choice, not a gift. You can believe and receive eternal life. Or you can choose not to believe and “perish.” But Jesus wasn’t talking about a choice. He was talking the gift of new life from God.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, he very likely had a question on his mind that a lot of people shared. It’s the question that others asked Jesus: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk 10:25; 18:18). Nicodemus never actually asked that question, but Jesus’ response to him shows that he knew that was what was on his mind. And Jesus’ answer put the question of “inheriting eternal life” completely outside of what anyone could do: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above” (Jn 3:3). When you read that against the backdrop of Jesus’ teachings in John’s Gospel, the point is that eternal life is something only God can give. No one can ever do anything to “inherit” or earn it!

Of course, that translation of Jesus’ answer, that you must be “born from above,” is not the one that most people know. Most people know it in the version that they’ve read in their Bibles from the days of the King James Version to the New Living Translation: “you must be born again” (Jn 3:7). Again, the problem is that’s not what Jesus was talking about. He was talking about a process that is both powerful beyond our understanding and also mysterious as to how it happens. It’s described in John’s Gospel as being “born of God” (Jn 1:13) and being “born of the Spirit” (Jn 3: 8). It’s something that only God can do, and we can only receive it as a gift.

The reason for the confusion about all this is that the phrase in the original Greek version can be translated both ways: “born again,” or  “born from above.” Very likely that was intentional. In John’s Gospel Jesus uses phrases with double meanings that people misunderstand. In our lesson Nicodemus thinks Jesus is talking about some process by which adults must somehow climb back into their mothers’ womb and be “born again.” When Jesus tried to explain it in terms of being “born of God” and “born of the Spirit,” Nicodemus was completely stumped. And he was a “teacher of Israel,” which meant he had a significant understanding of the Bible. But this was something he had missed in his study of the Hebrew Bible: that God had promised to give new life to his people, and through them to the whole world. The way he would do that was by changing their hearts (Ez 36:26-28).[2] Again, that’s something only God can do!

In our day those who talk about being “born again” throw that phrase around as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. All you have to do is pray a prayer and you’re “born again.” Unfortunately, I would say that notion bears little resemblance to the powerful and mysterious process that Jesus was talking about.[3] That’s because it doesn’t result in much change. What it results in is a lot of people claiming to be “Christians” whose lives look pretty much exactly like everybody else. When you pay attention to what Jesus was saying about being “born from above,” it’s pretty clear that he’s referring to something altogether different. He’s talking about a change that God brings about in our lives so that we can know “eternal life.” There’s nothing “simple” or “easy” about that! 

When we read this passage from the perspective that it’s about a change that God is making in our lives, a change that only God can make, we see John 3:16 in a wholly different way. It’s much bigger than a “get out of jail free” card or a ticket to heaven for certain individuals. It’s about the amazing thing God is doing in all our lives. It’s a declaration that underlies everything in John’s Gospel: that the power of what God is doing through Jesus, his incarnation, his death on the cross, his resurrection to new life, and his ascension to reign at the right hand of God, is something that is meant to change the whole world! And everyone in it!

We’re a lot like the people Jesus encountered in John’s Gospel. The good news of God’s gift of eternal life is so far beyond our ability to grasp that we don’t know how to respond in any other way than to ask, “what am I supposed to do with this?” I would say the first thing we should do is to realize that it’s out of our hands. This is something that only God can do for us. It has to come “from above.” What we can do is what Jesus called us to do: believe. And by that I think he was calling us first and foremost to trust God to accomplish all that he has set out to do in this world and in our lives. Beyond that, Jesus was calling us to entrust ourselves into his hands as our Savior and Lord, not just once but every day, throughout our lives. We do so in the confidence that through him all our lives are being changed by God’s grace.

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[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 3/5/2023 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] On Nicodemus’ misunderstanding, cf. Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John I-XII, 138-41, where he points out that there was ample background for the idea of the outpouring of the Spirit in preparation for entering God’s kingdom.

[3] Cf., similarly, Gail R. O’Day, “The Gospel of John,” New Interpreters Bible IX:554-55.  She says (p. 555), “By codifying the expression ‘born again’ and turning it into a slogan, interpreters risk losing the powerful offer of new life contained in Jesus’ words.”