Today is Super Bowl Sunday. I jokingly asked Rev. Jim if there was a special opening acclamation for today reflecting this great event. Of course not! BUT I did find a website entitled Game Day Prayers. There are pre-game prayers, prayers for pizza delivery guys, half time prayers, and remaining minutes prayers (one entitled Hail Mary), after game prayers, and even Monday morning prayers for the party goers trying to make it to work. NONE of these will find their way into my sermon this morning nor will be prayed by me during the game.
So, we will focus on our readings this morning.
Remember when we were younger, and things were so much simpler? Everything was pretty black and white back then. The differences between right and wrong were easy to clarify. Remember in middle school when we studied that smoking was bad and we swore we would NEVER do that! Nor would we EVER drink alcohol. The only people with Tattoos were service men and women and they had earned every bit of that ink! And gosh forbid that anyone had extra piercings except in the earlobe!
I know I spoke about my son in my last sermon, but I have another story. He is now 30 years old and there are so many stories I could tell. But one that fits today is the time he taught me one of many, many lessons that we parents know only our children can do!
One Sunday after hearing a particularly moving sermon at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Walker and I had a great discussion about loving our neighbors and who that is. We talked about how Jesus calls us to love the least and the lost, those who are having a hard time finding their way. And how at school, students can be so mean to others who are different.
Well, it didn’t take him long to act upon exactly what we had discussed. Two weeks later, he brings home a boy from school who was having trouble at home. His parents were always fighting and he was struggling with doing well in school because home had become such a place of turmoil. I was fine with his coming over to do his homework until I noticed, well, the safety pin stuck right through his eyebrow. Really! I mean, I didn’t even know that eyebrows could fall off!
I went immediately into judging him based on, well, that safety pin. In other words, his appearance. But my son set me straight.
“But mom,” he said, “ he has no friends and really needed someone to just take him as he is.” I always say, I preach the gospel, but he walks it!
You know, we like making things into an either or, a right or a wrong. Even as adults, we fall into this dual type of judgement. Richard Rohr calls this dualistic thinking. And it is so easy to do. I would guess we are all secret judgers at one time or another. We like thinking that we have it all figured out, and of course we know what is right. That’s why it would be so easy to teach legalism today, that, this is Godly and that is not. Do this and you will please God. Do that and, oh boy, you are in trouble! But if I did, I would be wrong. Scripture, of course, is not that simple. It is meant to be difficult and to challenge our way of thinking. Just as Jesus did time and time again with his great reversals.
This morning’s readings are not about judgement, about who is going to heaven and who is not. Our lesson today is about trust. Trusting in God.
Our gospel reading from Luke is often referred to as the “sermon on a level place” (Luke 6:17-49) and is one of the longest teaching discourses in the Gospel of Luke. Most of us are familiar with Matthew’s portrayal of the Beatitudes that Jesus delivers from a mount. He spends three chapters on this sermon and uses more spiritual filled language. However, Luke has a different theological point and uses a different geographical place to support it.
I want to go back to chapter 5 when Jesus called his first apostle, Simon Peter, to become a “fisher of people.” The rest of Ch 5 sees Jesus teaching those who follow him. He first heals a leaper, one of the most unclean during this time. Next he encounters a paralyzed man and says he is healed because of his faith. And then, a big one. He sits down to eat with Levi, a tax collector. After each of these encounters, Jesus says, Come, follow me. And Jesus continues teaching, answering questions about fasting and anything that is asked of him until we finally arrive at Chapter 6. So, the stage is set. Jesus has used his serving and loving people who represent the lowest of the community. To teach those who follow him what his ministry is all about not to judge but to love and that at our best and at our worst, we should put our trust in God.
And so, this morning, we find that Jesus has gone up a mountain to pray. And while he is there, he chooses his 12 apostles from among his followers: average men who live average lives. And then he comes down from a high place and stands at a level place among a great crowd of seekers who have come from all over to hear Jesus, and see him heal and maybe be healed. They wanted to see and touch him because there is great power in what he says and what he does. Coming down to speak to the seekers on this level place has great significance for the readers of this story. For Jesus has come down from on high to walk among the broken and sinful, to eat with them and rest with them and to teach them. The word “level” in scripture often refers to places of corpses, disgrace, idolatry, suffering, misery, hunger, annihilation, and mourning . Jesus teaches the way of the Kingdom in the midst of the world as such a level place.
And so, he stands with this great crowd of disciples, of devotes, in addition to the 12 he has chosen. And he begins to teach those who were his followers.
These are the very first words recorded that he says to his apostles and to the great crowd that gathered, so they must be important. I think he’s describing what the world would look like if people really followed him. He’s giving us an upside-down version of reality that turns middle-class morality on its head. And note that he is using present tense: Yours IS the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who ARE… We are in the kingdom now.
Blessed are you who are poor.
What a strange thing to say. Does anyone really think today that those who struggle are blessed? I don’t think so. Most of us are enthralled by capitalism and think it is the rich who are blessed. Some have even turned the Gospel into a “prosperity” message—that if we have enough faith, God rewards us with financial success. This certainly is not what Jesus is saying here!
Blessed are you who are now hungry.
Jesus seems to be teaching that we need to choose at least a bit of dissatisfaction—which is the human situation anyway—so that we long for God. God alone is the One who will finally satisfy us.
Blessed are you who weep now.
Weeping does not sound like a very positive thing, but people who have gone through major grief often tend to be more compassionate, more forgiving and understanding. Somehow, grief softens the heart.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of Jesus.
Talk about an upside-down universe! I’m not happy when people don’t like me—and I am sure that there are some who may. But Jesus is saying that we have to find our happiness somewhere other than in people’s opinions about us. If we do not, it is just up and down, constantly assessing, who likes me today? If we want to build our life on a solid foundation, we need to base it on God who loves us unconditionally, constantly, and without exception. Then we do not go up and down. We know who we are now and forever. (Adapted from Richard Rohr, “What the World Would Look like If Jesus’ Worldview Was in Control,” homily, February 17, 2019.)
Then what follows are the Woes, the ones that folks use to make us feel guilty if our lives seems to be so easy. But following in the same idea of Jesus’ teaching the reverse of what most believe, Jesus tells us that those who are rich, well fed, filled with laughter and beloved are not necessarily so because they are favored by God. We need to remember even those who seem to have wealth, suffer too. They may not be hungry for food but may be hungry in spirit. Jesus is also teaching that when our lives are on solid ground, we are to still focus on God’s kingdom by showing our gratitude and using our gifts to help those who are still struggling to find their way.
The rich are not favored nor are the poor being punished. We are being asked to live our lives, no matter our situations, knowing that God is walking with us. The world can be a hard place. And kingdom work is hard. But we will endure knowing that while we are living in God’s kingdom that he has created, we cannot control other people’s actions. And if we live the way of love that he teaches, then we will be able to live our best lives, trusting in God, turning to God and leaning on God always.
I would like to end with a prayer written by Thomas Merton. Let us pray:
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, will I trust you always though I may seem lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen”
Sources
Lectionary Lab Live PODCAST for the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany Year C.
John Fairless and Delmer Chilton.
Richard Rohr, What the World Would Look like If Jesus’ Worldview Was in Control,
homily, February 17, 2019.)