Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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When, every now and then, we look dispassionately at the life and teachings of Jesus (untie the ribbons, tear away the wrapping, open the lid to see what's really in the box) - every now and then, when we "belly up to the bar" like that and look this thing called "gospel" square in the eye, we are disturbed by how radical and scandalous it was - and is - and we know why a true follower of Jesus - then and now - is always thought to be crazy as a bedbug. Luke's Gospel is a good place to take an honest look (for Luke pulls no punches), and Holy Communion, with its assurance of forgiveness, is a good place to end our investigation (because we can't survive in such intense light too long). I just read to you Luke's version of the beatitudes, with its blessings and promises, accompanied (one for one) by judgements and woes. The words are staggering. Luke separates blessings from woes and thus weakens the message. Pair them up, and read them in a modern paraphrase, and you hear (all of a sudden) a very radical Jesus.

You're blessed when you've lost it all. God's kingdom is there for the finding.
But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made. What you have is all you'll
ever get.
You're blessed when you're ravenously hungry. Then you're ready for the
Messianic meal.
And it's trouble ahead if you're satisfied with yourself. Your self will not satisfy
you for long.
You're blessed when the tears flow freely. Joy comes with the morning.
And it's trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games. There's suffering to
be met, and you're going to meet it.

"Blessed are the poor…," not "poor in spirit" here, just "poor." Why? It doesn't make sense! Tevea, in Fiddler on the Roof, talking to himself says, "It's no disgrace to be poor. Of course, it's not exactly an honor, either." Well, guess what? Jesus says the poor are honored in the kingdom of God, and therefore specially blessed on earth. (By the way, the word "fortunate" is a good synonym for "blessed" here. "O, how fortunate are the poor…," and so forth.) Fortunate and honored, not because they, the poor, are particularly honorable, but because God in his great compassion takes special pity on them, in their hunger and in their weeping, and makes a place for them. And because, in their desperate need and inability to help themselves the poor are not usually lulled into a false sense of security (as are the rich), but understand all too well that their only hope is in God. The rich are like us. They feel quite secure in their bank accounts, and their educations, and their possessions. And they are often preoccupied with money and things, leaving no room for God. We hear what Jesus has to say, these radical things, and like the rich young ruler, we walk away sadly. Because our possessions are many. Jesus' words overturned every conventional expectation. Surely, if one is rich it means God is blessing him. Right? If he is poor, it means he has displeased God. Right? No. Just the opposite. God is a partisan. He is prejudiced in favor of the poor. As we must be. Mother Theresa, asking an unsuspecting visitor if he would like to meet Jesus, and then taking him to see a street beggar, a vagrant who had just been carried into her clinic on the verge of death. "In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me," Jesus said. Having heard that, how could we not favor the poor? Even today, Jesus' words cut across our commonly-accepted wisdom. Phillip Yancy points out that Jesus teaches not "the survival of the fittest" but the survival of the least fit. A radically different idea, even now! Our argument with Charles Darwin is not so much over monkeys and men as it is over the question of who will survive - ultimately - not so much where we came from as where we're going. If we think the ultimate winners will be those with the strongest muscles, the clearest eyesight, and the best immune systems, we will follow Darwin (and most of the modern world). And the question then becomes, "Why not hurry along the evolutionary process by getting rid of those who are unfit? So they can't reproduce? Giving nature a hand. That was Hitler's rationale for murdering eight million Jews. Or is there something special about all human life, even the unfit, the unlovely, the unsuccessful? That's what Jesus taught. If we believe Jesus, we live differently, and think differently, in respect to our fellow men.

In Sunday School we used to speak of "gentle Jesus, meek and mild," but as we grew up, and read the Bible more carefully, we came to understand that Jesus was not always meek, nor was he - in any way - mild (as a hand soap might be "mild"). Jesus could get angry. He could infuriate people. He was a man of courage and great strength. Yet, there was a gentle side of Jesus. We see it in his healing, in his raising people from the dead, and here in his compassion for the poor, and for those who hunger and cry.

Holy Communion can be a watershed in someone's life. For here are drawn, in lines to bold too ignore and too clear to misunderstand, the boundaries between Jesus and the rest of the world. God sees the world through different lenses. And here, at the table, we are called to choose. Jesus came to a point, on that last night in Jerusalem, where he had to choose, where for him it was "either/or." Could no longer be "both/and." Either he would live by the will of God, and speak God's Truth, and die for it now, or he would live the world's way and die for it later. That's when he blessed the bread and passed the wine among them. "The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinful men," he said. And they sang a hymn, and walked down to a garden to pray. There was more that had to happen, but the wheel had been set in motion, the fateful decision had been made. We eat and drink to Jesus, who (though he was like God) was not embarrassed to be like us, and (in the fullness of time) died for our saving. "Greater love hath no man…."