Some Sunday's it is a real challenge to find the connection between the four lectionary passages,
but that is certainly not the case today. All four are interpretations of what God is looking for in humanity.
"What does it mean to be religious?" or "What does it really mean to be a person of faith?"
These are good questions as we are about to enter the contemplative season of Lent, and will ponder again the great
demands that were placed on Jesus, and the high price he paid for our salvation.
Very clear and concise answers are given in Psalm 15, and again in Micah 6:8.
Who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell
on your holy hill? Those who walk
blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak
the truth from their heart; who do not slander
with their tongue, and do no evil to their
friends, nor take up a reproach against their
neighbors; in whose eyes the wicked are
despised, but who honor those who fear the
Lord; who stand by their oath even to their
hurt; who do not lend money at interest, and
do not take a bribe against the innocent.
What does the Lord require of you but to do
justice, and to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with your God? (You may recall that
Jimmy Carter included these words in his
inaugural address. Then the power brokers fed
him to the wolves. Humility cost him dearly.
Efforts to be a peacemaker cost him dearly.)
Conciseness, and lack of complexity do not make them any easier to hear, and even less easy to actually apply to
everyday lives. G. K. Chesterton some time ago wrote "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting,..
it has been found difficult and left untried." Why is that? Why do we insist on making life, and especially
the spiritual life so much more difficult than it needs to be?
We certainly like challenge and competition. This is Super Bowl Sunday and clearly many will be far more focused
on that game than on their personal walk with God. We are gearing up for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Sports seems to matter. On the late news last night, the anchorman made this statement; "There are presently
more American military forces 'locked-and-loaded' in the U.S. this week than in Afghanistan." They are providing
security for the Super Bowl and the
Winter Olympics. Guaranteeing the safety of those pursuing happiness IS a high priority.
To equate the word "blessed" in the beatitudes with "happy" doesn't quite do, especially with
our society's cheapened definition of happiness. Once we thought, even wrote it down to remember, that the "pursuit
of happiness" was right up there with "life and liberty." But when your life and liberty feel threatened,
like many do since September 11th, suddenly nice things like new clothes or cars, fine food and glitzy entertainment
to keep us amused don't seem to mean as much.
The subject of winners and losers may be very appropriate. We just came out of a trial in which one parent beat
another to death at a children's competition over the way a particular play was called. Legislation is in the works
to get control over angry adults who no longer seem to recognize what good sportsmanship is all about. They just
don't like to lose!
It wasn't too long ago that Ted Turner angered many people in this country referring to Christianity as being only
for "losers." We like to identify with winning…we never see God in failure,…only in success---a strange
attitude for people who have the cross as the center of their faith.
Maybe we need to develop a greater respect for losers, for those who are not leading the pack in terms of their
worldly accomplishments, who may not come in first in terms of world recognition. Heaven knows there are far more
of them.
Jesus is repeatedly praised for his compassion on the crowds. Vast gatherings of humanity most notable for their
unresolved needs. He seems to be a master at detecting what each person in those gatherings has in common with
the others. They had in common what they did not have. And Jesus was there to give it to them.
The message for this week is a relief for a great number of us who feel called to give something to a congregation
every week. People come to worship services not necessarily with the expectation that their leaders will have all
the answers, but that they will at least have a full tank of faith at all times. Such a reality is impossible.
We wouldn't grow if we were full of faith all of the time. Instead we experience much more when we are in the stages
of uncertainty. In the times when our faith seems poor, when we feel like we are losing it, then we know that the
Spirit is surely present with us.
The Gospel lesson really begins with the words "and after he sat down." One of the greatest sermons ever
preached...and no standing behind a pulpit...no theatrics...no video screen...no back ground music... just a desire
for oneness with his hearers, a true sense of empathy for the needs of his followers. Jesus taught the "blessed
attitudes" to those who were afraid, even if they could not bring themselves to admit it, that they were "losers."
Frank Sinatra sang it this way:
Here's to the Losers: -Here's to those who love, not too wisely no, not too wisely, but too well. - To the girl
who sighs with envy when she hears that wedding bell. - To the guy who'd throw a party if he knew someone to call.
Here's to the losers -- bless them all - Here's to those who drink their dinners when the lady doesn't show. -
To the girl who'll wait for kisses underneath the mistletoe. - To the lonely summer lovers when the leaves begin
to fall - Here's to the losers -- I bless em all Hey Tom, Dick and Harry, come in out of the rain, those torches
you carry must be drowned in champagne -Here's the last toast of the evening -Here's to those who still believe
all the losers will be winners, all the givers shall receive - Here's to trouble free tomorrows, may your sorrows
all be small Here's to the losers -- bless them all!
There seem to be three ways to handle what one perceives as being in the losers position. I think all three are
widely practiced, tried and true. Only the third and final one however seems to be in keeping with the Judeo-Christian
ethic of success. When the world puts you down, when your dreams fall apart, or when you just can't keep up with
the standards others have set and you feel like a loser you can:
1. Accept it as true and live down to it.
2. Reject it and rise up in rebellion.
3. Ignore it, knowing God loves and blesses you anyway. Rejoice! God's opinion is the only one that matters.
A good friend wrote to me not too long ago these words that seemed very appropriate to today's teachings:
"When my father died this Fall, I didn't feel blessed; I just hurt. I woke up the morning of the funeral,
and said to my husband, "So, this is what a broken heart feels like." I seldom prayed that whole week
- and one might think that, with my grief and my family dynamics, I'd have prayed all the more. Yet, Jesus tells
me I was blessed, and still am, even in my mourning. I had to ask myself, "since when did blessedness and
happiness become synonymous?" Rather than defining the blessedness, as we are so prone to do, perhaps the
key lies in simply trusting it. We don't have to like it, we only have to trust it."
In "My Grandfather's Blessings" a collection of stories of strength, refuge and belonging by Rachel Remen
she includes a story about a woman who had been obsessed with keeping her home clean and orderly at all time, whose
life was changed by cancer. In reflecting back on all the changes that occurred not only in her needs, and the
accompanying clutter and chaos of well meaning friends, she writes:
"The marks life leaves on everything it
touches transform perfection into wholeness.
Older wiser cultures choose to claim this
wholeness in the things that they create. In
Japan, Zen gardeners purposefully leave a fat
dandelion in the midst of the exquisite,
ritually precise patterns of the meditation
garden. In Iran, even the most skilled of rug
weavers include an intentional error, the
"Persian Flaw" in the magnificence of a
Tabriz or Qashqa'I carpet. In Puritan America
master quilt makers deliberately left a drop of
their own blood on every quilt they made; and
Native Americans wove a broken bead, the
"spirit bead" into every beaded masterpiece.
Nothing that has a soul is perfect, When life
weaves a spirit bead into your very fabric, you
may stumble upon a wholeness greater than
you had dreamed possible before."
What should we be looking for on this spiritual journey we are traveling together? Not perfection. Not happiness
or success as our predominant culture interprets it for us. Rather a mastery of our own weakness, and an acceptance
or God's love, through will we will accomplish all that is necessary. That will be our just reward.
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