Penelope Bridges
Today we get Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, and they shine a pretty harsh light on the ascendant values of our current culture. Luke’s beatitudes are different from Matthew’s more familiar list. Matthew qualifies his criteria: poor IN SPIRIT, hunger and thirst FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Luke doesn’t let us off the hook with a spiritualized gloss. Luke’s Jesus is more concerned with the conditions of this world: the inequity of wealth, the uneven distribution of food, the gulf between those who celebrate and those who are heartbroken. And those rich, well-fed, gleeful people in places of high power who crave flattery and loyalty, well, Luke’s Jesus doesn’t have much time for them, does he? Woe to those who are rich now. Woe to those who are full and who are laughing. As Jesus preaches to the people on the plain, eye to eye with his disciples, he presents a direct challenge to the Prosperity Gospel, and I will venture to suggest he also challenges the values of current US policies.
I hear that pastors around the country are being criticized for preaching liberal values, for showing unacceptable weakness, when they preach the values of the beatitudes. Those sentiments might have been OK in the days of Jesus, but they don’t work any more. The Beatitudes are old hat, out of style, no longer suitable for the world we live in. Compassion is apparently incompatible with “muscular Christianity”, the teaching that might makes right, that the life of faith is a war, a contest, a matter of survival of the fittest, that God’s Kingdom will be won by force of arms. Under this doctrine God rewards the faithful with prosperity, and conversely, if you are financially successful, you must be God’s favorite.
Try telling that to Jesus. Tell that to the one whose family fled political persecution when he was a baby, who owned no property and held no office, who was humiliated, tortured, and publicly executed. Tell that to the one who conquered death by submitting to death, who proved to us that love is stronger than hate and that trusting in God’s goodness is a much better longterm bet than building up wealth and influence in the world at the expense of the poor.
If the Beatitudes are wrong, then Christianity is wrong, and to borrow Paul’s words to the Corinthians, our faith has been in vain. Scripture tells us again and again that The Kingdom of God belongs to the poor because God reaches out to those on the margins, those who know their unworthiness, those whom the world has discarded, those who acknowledge their need of God’s love and mercy.
Jesus preaches to those who are troubled with an unclean spirit. Who among us today is troubled with an unclean spirit? I can’t guarantee that my spirit is squeaky clean, but I know that it is troubled right now. It is troubled by children with AIDS in central Africa who aren’t getting their meds, It is troubled by families in Sudan driven out of their homes by civil war and starving for lack of USAID food deliveries. It is troubled by word from trans friends who cannot get a new passport with their correct name. It is troubled by the fear and uncertainty that has engulfed hundreds of thousands of dedicated civil servants. Whose spirit isn’t troubled by the times we are living through?
Blessed is the man … what is the secret of blessedness? Being blessed in the Biblical context means being in right relationship with God. Those who know their need of God are in right relationship: they are blessed. The prophet Jeremiah says that to be blessed is to trust in God, no matter our external circumstances. The price of groceries has gone through the roof? Trust in the Lord. The news is full of doom and gloom? Trust in the Lord. Your job is in jeopardy because of some political vendetta? Trust in the Lord.
But woe betide you if you put your trust in human structures, in achievements and financial security, because then you are not placing God first. If public opinion matters to you more than being right with God, woe betide you. And this is where Jeremiah intersects with Jesus in our Gospel.
Who is Jesus talking to in this Gospel? Who is in that crowd out there on the level place described by Luke? The poor, the hungry, the griefstricken, the oppressed. Jesus came to bring good news to the poor. No wonder he tells this crowd that they are blessed. It’s good news that they desperately need to hear. And it’s revolutionary talk. Jesus came to turn the world upside down, to shake up the status quo, not to affirm it. So of course he chose to preach to those on the outside of the power structures – they were much more open to the possibility of a change in the world order than those who benefited from the way things were.
In a world where those who were poor or sick or bereft were assumed to have deserved their fate, nobody was telling them they were blessed, until Jesus came along. Jesus wanted to shake up the assumptions of the world, to wake his listeners up to the possibility of change. This is what made him so dangerous to the people running the show in Jerusalem.
In the Beatitudes Jesus isn’t telling us how to get a blessing from God: he’s announcing that this is the way it is. He’s not instructing us to become destitute or miserable, but announcing that when we are poor or hungry or heartbroken, when the world has failed us, we cling more closely to God than when we are in control and on top of the world. And God longs for us to be close.
Blessed are you who are hungry NOW, for you WILL be filled. Jesus contrasts the present moment with the future, meaning God’s future. Those who are hungry now will find plenty when God’s kingdom is fully realized. Those who weep now will find joy when the great reversal occurs and human values align with God’s values at last.
When will that come to pass? When all of humanity embraces their need of God, when greed and cruelty are left behind in favor of generosity and kindness, when the abundance of the earth is evenly distributed so that everyone has enough and nobody too much, when war and power grabs are exchanged for peace and humility, when every human being is granted the dignity that God wants for them. When God’s Kingdom comes and God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus turns the world’s values upside down with his talk of being blessed even and especially when we are hated. Now, I don’t want to be hated, even for his sake, but these words are a clear reminder that there can be a cost to following him. We don’t practice our faith as a hobby, a social club, or an entertainment. We practice it as a way to transform the world, to stand against a culture that values the accumulation of wealth, the wielding of power, the appearance of strength. The way of Jesus is to serve those whom he calls blessed, to work for justice, for equity, for dignity, whatever it takes.
We can relate today to the verse about being persecuted, hated, excluded and reviled. The recent graffiti on our walls and doors made us feel reviled by someone. Goodness knows the church through the ages has earned its share of hatred. And, while we know that St. Paul’s is a place of refuge, a center of inclusion and kindness, while we experience the presence here of a loving and compassionate God, there are a lot of people out there who will make no differentiation between us and parodies of church like the Westboro gang, who will ridicule and dismiss us as either foolish and deluded members of a cult, or as false prophets who fail to take the Bible literally enough. But we will wear that ridicule and defamation as a badge of honor, as we continue to Love Christ, Serve Others, and Welcome All.
There is a cost to following Jesus. For the earliest Christians it was as high as it can be, for they ran the risk of being tortured and killed for their faith. For Palestinian Christians today it may be as serious as losing their home of centuries, the place where Christianity was born, because a foreign tyrant wants a spectacular foreign policy “win”. For us at St. Paul’s to date it has been as minor as dealing with the annoyance of graffiti or being called weak because we value the Beatitudes. But the day may be coming when we will face a greater cost, if we choose to stand with Jesus for those who are being hurt by cruel and unjust policies: veterans, immigrants, refugees, the poor, minorities of every variety and more. When that day comes, may our marching song echo the words of Jeremiah: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust IS the Lord.” Be blessed, stand with Jesus, and help to bring about God’s kingdom. Amen.
