A Level Place
Luke 6:17-26
by Jim Westmoreland
On Rev. Parker's first Sunday at his new church, he was shaking hands with people emerging from the church. One of the long-time members of the church, said, "Mr. Parker, I had heard about you before you came to us. I had heard that you were difficult, that you could be controversial and outspoken. But I want to tell you that I listened carefully to you, and I was pleased that in your sermon, I can say that you said absolutely nothing. Nothing! I'm sure that you will do so well at this church."
Martin Luther is quoted as saying, "A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing and suffers nothing, is worth nothing." I believe that we come to worship a transcendent God who loves us. When the Gospel is proclaimed through singing, through scripture and through preaching, I believe it creates a positive tension in our lives as it calls us to follow Jesus. "Nothing" is not what we come for and certainly not what we should be content to receive!
In the movie, "Life of Brian," produced by the British comedy collaboration known as Monty Python, Jesus goes up on the mountain side to teach the people. There is a huge crowd gathered around him. It is so huge that some of the people who are on the outer edge of the crowd cannot hear his words and must ask others what the master has said.
As Jesus pronounces what have become known as the beatitudes, one of the characters in the movie, desperate to know what Jesus is saying, asks a man who is ahead of him in the crowd, "What is he saying? What is he saying?"
The man checks with a person in front of him, who in turn checks with someone else, and then, the message is relayed back, "the Master says, 'Blessed Are The Cheese Makers.'"
It is amazing how often we get wrong what Jesus has said. Of all the passages recording Jesus' teaching, this passage is at the very heart of Jesus' teaching about values, life, happiness and the kingdom of God. These words are here to make us think deeply about who is blessed and who is not.(1)
Jesus' sermon on the plain in Luke 6 reminds us of his more famous sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. They are similar. Yet, they are significantly different. Instead of Matthew's eight statements concerning those whom God will bless Luke gives four beatitudes, four statements concerning those who are blessed.
The four blessings at first glance seem familiar enough:
Blessed are you who are poor,
blessed are you who are hungry,
blessed are you who weep,
blessed are you when people hate you and revile and defame you on account of the Son of Man
But then Luke goes on and, instead of listing four more blessings, he also pronounces four woes, four disturbing statements concerning those whom God will afflict. To bless some lifestyles is, at least, by implication, to criticize others.
Woe to you who are rich now
Woe to you are full now
Woe to you who are laughing now
Woe to you when all speak well of you.
These are incredible and upsetting words. They are words that the rich and the full and the happy and the well thought of do not want to believe, and can we blame them? Even though we don't consider ourselves rich when we compare ourselves to the wealthy in our country, but compared to the average person throughout the world, we, too are rich.
I think most of us in this the most blessed of all nations are prepared to accept that the God will bless the poor and the hungry. There is a part of us that is, in fact, relieved by this idea. It kind of takes some of the pressure off us doesn't it?
We also like the idea that God will comfort those who mourn, we like the idea that those who do right and are hated for it will receive a reward from God. We know that doing right isn't always rewarded by those around us; so, it is good to know that God will set the record straight.
The "woes" part of this sermon leaves us a little uncomfortable. Sometimes, we are uncomfortable with woes being pronounced on anyone, unless they are really, really bad. But the idea that the riches we have might lead to our being cursed by God, and that the food we have might be taken from us, and the joy we have might be replaced by sorrow, and the good name we enjoy might be considered to be an evil-- well, that is a different story isn't it?
And so it is meant to be. Jesus intentionally creates some tension in our lives. We don't learn much, we certainly don't grow much without it.
Deep down people get uncomfortable with the beatitudes. They say things like, "well, you know, in some ways the poor are better off than the rich. They have to work together. They know just how good a meal tastes. They are more connected to God, because God is all they have."
You ever hear anything that sounds like that? There is, I suppose, a certain truth to it. But, it all too quickly can sound like being poor is a good thing. And if that is true, why don't the people who say those things sell what they have and give it to the poor, and follow Jesus, like Jesus told the rich young ruler to do?
No, poverty, thirst, weeping and persecution are not good things, and those who are poor, thirsty, mourning and persecuted are not told by Jesus that they are blessed because these things are a blessing; rather, Jesus tells them and us today that they are blessed because God loves them and because it is God's will that they have a full place in his Kingdom.
