St. John’s Lutheran Church, Toluca, IL – 4th Sunday after Epiphany
Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12
Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12
1When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
NRSV
…
The Foolishness of Violence
Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a little side note to my study bible on the page where Matthew’s Beatitudes are printed. It says that God’s spoken word has creative power. God’s word creates what it declares. So when Jesus from Nazareth, the incarnation and the revelation of the Word of God for us, called to be his disciples, speaks, God’s creative power is at work.
The Romans were a mighty nation. They represented the strength of spirit, the strong. They put their version of justice and righteousness in place for their own benefit. They brought pain and despair to the land. They punished without mercy those who crossed them. They waged war all over the world. They had conquered almost every kingdom. For them, the emperor is the Son of God, their power is rightful, and they will put anyone who says otherwise to death on the cross or in the bonfires outside town that never quench.
By now, we have a sense of the inglorious history of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, the Galilee of the nations, and the hundreds of years of struggle sprinkled with some decades of prosperity. There, in the land of disgrace, once more occupied and oppressed, where nothing good comes from, where people use the dung of livestock to plaster the walls of their homes, Jesus delivers his open speech. The one that will define what it means to be a follower of his. There, God’s spoken word created something as haunting as it is magnificent, a new reality.
Blessed are the poor in spirit; you have found favor with God; rejoice, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you who mourn; you will be comforted.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the victims of the injustices of this world; you will be filled.
Blessed are you who are merciful, who practice loving kindness, and who walk humbly with your God; you will receive mercy.
Blessed are you who are pure in heart. God will be present for you.
Blessed are those who make peace, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, who were accused and enslaved, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and slender you and talk all kinds of evil against you falsely as my disciples. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
When I read the beatitudes in the light of what we witnessed this week, the only image that came to my mind was this. When I joined our Synod’s anti-racism working group, we had a class on racism and spirituality held by the Lutheran School of Theology at Saint Louis. It was an online class in the middle of the pandemic. Because a lot of the class was about the experiences of African American mothers in our society, many African American women and mothers were taking the class. We broke into small groups, and in my group, there was an African American woman that is a member of our Synod and part of the anti-racism working group. I was the only white person in the group – a descendant of colonizers who benefited from the transatlantic slave trade invented by my Portuguese ancestors – and had to listen to their despair. Every day, they fear what may happen to their children on the streets, especially those driving and who may be stopped for so-called traffic violations. The fear of a mother for their children is something that everyone in this audience who is a mother understands. That is constant, daily thirst and hunger for righteousness, for the right not to be afraid.
It’s almost divine – considering what happened this week – that we receive these readings this Sunday for all that they mean.
Only God knows how many Tyre Nicholses, once enslaved, then living under the cruelty of false peace, were subdued, chased, beaten, and murdered in the Galilee of Jesus’ time. Like today, aggression, violence, and brutality were foolishly perceived as capable of making one strong and powerful.
It may be so, but it is temporary.
Only God knows how many Tyre Nicholses were killed in Galilee in the time of Jesus. God indeed knew, so God spoke, and a new reality was created from God’s universal love and compassion for all of God’s children. A new reality was created by God because we can’t.
The new reality declared the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the victims of injustice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the non-violent, the persecuted, the slandered, the shamed, forever God’s beloved children, worthy of the comfort of his presence. Blessed are they, for their lives now matter.
God can do that. God’s weakness is more powerful than any sense of strength we may have. So, God did the wisest thing God ever did. God became meek for us. No, that is not foolish. The mighty Roman legions are long gone, and Jesus is still alive among us today. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Bridging Faith 