Let us pray: God of love and life, enliven these words, speak to our hearts of the fullness of life found in relationship with you. Amen.
At this point in Jesus’ ministry, word has really begun to spread, and people are coming from all over, Luke tells us it was a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. Everybody, Jews and Gentiles from all around were coming to see and hear and, if they were lucky, touch or be touched by this amazing new teacher. Luke says they had come to hear him and be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. Jesus taught them, healed and restored them, and cured them from spiritual and mental angst. And get this next line from Luke: And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Power came out from him and healed all of them, all of them! Wow! What is going on here? Jesus is demonstrating divine power, love, and restoration to everyone, everyone! And after this amazing, loving care, healing liberation and restoration, Jesus begins to teach laying out a radical new way of understanding our human lives on this earth.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”
To be poor is to be blessed? Yes, says Jesus. If you are poor, poor in what you own or don’t own, or poor in spirit, lacking, struggling, then, Jesus says, the Kingdom of God is yours. You’re close, SO much closer than others, to the Kingdom of God, to relationship with the divine, to blessings and reliance and satisfaction with the little you do have. With our things out of the way we can more easily turn to God and rely on God’s loving care. You may feel like you are at the bottom, but Jesus says that you own the whole kingdom! When we’re feeling low and down and like we don’t have much at all, Jesus reminds us that the whole Kingdom is ours through our relationship with the divine.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
When people want for food, or want for direction, or guidance, or justice, they are blessed? Yes! Because they WILL be filled. They will find what they are looking for. God will provide for their needs. They will find satisfaction, what they were seeking, what they were hungering for will be found in relationship with their loving God. You may be hungry now, but you WILL be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”
To weep and mourn in sadness is a blessing? Yes! Through God, and with God, and our Christian community, we are not alone in our grief and sadness. God, in Jesus, knows our human suffering and walks with us in it and through it all. Nothing, nothing, can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Jesus promises that we WILL find joy and laughter again. Psalm 30 reminds us that weeping may endure the night, but joy comes in the morning!
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets."
We’re blessed when people hate us, exclude us, insult us and spread rumors about us? Yes! When it’s because we’re acting in love and compassion and out of care for ourselves, for others, and for creation as followers of Jesus, yes. While others may put us down, God picks us up and smiles at our efforts to seek and serve Christ in everyone, to work for justice and peace, and to respect the dignity of every human being. God is the great INCLUDER, inviting and reminding us of our beloved status as children made IN love, BY love and FOR love. In God’s family EVERYONE belongs!
These were radical notions for people in Jesus’ time, and they continue to be radical and countercultural today. But this is the kindom or kinship that Jesus came to show and that he announced with his mission statement in the synagogue at Nazareth. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
This work of following Jesus in our world is not easy, but it is good and right and just. It is healthy and life-giving, working together for the good of all people and for the good of our planet. And while we may feel at times as if we are lacking, remember that the kinship of God is ours, and while we may be weeping, mourning and grieving our losses, we WILL find joy and laughter again, and when people do or say mean things to us, take heart, God is with us! And remember that we are not alone in being criticized for caring and loving and sharing with others, all those who came before us faced the same abuse, if not worse. We are connected to them and with them in the great cloud of witnesses, showing and sharing God’s loving-kindness for all of God’s children and all of God’s creation. Blessed are we! Amen.
