The prophets and Jesus placed a stark contrast between fidelity and idolatry, vulnerability and power, those who were poor and poorly and those successful in acquiring the spoils of this world. (Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; and Luke 6:17-26.) And the prophets and Jesus were clear that the kingdom of God was among those not on the winning or powerful side of his time and presumably in our time. And our newsfeed seems to echo this.
In the gospel of Luke, it is a reoccurring refrain that the message Jesus brought to life was good-news for the poor. It was not simply that he was going to feed and heal people so that poor individuals had a slightly happier life than they otherwise might have, although he did that, but that his life and message was to be an overthrowing of the way society functioned and determined value. “He was to bring down the powerful from their thrones, and lift up the lowly; he was to fill the hungry with good things, and send the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53) Nothing less than a reversal of how things were in the first century. And as our reading from Jeremiah shows us in keeping with the long-held warning of God through the prophets.
If we can image the situation, or context, in which these words about strange blessings and woes were spoken. This is relatively early in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus had come out of the wilderness and then wandered around preaching and healing and gathering a group who travelled with him. Immediately before this teaching Jesus had spent the time up a mountain praying. When he came down the mountain, he chooses twelve from among the many disciples who were with him. And with the disciples, the many and the twelve, he finds a level space in the midst of great crowds come for his teaching and his healing and he speaks to his newly chosen disciples – many of whom had left everything behind to follow him – and proclaims that this throng of broken, hurting humanity is blessed! Not simply that they will be blessed after he’s performed various miracles of feeding and healing but that their state of poverty and hunger and mourning make them blessed.
What is Jesus really saying? Why is it blessed to be poor, hungry or mourning? And to make it even clearer or more confounding why is succeeding in conventional ways a woe or a curse!?! Well I think at least three things are being pointed to.
Firstly, is that the way the powerful in the world does life and ascribes value is not how God sees things and therefore all has to be reversed or turned upside down and inside out! And this will and does put Jesus and his disciples then and now on a collision course with those who benefit from having successfully gained influence and wealth from how things are! Jesus was not proclaiming himself as an alternative emperor or king but as a herald of the kingdom of God.
Secondly, Jesus is proclaiming his ministry and revolutionary purpose among those most in need of this change and for whom this is good news! These words not only bring comfort and encouragement but also bring loving-kindness and hope into the forgotten and desolate places in the community and in the hearts and minds of God’s people. And Jesus is inviting his newly chosen disciples into this challenging understanding and beginning to reconfigure their previous way of understanding life. Jesus is demonstrating and teaching on the job, in the midst of real need and desire.
And thirdly, I suspect the reason that this particular aspect of the good news of Jesus is shared first among the poor and poorly is because in those who did not benefit from the status quo there was an openness and a hunger for a different vision of God and God’s purposes for the world. The poor had less to lose and everything to gain from such a radically different perspective. The poor were not as attached to the way things are as those who benefited from it.
So, what are we to make of this in our time and place? We may look at our newsfeed and decide that the overly wealthy and powerful are the clearly bad guys and we the ones who are blessed in our ordinary lives. Or we might see ourselves as bystanders watching with horror and fascination and trying to rescue and offer encouragement from the side lines? And that is probably true in some international political and economic sense. But of course, in our complex interconnected world, in the spiritual life, we are never really on the sidelines. And no matter how humble we think our lives are, by world standards most of us are incredibly wealthy and powerful. So, this teaching is for us.
We are challenged and encouraged in several ways I believe. Firstly, that as followers of Jesus we are called to desire and work for a radically just and merciful and generous overturning of any oppressive regime whether that is far away or in our very own country, work place or community. How we go about that is a matter of personal courage, decision and resources. We are called individually and collectively to work for and welcome in the reign of God.
Secondly, I think we can be comforted and reassured that we are given hope and blessing in the very lost, broken, shameful and hurting parts of our life. It is where we are in need of healing, sustenance, comfort and justice that God’s love most wants to set up home. Or as beloved Leonard Cohen put it: There is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in.
And thirdly we are invited to let go of our attachment to success, pride, wealth, power. And how might we do that? – break the habit and addiction of our hearts and minds? Life will often do that to us through great love and great suffering but we can participate in our own undoing and refining. The psalmist said it this way: rather than following the advice of the wicked or misguided, or taking the path of the sinners and scoffers, we are advised to meditate upon the law. Which I suspect does not narrowly mean thinking about the moral code (good though that can be time to time) but to spend time immersed in the presence of our loving God reflecting on the good news of God as expressed in word and deed by Jesus.
The good news of love and healing, abundance and mercy, joy and thriving for all, is to be what guides our life decisions, direction and practices. And because there is a trillion-dollar industry dedicated to connecting our desires (discovered through market research) to particular products, political platforms, and practices, it takes a steadfast and committed practice to turn instead to the wisdom of God as our guiding lamp.
Let us be grateful for what is broken and lets the light of God in. Let us trust that what breaks our hearts shall be our healing. Let us believe that what feeds our hunger for justice and mercy shall feed also our souls. Let us discern your kingdom even now in your world and in our hearts.
Even so, come Lord Jesus the Christ, come set up your kingdom in our hearts as we are where we are.
This is my work informed by everything I have heard, read and experienced. I am indebted to the wisdom of others. This week I am especially grateful to:
Sally Douglas & Fran Barber, Pilgrim Theological College, https://bythewell.com.au/episodes/c210-epiphany-6
John T Squires: “On Poverty, Jesus, and the Gospel of Luke (for Epiphany 6C)” An Informed Faith www.johntsquires.com
