Other sermons.            Comments for Jim

The Gospel lesson this afternoon is from that portion of Luke called The Sermon on the Plain. Scholars tell us that Luke used the same source for this that Matthew used for the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) begins with the series of verses called the Beatitudes. Luke also has his beatitudes, but a comparison is useful. Matthew begins with Jesus saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Luke begins with Jesus saying, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." Interesting – not poor in spirit, but simply poor. And while Matthew makes a general statement, Luke has Jesus addressing his words directly to the poor. In Luke, Jesus is not talking about poverty of spirit, but poverty itself.

These blessings are good news, of course, whether they be for the poor in spirit or for the economically poor. But there is another significant difference in Luke. While in Matthew Jesus stops after he has completed his list of blessings, in Luke, he goes on to present a list of woes. And these woes are directed to the rich:

"But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
"Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry,
"Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep."

And where before, Jesus addressed a blessing to those who are excluded and hated, he now addresses those whom all speak well of with "Woe unto you."

I think there is a reason that we are much more comfortable with the Sermon on the Mount than we are with the Sermon on the Plain. That reason is that we much prefer the Jesus we see as a comforting spiritual teacher, the kindly and patient shepherd, to the Jesus who singles out the poor and excluded for good news, and the rich and popular for woe.

It is said that each of us has our own Bible of favorite verses we turn to within the larger Bible, our canon within the canon. And the hard verses that don’t fit our world-view, our perceptions of ourselves and reality, are conveniently ignored. When African people were brought to this country to suffer as slaves, they had never heard of the Bible or Jesus Christ. But the white slave owners were only too happy to make the Bible available to them. The Bible they taught stressed that if you suffer now you will be rewarded after death in Heaven, that slaves should obey their masters, and that the present social order is approved by God. But the Bible is an amazing book, and as more and more slaves learned to read, they read a different Bible. They learned of a God who heard the cries of the oppressed Hebrews and sent Moses to lead them out of bondage. They learned of prophets of social justice who hurled words of judgment upon the Hebrews who had themselves now become oppressors in the Promised Land. And they learned of a Jesus who began his ministry by quoting from the Prophet Isaiah, speaking of a God who came to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and liberation for the oppressed.

What are we to make of the words of Jesus in Luke 6 and also the blistering words of the Prophet Jeremiah? Let me briefly suggest several things:

First, God confronts a social order that is unjust. God says, "I see the gap between the rich and the poor. I see the injustice with which the poor are treated. I see the hypocrisy of the powerful. I see it and it is wrong and I am going to do something about it." That is what God says. Now the minute we hear that word, we may be inclined to set Luke aside and turn back to Matthew: that is, get more spiritual and less material. We have our reasons. We say that the rich suffer, too. How about a blessing for them, or at least a generous tax cut? After all, they suffer more, because they make more. Or we say that even if there is a gap between the rich and the poor, a rising tide lifts all boats and things are probably getting better. We have a general sense of the gap between the rich and the poor world wide, but know we can only do so much. But God’s answer to this is "No, that is all beside the point." God says, "You aren’t seeing things clearly. Your vision is clouded by your self-interest."

Apply this biblical vision to our lives as Americans. We are, for example, a gun-obsessed society. We have more guns per person and more gun violence here than anywhere else in the world. That is a fact. Yet, we have a long list of rationalizations and excuses. I was appalled that neither presidential candidate dared take on the gun lobby. We are a prison building, punishment loving, execution crazy culture. It’s a fact. What does it mean that at this moment, one out of every three black men in our society has connected with the criminal justice system? That means either prison, or arrest, or work release, or parolee, or ex-convict, or executed. And if we look closely we will notice that the lifestyle of the rich and famous rarely includes prison. Why is that? And more importantly, why do we just take that for granted as normal? The abominable Clinton pardons in his last days in office gave us all a glimpse of how the powerful take care of each other. The rich and powerful in any age have a tremendous capacity for self-delusion and self-preservation, as well as blindness to injustice. And we are no exception. But God is not fooled. God always sees the truth.

My next point is that God is doing something about it. And God is doing at least two things. First, God is in the process of taking those who are poor and excluded and blessing them and including them. And second, God is taking those who are rich and powerful, and separating them from their possessions and their capacity to oppress. The poor will be uplifted. And the rich will be brought low.

But here is something very important. One can look at history and conclude this: there have always been oppressors and the oppressed. Conditions get bad enough and eventually the poor rise up, have a revolution, become the ruling class, and then in their turn become the new oppressors. Is that not a lesson of history? The Russian Czar is overthrown by the Bolsheviks; who then, over time, become the new tyranny. Thirty years ago Robert Mugabe led Zimbabwe to independence and now is reviled in his own land as an oppressor.

But the Bible does not accept this as a fatal inevitability. God is not in the business of fostering the endless cycle of oppression, liberation, and new oppression. What God says is this: the poor and excluded will be blessed, sustained, and included. The rich will be removed from power, their riches taken from them, and given the opportunity for a new vision. And all are invited into the Realm of God. President Bush has suggested that those who criticize his proposed tax cut as rewarding the rich and punishing the poor, are engaging in class warfare. But he and other Christians need to be reminded that that is just the kind of biblical analysis that is called for by people of faith. God’s message of comfort to the afflicted is not a rallying cry to violent revolution, but a message that says, "You are somebody. You are worthwhile. You are created in the image of God." And God’s message to the rich and powerful is "You have become so attached to your wealth and possessions, that your vision is corrupted, and you cannot see the truth clearly. Because I love you, I will save you by detaching you from what is oppressing you – your wealth." And, of course, the central spiritual message of Jesus of Nazareth was of the inescapable necessity to choose between one’s wealth and the Kingdom of God.

This morning we celebrate the two sacraments of our Church – Baptism and Holy Communion. In these sacraments God’s message of blessing and woe becomes real. The baptism of Emerson this morning was not simply a celebration that God loves little children and pledges of family and church to care for her. In the deepest sense it represents the commitment of her parents and of our congregation to foster in her the transformed non-conformity that Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of. It is the spiritual obligation of us all to enable her, through nurture, education and loving attention, to see with the eyes of God and hear with the ears of God – to clearly see injustice when and where it occurs, and to hear the cries of the poor and oppressed. That is what baptism means. And in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, we are pledging to make our congregation itself the welcoming table of God’s presence. To this table we invite those have been excluded and hurt, but are now hearing words of blessing. And to this table we invite those who have heard a word of woe and heeded it, those who have experienced an amazing grace, and learned that God’s love comes to us even in the extremity of our self-delusion, rebellion, and wretchedness. Perhaps the truth is that each of us, during our lives, has both known woe and welcomed blessing. But the God of woes and the God of blessings is the same God; a God whose justice is abundant and generous, and whose love is constant and dependable. AMEN.

Back to Table of Contents.