“Someday”

Luke 6:17-26

February 15, 2004

Saint Paul UMC

Rev. John Fleming

Well, it has been a couple of months since we have done this sort of thing. And because I think that it is one of the best ways to really be a part of a scripture story, I would like for us to take a trip this morning. And, like we have done before, we will have to tap our imaginations to go where I would like for us to go. I am sure that you can do it. To be honest with you, I would have liked to have been there as Jesus and his disciples made their way down the mountain to what Luke calls a level place. By the way, that is an unfortunate translation. Matthew has this scene in his gospel, too. Matthew has these words, the beatitudes, the beginning of his famous sermon that we have come to call the Sermon on the Mountain, in his fifth chapter. Jesus delivers these words high above everything else, on a mountain. Luke has this scene, but before we arrive at it, he tells us that Jesus and his newly recruited disciples have been up on a mountain. He tells us that Jesus has been pulling an all-nighter, praying. And then Jesus and the twelve come down from the mountain to what Luke tells us in the version of the Bible that I read the most, is a level place. I think that there is more power in the King James Version of this place. That version of the Bible tells us that Jesus came down and stood on a plain with the disciples and the crowd. The Sermon on the Mountain sounds impressive. And the Sermon on the Plain sounds good. But the Sermon on the Level Place? Well, to me, that leaves a lot to be desired.

The truth is that it does not really matter how you translate it. You should not miss the importance of what Luke is trying to tell us. This is more than a geography lesson. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus goes up on the mountain to be by himself and to pray. And he comes down from the mountain top to the plain, to the crowds, to where the people are. I thought that you needed to know where you were and who you were going to be with if you were going to be a part of this scene.

Well, go ahead and find a place among everyone else. I hope that you do not mind sitting in the grass. I think that there is room for all of us among all the people. Luke wants us to know that there were people from all over the place gathered on that plain. He tells us that they came from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the cost of Tyre and Sidon. Look on a Bible map like I did this morning and you will discover that that means that people came from just about everywhere to be near Jesus. Some of them already knew who Jesus was. These had heard of him and what he had done. They knew that he had healed many of their diseases. Others in the crowd had only heard of Jesus, but still they came. All of them, every one of them, wanted something from Jesus. Luke tells us that there were many sick people in the crowd. Some of them, I suspect, had wild looks in their eyes. These looks meant that they were possessed with demons. Others of them looked hungry, probably because they were. Perhaps they had not eaten in days. Now, I do not want to alarm you, but you are probably sitting next to someone who is in dire need of a healing. The word about Jesus was that if you could get close enough to him, then the demons inside of you would run for cover. If you had a fever, then it would also flee. And if there was a part of your body that needed healing, then Jesus could do that, too, with a simple touch. There was even a story circulating about a time when Jesus healed a business venture. Zebedee and Sons Fishing Company was not doing so well. In the days before sonar fish finders, it was so important to pull in a catch of fish everyday. And, for a few days, the company had not pulled in any fish. Early one morning, after a night of catching nothing, Jesus told Zebedee’s sons to put the net in a certain place. The boys, probably, did not want to do that, but they did. And when they did, there was a fortune of fish flipping and flopping in their nets. Someone had even said that there were enough fish there for the boys to retire. If everything that was being said was true, then you could certainly believe that there was very little that this man could not do.

Now, friends, are you there? Are you on the grass? Can you see Jesus from where you are sitting? I hope that you are sitting close enough so that you can see the look in his eyes. Luke tells us that those who came with wild looks in their eyes and who needed healing were all made whole. Every one of them were healed. By the way, since you are so close to Jesus, if there is something that you need healing of, you might as well ask for it. When the healings were finished, Jesus looked up at his disciples. Oh, there is something that I did not want you to miss. Earlier, Luke tells us that when he came down from the mountain, there was a great multitude of people and a great crowd of his disciples. Which, I think, means that there are more than twelve in this assembled crowd. Jesus looked into the eyes of those just healed and with his eyes preached a sermon. And to the rest of us, the great sermon came when he opened his mouth and when the words flowed from it. What came out is what we have come to call the Beatitudes. You might say that the Beatitudes are a series of blessings that he gave to everyone who was there. These types of blessings were familiar to those sitting on the grass. They had heard these kinds of things before. Beatitudes, you might say, are two part affirmations that talk about the good life. Well, maybe it would help if I gave you an example of one for our day. Listen to this one: Blessed are those who save for their daughter’s college tuition, for there will be plenty when the bill arrives. Beatitudes were that sort of thing. If you were in the crowd and heard the first couple of words that came out of Jesus’ mouth, if you heard him say, “Blessed are...” then you knew that some great word was coming next, some reason why we are blessed. But what Jesus said put strange looks on the faces. Listen to what Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom 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 me, for great will be your reward in heaven.” I want you to see this, friends. Jesus is taking what we have tried to avoid, things like poverty, hunger, grief, and hatred and tacked a reversal of fortune onto them. Matthew’s version, by the way, are less of a challenge. Matthew has Jesus saying nine beatitudes. Luke has only four. And, in addition to the blessings, he has four woes that either Matthew chose to leave out or did not know about. These four woes were compared to the things that we have all tried to achieve in our lives. Things like wealth, food, laughter, and self-esteem. In one fell swoop, Jesus made the bad things sound good and the good things sound bad. Maybe hearing another modern day beatitude and a woe might help here. Listen to this one, “Blessed are those whose prayers are not answered, for one day they will see God face to face.” And, “Woe to you who have nice cars, for one day you will have to walk wherever you go.” It is so easy, friends, to miss the power of these sayings of Jesus. I like what one preacher said about these sayings of Jesus. She said that the impact of them really has to do with who you are. That makes sense doesn’t it? So if you are hungry, then what Jesus is saying here sounds pretty good. But if you are full and carrying on a couple of extra pounds around, then this news is not so good.

