Micah 6:6-8; Matthew 5:1-12; Fourth Sunday after Epiphany; January 29, 2023
There’s a couple things you should know about me from the start.
To begin, I am no prophet and I have never been persecuted. For I am and have always been privileged. A privileged, white, straight, man, born and raised in affluence and wealth. It’s important that I acknowledge that up front. For it otherwise colors and skews my perspective.
And as much as I would like to think I could be described as a peacemaker, and though I’ve had my share of mourning, there are few other adjectives on this “list of the blessed” that truly describe me. For I have never been poor nor am I pure; I have never been hungry or thirsty nor have I have been considered meek; though I do have two weak knees and an even weaker bladder – Hank’s going to help me out.
So, I don’t think I am necessarily the target audience that Jesus has in mind when delivering this sermon on the mount.
Or… maybe I am. And maybe you are too. For maybe we need to a better job at hearing who Jesus is also addressing. He’s a master at this: overtly defending one group while covertly dressing down another — who are often in earshot and in need of instruction.
You see, we often misconstrue the guy as the perfect pacifist, but he’d let you know when you were acting the hypocrite; when you went off the rails; when you messed up enough for him to start overturning your tables. And I think after this past week, and the horrific details and video release of the brutal murder of Tyre Nichols, Jesus would be doing more than flipping tables.
Friends, we need to move past the Jesus we entrap behind the halo and the stained glass (as beautiful as they are here), and move towards the revolutionary Jesus who spoke truth to power, who challenged societal and religious norms, who from the moment he was born to the moment he died and resurrected, flipped the known and accepted script of power and privilege and in course changed the whole of human history.
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During my conversations with your PNC, and in my interview upstairs in the conference room, we talked about the “Nones” and the “Nonverts.” People who either have left the church and have been non-verted; or the ones who never have entered and have no intention to. We floated some ideas and opinions as to why this was.
Nothing terribly novel or groundbreaking, because it’s something we all already know: the Church simply is in decline. In studies and reports, it’s been demonstrated that mainline congregations have seen a 50% decline in membership across the board since 2000.
And more, membership doesn’t even mean what it used to. Active membership today more often looks like one or two services attended per month, and a faith that has as many questions as declarations.
And hear me clearly when I say that even though that’s probably not ideal, it’s also okay. The world is spinning so fast, and it’s so different now, and I get that. As a parent to a busy six-year-old boy, and as a husband in a multi-faith marriage, I get it. So if this trend also describes you, just know that it describes a lot of us, and, that you are loved and heard and understood all the same. Know that.
Now… in those studies and reports, do you know what the most reoccurring reason was as to why people no longer attend or have interest in the Church? I’ll quote it for you: “Church members seem too divisive, judgmental, and hypocritical (Lifeway Research Study).” Divisive. Judgmental. Hypocritical. We don’t practice what we preach, they say. And sadly, judging by what we often see peddled in the mainstream about church and religion, they may have a point.
And remember, these points and trends existed before Covid; before most of us were locked out of sanctuaries and lost the routine of attending in-person worship. I have friends that say, “Brian, we now have new family traditions that we started during Covid and we are so busy elsewhere that we don’t want to give those up. We can find our spirituality in other ways now. Besides, doesn’t your faith tradition say that there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s grace, so what can the Church really provide us that we can’t also freely get elsewhere?” I’ve heard this.
But you see my friends, here’s where the Church can shine and say something the world has little interest in saying. That while there is a plethora of self-help and self-joy opportunities out there, the Church provides, or ought to provide, a wider spectrum of community involvement and opportunities that primarily have little to do with ourselves. And isn’t the way it should be?
For remember, our God is not like the systems of this world. Our God tells us that we ought to put others before ourselves; that the high will be made low, and the low will be made high. That the first shall be last and the last shall be first. That the blessed are not those who have fortune and fame, but those who are poor in both, forgotten and unseen.
Jesus says this explicitly in our gospel text today and reorients the accepted norms of how we should we live, and who we should invite into our circles and our embrace. And here’s a clue who he’s talking about… it’s everyone. Every race, every class, every gender, every identity. All are named and known and loved by this God.
Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” My friends, if the Church is using the name of Jesus in mocking or condemning others based on nothing but their class, ethnicity, or self-identification, then boy, we have really messed all of this up.
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Dave Chappelle, the embattled, offensive, but sometimes brilliant comedian, had a skit earlier in his career that’s always stayed with me. Now, he is not perfect. He has made countless mistakes and has caused great harm to many communities with his comedy, and communities that I care about, but he’s also had a strong voice for and of a minority people, and, has opinions worthy of discussion if not also critique and correction.
In a short bit known as “Sesame Street” which you can no doubt find on YouTube, he humorously but adeptly illustrates how the neighborhood treats Oscar, and how that line of thinking engrains itself into how we grow into adults and judge and label those unlike us, those who have less, the very blessed who Jesus names and wants us to minister to. He paraphrases how an episode would go, where the adults on Sesame Street would be like:
“Oscar, you are so mean; isn’t that right, kids?”
“Yeah, Oscar, you’re a grouch!”
(But then Oscar says),
“But I live in a trash can! I’m the poorest one on Sesame Street!
Nobody’s trying to help me.”
Of course, I’m grouchy.
You see we got to try to have empathy for each other. Listen to each other. Try to understand each other; why we are the way we are, and how to got to where we’re at. For in doing so, we just might begin to breach the divides between us.
Because if we don’t, as Chappelle adds, we’ll only raise more generations of kids that grow into adults who lack basic sympathy for their less-fortunate other, and then beat them with fists and batons at traffic stops for three long minutes, saying under their breath, “get it together grouch, get a job grouch.” Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, grouch.
And he’s right. He’s right. For forget Sesame Street, there are too many things out there, most notably our in-born privileges, that color and distort our perspective of life and our perception of fairness and our respect for our neighbor.
So my friends, I think it’s way past time to reorient. To refocus. To reconfirm to this faith that teaches us how we should see and treat the unloved and the unwelcomed; standing up for what is right and speaking truth to power and becoming peacemakers in these days of endless infighting, shootings, beatings, and war.
After all, as Micah reminds us, what good are grain offerings anymore, anyway? What good is looking and saying the part if we don’t also act the part?
“O Mortal, God told us what is good; and what does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly.”
And with help of God, together at Grace, we shall.
Amen.
First Lesson (Micah 6:6-8)
With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Second Lesson (Matthew 5:1-12)
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
