Sermon Archive

Blessing the Things We Fear

Fr. Mead
Sunday, February 11, 2007 @ 12:00 am
groupKey: primary
postID: 7069; title: The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany
no collect_text found
groupKey: secondary
postID: 353577; title: Sexagesima
groupKey: other
The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany
Sexagesima

args: 
Array
(
    [date] => 2007-02-11 00:00:00
    [scope] => 
    [year] => 
    [month] => 
    [post_id] => 136017
    [series_id] => 
    [day_titles_only] => 
    [exclusive] => 1
    [return] => formatted
    [formatted] => 
    [show_date] => 
    [show_meta] => 
    [show_content] => 1
    [admin] => 
    [debug] => 1
    [filter_types] => Array
        (
            [0] => primary
            [1] => secondary
        )

    [type_labels] => Array
        (
            [primary] => Primary
            [secondary] => Secondary
            [other] => Other
        )

    [the_date] => 2007-02-11 00:00:00
)
3 post(s) found for dateStr : 2007-02-11
postID: 333972 (Our Lady of Lourdes)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 333972; date_type: fixed; year: 2007
fixed_date_str: February 11
fixed_date_str (mod): February 11 2007
formattedFixedDateStr: 2007-02-11
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 333972
displayDates for postID: 333972/year: 2007 
Array
(
    [0] => 2007-02-11
)
postPriority: 999
postID: 7069 (The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 7069; date_type: variable; year: 2007
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 7069
displayDates for postID: 7069/year: 2007 
Array
(
    [0] => 2007-02-11
)
postPriority: 1
postID: 353577 (Sexagesima)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 353577; date_type: variable; year: 2007
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 353577
displayDates for postID: 353577/year: 2007 
Array
(
    [0] => 2007-02-11
)
postPriority: 1
primaryPost found for date: 2007-02-11 with ID: 7069 (The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany)
secondaryPost found with ID: 353577 (Sexagesima)
About to getLitDateData for date: 2007-02-11 00:00:00
Sunday, February 11, 2007
The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany
Sexagesima
args: 
Array
(
    [date] => 2007-02-11 00:00:00
    [scope] => 
    [year] => 
    [month] => 
    [post_id] => 136017
    [series_id] => 
    [day_titles_only] => 
    [exclusive] => 1
    [return] => simple
    [formatted] => 
    [show_date] => 
    [show_meta] => 
    [show_content] => 1
    [admin] => 
    [debug] => 1
    [filter_types] => Array
        (
            [0] => primary
            [1] => secondary
        )

    [type_labels] => Array
        (
            [primary] => Primary
            [secondary] => Secondary
            [other] => Other
        )

    [the_date] => 2007-02-11 00:00:00
)
3 post(s) found for dateStr : 2007-02-11
postID: 333972 (Our Lady of Lourdes)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 333972; date_type: fixed; year: 2007
fixed_date_str: February 11
fixed_date_str (mod): February 11 2007
formattedFixedDateStr: 2007-02-11
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 333972
displayDates for postID: 333972/year: 2007 
Array
(
    [0] => 2007-02-11
)
postPriority: 999
postID: 7069 (The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 7069; date_type: variable; year: 2007
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 7069
displayDates for postID: 7069/year: 2007 
Array
(
    [0] => 2007-02-11
)
postPriority: 1
postID: 353577 (Sexagesima)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 353577; date_type: variable; year: 2007
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 353577
displayDates for postID: 353577/year: 2007 
Array
(
    [0] => 2007-02-11
)
postPriority: 1
primaryPost found for date: 2007-02-11 with ID: 7069 (The Sixth Sunday After The Epiphany)
secondaryPost found with ID: 353577 (Sexagesima)
About to getLitDateData for date: 2007-02-11 00:00:00

Scripture citation(s): Luke 6:17-26; Jeremiah 17:5-10

This sermon currently has the following sermon_bbooks: 
Array
(
    [0] => 60757
    [1] => 60726
)
book: [Array ( [0] => 60757 ) ] (reading_id: 73531)
bbook_id: 60757
The bbook_id [60757] is already in the array.
book: [Array ( [0] => 60726 ) ] (reading_id: 73389)
bbook_id: 60726
The bbook_id [60726] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.

[Jesus] lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, for yours in the kingdom of God.”

In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Before we examine this beatitude, the three others that go with it, and the four corresponding woes that begin Jesus’ “sermon on the level plain,” we need to see how the Evangelist Saint Luke sets the stage. Jesus had spent a whole night in prayer on a mountain and had chosen twelve leaders, whom he called apostles, from among the wider group of his disciples. He came down from the mountain and was met by a great crowd not only of Jews from Judea and Jerusalem, but also Gentiles from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Among these he healed many of their diseases, including those tormented by unclean spirits. Power was felt going forth from Jesus, so that many sought to touch him. And then Jesus began to teach.

