“Where Have all the Heroes Gone?” (Luke 6:20-31)

 Growing up as a kid my heroes were the Lone Ranger . . . Lucas McCain played by Chuck Conners on The Rifleman . . . the guys who were a part of The Rat Patrol . . . and just about any underdog character in a book who rose to the occasion to do right, fight bad guys, and always ride off into the sunset having done good.  My list of heroes was pretty simple.

 

In junior high school and into the start of high school my heroes were sports figures.  Boston Bruins hockey player Bobby Orr . . . Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton and Alan Page of the “Purple People Eaters” fame . . . Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics . . . marathon runner Frank Shorter.  These were plain ordinary people who did extraordinary feats of athleticism in the face of what seemed to be constant defeat.  Again, my heroes were simple.

 

In college and young adulthood . . . Shoot!  Who had time for heroes and hero-worshipping?  I was too busy enjoying life and having a good time.  But then when I started seminary and pursuing the ministry, well my hero list was reborn.  Suddenly there were the great spiritual giants . . . Saint Francis . . . Thomas Merton . . . Henri Nouwen . . . Dietrich Bonhoeffer . . . Desmond Tutu . . . and Mother Teresa are all just the tip of the iceberg.

 

And now as an aging adult I find there are still those who I hold up as heroes, but I have found that it seems that there are fewer and fewer heroes.  I wonder . . . where have all the heroes gone?

 

Do you ever wonder about that question . . . where have all the heroes gone?  We all have our heroes . . . people we hold in esteem . . . people we hold up.  We all do, but it seems as if there are fewer and fewer heroes . . . especially in the world we are living in today.

 

The definition of a “hero” is “a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.”  Looking around the world we live in today, who would be the people we deem as heroes? Surely it is not the movie stars we see on television.  Nor would it be the sports stars we see conversing the fields of competition.  Are they in the political realm during this election year?  Who would we put into that category of “hero”?

 

We should all be familiar with our reading this morning from the scriptures . . . we heard the Beatitudes, right?  Blessed are those . . . As you were listening to the reading the odds are that you were probably hearing it through the better-known version of the Gospel of Matthew.  In the Gospel of Luke, because of our familiarity of the Matthew version we miss the author’s slant on these teachings.  Luke’s version is different.  Whereas we hear a more “positive” spin on the “blessed are”, in Luke’s version the spin is more negative in describing those individuals . . . the people are just poor and hungry and hated—vagrant beggars who can’t sustain themselves, can’t provide for themselves or their families, are hard to look at, and are a drain on society. 

 

In Luke’s understanding there is no “blessedness”, and they are seen as “losers”.  In the eyes of Jesus’ time and the society he lived in, they are seen as a burden and losers.  These people just need to work harder . . . pull themselves up by their bootstraps . . . and quit being a drain on the system.  And yet Jesus calls them blessed.

 

But why?  Since things have not changed much since Jesus’ time . . . and since most of us believe that these people being talked about will always be around . . . and since this is still a prevalent attitude in our society today . . . why in the world would Jesus deem them to be blessed?

 

Jesus calls them blessed for the simple reason that God always reserves God’s most acute attention for those in need, those left behind by the powers that be, those left out of the lavish bounty of the world’s produce.  God is always for the underdog . . . always for the loser.  If we don’t believe that then we need to read our Bibles a little closer.

 

Though those listening then and those listening now don’t quite understand why Jesus would declare the “losers” to be “blessed”, he didn’t stop there.  He went on and placed the “woe” upon those who ignore those who are “losers”.  In particular—the rich.  The rich who could afford to help out those who were less fortunate.  Yet in the broader scope of the words, the “woe” is upon all who choose to do nothing in the face of the situations.

 

From there Jesus jumps to the constantly over-arching theme of his message . . . love.  Love your enemies . . . bless those who curse you . . . share with those who have nothing . . . give to those in need.  “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

 

Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is a little harder to swallow than Matthew’s.  Like those Jesus was addressing we don’t identify with the “losers”.  We are hard-working.  We have nice homes.  We dress well.  We don’t take “handouts” and are not a burden to society.  We are nothing like those people, and yet, we are “losers” too.  Ours is not a poverty of possession and wealth.  Ours is a poverty in which we have our insecurities, where have difficulty loving ourselves or others, and like everyone else we are still going to end up in a hole in the ground.  We have difficulty receiving the mercy and forgiveness, grace and life Jesus offers.  Offers to all . . . especially the “losers”.

 

You see, one thing is unavoidably clear—Jesus is for losers.  And the kingdom of God he proclaims is populated by losers.  And unless we identify as a loser, we’re likely not going to find ourselves anywhere near it . . . or want to.

 

But Jesus shows us the way.

 

Love.

 

It is in Jesus’ way that we can find the heroes . . . find the heroes we all long for.  When people live their lives out in love . . . especially love for others . . . they do heroic things.

 

CNN, the cable news network, publishes a list of heroes each year. For the year 2022 they have shared a list that shares the stories of those who have gone out to make a difference . . . to love others as they would want to be loved.

 

Carie Broecker.  It is proven that having a dog has improved the quality of life for senior citizens.  The problem was what happens when those individuals began to be challenged in caring for a pet?  Carie created a non-profit foundation that takes pets from senior citizens who are no longer able to care for them and cares for them, finds new homes for them, and checks on them for the rest of their life.  It is a promise that the pet will be taken care of.  They provide assistance to the people until that time comes and gives a peace of mind that the pet will be cared for and loved.

 

Richard Casper.  A veteran with PSTD he created CreatiVets, a program that works for healing for veterans through immersive visual art and songwriting.

 

Nelly Cheboi.  Nelly takes old computers, refurbishes them and send them to rural areas of Kenya opening up the world to children who would not even have the opportunity to go to school.  It has helped to move children out of poverty.

 

And there are more . . . Nora El-Khouri Spencer takes women and trains them in construction while at the same time providing necessary construction for the elderly who want to stay in their homes . . . Tyrique Glasgow works the streets of his hometown of Philadelphia to get kids out of violence, drugs, and street life.

 

And they are not the only heroes.  They are all around us if we open our eyes to see . . . when we set aside our mindset against those we consider to be burdens and losers . . . and we embrace Jesus’ challenge to love others.  Shoot!  We might even find ourselves being heroic from time to time.

 

As difficult as it is to be confronted by Jesus’ words in our reading this morning, we discover that we are among the blessed who are loved by God despite all of our insecurities and imperfections.  We are the children of God.  As God has loved us, so we love others.  That is what heroes do. Amen.