Good Enough

 Good Enough

Luke 17:1-10[1]

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a problem with the concept of “good enough.” I think it’s fair to say that I’m a “recovering perfectionist.” And when I say “recovering” I mean I’ve made progress, but I still have room for improvement. I grew up with the message that “if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” And, truth be told, I still believe in that. I just recognize that there are times when my “best” is better and times when it’s simply “good enough.” Learning to embrace the idea that it’s okay to do some things “good enough” is a way for me to keep my sanity. Especially when my “to-do” list feels overwhelming. I have an idea that perhaps I’m not alone in that!

When it comes to our faith, the idea of “good enough” can get us into all kinds of trouble. One of the ideas in our part of the Christian family is that we can never be “good enough” to deserve God’s love. For some of us, it’s freeing to know that. For others, it can become a burden. Especially when we think that we still have to try to be “good enough”: good enough for God to love us, good enough to go to heaven. Most of us have to make the journey in our faith from thinking we somehow have to try to be “good enough” to deserve God’s love to the place where we realize that’s not possible. More than that, it’s not necessary. God accepts us for who we are, just as we are.

As we’ve been working our way through Luke’s Gospel this year, I would imagine that our Scripture lessons have at some point gotten uncomfortable. The way Luke’s Gospel presents us with what it means to follow Jesus is deeply challenging. Some of the most difficult demands Jesus makes are found in Luke’s Gospel. We’ve heard them this year. Give without expecting to receive anything in return. Welcome and embrace and even invite into one’s home the outcasts, the unwanted, and the rejected. The “exalted” ones will be humbled and the humble will be exalted. You must “hate” your family and even your own life. You cannot serve God and wealth, and so you must “give up” everything.

In our lesson for today, Jesus makes a couple more difficult demands. First, he instructs his disciples to avoid causing any of the “little ones” to sin. I don’t think he’s talking about children here, but rather the “humble” ones we’ve heard about all through the Gospel: the least and the last and the left out. But this sounds uncomfortably close to saying that we have watch to ourselves constantly to keep from harming others. It sounds like we have to live up to some kind of demand for perfection that we all know is impossible. It sounds like doing the best we can to avoid hurting the “little ones” around us just isn’t “good enough.”

If that weren’t hard enough for us to hear, he goes on to say that if someone sins against us, we should forgive them. And Jesus said, “if the same person sins against you seven times a day and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive” (Lk 17:4). That’s a lot of forgiveness. Think about it, if someone hurts you seven times a day and asks you to forgive them each time, you have to wonder if that person is really “repenting.” And yet the demand is there: forgive those who sin against you. Every time they sin against you. And keep forgiving them. Again, it sounds like a demand that is beyond what is reasonable to expect from anyone.

I think it’s no wonder that the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith! On top of everything else that Jesus has demanded of those who would follow him, he adds that they’re not to sin against others, and they’re to forgive everyone who sins against them, every time. I think it’s interesting that Luke calls them the “apostles” here. That’s the first time he’s done that. Normally he calls them the “disciples.” But here he says that “the apostles” asked Jesus to increase their faith. I think it would have gotten the first Christians’ attention when they heard that “the apostles” admitted they needed more faith to live up to the seemingly impossible demands Jesus made of them. It sounds like even the “apostles” doubted whether their faith was “good enough.”

I’m not sure it helps us when Jesus adds the bit about being “unworthy slaves.” I think a better translation would be: “We servants deserve no special praise” (Lk 17:10, CEB). The idea is that it wouldn’t have made any sense of for a slave in that day to think that they had done anything to deserve any special reward just by doing what they were told. Similarly, those of us who follow Jesus don’t somehow “earn” rewards by doing our best to do what he taught us. But at the same time, Jesus’ preaching about the kingdom of God has already made it clear that we don’t have to. God extends his mercy to us simply because he wants to!

I think most of us wonder whether we’re “good enough.” A good enough parent. A good enough husband or wife. A good enough friend. A good enough (fill in the blank with your profession). A good enough person. What Jesus has to say about living the Christian life in Luke’s Gospel can make even the most faithful among us wonder whether we can ever be a good enough Christian. But the good news of the kingdom of God is that we don’t have to be “good enough” to deserve God’s love, or God’s mercy, or God’s promise of blessing. God loves us unconditionally and irrevocably; he always has, and he always will. In response, what God asks is that we muster the faith we have to love God back and to love others. And when we do that to the best of our ability, it’s “good enough.”

