Jesus has done it again: offered a lesson so confounding that it makes little to no sense to our modern ears.
Blessed are the poor? The hungry? The weeping? The hated? Doesn’t sound so blessed to me.
Woe to the rich? The full? The joyous? The respected? Sounds divisive.
Love those who definitely don’t love you? What? How can we make sense of this?
To begin, it can be helpful to understand that Jesus was giving a master class about what it means to follow him – to his most dedicated students. He wasn’t talking to those who were simply curious about his path or those just getting to know him. This was a message for those who were all in; who said to Jesus, like our new members are saying to us, I am committed to walking in community with you.
In community.
Today’s scripture is a lesson about how to live in community. In a diverse community. Those who were listening to Jesus as he gave his Sermon on the Plain were poor and rich – and they were joining together to follow him in community with each other. How could people with such different experiences in life build their relationships with Jesus and each other?
In the culture of first century Palestine, to be poor, hungry, or suffering meant that you were out of favor with God. But, Jesus had an alternate view. From his perspective, the poor are not separate from God, but actually blessed, fully loved by a God who hears their cries and responds to their needs. Jesus wanted the poor in his community to have a different self-understanding in relation to God; not to think of themselves as “less than,” but as loved.
The rich followers of Jesus needed to rethink their perception of the poor, too: to see them as equally beloved of God as themselves; equally deserving of the blessings of this life. Jesus was saying to his rich followers, “Heh, look! In my community there will not be a division between poor and rich, between hungry and satisfied, because we are called to share with each other. In my community, you will need to share your wealth with the poor.” I wonder how that went over? It’s a tension that continues to this day.
Jesus also recognized that sometimes we feel happy and sometimes, sad. One day we feel up; the next we feel down. His challenge to those making a commitment to follow him is the same challenge we ask folks becoming members of this community: to be there for each other in both joyful and sad times. He’s saying, sure, we all love to get together when things are going well, when we have something to celebrate, but I want my followers to also be present to those who mourn. This is a “next level” kind of challenge.
Jesus knew that if his community of committed disciples was going to thrive, they would have to find a way to deal with conflict. Even among his closest disciples, not everyone always got along. Remember Judas? He was working his own agenda and wasn’t exactly best friends with the other people in Jesus’ inner circle. Like us, the disciples of Jesus had different personalities, different agendas, and different ways of responding to stress and conflict. (The TV show “The Chosen” does an excellent job of showing this.)
Not only was there conflict among the early followers of Jesus, there was conflict between the early followers of Jesus and the world. And, it wasn’t as if the mission of Jesus and his disciples was simply maintaining the religious, cultural, or political status quo. These people were reform minded, which led them into conflict with Jewish leaders, Roman leaders and often each other, day after day. This was no idealized community of sweetness and light. (Sometimes we come to church and think everyone should get along, everything should be nice; that this is a place I come where there are no problems, and we never bring up anything difficult, because this is just a place where everything is perfect and wonderful. That simply isn’t true. It wasn’t true in the time of the first disciples and it’s not true with us either. So we have to learn how to navigate conflict with skill and grace – which is what 30 of us were trying to do yesterday. Wow! What a day.)
If this new community of Jesus’ committed disciples was going to make it, his most advanced students needed to find new ways of understanding each other across difference: rich and poor, happy and sorrowful. They had to find a way to navigate conflict. They couldn’t resort to old judgements and habituated ways of responding to stress and conflict. What Jesus was asking of them was the ultimate in giving grace to each other: to love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. This mission was to be enacted not only in the world, but with each other.
Often we hear Jesus’ teaching to us through a lens of our own, individual spiritual journeys. That works up to a point. As followers of Christ, it is essential to understand that these lessons are about how we live in community. The way of Jesus is meant to be lived in community with others for the benefit of the common good. As modern people, we are apt to hear most everything from the perspective of me, myself, and I. To understand today’s lesson, we must shift from a perspective of “I” to “we.”
Christianity is a communal path. Jesus’ blessings and woes paint a picture of the whole of life in community that is just as true here at the AVC as it was in his day. People aren’t always on the same page. We don’t always get along perfectly. Conflict happens.
Jesus’ advanced teaching is a reminder that to live into the fullness of the Christian path, we need to pay attention to how we care for those people who we may see as enemies, who we think are giving us the business; who we may think hate us, curse us, and mistreat us; and to consider that sometimes we are the ones who treat others poorly, that we need mercy and forgiveness. We need to look inside and consider that maybe our approach to conflict is not helping. Maybe I’m avoiding, maybe I’m attacking, maybe I’m withdrawing. Maybe I’m part of the problem, too.
Though life in community can be a challenge, life in a Christian community, in a spiritual community, ought help us navigate life’s challenges with an even greater grace.
In a loving community, if I am poor, I know that someone will help me; if I am sad, I know someone will comfort me; if I am in the midst of conflict, that forgiveness and healing is possible. This is why membership in the AVC is about not only embracing the mission of the church, it is about embracing one another. About helping each other be saints we can be together.
Traditional on All Saints Day (All Souls Day and some traditions throughout the month of November) – to remember loved ones who have died (especially in the last year and beyond). Last week I learned that someone who had been a mentor to me, Rev. Roddy O’Neil Cleary, died in June of 2021. When I was a sophomore at the University of Vermont, her course on Women and Religion opened my world, sparked my imagination, helped me to see possibilities I had not seen before. Roddy was someone who was not only a person who was a groundbreaking educator, she was someone I could go to for counsel. She was someone I could go to with a broken heart or discern my future. In a time of personal crisis immediately after graduation from college, she and her husband Bill opened their home to me, as they did for countless young people in transition.
To be in Roddy’s presence was to be bathed in mercy and light. And she was also a persistent fighter for justice. Roddy gave me a Master Class in discipleship – not only because of her teaching, but because of her kind, merciful and loving presence. I know that I would not be standing here today, if it weren’t for her. I could never thank her enough for the way she shined her light on my path. Her example is one I return to again and again; someone so incredibly warm and loving who also persisted for justice. Just a remarkable woman.
In your life, who has shown you what God’s mercy looks like? Who has inspired you to be on the path to be part of a Christian community or spiritual community? Who has shown you that being a saint is possible? That being loving and kind when it is hard to do is possible? Who is someone in your life, living or dead, who has made a difference in your life; who maybe without them you wouldn’t be where you are? Those are the people we remember today. Those are the people we thank God for; those are the people many of us still talk to (whether they are physically here or not). That is one of the beauties of this time of year. In many traditions there is a sense that this is a liminal time, that the veil between this world and what comes next is very thin; that we are especially close to those who have passed into the eternal realms of love.
May the example of the saints, living and dead, inspire us to offer our loving hearts in community by the grace of God. Amen.