Last week, Scott made some references to the Super Bowl. I had to look it up to make sure I had the right sport. Yes, it seems to be football season. I have to admit, that I am “sportifically challenged”. I’m just not into most sports. I grew up in New York city, where the only sport my family followed was baseball, and I was a skinny little kid with a gimpy leg, so I never got chosen to be on anyone’s team. But standing on the sidelines can be fun. Watching on TV gives you a glimpse of the spectators.
Sometimes, they jump up and down. Depending on where you are, they may wave banners, or even shout rude words. Sports can be highly emotional, and people really get their bodies into it, even if they are just sitting at home in front of the TV.
Today’s readings in Luke and the psalms are a little like watching tennis. They go back and forth, back and forth, between blessings and curses, happiness and woe, good and evil, righteous and wicked, until we are ready to say “OK, enough! I get the point.”
They trouble us, these readings. They seem so unyielding, so constraining, so – black and white. And we know, as members of a liberal denomination, that we don’t want to think that way.
Many of the Hebrew Scripture readings come from the ancient Wisdom Tradition. It tells us that people who follow God’s ways are blessed, and happy, and that those who do evil, or turn away from God, will be cursed and miserable. These passages use contrasting images like healthy trees and stunted shrubs, a green land and a desert, to reinforce the argument. The message is too simple, really. We may feel that it hasn’t got much to say to us today. It helps to know that some of this is simply the way Hebrew poetry works. Contrasts, repeats and poems that are anagrams are part of the artistic form, and they are brilliant.
So we can relax as the Gospel is read. Surely, Luke has something more “modern” in mind. Well, he does put all the blessings first, and the woes later, so that we won’t have to go back and forth and get dizzy, but basically, he says the same things. It’s his foundational message: the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, the despised, who have maintained their faith in God, will triumph over the rich, the pampered, the scornful, the social climbers, who have depended only on human endeavors to find pleasure. Even though his version of the Beatitudes is shorter and less elegant than the one we usually hear, from Matthew, it packs a wallop as Luke gets his message across.
We are right back where we started. Blessings and curses, good and evil. Somehow, today, Scripture wants to hang on and pester us. We are not sure what to do about this. We may feel as though God is forcing us into a corner, and we don’t want to take sides.
Usually, I don’t like to take sides, I prefer to consider several options, and come to a compromise. It’s not a win-lose situation, it’s God’s work. I’m the world’s worst bridge player, because I just like the tactics, and I don’t care if I win or not. Bridge partners are not always happy with this. My favourite sport is really chess.
In the United Church, we like to think that we are flexible rather than rigid, and we find it important to make room for changing social conditions. What is thought to be evil, or just unacceptable, one day, is OK the next, because circumstances change. Issues like divorce, birth control, accepting other faiths as legitimate, electing people who are of different cultures, racial backgrounds or, sexual orientation, letting women vote, or even be ministers, welcoming children to communion, including and listening to youth at meetings, have become commonplace for us.
We look at the Gospel passage, and we freeze. We have an identity crisis! Are we the poor, or the rich, the oppressed or the oppressor? We don’t know if we are the privileged or the despised. What team should we root for? Are we sitting on the correct side of the stadium? Are we wearing the right colours? Are we even at the right event?
Things were so simple in the good old days. You knew who was family and who was outsider. Friends and enemies were easily recognized, by their clothing, their language, their religious practises. You were either in agreement, or not. Your God and God’s law told you which was which. Now, we try to be inclusive, to be understanding, to accept differences and even celebrate them. Sometimes it’s hard to know where the boundaries lie, and when to take a stand.
Maybe what has happened is that we have fallen into a secular model of society and behaviour. We have trusted ourselves, and become independent of God’s ways. Our hearts are not with the Lord, and we inhabit a dry land. The way of the wicked, says the psalm, will perish. The ways of the world cannot bear fruit.
Well, we are not wicked, and we will bear fruit. Sometimes, though, we trust only our human judgement: we weigh the financial aspects first, and the compassionate aspects after. We ask “how much will this cost?” rather than “what is the benefit to society?” We put money before ministry needs, and ask “Can we afford this ministry?”
We don’t always take the time to pray; that heart-to-heart talk with God in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep. We don’t look at the light at the end of the tunnel, but get stuck on the darkness in the middle.
Debbie Thomas, writing in a weekly column called Journey with Jesus has a confession to make: “I might begin by admitting that Jesus is right. I might come clean about the fact that most of the time, I am not desperate for God. I am not keenly aware of God’s active, daily intervention in my life. I am not on my knees with need, ache, sorrow, longing, gratitude or love….After all, why would I be? I’m not in dire need of, well, anything.” “I am primed by my cozy life to live in the shallows, unaware of the treasures that lie waiting in the depths… I think what Jesus is saying in this Gospel is that I have something to learn about discipleship that my life circumstances will not teach me.” (DebieThomas,JourneywithJesus.net/essays/2089blessings-and-woes,Feb.17, 2019)
Jesus came down from the lofty heights of the mountain, and stood among the people, face to face, on a level plain. For Luke, God doesn’t live in a two-or three-story mansion. God has a single level bungalow plan for everyone.