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 10/2/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/1WvsOlIIPk4

All About Mercy

All About Mercy

Luke 16:14-31[1]

I’ve mentioned recently that we live in a world divided. That may be an understatement. I would say that our world is more divided today than perhaps at any time in most of our lives. We’re divided by race, divided by class, divided by politics. We’re divided by national allegiance, divided by language, divided by whole outlooks on life. We’re divided by our sources for the news of what’s happening in the world. We’re divided by what we believe constitutes “truth.” Many have observed that what we once believed was a “social contract” that held our world together has dissolved. In a world such as that, it’s no wonder that people are going their separate ways, positively angry toward those who differ with them on a whole list of issues.

When that division spills over into our faith, it creates some problems. Perhaps the most serious of them is that we presume to know what is in another person’s heart. Because of that we think we have a right to criticize them for their actions. That kind of backbiting is out of place in the Body of Christ! The Bible makes it clear that it’s only God who knows our hearts (Lk 16:15)! Any effort on our part to stand in judgment of another person is at best premature, and at worst we are usurping a role that belongs only to God. As St. Paul said, God is the one who “will show the real reasons why people do what they do” (1 Cor 4:5, NIrV).

It may seem like a stretch to relate all of this to our Gospel lesson for today. But the reason why Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus was because the Pharisees’ hard-hearted attitude toward those they judged to be “sinners.” Jesus had “proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom” to them and had spelled out its implications for their lives. He told them that living for the kingdom of God meant being faithful with their wealth, it meant showing mercy to “sinners,” and it meant sharing generously with all people. He ignored their petty rules about what should or shouldn’t be done on the sabbath and used the day to extend God’s mercy to those who needed it most. And they ridiculed him for it, and ultimately had him killed.

 The reason for this response was that they saw Jesus’ kindness and mercy toward “sinners” as breaking God’s commands and therefore dishonoring God. Their whole outlook on what it meant to be faithful to God was centered around who was “clean” and who was “unclean.” Of course, in their own eyes they were not only “clean,” but they were also “righteous” before God because of the way they rigidly kept their own rules. Anyone who didn’t keep those rules just as strictly as they did was a “sinner” in their eyes. And they believed those whom they labeled as “sinners” were unfit for God’s grace, or mercy, or love.

In their eyes, Lazarus would have been one of these “sinners.” He was not only “poor,” he was destitute. Very likely, he was “laid at the gate” of a rich man because of some physical disability. The contrast between the two men couldn’t have been more striking. The rich man wore the finest of fine clothing, while Lazarus was covered with sores. The rich man feasted extravagantly every day, while Lazarus only longed for the scraps from his table. The rich man would have been seen as a “pillar” of the community, while Lazarus would have been judged as a “sinner” who must have done something to deserve his fate in life. And he certainly would have been excluded from God’s mercy in the eyes of self-righteous people.

But we have to remember that Jesus had announced at the beginning of his ministry that he had come to proclaim the “good news” of God’s kingdom precisely to the “poor” (Lk 4:18). It was about setting “the burdened and battered free” (Lk 4:18, MSG). It was about calling sinners to turn to God, not so-called “respectable people” (Lk 5:32, TEV). It was about being kind and merciful to others, all others, just as God is kind and merciful to us (Lk 6:36). It was about seeking and saving those who were “lost” (Lk 19:10). And, above all, it was about hearing God’s word and obeying it (Lk 8:21, NLT).

You may be wondering why I haven’t said anything about “heaven” or “hell” in connection with this parable. I’ve done that because the point of this parable isn’t about the afterlife. It’s about the way the “religious” people of that day, like the rich man and his brothers, had ignored “Moses and the prophets” and their clear teachings about showing kindness and mercy especially to the destitute. This parable is about the fact that in the kingdom of God the lowly are lifted up and the rich are sent away empty-handed (Lk 1:52-53). As Jesus said, “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Lk 14:11).

Jesus told this story to confront the religious people of his day for their hard-hearted, mean, and stingy attitude toward those they had judged to be “sinners.” This attitude was a direct result of the fact that they “justified themselves in sight of others” (Lk 16:15). And because of that, they believed Jesus’ actions toward the poor, the outcasts, the unwanted, and the rejected were an abomination in God’s sight. But Jesus was “showing the real reasons” for their attitude: their own hypocrisy. And he turned it all around on them: he said that it was their self-righteous and stingy hoarding of God’s mercy for themselves that was the true abomination! But when it comes to the kingdom of God, Jesus said, “everyone is urged to enter it” (Lk 16:16). Everyone. The kingdom of God that Jesus preached is all about mercy for the poor, the outcasts, the unwanted, and the rejected. It’s for everyone!

