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Epiphany VI, February 15, 2004
Sermon based on Luke 6:17-27 (RCL Series C) by David Zersen

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He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. Looking at his disciples, he said:

Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of god. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. (NIV)

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Recently a mother wrote to me that if it came down to “brass tacks,” she didn't care if her son had a career. She merely hoped that he would be happy. Happiness seems to be one of those ultimate goals that parents have for children, as well as children for themselves, but we all tend to define it in different ways. I suspect this has always been the case, and today's text has a strange definition of its own. Happiness or blessedness (Greek, makarios) is assumed for those who are poor, hungry, sorrowful and hated! What kind of happiness could that be? This is a brave new world indeed!

In many respects, it's difficult for English-speaking readers/hearers to understand such a world because at least the physical circumstances of our lives are a good bit different from the majority of those who lived in Jesus' day. Then it was typically assumed that life was meant to be tough in this age, but in the age to come circumstances would approve dramatically. This week I was translating a Sorbian Wanderlied or Pilgrim's Song which expressed those same sentiments for people in the last century. Often sung by immigrants who were leaving their homeland for a new world, the words also suggested that all are wanderers on the face of the earth traveling toward God's final destination. If trouble and pain are experienced now, sang the words of the song, Jesus is the staff and stay leading on.

From Luke's standpoint, Jesus is, however, talking about a new age which is dawning right now. Reversals will take place in that new age because of what happens to the people who enter it. For that reason, the poor can expect to be cared for, the hungry to be fed, the sorrowing to be comforted and the hated to be affirmed. Happy are they!

Heaven on earth

Some who hear these words in our time assume that Jesus is merely talking about heaven. “Oh sure, that will all happen in the sweet bye and bye!” This is not how Luke under-stood it, however. He assumed, as Mary sang it in the Magnificat (Lk. 1:51 -53) that God “….. has put down the mighty from their seats and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away” For that reason, he can have Jesus say “Happy are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God .” Here and now!

How can that be? In the new kingdom, that sphere of activity among people in which God's love has its way, things are simply different. Great equalizations take place; new balances occur. There are pockets of such activity all over the world and it's important that we lift our sights to remember the initiatives of mercy in our urban metropolises in the U.S. and in humble villages in Africa: The food pantries, the thrift shops, the Salvation Army dormitories, the free clinics, the co-op child-care programs, the Christian Children's Fund adoption programs, the ACLU services, yes even the controversial Planned Parenthood offices. There are people in desperation everywhere, and have always been. Jesus wants to assure them that where he and his disciples in the new dawning age of God's love are present, there happiness reigns.

I realize that this is a deeply spiritual message, and that it's not a popular thing for Christians to mix religion and politics. However, I am stunned about the way in which Christians in this present electoral process in the U.S. have allowed Jesus' aggressive concern for the outcast and unacceptable to be replaced with a paranoid concern for saving our skins from terrorists and maniacal dictators. Perhaps if we, at least those of us who are Christians, would seek to show more of our love among those who have so little in the Middle East , if we would take the offensive in this way, we would not have to spend so much time and money being defensive in our current way. It is clear from Jesus' words that the poor, the hungry, the suffering and the hated are to be happy because of the way they have come to experience heaven on earth in God's dawning kingdom. That can happen only where you and I are at work with God's love in Jesus.

Encouraged to be Christ-like

Of course, the other side of this story is our own motivation to provide the care, food, comfort and love which makes God's poor, hungry, sorrowful and hated feel happy. I wonder why we have not responded to such opportunities with more enthusiasm. This week happens to be the 40 th Anniversary of the first historic appearance of the Beatles in the U.S. (on the Ed Sullivan Show). I listened to an interview with one of the Beatles who was talking about the point at which appearances became mere screaming exercises. In those days, frenzied teenagers infected one-another with their hysteria and no one heard the singing any more. They only heard one-another scream. In a moment of madness, I thought to myself, what if Christians were so taken by their love for those in need that they dropped everything which they previously considered to be important and gave all their time in service to the poor, hungry, sorrowful and hated?! Perhaps they could scream all they want as they did it, but the point would be that they were hysterically, fanatically, happily committed to something they valued so highly that they couldn't be stopped. What could make that happen?

Clearly it happens for those who know themselves to have been forgiven, who have found the pearl of great price, who have been invited to the wedding, who through faith in Jesus belong to the new creation, to the new world of God (Jeremias, The Sermon on the Mount , p. 32). This can happen only in those who know themselves to have been claimed as God's children, who believe they belong to him forever, and have no fear in stepping out in bold Christ-like ventures. The Beatitudes proceed from attitudes.

Throughout history there have been people who have responded to God's claims and have been encouraged to become what only God can help them become. I am often depressed by preaching, prayers and confessions which give no quarter to the spiritual growth of such disciples. One sometimes has the impression in a worship service that the pastor assumes that no one has ventured into the deep from a given assembly of believers, that God's grace has not effected a modicum of faith-filled response since the last confession, and that no poor and hungry, sorrowing and hated have been noticed or attended to since the last jeremiad. Surely you know, in your heart of hearts, when those moments came, when you reached out in love. Those moments need to be celebrated now, even as we acknowledge our failures, because they prove that God is alive and at work in you. And such moments need to be encouraged more and more as we seek daily to realize the dawning power and presence of God's redeeming love at work in our lives.

Here already, now already

We can't forget that there are those cryptic words in the text about “woes:” Woe to the rich, the satiated, the laughing and the well-regarded! Is it really bad to be in such states? Remember the reversal which people used to assume about the current age and the new one? That if the poor, hungry, sorrowful and hated are going to have their circumstances changed in that age which is already dawning, then those who already have everything will likely end up with nothing. That is, of course, true, only if those who are so contented with life as they find it that they, trusting in their mastery of life in this world, seek no God, and thus are unlikely to find him. Woe to them!

But of course there was Aliosha, Jean Val Jean, Florence Nightingale, John D. Rockefeller, and many in your acquaintance, and many of you as well, who, blessed with this world's goods, did not lose their way in self-centered hedonism (woe to you!). God's love found you out and claimed you for itself, here already, now already. And with all your heart, you have come to believe that even if the goal of the American or Australian way of life is affluence or self-aggrandizement (just getting rich), the goal of the Christian's life is being rich toward others (blessed are you)! And if it takes a screaming session to let everybody know about it, or at least one bold hymn of praise, let's be up for it now.

Prof. Dr. Dr. David Zersen, President Emeritus
Concordia University at Austin
Austin , TX
dzersen@aol.com

 


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