FEB. 11, 2007 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
JER 17:5-10; PS 1; I COR 15:12-20; LK 6:17-26
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we may believe and in believing we may obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our Gospel lesson includes Jesus’ teachings that have come to be known as “the beatitudes” or “the blessings.” Once in a children’s sermon, I heard them referred to as the Blessed “R’s.” It’s easy to see why. Says the Lord: Blessed are you who are poor…blessed are you who are hungry…
Some of you remember the word used in the old King James version of the Bible. There the word is happy, which offers an entirely different flavor. Happy are you who are poor…Happy are you who are hungry…happy? That doesn’t fit our vision of reality, does it?
The word blessed is a challenge enough because that doesn’t match our experience of life either. From magazines to music, from t.v. to TIVO, from chat rooms to break rooms, our society neither embraces nor extols the virtues of being poor, hungry, reviled or sad. Quite the opposite. So our challenge is to try and figure out exactly what Jesus means…
Wouldn’t it be nice if he were here to tell us? Or if we had been there to hear him speak in the first place? These thoughts were running through my head this last week when I was reading through the lesson. Then I realized that simply being there may not have solved a thing. Luke tells us that when Jesus spoke, he was surrounded by a great crowd of his disciples, by multitudes of people from in and around Jerusalem, as well as a great bunch of foreigners from over on the coast…
So here’s how my twisted mind works. I immediately thought of the Monty Python movie from the late 70’s entitled the Life of Brian. For one thing it’s British humor, for another it’s occasionally crude, and to top it all off – it’s slightly irreverent. But it does have some very clever moments. The movie is about a man named Brian who, as a baby, was mistaken for the Christ Child by the lost wise men…until someone directs them to the real Savior.
One of the movie’s skits takes place in our Gospel setting for today. Jesus is speaking, blessing the poor and hungry, the peacemakers and the sad. When suddenly our attention is drawn to an odd group of characters on the fringe of this great crowd, none of whom could really hear what was being said. On top of it all, they’re a bunch of British-accented twits.
When someone asks, What did he say? A helpful, but dimwitted companion offers, I think he said, “Blessed are the cheese makers.” What follows is a farce, a foolish quest to try and figure out what’s so special about the cheese makers, and how did the dairy industry get such a powerful union, etc…
The movie’s goal is humor, but it raises a good question: it’s not just about what Jesus said, but we also have to ask, What did he mean? And nowhere is that more clear than here. How in the world can he say, Blessed are you who are poor? And what in the world does he mean by it?
Well here are a couple of things that are important to remember. First of all, I don’t think that Jesus is offering a prescription for how to be blessed. I’m fairly certain that he’s NOT saying, if you want to be assured of God’s favor, then you’d better find a way to become poor, hungry, sad and despised. Would you all agree?
Nor do I think he’s saying that poor, hungry, sad and despised people are more loved by God than those who are not. And furthermore, I’m quite certain that Jesus does not mean to say that poor people are fortunate because they don’t have the struggles of the rich…that’s just silly.
So if we’re sure about what these words do not mean…is anyone brave enough to take a stab at saying what they do mean?
Here’s a key: our ability to understand is directly tied to our commitment to listen. It’s a good thing that others heard Jesus say something more than blessed are the cheesemakers. Otherwise, communion might very well be a smorgasbord of dairy products rather than bread and wine…
I believe that what Jesus says and means in these words brings us to the crux of why this thing called the Church of Christ is important for our day-to-day lives. In these few, but powerful words, Jesus disrupts the whole myth that my primary goal in life should be the pursuit of my happiness. If that were the case, I think he would have said, Blessed are you who are self-sufficient, well-fed, rich and lucky for you are not a burden to anyone.
But he didn’t…in fact he went on to offer the flip side of those blessed R’s – which are, of course, those damnable “woes” – damnable because they speak directly to me – to my bank account that for years has not been empty; to my belly that has never known a shortage of food; to my life that has been filled with love and laughter, safety and satisfaction…Woe to you, says Jesus, and I respond, What did he say? What does he mean by that?
And here is the crisis point for us, where the art of listening to God’s Word truly becomes a blessing of the Spirit. I am certain that Jesus is telling us all, from peace-makers to cheese-makers, from those that have not to those that have too much, that our primary goal in life is not to bless ourselves, but to bless our neighbors…for the sake of Jesus Christ.
The reason why does not require a degree in theology or rocket science. If I dedicate my life to providing first, foremost and only for me and my own, I will end up worshipping only me and my own.
If you’re like me, the more we focus on ourselves, the less we listen to God’s Word; the more we pursue our own happiness, the less we listen to the needs of our neighbors; and the more we seek to bless ourselves, the more our lives seem plagued with woe.
If, however, or when, I should say, we’re able to listen to God’s Word and the needs of our neighbors first, we are almost always blessed to discover how wide and high, how deep and broad is God’s supply of mercy and love for us.
Let us give thanks to God that we are so well-equipped to listen to and care for those who are poor, hungry, sad and hated. Let us hope and pray that as we feed ourselves on God’s good grace and listen to the needs of our neighbors, our woes will be turned into those blessed R’s. Amen.