| The Rev. Catharine Montgomery | 6 Epiphany |
| Grace Memorial Church | Year C |
| February 11, 2007 | RCL |
| Jeremiah 17:5-10 | Psalm 1 | 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 | Luke 6:17-26 |
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” These words are familiar…they remind us of Jesus’ more famous sermon in Matthew …the sermon we fondly call the “beatitudes.” Jesus says those who are poor and those who are hungry, those who weep and those who are persecuted are blessed and will be blessed. Luke’s version is harder for us to hear because he includes the woes to those who have what they need now – who give themselves credit for all they have accomplished.
Last week’s sermon subject focused on the meaning of conversion. Conversion to the Christian life requires a change of heart and mind and attention. To be converted to the Christian life that Jesus becomes the center of our lives, our thoughts, and our actions. And I pointed out that the turning of our hearts to the Lord happens not only in dramatic moments in our lives but also in our worship and in everything we do together in this church. Today let’s think about the process of conversion in the light of what Jesus is saying in these blessings and woes and in light of the poor of our community, the nation, and the world.
When I look at the dirty tear-stained faces of those who are poor or hungry or mourning or oppressed, I cannot imagine how they could feel blessed. Poverty and oppression were miserable states of being in Jesus’ time and still are in ours and will be until there is a dramatic change in the way human beings care for one another and this beautiful world that is God’s creation. “Blessed are you who are hungry now for you will be filled.” Jesus was speaking in the future tense… speaking about how things would be at the end time – when the Kingdom of God is finally made a full reality. Picture a timeline. Jesus stands at the beginning wrapped in the kingdom of heaven. We stand in the middle …. the Kingdom as Jesus described it presses us, pushes us, impels us, washes over us, carries us toward a future reality.
The bottom line is Jesus had an agenda for making his Kingdom a reality. He preached and taught and healed and forgave sins so that he could form a community to help him spread his message to the world. Last week we heard of disciples who dropped everything and followed Jesus. We are that community and part of the conversion process for every Christian is not so much that we literally leave everything behind, but that we take on Jesus’ agenda for the poor…the hungry…those who weep for lack of hope and those who are oppressed.
Last fall I read an article in The Anglican Digest written by the Rev. James Burns. He outlined an agenda of five things for Christians to do if they are going to follow Jesus. They are based on Jesus instructions to his disciples in Matthew 10:7-8. Jesus told them to go out to the people and, “Tell everyone that the Kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.” (Trans., Eugene Petersen, The Message)
Here are the five things we can do. I want you to make a list to keep close by…print this sermon off the webpage… memorize them…put them on your refrigerator, tape them to your desk and add them to your “To Do” list. Look at them everyday decide on something that you personally can do. You might be surprised at what you already do. Here we go….
1. Tell everyone that the kingdom is here. We promise in our Baptismal Covenant that we will proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ. The Spirit of the Lord is inside every person here. Part of Jesus’ agenda for the Kingdom is that each one of us tell or show someone that Jesus’ life-giving love is available now. Jesus wants each one of us who have been given so much to make him visible to those who need to see him so we all can share in the blessed hope of the kingdom.
2. Bring health to the sick. Doctors do that all the time …good medical care should be available for everyone and we can lobby and write letters about that. Even those of us with no medical training can be healers. You know that in our healing services we can feel the power of the Spirit moving among us healing with prayer and touch and words of comfort. Grace memorial is a healing community. Everyone in this church has the power to heal a relationship that is broken or hurting. Every one of us has the power to be an agent of healing in lives that need to be put back together.
3. Jesus told his disciples to raise the dead. Mr. Burns said, Raise the dead…I know this sounds rather daunting, but it is possible, I believe, for anyone to bring things back to life. Dreams that have died can be born anew. Hope can be given new life with words of encouragement or gifts of support. Friendships and other relationships, killed by pride or neglect, or genuine offenses, can be resurrected and given life through forgiveness. Death comes in many guises. (12)
4. Touch the untouchables. Take a moment to bring to mind the people who you would be least likely to associate with. In Jesus’ time it was lepers. Who are the ones in the year 2007 who are considered outcasts…unclean? Who would you not want to touch or associate with? It is shameful that we still …even in the church …make decisions about who is acceptable and who is not. These days the big church disputes center on gender and sexuality. Deciding who is in and who is out was not on Jesus’ agenda. Jesus always went to those who were on the edges…shunned by society. He always brought into community those who were left out. We can do that do.
5. Kick out the demons. A demon is anything that seeks to demean, bind, deface, or destroy God’s creatures or creation. There are institutional demons, cultural demons, and personal demons. They love the tools of pride and prejudice, of ignorance and indifference, of greed and hatred. Demons feast on fear and they dance at division. Demons want us to believe that God is just like us, limited to our desires and our judgments. Demons hate the freedom that comes from living in and with God. (13) We can look for demons – they are all around us. We can kick them out!
So there you have it…Jesus’ 5 item agenda for Christians to follow him. The season of Lent begins in ten days. I believe we can follow this agenda on a personal level, in our community and on a global level. For the last six months outreach to others has been a focus for our ministry at Grace. I am astounded at what is happening here. To feed the men at Gateway and help build a Habitat House and all the other helping ministries we have is telling the Good News, healing the sick, raising the dead, touching the untouchables, and kicking out demons.
We also have the power to do all these things on a global level. You have been receiving these bulletin inserts that describe how the Millennium Development Goals would help alleviate extreme poverty, sickness and kick out demons in other countries. We will be hearing more next week in Adult Forum about this worldwide initiative. It is exciting and we can be a part of it.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who mourn, and those who are oppressed.” They are blessed because they turn to God as their only hope. For those of us who are rich now… who have been given much now…who are not hungry now…who are not weeping for loss of hope…who are not oppressed … Jesus has an agenda for us to follow. Blessed are you who tell someone about Jesus’ love. Blessed are you who are healers. Blessed are you who raise that which is dead. Blessed are you who touch the untouchables. Blessed are you who kick out the demons. Amen
Reference: Burns, The Rev. James L., The Anglican Digest, The Christian Agenda, Michaelmas, A.D. 2006, pg.11-13.)