February 11, 2007
Grace and peace to you from God, our creator and sustainer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us. Amen.
It has been a long time, and it is good to be home again! Yes, Advent is my home congregation. But as I look around, I realize that many of you have no idea who I am. Well, my wife, Jill, and I, along with our three children, joined Advent in 1996. At that time, I was a sales manager with a small international company and Jill was a stay-at-home mom. To be honest, life was good, life was comfortable. We were far from rich, but things seemed to be really going our way. But as time went on, something, or someone, kept tugging at me. Something kept telling me, “Don’t get too comfortable, don’t think this is it, there are changes ahead.” It took us a while, as many of you know, but eventually, we discerned that God was calling us to a life in the ministry. Now, before you think this was a quick, painless change, think again! God called us out of our comfort zone into a new and very uncomfortable place. Our lives were turned upside down. And I fought it, I disagreed with it, and I tried to come up with every excuse why it couldn’t be done. But over time I learned that for God anything is possible, and that God has a way of turning our world upside down and then being there to catch us and help us land on our feet once again. He sure did that for Jill and I, and I think our lessons today point to such a God, as well.
Our Gospel lesson today is Luke’s version of the beatitudes. Now, if you are like me, this isn’t the version that I prefer to read. I personally like Mathew’s version better. I mean, Luke is harsh, Luke is abrupt, and Luke doesn’t leave us much room for discussion, does he? In Matthew’s version, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” However, in Luke, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” In Matthew, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Luke says, “Blessed are those who are hungry now, for you will be filled.” I don’t know about you, but I sure can relate better to Mathew’s version. I mean, I don’t qualify as poor and I sure don’t qualify as one who goes hungry, but I am often poor in spirit and I do hunger for righteousness. And to add insult to injury, Luke adds those darn “woes.” “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation, Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.” In the fourth chapter of Luke, we are told that Jesus was anointed to bring good news to the poor, but what about those of us who are not poor? Where is our good news? Is Luke telling us that if we are wealthy we cannot be part of God’s kingdom and that we are not faithful Christians? For Luke, the answer to that proverbial question is yes and no! I think Luke must have been a Lutheran.
Now, before I explain this any further, I am sure many of us would not describe ourselves as rich. I know I certainly do not count myself amongst the rich. But I would argue that although Luke seems to have many Lutheran tendencies, he also has some Mennonite tendencies, as well. You see, for our brothers and sisters in the Mennonite tradition, they believe that if they have more than they need, not want, but need, that they must share that excess with others. They are rich if the have more then they need. I would say by that standard most of us in this place right now would qualify as rich.
In this sermon, Jesus turns the world’s point of view upside down. As one scholar notes, Luke “portrays Jesus as redefining, both now and for the eschatological future, the way the world works; he is replacing common representations of the world with a new one. Jesus' claims clearly do not represent conventional wisdom.” In Jesus’ day, the conventional wisdom was that wealth was a sign of God's blessing. I would argue that most of us still believe that. I mean, if we really believe that all we have is from God and God has given us so much, isn’t that a sign that God is pleased with us? So what is the problem? Why is Jesus so bent on issuing this warning to those of us who have much? Why does God favor the poor when God is the one that has given us much? Why does God give us these riches now only to say, “Woe to you” in the future?
I believe the answer lies in our stewardship. As Paul has been reminding us in our second lesson, throughout the Season of Epiphany God has blessed each of us with gifts, but we are called to use those gifts not for the betterment of our own lives, but, as Paul says, for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7). Jesus’ issue with the rich is not that they have too much, but that they are not good stewards of all that they have. The danger is that the rich think they already have everything they could ask for. They sometimes place their faith in their bank account, and not in God. The poor on the other hand, like all those who have come to Jesus in the beginning of our story, are blessed not because they are poor, but because in the context of their situation they place their faith in God.
Jesus is issuing an urgent call to the world this morning. He is calling those of us with much to re-evaluate our possessions and their place in our lives. The disparity between our abundance and the poverty of so many is not God’s will for this world. Jesus is calling us to be on guard against idolatry of our wealth. He calls us to share our wealth in response to God’s generosity toward us now. You see, for Luke, the rich do have a share in God’s kingdom by virtue of their treatment of the poor and needy. In a society that turns its back on the poor and the needy; Jesus calls us to turn that society upside down. He says to protect the poor and be their voice in a world that says they have no voice, feed the hungry and stop placing your joy in your wealth instead of God. He calls us to a new “style of life in which possessions are placed radically at the service of those in need.” God calls us to a place that is often very uncomfortable for us. For many of us, we are those that Jesus says “woe” to. God calls us to continue the work of Jesus. We are a people who has been called to stand with and protect those that Jesus stood with and protected; the poor, the outcast, the sick, the homeless, and all in need.
You know, we don’t have to look far to find the poor that Jesus is speaking about. In our text study Monday night I was reminded that we often speak of Johnson County as a place of the wealthy, and for the most part that is true. But there are still many people right here who are in desperate need of help. May we hear Jesus’ warning and call today and may we respond to that call! May we respond to God’s grace, God’s Love, God’s abundance, God’s forgiveness by relinquishing our “abundance for the sake of the poor and work toward greater economic equality in God's world." Amen.
