Today’s Gospel passage is the beginning selection from Jesus’ “sermon on the plain”. Jesus has just chosen his twelve apostles - those who will be closest to him, who will listen and learn and then be sent out - and now he begins to teach, standing with them and a great multitude of people from all over. After healing many, Jesus teaches all about the reversals that are key characteristics of the kingdom of God. We may think we understand how the world works, what success looks like, and who is worthy of honor and attention, but all of that is turned upside-down where God is concerned. Familiar to us as “the Beatitudes”, Luke’s version here pairs up the list of “blessed ares” with “woe to yous”.
In the world as we know it, we’d say that those who are poor, hungry, weeping, and hated are unlucky, or at fault for their suffering, or to be avoided. But in a stunning reversal, Jesus calls them blessed - both because God is with them in their current reality, and because God will bring about wholeness, abundance, and life. Their current reality is not their ultimate reality.
There’s no mincing words here - Jesus’ special and particular mission is to precisely those people he calls “blessed” in these lines - those who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, reviled. Jesus outlines this mission in his inaugural preaching appearance in Luke’s Gospel, where he unrolls the scroll of Isaiah and reads, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”, concluding with “today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Even before that, though, we hear that this is what God is like in Mary’s song. She praises the God who has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; who has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. This is the promise! These are the values and priorities of the kingdom of God.
In the world as we know it, those who are rich, full, happy, and spoken well of are highly regarded, and indeed what we all aspire to be. And yet, Jesus says “woe to you.” I think this pronouncement is more descriptive than prescriptive. That is, Jesus is describing the natural consequences and results of things more than warning about some punishment God is going to mete out.
Particularly when they are in excess, our wealth, happiness, and provision are easily taken for granted. We tell ourselves (and others) that we’ve earned all we have on our own with no help from anyone else and no advantages due to our place in society. Sometimes we even begin to think that, in fact, we deserve everything we have - and that the poor and hungry deserve what they have. A posture like this one most often works to separate us from God and one another, as we are curved in and focus our attention only on ourselves and keeping what we have in a system where more for you means less for me.
Jesus goes on to talk about other reversals. Though the world expects us to hate our enemies and exact revenge on those who hate us, Jesus calls us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, and speak well of those who curse us. The kingdom of God is indeed upside-down and inside-out from how we are taught to move through the world.
Our observation today of the festival of All Saints is full of reversals as well. First, in our colloquial usage of the word “saint”, we often understand it to mean “exceptionally good and holy people” or some kind of Super Christian. But really what we celebrate today is that when we say ALL the saints, we mean “all” in a broad sense - the saints are all those God has claimed and made holy in the waters of baptism. We are called saints not because of what we have done, but because of what God has done.
Secondly, our celebration of All Saints is a reversal because it’s a day we talk openly about death, loss, and grief. We live in a culture that is afraid of death and avoidant of grief. Grief is given a very limited window to be experienced, and then we expect people to “move on” or at least move their expression of grief from the public to the private sphere.
But, as Christians, we are not afraid of death, grief, or sadness. We can embrace the range of human emotions because we know that God accompanies us in all of them. We are not afraid of death because we trust God’s promise of resurrection. In the body of Christ we are connected to saints living and dead, across time and space. It is the central theme of our faith that God has power even over death and the grave, bringing the promise of resurrection and life into the most forsaken places.
The good news today is this - that you are numbered among the saints, not because of any standards of behavior you must uphold, or any miracles you must perform, but because God has claimed you and made you holy in the waters of baptism. As God’s beloved, we are joined with the saints of all times and places, living and dead, and we experience this unity, this communion, as we gather at the table. In this meal we receive the promises of God - salvation, forgiveness, and new life. It is a meal that blesses us with the very presence of Christ, and for this we give thanks.
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| Photo by Randy Jacob on Unsplash |
In the world as we know it, we’d say that those who are poor, hungry, weeping, and hated are unlucky, or at fault for their suffering, or to be avoided. But in a stunning reversal, Jesus calls them blessed - both because God is with them in their current reality, and because God will bring about wholeness, abundance, and life. Their current reality is not their ultimate reality.
There’s no mincing words here - Jesus’ special and particular mission is to precisely those people he calls “blessed” in these lines - those who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, reviled. Jesus outlines this mission in his inaugural preaching appearance in Luke’s Gospel, where he unrolls the scroll of Isaiah and reads, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”, concluding with “today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Even before that, though, we hear that this is what God is like in Mary’s song. She praises the God who has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; who has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. This is the promise! These are the values and priorities of the kingdom of God.
In the world as we know it, those who are rich, full, happy, and spoken well of are highly regarded, and indeed what we all aspire to be. And yet, Jesus says “woe to you.” I think this pronouncement is more descriptive than prescriptive. That is, Jesus is describing the natural consequences and results of things more than warning about some punishment God is going to mete out.
Particularly when they are in excess, our wealth, happiness, and provision are easily taken for granted. We tell ourselves (and others) that we’ve earned all we have on our own with no help from anyone else and no advantages due to our place in society. Sometimes we even begin to think that, in fact, we deserve everything we have - and that the poor and hungry deserve what they have. A posture like this one most often works to separate us from God and one another, as we are curved in and focus our attention only on ourselves and keeping what we have in a system where more for you means less for me.
Jesus goes on to talk about other reversals. Though the world expects us to hate our enemies and exact revenge on those who hate us, Jesus calls us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, and speak well of those who curse us. The kingdom of God is indeed upside-down and inside-out from how we are taught to move through the world.
Our observation today of the festival of All Saints is full of reversals as well. First, in our colloquial usage of the word “saint”, we often understand it to mean “exceptionally good and holy people” or some kind of Super Christian. But really what we celebrate today is that when we say ALL the saints, we mean “all” in a broad sense - the saints are all those God has claimed and made holy in the waters of baptism. We are called saints not because of what we have done, but because of what God has done.
Secondly, our celebration of All Saints is a reversal because it’s a day we talk openly about death, loss, and grief. We live in a culture that is afraid of death and avoidant of grief. Grief is given a very limited window to be experienced, and then we expect people to “move on” or at least move their expression of grief from the public to the private sphere.
But, as Christians, we are not afraid of death, grief, or sadness. We can embrace the range of human emotions because we know that God accompanies us in all of them. We are not afraid of death because we trust God’s promise of resurrection. In the body of Christ we are connected to saints living and dead, across time and space. It is the central theme of our faith that God has power even over death and the grave, bringing the promise of resurrection and life into the most forsaken places.
The good news today is this - that you are numbered among the saints, not because of any standards of behavior you must uphold, or any miracles you must perform, but because God has claimed you and made you holy in the waters of baptism. As God’s beloved, we are joined with the saints of all times and places, living and dead, and we experience this unity, this communion, as we gather at the table. In this meal we receive the promises of God - salvation, forgiveness, and new life. It is a meal that blesses us with the very presence of Christ, and for this we give thanks.
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