Here is what I think. I think that most of us, if not all of us, hear these words from the perspective of the well fed, with enough resources for us to feel pretty comfortable, who are happy just a lot of the time, and who have worked most of our lives to have people speak well of us. I will tell you something about me. If people speak ill of me, saying I am not doing a good job, then I will work day and night, putting in all the hours I need to, to make sure that they will speak well of me. That is just who I am. And because we have worked all of our lives to get to where we are, I think that we either feel really guilty when we hear these words, or chalk them up to those words of scripture in our Bibles that are great and wonderful, but ones that no one we know actually follows because they are too hard.

I do not mind telling you that in ten years of preaching, I have avoided Luke’s version of the Beatitudes because I thought that they were too hard, too demanding, not very realistic. A commentator or two helped me to see something in these words that I had not seen before. Here is that something. Jesus is not giving moral advice here. He is not saying to become poor and hungry. He is not saying to saying to spend a lot of time crying or to do the things that will get people to talk bad about you. There are plenty of piece of advice that Jesus gives throughout the gospels. He tells us to forgive and to bless and to seek His kingdom. He tells us to seek after compassion and to love. But here, Jesus does not tell us to do anything. Here, friends, Jesus is laying it out and telling us the way that the world is. And in the same breath, he is saying that this is not the world that God created and that someday things will be different and equal.

A few minutes ago, I mentioned what a preacher said about this text. I like an image that she uses, too. She says that sometimes looking at the beatitudes is like being on a Ferris Wheel. You have been on one of those before, haven’t you? I admit that I don’t like that ride because I do not like being that far off of the ground. But still, this preacher says that there are times when we are at the top of the ride, looking out at the fairway and the city, on top of the world, where the people down below look just like ants. And then there are those times when we are down amongst the sawdust, with the candy wrappers, just waiting to touch the stars. It is hard to have a good perspective of the way that the world really is from the top of the Ferris Wheel. But hear this, God loves everyone on the ride. Here is what the problem it. I think that we believe that being blessed can be compared to some kind of a reward. And that these woes of Jesus are like punishments. It is easy to get that idea. But this is not what Jesus had in mind when he said these now famous words. Instead, I think that he is talking to everyone sitting on the grass, in that plain. We are back on that plain, aren’t we, where the people are? I think that Jesus is saying to all of us sitting there, “I care for all of my children and I need for you to do the same.”

I heard the story of a young girl, born into a great family in Hungary in the early 1900s. She lived in a castle that had eighteen bedrooms and a dining room that would seat eighty-four people. She was raised with wealth among maids and cooks, and chauffeurs. When she was eighteen, she went to Vienna, to school, and there she met a young man who also came from wealth. Soon the two were married, but within a year the marriage was over. She stayed in Vienna and met a man who directed films. Soon they married. He was invited to come to America, to direct movies. She came with him. Soon, she was living a wild life and when her husband found out about it, he divorced her. She went back to Europe, to live in Paris. One day she picked up the paper and noticed that Albert Schweitzer was visiting. She wanted to meet him and so it was arranged. She met him in a church, while he was playing the organ. That night he invited her to dinner, to one of those famous Schweitzer meals. The old man was at the head of the table and his admirers surrounded him. When the supper was over, as was his practice, he read a scripture lesson and then all of the guests, together, said the Lord’s Prayer. This woman knew, by the end of the meal, that she had found what she was looking for. Albert Schweitzer invited her to go to Africa, to work in his famous hospital. She said yes. She started to work among the poor. This woman was raised in a castle, surrounded by servants, and now was a servant herself. She changed bandages and washed bodies and fed lepers who had no hands left with which to feed themselves. And she felt blessed.

So here we are, sitting in the grass, listening to Jesus’ words and how he wants us to reach out and help people. What are you going to do? Blessed are those who care, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to the preacher mentioned in this sermon, for helping me with a couple of the issues in this sermon, and for an idea or two in it. Special thanks to Rev. Mark Trotter for the closing story. And special thanks to the people in our world who are poor, hungry, grieving, and reviled and for all of us who care for one another).