Luke 6:17-26
When I was in eighth grade…my grandfather died…my mom’s dad.
- And it was the first major death in my life and remains an emotional memory.
- It was my grandfather who taught me how to hammer my first nail.
- It was my grandfather who taught me how to saw a board with a square edge.
- Which…later in life…inspired Susan and me to build a cottage and then our first house.
- Thinking back to that time in my life…
- And to the emotional and spiritual development at work in my teenager’s heart and mind…
- I realize that my grandpa’s death led me…for the first time…
- To reconcile my faith and my understanding of God with the very real experience of loss and grief.
- I was face to face with the death of someone real…someone I dearly loved…and I did not quite know what to make of it all.
The Lord be with you:
Riding in the funeral limousine…the hearse behind us…on the drive to the cemetery for grandpa’s burial…
- I remember looking out the window at the cars next to us.
- I remember the jarring thought that occurred to me:
- Everyone else is going about their day.
- And yet my world has completely changed and will never be the same again.
- I could not quite fathom how all of us could exist at the same time in the same place…
- When our experiences that day were so very different.
Of course…as a teenager…I was only really thinking about my own experience.
- Today…my awareness has expanded to recognize that each person around me was also carrying their own griefs and fears and worries.
- But the fact remains that I was sitting in a hearse with my family…
- About to bury my grandfather…
- And the rest of the world was going about its business.
- It felt like we…the people of God…were all disconnected and separated from each other.
In Luke…before Jesus preaches the Beatitudes…he comes down with the disciples and stands “on a level place.”
- This Sermon on the Plain is set in a different context than Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount.
- And place matters here.
- Jesus comes down and stands amid those who have come to be healed…
- And those who are troubled.
- He comes to a level place to bring the kingdom of God to those who are gathered.
- There is no space between those who suffer and those who rejoice.
- We all receive the gift of the one who brings God’s kingdom.
- And we are receiving it in the same place…a level place.
When Jesus comes to a level place…we find ourselves leveled out.
- No longer do we grieve alone…or stress alone…or worry alone.
- No longer do we celebrate alone or rejoice alone.
- When Jesus comes to a level place…he comes to level us with God’s kingdom and to level us with one another.
This is both a comfort and a challenge.
- By overturning the world’s ideas and expressions of strength…
- By lifting up the lowly and bowed down…
- Jesus levels us out.
- Jesus was God’s Beatitude…
- God’s blessing to the weak in a world that admires only the strong.
- Jesus physically and verbally levels with us in the Beatitudes.
- And in this leveling out…our lives are never the same.
- We are not alone in our experiences and needs.
- And we cannot leave others alone in theirs.
When we look out the windows of our suffering and feel that we are alone…
- Jesus promises that we are never forgotten by him…
- Nor do we live this life apart from each other.
- As the kingdom of God comes to us directly through Jesus…
- We are bound to one another in his grace…leveled out and loved.
A postscript:
Notice that the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are not “Blessed shall you be” but “Blessed are you…now.”
- The Beatitudes describe a view of reality in which the least likely candidates are revealed to be extremely fortunate…
- Not only later but right now.
- The things that seem to be going most wrong for us may in fact be the things that are going most right.
- This does not mean we should not try to fix them.
- It just means that they may need blessing as much as they need fixing.
- Since the blessing is already there.
- Because earth is where heaven starts.
So…if you are poor in spirit or wealth…
- You know the blessedness of embracing God’s compassion in your life…
- And your ability to help others do the same.
- If you are hungry…you know the blessedness that comes from sharing what little you have with someone worse off.
- If you are weeping…you know the blessedness of giving comfort and solace to the grieving and struggling.
If you are hated and pushed to the margins because of your nationality…culture or gender…
- You know the blessedness of standing up for the justice of God’s Kingdom.
Rejoice and leap for joy…Jesus says.
- The Kingdom of heaven begins with such blessedness as yours.