Then and now there is kind of a popular belief that those who have wealth and health have it for one of two reasons. They have it because they have worked hard for it, or they have it because they are "blessed by God". We often think it is a combination of these two things. We are blessed by God because we do things that are pleasing to God.
In a similar kind of logic we think of misery as being self induced, or as being God's punishment on those who are not following in his way. The poor are poor because they are lazy or their parents were lazy. And the poor nations, well they are poor because they have the wrong kind of values, because they fight with each other, or squander their resources, or whatever.
We are too quick to lump all of the poor into welfare abusers and con artists. So, it becomes all too easy for us to look out on the world and blame the poor and the thirsty and the persecuted and the sorrowful for their own plight.
Either way, by way of blaming the poor for their own situation, or by the way of saying that somehow the situation of being poor is better than, or at least as good as the situation of being rich, we can easily let ourselves off the hook of really caring for those around us; of really regarding the less fortunate as people equal to ourselves in every way save that they need a portion of that which we already have.
I would like to share with you something called the Parable of the Pit. Some of you have heard it before, others have not. It goes on and on a little, but that is part of it's effect. Maybe you all can help me fill in the blanks.... It starts like this:
A man fell into a pit and could not get himself out.
A SUBJECTIVE person saw him and said, "I feel for you down there."
An OBJECTIVE person happened along and said, "It's logical that someone would fall, down there."
A CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST came along and said, "You only think that you're in a pit."
A PHARISEE said............... "Only bad people fall into a pit".
A ROCK HOUND asked........ "Are there any rare specimens in the pit?"
A NEWS REPORTER asked...... "Can I have the exclusive story on your pit?"
A FUNDAMENTALIST said....... "You deserve your pit."
CONFUCIOUS said, "If you would have listened to me, you would not be in that pit."
BUDDHA said to him, "Your pit is only a state of mind."
A REALIST happened along and said, "Now THAT'S a pit!"
A SCIENTIST saw him and said..... "I'll calculate the pressure necessary (pounds per square inch) to get you out of the pit.
A GEOLOGIST said..... "Just appreciate the rock strata in your pit."
An EVOLUTIONIST happened along and said, "You're a rejected mutant destined to die in that pit, before you produce any pit-falling offspring."
A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL asked........ "Are you paying taxes on your pit?"
The LAND USE INSPECTOR asked, "Did you have a permit to dig a pit?"
A PROFESSOR gave him a lecture on "The Elementary Principles of a Pit"."
An EVASIVE PERSON talked to him and avoided the subject of the pit altogether.
A SELF-PITYING PERSON said..... "You haven't seen anything until you've see MY pit!"
An ODDS-MAKER noted..... "Chances are that anyone could fall into a pit."
An OPTIMIST said, "Things could be worse."
A PESSIMIST said, "Things WILL get worse!"
But JESUS, seeing the man........"took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit."
When we are confronted by the beatitudes we are confronted with the love of God, a love that takes us just as we are, and so also takes the poor, the thirsty, the sorrowful, those who are despised just as they are.
The implication for the church today is a decided, lifestyle embrace of incarnational mission. Interestingly, this can be found embedded in the opening verse: "He came down with them and stood on a level place" (v. 17).
He stood with them on a level place. That's where I am to stand as pastor, and that's where we are called to stand--on a "level place" with those who are in need. Is this not the incarnational response that Jesus seeks from his true followers? To come to the place of another? To practice being "with them?" To stand on a level place?
While Jesus preached from a level place, he also preached of an un-level place, an upside-down kingdom, a leveling and equality ushered in by his followers. When we stand with Jesus and look at our neighbors and our community, something happens. We see that needs are being met by those with met needs.(2) The love of Jesus guides and empowers us to live in opposition to the prevailing attitudes of our culture. No one really cares for the poor and the sick and the needy, unless they willingly stand with Jesus on Kingdom soil, level ground, and are willing to touch the lives of everyone. Amen.
Century Christian Church, February 11, 2007 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
1. Rev. Richard J. Fairchild, "Blessed are the Cheese Makers," pastor of St. Andrew's United Church of Canada, Golden, British Columbia.
2. Homiletics, "Dog Ugly," Jan-Feb 2007, Vol. 19, No. 1, p.53.