Where are you in this crowd? A sermon on Luke's Beatitudes
This is my sermon from this morning. The gospel was Luke 6:17-26 (aka the Other Beatitudes). There were at least 7 different sermons left on the desk, including some that could have drawn in the other readings.
And then I thought, we’re approaching Lent, and I’ve spent much of the past few weeks writing about repentance for our Lent Study, I just kinda want to keep it simple. I’m looking forward to our weekly study this week to hear what others make of the readings. But for now…
I. Gospel in Solentiname
I said that it was curious that the reason these rich people were going to be punished was just because they were rich, not precisely for having been evil rich people.
And ALEJANDRO said : It's logical that the Gospel should put in this counterpart, because if it only said Beatitudes for the poor, you might think that there's maybe another kind of Beatitudes for the rich, or for certain rich people, or that Christ is with the poor but he's also with the rich. But Saint Luke makes it clear that it's not that way.
And LAUREANO said : This is very revolutionary. He says that all those who are well-off are going to be screwed. This turns the tables completely.
Then OLIVIA said: I think that what Jesus is condemning in them is lack of feeling. Because you have to have a hard heart to be happy while others are suffering, to be full of food while others are hungry—maybe the very people that work for them.”
And then MARCELINO said: Not only lack of feeling. It wouldn't be so serious if they enjoyed wealth that came down to them from heaven, but their wealth is produced by the labour of others. A man has a cotton field of two thousand acres, but he doesn't farm two thousand acres. Other people farm the two thousand acres for him. And if he gives a party, it's with the product of that work.
And FELIPE said: It seems to me that here Jesus has put himself on the side of the poor. But the Gospels can also be the liberation of the rich.[1]
Towards the southern end of Lake Nicaragua there is a small archipelago called Solentiname. In the 1970s it was home to the Nicaraguan priest, poet, and revolutionary politician Ernesto Cardenal and a Christian community of the local campesinos. They would read the gospel together, with Cardenal encouraging them all to share their thoughts about what they read. Over time they began to record their dialogues, which were published as The Gospel in Solentiname—and promptly banned by the Nicaraguan regime for being communist and revolutionary.
The passage I just read is a part of their discussion of the concluding verses of our gospel reading today. As you can hear, the different voices bring various perspectives to the conversation—but as subsistence-level peasant farmers, they all identify themselves with the poor, hungry, weeping and oppressed who are blessed—claiming these promises not only for heaven but for this life too. In their discussion of this passage and of its twin, the beatitudes found in Matthew’s gospel, they talk about the importance of love and care within as markers of the kingdom of God in this world and consider the ways that the rich can also participate in this reality—entangling themselves and their fortunes with the poor by sharing them in love and community as they join Christ in this upside-down kingdom that Luke loves to talk about. Although Pancho, the conservative voice in the community, worries deeply about the possibility of Jesus being a communist.
The Solentiname dialogue can be challenging to read—for the reality is that, even though life in the UK has become more challenging for many in recent years, we are not subsistence farmers in Nicaragua under a dictatorship. We would be the rich to them—we still are, to many in Latin America. This gospel can also be challenging to hear, if we are not poor, or hungry, or persecuted for our faith—even though we will certainly all experience grief and weeping at some point. Luke talks about repentance more than any of the other gospels: it is always—always—a possibility, never too late. But this is a gospel that is open about the fact that repentance is hard, because it asks people to change the way they understand and live in the world as God’s kingdom.
II. The Gospel in Judea and Syria
In a moment, I’m going to ask us to listen to Jesus’s words again. To imagine ourselves in that crowd of listeners, and ask ourselves honestly how these words speak to each of us. To wonder what thoughts and questions we would bring to an open conversation about what Jesus says— what hopes and fears.
But first, I want to talk a bit about the crowd that Jesus is speaking to and where he is speaking to them because I think it’s important for us to recognise a few things here.
Firstly, Luke is clear that this crowd is mixed. There are the twelve men who have just been chosen as Jesus’ closest followers, and a much greater crowd of disciples—so people who already trust Jesus to teach them. And then there’s a ‘multitude’ of people from a wide area—remember that today Jerusalem is in the centre of Israel and Tyre and Sidon are in the south of Lebanon. They’ve probably walked for a day or two to get here. These are people who are curious, and people who needed what they’d heard Jesus offered—healing for various sickness—some of whom seem to have been healed. Some of them will have been rich enough to travel easily. Some won’t. There will have been Jews and Gentiles, men and women, adults and children…
So Jesus is speaking primarily to disciples here, but of course, the rest of the crowd would be hearing him too. Perhaps wondering about following Jesus themselves, having seen his power to heal. And Luke’s Jesus lets people know what they’re getting themselves into—both the likelihood of rejection, poverty and grief and the promise of the solidarity, consolation and blessings of Jesus for those who find themselves in such difficulties
So everyone in the crowd around Jesus will have been hearing him from a different personal situation, with a different level of interest and commitment to him, and his words will have spoken to them differently.
And they are around him. One of the key differences between this gospel in Luke and its Matthean counterpart, is that Jesus isn’t standing on a mountain with the crowd looking uphill at him. He’s on a plain, on the same level as people. There are benefits to a height differential, especially if you’re a shortie like me, but here Jesus is speaking to the people and to meet their eyes in a different way—and remember that he has just been healing people. The words come in a time and place where Jesus’ love, mercy, and power has been seen—the fulfilment of the blessings he promises tangible; the idea that he is the Son of Man, a figure of divine judgement, believable.
Would this have made it easier, for some to have heard challenging words as well as to believe the promises? I wonder whether, for us, imagining it now, it might make the teaching feel like that deep voice from within, reminding us of what we need to hear—encouragement and challenge spoken with love.
3. The Gospel, here and now
I’m going to re-read Jesus’ words again now. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can close your eyes while you listen.
Imagine yourself in the crowd.
What is your relationship to Jesus?
What brought you here? Why are you interested?
What are you hoping for? What do you need?
Take a moment to imagine that Jesus catches your eye. That you see in that glance the love and compassion you want to know.
As you listen to Jesus’s words again, hear the ones that speak to you
And hear them, whatever they are, knowing the depth and reality of that love—that can heal and teach with mercy.
Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
What are the words that speak to you? That meet you where you are at.
Take the time during this week to muse on them, to ask questions about them. If you, like me, feel challenged by them, perhaps consider whether there is some way of exploring that during the upcoming season of Lent, when we’re invited to fast and to draw closer to God.
And—whatever they are—keep them lightly in your mind as you come to the altar for communion or for a blessing—to be reminded that Jesus loves you, died for you, and invites you into his kingdom.
[1] Cardenal, Ernesto. Gospel in Solentiname (p. 128-9)