The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C
A few weeks ago we passed out a copy of the Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel. The Beatitudes at the start of Jesus’ sermon on the mountain in Matthew is a powerful call to the values of the Kingdom of God when the values of the world seem to threaten to undermine what we know as truth, mercy, righteousness, and love.
Today we got Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. Luke is a here-and-now evangelist; his telling of the Beatitudes of Jesus goes straight to how the Beatitudes are meant to be Good News now, for real flesh-and-blood people.
The Gospel is good news for the poor, now. The Gospel is good news for the hungry, now. The Gospel is good news for those who mourn, now. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus cuts through any attempt to make the Kingdom of God a “pie in the sky” sort of image that promises change only in another world, in another lifetime.
In Luke’s telling, the Gospel has a bite to it. The Gospel is not here to make everyone feel happy, the Gospel is not here to proclaim a wisdom that can be reconciled to the world around us. In Luke’s telling, the Gospel makes a difference right here, right now.
In the Kingdom of God, Luke says, the poor inherit the Kingdom of God itself. In the Kingdom of God, the hungry are filled and those who mourn will laugh. In the Kingdom of God, those who are persecuted for standing up for Christ and for all that is good and right, those people will leap for joy because they know that the whole company of prophets is ready to welcome them in the everlasting life. The Kingdom of God is the goodness of eternity breaking into the world, the Kingdom of God is breaking up the worldliness that holds us down.
But in Luke’s telling, Jesus does not stop there. The bite of the Gospel now turns to the worldliness that holds us down.
The rich? Woe to them – they have their money, they already have their consolation. Why would they want the Kingdom of God anyway? They already possessed what was the most important thing to them.
The full? Woe to them – they’re still going to hunger the next day. And the next. They’re human beings – having all the resources in the world will not solve the problem that is being a mortal human being.
The jubilant with their boisterous laughter? Woe to them – I think of internet trolls who write all manner of hateful and nasty things to get a rise out of others and retreat to their smug laughter. At some point they’ll recognize that such condescension has left them just as alone as ever.
The people who get praise and honor and celebrity? Woe to them – they’re getting what they wanted in this life, even if it meant lies and flattery were all that they spoke.
The values of the Kingdom of God, the values of the Gospel don’t just replace the values of this-worldliness. The values of the world get smashed in order to liberate us from their falsehoods and limitations.
When the world tries to trap us into thinking that the goal in life is to be wealthy? Smash! The Gospel smashes that trap and invites us to love God and the Kingdom of Heaven more.
When the world tries to trap us into believing that we can smother our human limitations with more things, more materialism, more consumerism? Smash! The Gospel smashes that trap too. We are human beings, we are mortal human beings, and our fulfillment is in loving God and our neighbor.
When the world tries to trap us into smug superiority and cycles of anger and heartless laughter? Smash! The Gospel smashes it and says to mourn with those who mourn and weep over the ways we have not done what God has called us to do.
When the world tries to trap us with thinking fame and popularity mean anything at all, the Gospel smashes our way to freedom. If we can’t say anything of value, if all we do is flatter and lie, then all our words are meaningless, and so are the words of praise, too.
Luke’s telling of the Beatitudes wants nothing less for us than complete freedom. It wants us to be free to follow Jesus in everything, and it does not want the values of this-wordliness to trap us.
This is the power of the Resurrection. If the Resurrection is just a nice story, a happy metaphorical ending, then the values that are on display in the world seem to always have the upper hand. But if the Resurrection is true, which it is, then there is no power on this earth that can contain or stop the Kingdom of God. The Resurrection is a promise that the Kingdom of God is worth dying and living for.
The Kingdom of God where all God’s creatures belong – where all are fed, where all rejoice together, where truth is spoken and love abounds. The Kingdom of God is worth living for. It’s worth the hard work of loving God and loving our neighbor, of aligning our hearts with God’s values. The Kingdom of God is worth dying for – to stand for more than our own lives, to stand for the eternal life of Christ, to live so boldly that the worst that this world can throw at us will not dissuade or distract us from doing what is right.
The Beatitudes give us a glimpse into the Kingdom of God, and Jesus wants us to follow him in the Kingdom’s way of life. Do we want to live the freedom of the Kingdom, or do we want to enslave ourselves to the world? Which way do we want to choose to go? And we must choose. Amen.