People had come from all over, from Judea, Jerusalem, Tyre and Sidon. They came to be healed of disease and cured of unclean spirits.
And he took a look at all of this great crowd, this mixed bag of humanity, and he told them they were blessed, that the Kingdom of God belonged to the poor, that the people who were hungry would be nourished, that those who were in sorrow would find joy.
And then he looked around again, and told the truth to those who were rich, and powerful, and self-satisfied and uncaring. They would be brought down.
He identified with those who were in need, his words offered them living water: the promise that the dryness of their lives would change so that they could flourish and blossom.
These ideas are not original to Jesus. His mother Mary proclaimed this upside-down world before he was born, and she learned this message of reversal from the voices of the prophets.
God does not seem to let up, and won’t give up on us until the world becomes the place it was intended to be.
Frederick Beuchner tells us: “The world says, ‘mind your own business,’ and Jesus says, ‘there is no such thing as your own business.’ The world says ‘follow the wisest course and be a success,’ and Jesus says ‘follow me and be crucified’…the world says ‘law and order’ and Jesus says ‘love.’ The world says ‘get’ and Jesus says ‘give.’ In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot…” (cited in Journey with Jesus article)
Debbie Thomas reflects on this wisdom: “This is not prosperity theology. This is not ‘blessing’ as health, wealth and happiness. This is teaching so costly, so soul-rattling, so unpalatable, that most of us will do anything to domesticate or ignore it.” (Journey with Jesus, ibid.)
This may be a hard message to hear, for those who live in positions of privilege – and that includes many of us. God cares for and about the poor, the suffering, the disadvantaged.
Looking back and forth at this tennis match will find us standing on our heads. What should matter to us is not that one side wins, but that everyone shares in the benefits, that everyone shares the burdens, too.
These passages today invite us, entice us, call out to us with passion, to participate in God’s great plan, to contribute, not only our money, but our souls, to make the world a place of harmony, justice and peace. To distribute the blessings. That’s the only way we are going to survive. It starts with a change in attitude, a shift in your sense of purpose, a new understanding of what life is all about. It means looking at others with open hearts, and seeing in them a common humanity, a shared vision.
We can enjoy our lives, and keep our possessions. But we are asked, by God, to make sure that others know the same sense of security and peace that we have been granted.
Friends, the world is at tipping point, and it may seem as though a disproportionate number of nations are supporting governments and leaders who prefer competition rather than compromise, who are forcing us into a win-lose situation. Many of us are feeling discouraged, disoriented, depressed.
We are living under the shadow of imminent financial woes. I have to admit that for me, tariffs won’t be the end of the world. No one I know is in the steel or aluminum business. I can’t be fired, or laid off, because I am retired. I have a steady, albeit limited budget, and the worst thing that will happen is that I will be inconvenienced and annoyed when I shop for food. I don’t even drink beer!
I’ve participated in boycotts for many years, and I know that it can be difficult, but never impossible. My medications may have to be adjusted, purchasing plans may be delayed. Prices at the gas pump are going to get even worse. That’s about it economically. Yet I, like so many of us, feel helpless, hopeless, angry, confused and suddenly, I seem to have joined the ”have-nots”. And I worry about my grandchildren, in their mid to late twenties, who are just starting out in life.
Maybe what we think we need is reassurance and comfort, and a God who says “There, there, I will kiss the boo boo and make it all better.” And instead we get challenges and demands that we be the adults in the room instead of the kid with a scraped knee. Some mornings, I just want to pull the pillow over my head and go back to sleep. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow it will all be over.
Nope. No excuses. Roll up your sleeves, tighten your belts, and be prepared for the time to come. We are all being asked to keep on living, and how we do it means a lot to God.
As we stand face to face with Jesus, we are being called to care for one another, to look out for the poor, the people on the margins, the ill, the oppressed. The cure for our malaise is to give, not to get.
That may mean increasing your charitable contributions, because aid has been withdrawn by people who have more than enough to share. It may mean exploring new ways to help in the community, although Northwood already reaches out in wonderful, energetic ways.
We are in this together, and we will prevail. I find strength, as I did during covid, thinking about all the people in Britain in WWII, who just got on with it. Go to the library, and get the book “Jambusters”, about all the ways in which the Women’s Institute served the country. They did a lot more than just bottle twelve million jars of jam! Or read “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”, a novel about the Island of Guernsey which was occupied at the beginning of the war, and cut off from all communication with the outside world for five years. Practice creative defiance: Gently, without really breaking the rules, with humour, and faith, we can bring blessing to those who need it most.
We have to find ways to transform a time of vengeance and chaos into a new view of society, turn challenge into opportunity, dry land and withered souls into flowering gardens of beauty and promise.
This week, take a piece of paper, fold it in half. On one side, write blessings and on the other woes. Every day, put something that concerns or uplifts you into one of the columns. It’s your choice, how to react. Its your responsibility, your call, to make this work. For yourself, your family, your community, your church, your country. And we are not alone!
Jesus stands level with us, face to face, and tells us that there is still work to do. There are promises still to come. There are faithful choices still to be made. There are blessings to be shared. In a spirit of trust and anticipation, we continue to journey with Christ, so that all may grow in grace.