Readings

FIRST LESSON

The first lesson is from Strength to Love by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

At times we may feel that we do not need God, but on the day when the storms of disappointment rage, the winds of disaster blow, and the tidal waves of grief beat against our lives, if we do not have a deep and patient faith our emotional lives will be ripped to shreds. There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God. We have genuflected before the god of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate. We have worshiped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived. We have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such things as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of possible depressions, stock market crashes and bad business investments, money is a rather uncertain deity. These transitory gods are not able to save us or bring happiness to the human heart.

Our God is able. It is faith that we must rediscover. With faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism. Why be afraid? God is able. Why be anxious? Come what may, God is able.

SECOND LESSON

The second lesson is from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 6, verses 17 through 26

Jesus 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 power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
   for yours is the realm 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 Child of God. Rejoice on 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.”

This Week's Sermon

Date: January 31, 2010

Title: The Be Attitudes

Message Delivered By: Rev. Dr. Joe McMurray

Someone told me recently that someone asked them if the stories I tell before my sermon have a point. Oh, how I wish the person had come directly to me. But that seems to be how things happen around here. Anyway, my reply was: “Well, in fact, yes, they do.” It may not always be the same point I’m trying to make, but there is always a point. Sometimes the point is very clearly tied to the message, the sermon. Sometimes the point is not connected to the sermon but has a message of its own.

And sometimes the point is, admittedly a very selfish message. You see, I like to laugh. I like to make people laugh. Some of you know that without my telling you. I’ve learned that in life, laughter can heal what ails you. It can certainly distract you, and I find that the emotions that cause laughter and tears reside very closely together.

When you are enjoying a several-course meal in a fine restaurant, sorbet is sometimes served between courses as a way to cleanse the palate before the main course. If you can think for a moment of our worship service as a several-course, very fine meal, sometimes the message before the message acts like a little dish of sorbet. It is intended to clear the palate before the main course.

And so humbly, I serve you this little scoop of sorbet for today.

A local news station was interviewing an 84-year-old woman who had a very interesting story to tell. You see, she had just gotten married for the fourth time. The reporter, in part, was curious about an elderly woman who would find a desire to tie the knot yet another time after having lived such a full life. And besides, it would make a good feature story, he thought.

And so, in the interview, the reporter asked her questions about her life, and what it felt like to be marrying again at 84 years of age. He also asked her about her new husband’s occupation. “He’s a funeral director,” she said as she answered his question.

“That’s interesting,” the reporter thought. And then he decided to ask the older woman about her other marriages and what her other husbands did for a living. The woman paused for a few moments to reflect on those years that now seemed so long ago.

Then, in a short time, a smile came to the woman’s face, and she answered very proudly, explaining that she first married a banker when she was in her late 20s. After her husband died, suddenly in her early 40s, she married a circus ringmaster. In her 60s, she got married to a preacher and they were together for 20 years. And here she was, married to a funeral director at 84 years of age.

The interviewer looked at her, quite astonished, and asked why she had married for men with such diverse careers.

“Easy, son,” she replied. “I married one for the money. Two for the show. Three to get ready. And four to go.”
_____________________________________________________________

Will you pray with me? God, send your tender blessings to all those around the world who are suffering and in desperate need of you this morning. Spark our generosity that we may help to provide them with what they need. Help us to appreciate what we have, and accept our gratitude as we benefit from the bounty of your love as it is reflected in our church. And may my words and all of our thoughts be filled with honor and praise to you. Amen.

As the Scripture begins today, Luke is about to divulge the names of the twelve apostles that Jesus asked to “follow him.” Since Chapter 3 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus has been gathering his disciples, and just prior to today’s lesson, they have all now been named so that the reader does not forget. It is with his most intimate gathered community that Jesus “comes down” to the level plain and gives one of the most important speeches of his short ministry. It will serve as a blueprint, not only for Jesus and his followers, but for all of Christendom for all time to come.

The Sermon on the Mount, where the “Beatitudes” were taught to the disciples and the gathered crowd, are well-known in nearly every faith tradition as an important guideline describing some of the ways humankind would exist in relationship to God, to other human beings, and to life itself. There is another version with which we are also familiar—a so-called spiritualized version of the Beatitudes found in the Gospel of Matthew, who lists eight Beatitudes, by the way, instead of Luke’s four. But in Matthew, there are sufficient enough changes to wonder which is closest to the actual words delivered. Many believe that the words in Luke supersede the others because those in Matthew appear to have language “added to” them, and with the additional text, the meaning changes considerably.

For example, the first Beatitude in Luke says: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the realm of God.”

Meanwhile, the same Beatitude in Matthew says: “Blessed are you poor in spirit, for theirs is the realm of heaven.”

We could just imagine a very wealthy and influential person who basically believed in the teachings of Jesus who went up to the writer and said, “You know that bit about blessing the poor? That’s all well and good, but where does that leave me? Couldn’t you soften the language a little so I don’t get left out?”

Before you discount that theory, look at the corresponding “Woe” statement, at the end of Luke’s Beatitudes, which says: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” This admonition could not be considered good news to a wealthy person, taken at face value. And no, we don’t know if that’s what occurred. But we cannot deny that the additional language changes the meaning considerably.

So in Luke, we have the Beatitude, which is a very strong statement of empathy and compassion; and then what I call the “Woe-itude”—which is quite rough around the edges.

This might remind some of us of our younger years, when our parents had had enough chaos and were about to lower the boom. They gathered the family together and said, “Okay. Things are going to change around here. From now on, everyone will have their particular chores to perform. They’ll be yours to complete every week. Your responsibility. Anybody who doesn’t comply will suffer the consequences.”

