It is difficult to take seriously the
words of Jesus that we have just heard.
I have been poor and, I did not find much blessing in being poor. I have been hungry, wondering where the next
meal was going to come from and, I did not find any blessing in being
hungry. I have been sad, filled with
sorrow and, I did not find any blessing in my sorrow. And, I have been hated, rejected, ridiculed,
and insulted . . . I found no blessing in that.
Yet, here is Jesus telling his listeners and us that to be any of these
things is to be blessed. In our day and
age, in our minds and the way that society has raised us, none of these
“blessings” mentioned by Jesus would be considered blessings. No, they would be curses.
Things like wealth, a full belly, being
entertained, and be lauded . . . now, those are the things that make up a
blessing. Yet, Jesus tells us that these
are not blessings . . . these are curses.
Jesus proclaims: “Woe to you who are rich . . . woe to you
who are well fed . . . woe to you who laugh now . . . woe to you when all men
speak well of you . . .” In four
sentences Jesus pretty much, stomps all over the mantra of our society as
American people. In our society it seems
as if the mantra of life is that you must be rich and famous to be someone . .
. to be successful . . . to be someone.
In what we would consider “blessing”, Jesus deems them to be curses.
Maybe Jesus had been out in the sun too
long. To our ears, the words that Jesus
speaks, do not make sense. They seem to
be a contradiction to our way of life.
Yet, I am assured by the great biblical scholars and theologians that
there is no mistake in the words of Jesus.
They are recorded just as he spoke them.
Jesus said what he meant, and he meant what he said. Jesus wasn’t interested in keeping things the
same . . . no, he was interested in ushering in things as they should be. He was wanting to bring forth God’s kingdom .
. . God’s world . . . in which everything was the reverse of what people were
used to. In such a world the poor,
hungry, weeping, and rejected are blessed.
While the rich, satisfied, entertained, and lauded were cursed. God’s world . . . God’s kingdom . . . is not
this world.
I had a friend once tell me that the
reason most lottery winners end up broke and in debt is because our society
lives ten percent above their actual financial means. He believed that people think that “more”
means “better”, and he believed people would go into debt to get more. He said money wasn’t a blessing, it was a curse. He would say, “Money can’t buy you
happiness.” My response was always,
“Give me some so I can find out for myself.”
But my friend was right.
Statistics of our nation show that anywhere between 50 to 80 percent of
people live from paycheck to paycheck or above what they earn. In fact, credit makes up 40 percent of our
nation’s income. I am not sure one would
call that “blessing”, despite having all the trappings of wealth and status.
In God’s world . . . God’s kingdom . . .
blessing comes from relationship.
Blessing does not come from wealth, status, or power. In God’s world . . . God’s kingdom . . .
blessing flows from being accepted, welcomed, and desired for who you are by
another. It begins with that
relationship between God and the individual . . . between you, me, and
God. It is accepting the knowledge that
God wants us, desires us, and welcomes us with open arms into our place in the
family of God. It is taking our rightful
place in the family portrait. That is
blessing. That is the way that Jesus shows
us.
The focus to being “blessed” is upon
that relationship. That was the first
part of what Jesus affirmed . . . “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind . . .’”
(Luke
10:27a, NIV)
Love God as God loves you. In that
relationship, we are blessed. We are
blessed no matter what our status in the world might be if we have that loving
relationship with God. Thus, it becomes
our obligation to seek the blessing that is offered. It is our responsibility to receive the
blessing into our lives and to allow God’s love to become our love.
It is all about the relationship.
When my wife, Dana, and I got married we
did not have two nickels to rub together.
We had nothing . . . literally nothing.
Actually, that’s not true. We had
debt . . . lots of educational debt.
People told us to wait to get married until we had more. We thought that if we did that we would never
get married. So, we got married. We didn’t have much, but we had each other .
. . we had our relationship. No matter
how broke we were . . . how much we struggled financially, we had each other. You could not have convinced either one of us
that we were not blessed.
Same thing happened to us when we
started having children. We were told to
wait until we were financially stable and could afford to have a child. Again, if we did that, we would not have had
any children . . . you’ve seen what it costs to raise a child! So, we went ahead and had children. We didn’t have much, but we had each other,
lots of love, and we were all blessed.
You could not have told us otherwise . . . we were blessed.
We were blessed because we had
relationships with one another.
Relationships in which the other person was desired, wanted, loved,
respected, enjoyed . . . in which we supported each other . . . laughed and
cried with each other. Relationships
that were not based on things and wealth, but who the other person was in our
lives. In the best of times, in the
worse of times . . . we had one another.
We were blessed.
In this, Jesus knew what he was talking
about when it came to being blessed.
Yet, for Jesus it is not enough for his
followers to step up and receive the blessing from God. No, blessing is more than receiving. For Jesus it is also in the giving. It is true that “blessing” comes from being
in that relationship that is all encompassing with God. That is fine and dandy, and it gets half the
task completed . . . but, there is more.
Blessing also comes when we, as individuals and as a group, seek out
relationships with others . . . to welcome others into the family of God . . .
to love and support, respect and redeem, to care for. We are blessed when we bring God’s blessing
to others.
As I stated earlier, Jesus said we had
to get into a relationship with God to be blessed. He said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind . . .’”
(Luke
10:27a, NIV)
We know that part, but we also know that this was only the first half of what
Jesus said. The rest of what he said was, “ .
. . and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27b, NIV) For Jesus, it seemed
simple, in that in receiving the blessing and love of God we would want others
to have it too. Thus, it was that he
called for his followers to go out into the world and share the “good news” . .
. to share the “blessing” with others. In
Jesus’ mind, it seemed logical; after all, everyone is a child of God deserving
the love of God and others. To share the
“blessing” with others is to step into relationship which opens everyone to
greater “blessing”.
When the focus on status, wealth, and
power is taken away and put
upon relationships, the words that Jesus
speaks to us this morning make sense.
When our lives quit striving to being rich, famous, and powerful; and
strive to be based on love, then the words of Jesus make sense. Blessing does not come from any of the things
that Jesus mentions, but it comes from how we relate . . . how we relate to God
. . . how we relate to others. That is
not how our world sees being “blessed” . . . that is how God sees it. Jesus just states the facts. To receive “blessing” we have to make a
choice. It is always up to us . . . God
has already made the offer. Choose well. Amen.
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