What Jesus teaches shocks, and it is a direct, second person address. He says to you poor, you hungry, and you mournful, you are blessed; you have the kingdom of God, you will be satisfied, and you will laugh. He says to you who are slandered, hated, insulted and excluded for the sake of the Son of man, that you are blessed. Then, by contrast he says woe, woe to you who are rich, you who are full, you who laugh now, you who are well-spoken of now; for you have already received your consolation, your satisfaction, your reward.

Note that, unlike the better known Sermon on the Mount in Saint Matthew, here there is no spiritualizing of poverty and hunger (as in poor in spirit or hungering for righteousness and justice). Here in Luke Jesus is very brief and blunt, and he says we are blessed when we are in the states which, to be honest, we fear most. Here I speak for myself as a person raised in middle class American values, the values that are said to be necessary in abundance for a society to be a functioning, self-sufficient democratic republic; the values which foster prosperity, accountability, and the rule of law. So in speaking for myself, I assume I speak for most of you. I fear poverty, hunger, grief, and loss of reputation. I seek financial security, well-being, happiness, and a good name. As do, I assume, you. So what is our Lord saying?

Saint Luke’s image of Jesus coming down the mountain with his disciples and apostles, meeting the crowd on the plain, healing with power and then teaching, evokes Moses of old coming down with the Law of God from Mount Sinai. But Jesus descends with God’s kingdom and rule, personified, incarnate in himself. Moses, the prophet Jeremiah in our first lesson, and Psalm 1 chanted this morning after it, set before us two ways of living: the way of life, of trust in and obedience to the Lord; and the way of death, of self-will and self-reliance, of godlessness. Jesus raises this teaching to a new level, or takes it to a new depth. Jesus invites us into his life, his kingdom, as he enters, blesses, sanctifies the states of life we all dread and try always to avoid, against which we insure ourselves and from we seek to be insulated, that is, poverty, hunger, grief, notoriety.

Not very many voluntarily follow Jesus this way. But there have been, and are, some. Famously, a well-born young Italian, flourishing at the beginning of what may be called the High Middle Ages or the Early Renaissance, heard the voice and saw visions of Jesus. He then embraced poverty, hunger, grief, and notoriety, all at once. An unforgettable scene before his merchant father and his bishop in the town square resulted in his stripping himself naked, giving up everything, and walking off into a life that was, to say the least, a day-by-day adventure of living hand to mouth, sleeping here or there, speaking as though the sun, the moon the earth and all living things were his kin. But this was no ordinary flower child or street person; there was authority about him. He stood medieval chivalry on its head, concluding that it was unchivalrous to possess more than someone else! Eventually he attracted an enormous following, preached to the Pope and even the Sultan, both of whom heard him gladly. Whatever else you could say about him, he took our Lord’s sermon on the plain at its word; he was happy and, in the eyes of the world that first called him crazy, he was blessed. Near the end of his life he actually, mysteriously, received the wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side, the stigmata. Of course I am speaking of Saint Francis of Assisi, perhaps the most literal follower of Jesus in the history of Christendom. There have been, and are, others, men and women living variations on this heroic theme; but not many. Whatever else you might say about them (for example, that they take Jesus too literally or too radically), is that they are most certainly blessed, as they follow the Lord into the conditions we, and the world with us, fear so much.

Now let us admit something. A day is coming to each one of us, in which I, you will be poor, hungry, bereft, and helpless before public opinion; poor, in other words, in every way that it is possible to be poor. Perhaps we will be able to postpone this day until the moment our heart finally stops beating, but the day will come. It certainly comes to all in death. Jesus in his teaching has prepared us. It need not terrify us. In fact, we can live in it. We may not be like the first apostles, Saint Anthony in the desert, Saint Francis in the town square, or Mother Teresa in Calcutta, the great saints. We may be very far from their breath-taking inspiration and dramatic courage. But we can trust Jesus and take some steps in the way of life. We can learn to let go of the vanities of wealth, satisfaction, pleasure, and social climbing. We can take hold of the truth, that Christ is our wealth, our satisfaction, our pleasure, and our society. This is the truth that opens up here and now, gives blessing here and now, and bestows life in and beyond death.

Jesus’ teaching shocks, because he stands the values of this world on their head. But he and those who follow him are neither insane nor perverse; they are sober, clear-eyed, and realistic about life as it is. This wisdom of the cross, this foolishness of God which is wiser than men, shows us that the powers and kingdom of this world make us afraid where really no fear need be. In the world, Jesus told us the night he was betrayed and arrested to be crucified, you will have tribulation. “But be of good cheer; for I have overcome the world.” He really has overcome it, and we can depend on it! Blessed are you poor; for yours is the kingdom of God.

In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.