Homily for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” (Luke 6:17, 20-26)
This is a difficult teaching.
Jesus is turning what we value upside down. Blessed are the poor?!? Woe to the rich?!? Blessed are those who cry?!? Woe to those who laugh?!? Is he serious?
I think we need to let the shock of what he’s saying sink in, and then figure out what we should do about it.
Then imagine the scene. Jesus comes down the mountain with the twelve and his disciples. Crowds from all over the world come to join him. Jews and Gentiles from all over Judah, Jerusalem, and the coastal regions of Tyre and Sidon.
He sits before this multitude and shocks them with who is blessed and who is doomed. I wonder how this would play out today.
I drive a bus for Strong Life, a rescue mission for the homeless. I drive down an alley behind the Salvation Army shelter. I pick up two or three loads of homeless people and take them to Strong Life where they can get a meal, a shower, wash their clothes, get new clothes, and pick up supplies. As I drive down the driveway, I imagine it being like Jesus coming down the mountain. The crowds gather around the bus. How would they react if I flung open the doors and boldly announced, “Blessed are you who are poor… hungry… hated.” They’d say I’m crazy. “I want money. I want food. I want to be liked.”
These words would be as hard for them to understand as they are for us.
I likewise can’t imagine how this sermon would play out in a Rotary club. If I were the featured speaker and pointed at various individuals and said, “Woe to YOU who are rich… satisfied… well-liked.”
The message is so hard to grasp, there is a tendency soften it, to say Jesus is speaking metaphorically. He must be talking about the spiritually poor or the spiritually hungry, but that’s not the case. He has a crowd of people from all over. He says pointedly, “Blessed are YOU who are poor… Woe to YOU who are rich…” I might even imagine him pointing at various people in the crowd. I am surprised they didn’t crucify him right there and then.
The Kingdom of God is Yours
How should a person respond to this ‘Sermon on the Plain’? One verse unlocks a way to hear and respond to these Beatitudes. “The kingdom of God is yours.”
Jesus’ central mission is to bring about the kingdom of God and restore all creation to its original beauty and order. In this new heaven and earth, men and women will be stewards to all creation and give fitting praise and glory to God in their work. The Kingdom does not support poor and rich, happy and sad, liked and disliked. All will enjoy God’s favor.
Saint Paul talks about the resurrection of the dead, Jesus being the first fruit of this event. One day Christ will come, the dead will be raised, and all creation will be restored. Paul says if you don’t believe this, your faith is in vain.
In the new creation, the power structures that create poor, hungry, and homeless people will no longer exist. The love of the resurrected people will be such that there will be no persecution and division.
The kingdom is core to the preaching of Jesus. The same themes expressed in the Beatitudes appear throughout the Gospel of Luke.
In Mary’s Magnificat, the song she sang after she conceived by the Holy Spirit, sounds very similar to the Beatitudes:
“The Almighty has cast down the mighty from their thrones, lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
In Jesus’ inaugural speech he made in the synagogue in Nazareth as he launched into public ministry, he offers similar kingdom themes: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me… to bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
The coming of the kingdom has a past, present, and future quality. Mary speaks in the past tense as if the kingdom has arrived at the Annunciation (“has cast down”). Jesus speaks in the present tense, as if the kingdom is here and now (“this passage is being fulfilled in your hearing”). In the Beatitudes, there is both a present and a future sense (“is yours” and “will be satisfied”).
The actions of Jesus came before his words. As he came down the mountain, sick and afflicted came to him. It says, “He healed them all.” Power came forth from him, the same power will bring about the kingdom of God. The audience hears this bold proclamation of Jesus after their first-hand experience of God’s power breaking into this world. The words are not just a nice sermon, but describe what just happened. First the action. Then the words.
The Kingdom Ain’t Coming Until We Figure this Out
The point of the gospel is to open eyes to see unjust structures that are contrary to the kingdom of God. Once seen, then do something about them.
After my day at Strong Life being around people who slept outside in 35-degree rain I thought to myself the prayer, “Thy kingdom come.” But thought again that thy kingdom ain’t coming until we figure this out.
The Corner Table in Newton tried. It is a ministry that will feed anyone a hot meal, plus oversees the backpack program, and delivers meals to the homeless people at Strong Life. Their operations have expanded and they’re now looking at building a new location. They did a community survey to make sure they addressed the needs of the Newton area. One of the many bubble options on the survey was to build a shelter. There was such an outcry in Newton that they took that option off the survey.
I understand the resistance. But I also feel the tension between the resistance and the message of Jesus.
There are systemic problems perpetuating homelessness, access to drug rehab, mental health, and affordable housing being a few.
Kingdom people should do what they can.
Kingdom people should do what they can. Here’s an example. Erwin just got out of prison. He’s 70 years old and homeless. When in prison social security payments cease. He needed to reinstate his social security. The Social Security office said he needs official release papers. He lost them. It’s hard for a homeless person to keep up with stuff. He called the prison. They said they only issue one set. I called the Social Security office and they told me the same – they need official prison release papers. I called the prison. I explained that this 70 year old man is homeless. He needs something. The prison official said he’ll check with his administration. I didn’t feel hopeful. Erwin called him about a week later to check. I asked him how it went. He said the guy talked to him like they were buddies. He said he sent a letter out yesterday. I said, “Wow, that’s great! He said, “Thanks to you.” I told him I didn’t do much. He said that once they saw that someone cared, they realized they should care too.
Look at the world around you through the lens of the kingdom. See what belongs and what doesn’t belong. Expand what belongs, and call out those things that don’t belong. Each day, find a way to live out your prayer, “Thy kingdom come”
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