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[1] ©2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/25/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/r76nVDKjMmU

 Living Generously

Luke 16:1-13[1]

Generosity is something that I think just about everyone would agree is a good thing. We honor those people in our world who practice generosity. We even give them a special name: philanthropists. It’s a word that comes from two Greek words that literally mean “friend of humanity.” That may be assuming too much of every “philanthropist.” We tend to reserve that title for people who give large amounts of money. Like the owners of the Patagonia company, or Bill Gates. But people have all kinds of motives for giving money. For many, it’s a matter of making sure that others remember their name. We honor them as “generous” anyway, regardless of their motives.

That may give us a clue as to the real place of generosity in our society. I would say that true generosity, giving without receiving anything in return, is quite rare. Even among those of us who identify with the church, the data regarding giving demonstrate that true generosity is the exception rather than the rule. We shouldn’t be surprised at that. We live in a world based on competition that rewards winning, not giving. And our economy thrives based on how much people go out and get for themselves, not on how much people give to others. That’s the way this world works: as the saying goes, money “makes the world go around.”

In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus addresses this issue. As sages have observed for centuries, there really is “nothing new under the sun.” The drive to go out and get all that you can for yourself was just as powerful an influence on the people of Jesus’ day as it is in ours. In fact, even the Jewish religious leaders had embraced that way of living so much so that Luke calls them “lovers of money” (Lk 16:14). But Jesus addressed the question of wealth quite bluntly. He said, “You cannot serve God and wealth” (Lk 16:13). Translated into our terms, I think Jesus was saying that a way of life that is all about getting as much as you can for yourself is not compatible with a life of faith in God!

Jesus tells a rather confusing story to illustrate this point. The story is about the “manager” of a household who’d been caught “squandering” his master’s wealth. Because he hadn’t handled things rightly, he was going to be fired. But instead of preparing an “accounting” of his books, this “dishonest” manager abused his position to secure his own future. He did that by calling in those who owed the master, giving them back the original IOU, and having them write out another one with a reduced amount! Basically, he placed a lot of people in his debt by doing them huge favors. And when he came to “cash in” his favors, they would be compelled to welcome him as a guest in their homes.

It may seem strange that the master actually commended the steward for acting “shrewdly” (Lk 16:8). I don’t think the master was happy about what his manager had done. Rather, he recognized that the steward had come up with a clever plan. He took advantage of the fact that he still had the authority to manage the master’s wealth to make sure he would have a way to go on living comfortably after he was fired. That’s important for understanding this story. It’s a story about the way the world works, and I’m sure that many who heard it would have agreed with Jesus about that. People with wealth tend to use it to their own advantage, not to benefit others.

Jesus’ comments after the story can be confusing as well. He seems to commend “the children of this age,” like the dishonest manager, for being shrewder than “the children of light” (Lk 16:8). It seems like Jesus approved the way this manager approached wealth as a means of gaining eternal life! What we have to understand, however, is that Jesus is being ironical. The way this manager used wealth may have been “shrewd,” but it was “dishonest”: he used it for his own self-interest. His faith was not in God, but rather in the idea that his life consisted of the “abundance of possessions” (Lk 12:15), just like the “rich fool” Jesus spoke of. Like the man who tore down his barns to build bigger ones, this manager had was committed to serving wealth, and not God!

The key to understanding all of this is to recognize that Jesus was telling a story about the way the world works. For those who wish to align their lives with the kingdom God, the fundamental principle is very different: “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much” (Lk 16:10). Those who would follow Jesus are to be “faithful” in the way they use their wealth. That means they are to give, “expecting nothing in return” (Lk 6:35). They are to offer hospitality precisely to those who cannot repay them: “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind” (Lk 14:13). They are to live in a manner consistent with the generosity they have received from God by living generously themselves.

Jesus used this strange story about the way the world works to emphasize that it’s important for us to be diligent about how we use our wealth. But the “dishonest” way the manager used wealth for his own benefit is the opposite of what Jesus calls us to do. Instead of being selfish, we’re to use our wealth generously. Of course, perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to living generously in our time is the fear that someone will take advantage of us. In my experience, I think that’s guaranteed. But what others do is between them and God. We’re responsible for our own actions. As those whom Jesus has called to live for the sake of God’s kingdom, that means modeling the generosity we have received by living generously ourselves.

