Luke 6: 17-26

"He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for the power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then he looked up at his disciples and said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

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.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."

Sermon: "Playing On An Even Field"

There was quite a crowd around Jesus this day. The "level place" was filled with people who came to hear him, and those who came to be healed. It’s not easy to imagine what illnesses and problems they came with, because the scene is 2,000 years ago. We live in a different world. Two thousand years ago they didn’t have so many hospitals. They didn’t have the medicines, vaccines and technology that we have available today.

But we can imagine what a crowd like this would look like today. We see scenes of poverty on television. Most of our images of needy people come from television news clips, like the Indian earthquakes, and hurricanes in Texas. Or maybe we can remember the tv pictures of the United Nations Soldiers in Somalia a couple of years ago, bringing food to the starving people there.

Its amazing, with all the poverty and death in the world, that we don’t see more of it on tv. Actually, they don’t show the real suffering of the world very often. The pictures of dying children have been replaced with pictures that aren’t so hard to look at. Chubby children with dirt on their faces are easier to watch, so their faces are more frequent.

Its hard to even watch such pain on tv, let alone to get close by walking among the crowds. This says a mouthful about us, we who comprise this world.

Like the scene in the scripture, in Luke, where Jesus came down from the mountaintop to be on the level plain with this crowd. That tells us more about who Jesus is, than it tells us about who the people in the crowd are. It tells us that Jesus felt that his being there, among them, doing what he could, was more important that the risk of him catching an illness, more important than the discomfort of going home with sore feet and thirst, and the inner pain that comes from discouragement of being in the company of hurting, suffering people all day.

And what we choose to see, to think about and to do in this world says more about who we are than it does about the world we live in.

But then, Jesus always turns things upside down. Hear the words he spoke to them, and speaks to us;

"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 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.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets."

Boy, that’s not what most people think, is it? Most people don’t look at poor, hungry, crying, excluded people and say, Wow, are you blessed. Hey, leap for joy, you folks who work for $5.25 an hour and try to keep yourself a child warm, fed and healthy on $200 a week. I mean, if that child gets sick and needs to see a doctor, how will you take time off work to do that, and enough time to take the bus ‘cause you can’t keep a car going on $200 a week. And if you live in a rural area, forget about it. Yeah, tell that person they’re blessed!

But that’s what Jesus did. He went right in among them and said, things are changed in the kingdom of God. Its the people who have plenty and who don’t care a whig about you who are condemned, not you, and thats good news.

In fact, God cares especially about you when you hunger and hurt and are despised, and that makes you blessed. Can you feel it in your inner spirit, He asks them, can you sense how loved you are by our Father in heaven?

There is a sense of that in each of us, I trust, a sense of the truth of this teaching of Jesus. You know, sometimes it’s us who are in bad health, tired, scared, alone, feeling small and maybe even despised...when we relax and lean into that feeling, into being hurt by others or other forces, when we know that this life is full of trial and suffering,....its then that we are held close in God’s heart.

Thats when we know that Jesus Christ who suffered and died on the cross, cries with us, and holds us in his arms. That’s when we know that the Holy Spirit fills us with a sense of spiritual belonging that will not be denied. Then we, too, feel the blessing that belongs to the meek.

But sometimes we are not the meek, sometimes we are the strong, and then we are in danger of being separated from God by our own comfort. When we are satisfied, competent, fairly happy, and not connected with Jesus on the plain, then we are in danger. When that happens, watch out for the woes.

If we let our comfort disconnect us from our humanity, from our being one with the others out on the plain of life, there, the poor and disenfranchised, then we are walking away from the crowd, and we separate ourselves from Jesus, and from the blessings that God would have us claim.

Sometimes we can be separated from those who suffer, as if inside us there is a switch that says, "Oh, that’s not me or my people. That’s them. They’re different. See? They even look different." We say things like that as a way of anesthetizing ourselves to the problems of the poor.

We think, well, if they wanted to get out of that life they could...and we forget that some people aren’t born with the same resources as others. Or we forget that Christian compassion is about us, who we are, not who they are. So through this reason or that, we throw aside our ability to empathize with those who suffer, because its more comfortable for us.

This is a problem if we just feel guilty and turn away. But Jesus Christ is the great leveler. Jesus makes us all even on the playing field, because Jesus reminds us that the pain of one child is no less than the pain of another. Jesus reminds us that God created us all equal. Jesus shows that God loves all of us, not just some. And best of all, Jesus forgives us of our sinful nature, so when we catch ourselves distancing ourselves from the plight of the people on the plain, all we have to do is say, "Oh no, I did it again. Sorry, God."

When we make that apology, then we open ourselves to the saving work of Jesus Christ. Jesus changes us from the inside, and we find ourselves praying about changing, making plans, doing it, and practicing the changes; making them into habits. Its all a response to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who knows us and who loves us, even as wretched as we are.

William Booth and his wife Claire founded the Salvation Army. Once William was asked why he wanted to make his whole life to be about connecting with the wretched folk , the "unblessables" they’ve been called, and he replied, "I hungered for hell". He hungered to be among the wretched in their life of hell, in days of scratching for food and medical care and warmth. He hungered to be where poverty held the most power.

Where does poverty hold the most power in our world?

We are called to find and to bless those who are held in poverty, in our world. Blessing these folks is not about them. Its not about who they are. Its about who the Christians in this place are.

There are many opportunities nearby; there are homeless in the city nearest to your home. There are elderly in your neighborhood. And there are opportunities far away. Every hour, worldwide, 1500 children die of diseases caused by hunger. United Methodist church relief efforts reach out to them. We have a mission efforts in Zimbabwe and in Haiti.

Some Christians have chosen to get involved by supporting the movement to forgive the debts of Third World Countries. The problem is every month the debts rise from interest

7.5 billion, exponentially increasing the overall 1500 billion dollar debt. What happens is the governments are forced to try to raise money by levying taxes, so what a rice farmer could make last year is twice what he can make this year, so families are forced to choose between food and education, and sometimes medical care. Some Christians in this country have chosen to get involved by writing letters to their legislative representatives and to the World Bank.

The point is only that we choose to do something. That we don’t separate ourselves from connection with Jesus Christ, because that’s where He is, right in the crowd. What is important, is that, to the best of our abilities, we join in the blessings of the masses, that we hunger for their hell, that we give strength to the weak, substance to the poor, sympathy to the suffering, and that by living in the crowd on the plain, we, too, live close to the heart of God, and enjoy His blessings.

In closing I’ll quote Winston Churchill, who said, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give".

Let us remember that the source of life is not great resources, but great love. And so may we all enjoy participation in the true blessings of this life.

Amen.

This sermon was preached Feb.11 at St. Paul’s and Campville United Methodist Churches by Rev. Sue Rogge. Come join us for worship !