Where do you stand?

 

Luke 6:17-26 is the lectionary text for Epiphany VI on February 13.

 After praying, Jesus selected the twelve Disciples (student followers) who would help Him carry out His mission in the world.

 Then, Jesus offered the Sermon on the Plain, in Luke a level place.  The people came to hear Him, be healed and encounter God.  His reputation was well established.  He taught things, different things than they were used to hearing under empire – things of life, of sustainable life and well-being for all.  And He did things that restored lives and brought Shalom (completeness, wholeness and well-being) to all.

 Then, He turned to His disciples and shared how life in the Kingdom IS and IS TO BE.  Those who have been accursed under empire are blessed and shall know the extent of God’s blessings as life is turned around for them.  He laid out God’s plan, after having proclaimed His mission in His hometown Synagogue already.  It would mean a turn-around in this part of God’s Kingdom, as God’s Will was being done on earth as in heaven.  This turn-around would mean great change, a re-distribution of resources and a change in the values of people and their consequent behaviors with one another.  It would mean life restored for some, life renewed and life saved for many.

 Because in the Kingdom of God, according to Jesus... 

    The poor are blessed.  God’s Kingdom belongs to them.  They have suffered enough under empire, and God will restore all that has been kept away from them and taken away from them by the ruthless.

    The hungry are blessed.  God’s Kingdom will provide enough, finally.  Empire kept them hungry, took all their resources and made it impossible for them to feed, clothe, house their families adequately.  But in God’s compassion, they would finally have enough.

    The weepers are blessed.  Those who themselves, and whose sons and daughters had been marginalized, disenfranchised from having a decent life, abused, falsely imprisoned, cut down in their youth are blessed by God, and God’s justice will prevail.

   Those who are dismissed, discriminated against and discarded for sharing the Good News of Jesus in the face of empire are blessed.  God blesses those who preach, teach and live Love and Grace in the world, and this Good News of Love and Grace will change the world.  Like the prophets of old who were dismissed, ignored and mocked, even killed by those who did not want to hear God’s Will or live it, those who share the Will of God with the world are blessed.

 But if things get turned around, some will not be happy.  Those who have been on top will NOT be happy.  Those who have exploited, manipulated, ruthlessly abused and litigated through their power to promote themselves at the expense of God’s children will not be happy when God turns things around.  That is why they fight so hard to stay on top, to desperately hold on to false claims of their superiority, their entitlement to privilege and their positions of power and wealth.  When God’s Kingdom comes and God’s Will is done on earth as in heaven, ALL will have ENOUGH… so, they will lose their positions of privilege above others and have the same levels of power, equal status and similar wealth in order that ALL of God’s children may have enough and have Shalom.  They fiercely attack those who would see just, equitable and fair life conditions for all, because they have benefitted so much and for so long from the systems of empire that have been unjust, inequitable and unfair.  They have been the beneficiaries of complex systems of economics and politics that have been created to keep them in positions of power and wealth above others, and the purveyors of those systems.  When God’s Kingdom comes and God’s Will is done on earth as in heaven, that is all gone.  They must learn to be satisfied with enough, equal power and equal status.  Woe is them.

 They have had it so good for so long, that it will seem as if they have no consolation when Kingdom comes.  It must change, and they will not be happy.  They have had abundance at the expense of others for so long, that they may actually sometimes have some hunger, and will certainly hunger for their opulent abundance.  They have laughed at the weeping of others for so long, but will now cry tears of shame, and perhaps for the first time in their lives experience real loss.  They may even weep because they feel the losses of other human beings, having the objects of their obsession with wealth and power stripped away.  They may weep because they actually have a value for other human beings and feel it when they are lost to them.  They have had empire society’s admiration and adulation for so long, but now will feel the loss of their status at the top, because people find the value for one another more fully, and stop valuing some above others for their ostentatious excesses of power and wealth, and their false superiority over others.

 How will you feel about it?  When God’s Kingdom comes and God’s Will is done on earth, as in heaven, will it seem like a breath of life to you, or a devastating loss?  Under empire and the systems of empire, there are those with wealth, power and status and those at whose expense they have been gained.  Where you are in empire’s insidious “pecking order” will determine how you receive the Kingdom of God.  Will you be relieved?  Will you be happy for those who are finally having a good life restored or for the first time established for them?  Will you be resentful that your privilege has been stripped away?  Will you be horrified that you are equally valued among God’s children?  Will you be mortified that you have less opulent wealth on which to sit, or the limitless means by which to gain always more?  Or will you be jubilant because there is justice, equality, equitability and the well-being and peace that come with them?

 Jesus promises to turn things around in this part of God’s Kingdom, here and now.  Does that make you want to follow Jesus and welcome the turn-around, or reject what Jesus stands for in the Gospels and continue to give devotion to empire and its gods?  Will you welcome God’s Kingdom come and God’s Will done on earth as in heaven, or fight it tooth and nail while claiming to love God out of a belief that that is enough to get the ultimate reward in the end?  Where do you stand on Jesus’ Way, on God’s Way in this part of God’s Kingdom, here and now?

Pastor Jamie