Then they’d name off the list of things you were to be responsible for. And you’re thinking, “Gee, that’s not as bad as I thought.
“Mow the yard, water the trees and plants. Take out the garbage. Sweep the garage. Clean your room.”

And just when you thought it was all done and you’d escaped with minor injury, then would come the heavy-hitting part of the proclamation, and you found out you also had to wash and sweep out the car, have your homework done before you went out to play after dinner, help with the dishes—washing, drying and putting away, etc.”

So, you almost got away, but not quite. This is similar to the Woe-itudes. We were almost home free by having only to offer support and praise for the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful and the despised, and Jesus says, “But wait! There’s more!” Beware if you’re rich, if you have more than enough to eat, if you are happy-go-lucky without a care in the world, and if you are well thought of—because if you fit this description, bad things are gonna happen.

For our purposes, it would actually be clearer to take the Beatitude and compare it to corresponding “Woe-itude” to get the full picture:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the realm of God.”
“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”

“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.”
“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”
“Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.”

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Child of God. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.”

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

Though the Beatitudes are, in some way, self-explanatory, it’s worth our while from time-to-time to examine them from a new perspective and with new eyes. As they are written here, they describe conditions that individuals are already experiencing.
They do not attempt to describe people who become poor or who become rich or people who at some point in the future will become hungry, nor those who at some point may become full. Of course, we assume they would be inclusive for all time. When Jesus said, “The poor, you will have with you always,” he knew what he was talking about.

With that in mind, I’ve renamed the Beatitudes the “Be Attitudes”—these are the attitudes, the postures worth remembering as we climb the ladder of life. These are the places we might find ourselves or find those with whom we share relationship. The point of these pronouncements by Jesus was not simply to promise punishment and reward. It was to offer an insight as to how justice could be implemented based on the circumstances and conditions of life and how we might learn some sense of humility of our station in the world.

The “Be Attitudes” teach us how to move in and around life, how to model our lives for others, in practical terms. They can help us to determine what we can expect in our encounters and our relationships and how God might feel about some of the choices that lead us to where we are.

I don’t believe Jesus automatically assigned these judgments in black and white. Instead, I see them as warnings to heed—to pay attention to the plight of humankind—rather than staying wrapped up in some isolated way, unaware of and disinterested in our fellow human beings.

Dr. King, in Strength to Love, warns us about worshipping at the altars of false gods instead of investing in our faith. When we think of false gods, many of us tend to think in Old Testament terms and the images of false idols or graven images that did not represent the Jewish faith, and thus could not represent the Judeo-Christian images of the God we have come to know.

So we may think that these circumstances of worshipping false gods doesn’t apply to us. After all, most of us believe in one God—one universal God, or Goddess, or Essence or Being or Love or however we name God. It doesn’t matter what names we use to address the Divine because many of us feel—and believe —that God is ever-present, always connected to us, always hearing us speak about our hopes, our fears, our desires, and our dreams, especially in prayer.

But among the false gods Dr. King speaks of are the transitory gods of science, pleasure and money—the gods of our material world that in spiritual terms can leave us depleted and empty if we rely on them for more than what they are. For it’s what’s underneath the material things that get to the heart of the matter. It’s what’s underneath all the decorations and the distractions and the finery and the glittery things that we find the essence of our soul—the place where God meets humanity and calls us God’s own.

King says: God is able and all things are possible. Faith is the transforming ingredient that makes everything else possible. Fear diminishes faith, anxiety diminishes faith, pessimism diminishes faith. Let me go on—negativity diminishes faith, sarcasm not understood as humor diminishes faith, sanctimoniousness diminishes faith, self-righteousness diminishes faith, having to be right all the time diminishes faith, having to prove others wrong or unworthy diminishes faith, diminishing others in any way diminishes faith … we could go on all day … but you get the picture.

And it is faith, my sisters and brothers, that lies beneath these instructions from Jesus, these directives we call the Beatitudes.

After choosing these readings, I realized how much both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus Christ had in common. Both of them were called to a special ministry of social, economic and religious justice. Each of them was passionate about his work, and they were both admired and despised by those who were paying close attention.

They were suspected by those in authority of having suspicious ties to entities of malevolence. They were both spied upon and information about them was being kept in order to attempt to publicly discredit them, thereby undoing the work they had already accomplished. But both were able to read the landscape; they understood that the revolutionary messages they brought forth would be fully comprehended and passed on to future generations by only the few, not the many.

They each predicted their own deaths because of the social unrest resulting from their specific messages of compassion, justice and unconditional love—because these were not messages most people were ready to hear. And as a result, both lost their lives for their cause. And both are remembered as having never abandoned their ministry—never forgetting their calling and the work God placed before them.
When all is said and done, will we be able to say the same? Will we be able to say that we let go of self-service and instead focused our lives on ensuring at least that the poor would have the basic needs to survive? Will we be able to help the hungry not to be hungry all the time? Will we be able to say that at least we tried to bring some sense of joy to the lives of those who live in misery and are surrounded by sadness, heartbreak or depression?

And will we be able to say that we lifted up our sisters and brothers in celebration and fellowship, instead of tearing them down? Will we be able to say, at the end of the day, that we rejoiced with our sisters and brothers and treated them with the same unconditional love that God grants to us?

If we cannot say these things, we are doomed to dwell among the “Woe-itudes” and reject the calling God has placed before us.

Let us instead rise to the challenge and continue to follow a positive philosophy, a shared life instead, a blessed life and a humble life. And may we continue to follow where God is leading. Amen.