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[1] ©2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/18/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE. For a video recording of this sermon, check out my Pastor Alan YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/Bl_OOTyNQ3k

 God’s Unlimited Love

Luke 15:1-10[1]

From time beyond memory people have held certain beliefs about God. One of the most common of those beliefs is that everyone has to live up to some standard in order to be “accepted” by God. Whether it’s offering animal sacrifices, or adhering to a moral code, or even a matter of what you do and don’t eat or with whom you do and don’t associate, there has always been some kind of condition placed on being accepted by God. That’s where religions come from. They’re human creations, built on the belief that in order for us to be accepted by God we must perform the prescribed rituals.

Unfortunately, the Bible isn’t immune to this notion of God. You’ll find whole chapters in the Hebrew Bible devoted to outlining who is “clean” and who is “unclean.” As I’ve mentioned before, the book of Numbers is about how anyone who sinned deliberately, or complained against God, or even got too close to God in a way they weren’t permitted, would be struck dead. And the image of God in Deuteronomy can be equally troubling—anyone who sins must be executed to prevent an angry God from destroying the whole people. The reason offered is that “the LORD your God is a devouring fire” (Dt 4:24)! And that view of God isn’t confined to the OT. We heard an echo of that verse in a reading from the NT recently (Heb 11:29).

The problem with this view of God is that it leaves access to God in the hands of those who most benefit from making sure the people know who is “holy” and who isn’t. Whether it was priests or popular religious leaders, they all seemed to curiously benefit from reinforcing the idea that people aren’t “good enough” to be accepted by God. There’s always some way in which people fall short, there’s always something else that has to be done, always another sacrifice to be made. And the result is that it always keeps God just out of reach of “ordinary” people.

I think we see that kind of attitude reflected in the way the scribes and the Pharisees complained about Jesus in our Gospel reading for today. The scribes were the experts in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and the pharisees were the zealots who were devoted to fulfilling completely and without fail even the most trivial matters defined there. For that, they believed themselves to be the “righteous” who are applauded throughout the Hebrew Bible. Of course, anyone who didn’t live up to their standards was a “sinner” in their eyes. And they went out of their way to avoid any contact with “sinners,” because they believed sin was “contagious,” like a virus. Sharing a meal with “sinners” would have been like sharing a bath with a whole group of contagious people. So they grumbled and complained: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Lk 15:2).

In response Jesus told two stories that illustrated how God extends his love to all people, without any restrictions or limitations. The first is a story of a shepherd who has a flock of 100 sheep. One of them goes astray, and rather than staying to make sure the other 99 are safe from all dangers, he leaves them to search for the lost sheep. When he finds that one sheep, he is so overjoyed that he invites his friends to celebrate with him. Jesus then told a second story about a woman who loses a coin. That might not seem like a big deal, but in this case, her entire “nest egg” consisted of ten coins. So she literally turns her house upside-down looking for the lost coin. And when she finds it, she’s so overjoyed that she invites her friends to celebrate with her.

One thing about these two stories has always fascinated me. “Celebrations” in those days would have involved food. They involved throwing a party. It makes me think of the shepherd with the sheep that had gone astray. Did he serve roasted lamb at his party?  It seems ironic, and extravagant! I also wonder about the woman. Did she spend the coin she had just put so much effort into finding to put on the party for her friends? Again, it seems ironic and extravagant to celebrate finding a coin by spending it to throw a party for friends. And in both cases, that’s precisely the point.

God’s love is so unlimited and extravagant that Jesus says that there is “more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk 15:7). That’s not the impression you get from reading some parts of the Bible. Some of the Psalms especially seem to restrict God’s “joy” to the “righteous” and to consign “sinners” to hell with no further thought. That’s what the scribes and pharisees believed. But Jesus used these stories, along with his willingness to befriend and even share meals with “sinners” to make clear what it meant to believe in a God who is “merciful and kind, patient and full of unfailing love” (Ps 145:8). As Gene Peterson puts it in the Message, that kind of a God “is good to one and all; everything he does is soaked through with grace.” (Ps 145:9, MSG).

That’s the God whom Jesus called “Father.” The one who showers the blessings of sun and rain on all people alike (Mt 5:45). And if we pay careful attention to the stories of those who fully embrace God’s unlimited love, we’ll realize that God never leaves us where we are or as we are. I think that’s why so many prefer the “God” of the religions. If you can keep “God” within certain prescribed rituals, you get to go about your life as you please. But a God who claims us with his unlimited love will claim all of life. A God like that isn’t going to leave us where we are or as we are but is likely to take us to places and call us to do things we could never have imagined.

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[1] © 2022 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 9/11/2022 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.