Sermon, February 11, 2001
6th Sunday in Epiphany, Year C
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham,
St. Paul's Episcopal Church Fayetteville, Arkansas
Sermon, February 11, 2001
6th
Sunday in Epiphany, Year C
The Rev. Lowell E.
Grisham,
St. Paul's Episcopal Church Fayetteville, Arkansas
Gospel --Luke 6:17-26 Jesus begins the Sermon on the Plain
When I was a kid I used to love to look at everything upside down, especially when I was at my Grandmother's house. I would hang my head backwards off my Grandmother's couch, and pretend I was seeing right-side-up. She had tall ceilings with lights that hung down from the top. When you looked from upside down, they looked like floor lamps that you could walk right up to. And the couch and chairs looked like they were attached to the ceiling. It was great fun to see the world like that. Everything seemed alive in a new way.
In our Gospel today, Jesus turns the world upside down from the way we experience it. He takes a common form of proverb, the Beatitude, and reverses the expectation of his hearers. Those who listened to Jesus that day were familiar with Beatitudes. They formed a conventional way to express what everybody knows about the good life. "Blessed are those who have paid for their car, for they travel free. Blessed are those with a 401(k), for they shall retire in peace. Blessed are those who floss, for they shall keep their teeth." There were lots of common Beatitudes like that in the wisdom literature of Jesus' day. But Jesus' words are totally unexpected. "Blessed are you who are poor, ...hungry, ...weeping, ...reviled." Such words would have shocked his hearers.
I once picked up a can of cola thinking it was mine; instead it had been used as an ash tray. My reaction was instantaneous. Jesus' listeners would have been similarly shocked. We've heard these passages so often before that it's easy to forget how radical they were when they were spoken. Never before in Jewish religious literature had the poor directly been called "blessed." Then, possibly even more shocking to traditional ears, Jesus says, "Woe to you who are rich." Everyone knew that wealth was a sign of blessing from God.
The Hebrew Scripture is full of that claim. Jesus takes his hearers and turns their world upside down. Don't hear his words as being prescriptive. This is not a new commandment, thou shalt be poor and hungry and hated. There is no "ought" or "should" language here. Jesus is using descriptive language, the indicative voice. This is the way it is. This is the way it is in God's Kingdom. One commentator likens Jesus' words to an inauguration day speech. Jesus says, here is the way things are in God's administration. All are not equal in God's government. God is constitutionally disposed favorably toward the poor and hungry and weeping and outcast. An entire theological movement called liberation theology anchors itself in passages like this that describe what they call God's "preferential option for the poor." Liberation theologians would have no trouble advising Americans about what we should do with governmental budget surpluses. Like Jesus, liberation theologians make some people angry. Most of the Christian martyrs of the twentieth century come from their ranks.
The truth is, these words from Jesus sound different depending upon where you are when hearing them. For those of us at the top -- comfortable, satisfied, self-assured-- these are confrontational words. For those at the bottom, these words come as salve to dry the tears-- "don't cry honey, the world belongs to you; it's going to get better; God is with us; it won't be long." Most of us hear these words from a pretty comfortable place. In the scheme of things, we're rich. Most of us are fairly close to the top of the feeding chain. Most of us benefit from so many unearned privileges from years past -- our place of birth, secure homes, food, access to education, health, cultural privileges of various kind. It seems like we're the blessed ones. We're sure lucky, at least in worldly terms. When we listen to these words, we can know what Jesus is good for and what he is not good for. Jesus is not about helping those of us who are on top to stay on top. He's not into encouraging those of us who are stuffed with everything this culture can fill us with to become even better consumers. God has very little to give to the person who has everything.
The writer who gave us this sermon from Jesus, Luke the evangelist, has another story where he holds up for us a hero from among the rich. Zaccheaus who used his wealth to help others generously. Our nation could sure use some of the Zaccheaus spirit. Maybe some of you went to the presentations by Michael Stoops of the National Coalition for the Homeless. We sponsored him at our Seven Hills Homeless Center this weekend. He reminded us that despite the unprecedented economic boom, homelessness in America has risen over the past 20 years. The faces have changed, however. Single mothers and children are among the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Stoops believes we have the resources to overcome homelessness, but we do not have the political will. What would Jesus say? We can do anything we want with the words of Jesus today. We can ignore them because they make us uncomfortable, we can admire them and put them in needlepoint, or we can measure ourselves by them and ask God to help us change. Some have used these words even to start revolutions. The simplest thing you can do with these words is to let them turn you on your head. You can let these words help you see the blessed in unexpected places. The poor then are not just people for us to help -- they can help us.
What little I know about generosity I learned from Phillip, my friend who has lived most of his life homeless or in jail. I've seen Phillip when he had only $20 to last him for the two weeks before his check arrived give that $20 to someone else while explaining to me, "Father, they need it more than I do. Besides, I can always get by." Most of us have built a false self around our extravagant needs for security, esteem, and control. Being with those who have none might help us relax our fearful grasping possessiveness.
This sermon from Jesus today is about money and economics, but it's also about more than that. As some of us in this room will know all too personally, the rich can also be poor and hungry. The rich can weep and can experience exclusion and defamation. Life has its ups and downs. Jim Finley tells of his regular appointments with Thomas Merton when he was a novice at the abbey Merton served. "How are you?" Merton would ask as Jim entered his cell. "Just great. Things couldnąt be better." "Well, don"t take it too seriously. It'll get worse." Or on another day. "How are you?" "Terrible. I'm in a dark place." "Well, don't take it too seriously. It'll get better." Life does have its ups and down. Any of us are but one terrible mistake from infamy. Or one pathologist report from grief. Jesus reminds us that there are important things to see when you come down, things that may make you cry holy tears. At the bottom of the barrel, there is God; there is blessing. "Neither the going up nor the coming down is under our control, but wherever we happen to be the promise is the same.
Blessed are you who loose your grip on the way things are, for God shall lead you in the way things shall be." (Barbara Brown Taylor, Home by Another Way, p. 56) "The world looks funny upside down, but maybe that is just how it looks when you have got your feet planted in heaven. Jesus did it all the time and seemed to think we could do it too. So blessed are those who stand on their heads, for they shall see the world as God sees it. They shall also find themselves in good company, turned upside down by the only one who really knows which way is up." (Taylor, Gospel Medicine, p. 149)