Jeremiah's images are familiar. He talks about shrubs in the desert - parched places, uninhabited salt land. We can almost feel the shimmering heat, taste the dust on our tongues, see the vultures circling high overhead. That is what it is like to be cursed.

Jeremiah contrasts that dire image with a tree planted by water - rooted by the stream, green leaves, cool shade, bearing fruit even in drought. That's what it means to be blessed!

We want to be like that tree. We want to be hot-house flowers lush and beautiful, basking in the sanctuary of a controlled environment whether the temperature outside is 10 °or 110 °.

Jeremiah is clear about what we should do in response to his words: trust God and be like an orchid. If you put your trust in mortals instead, you'll be a desert shrub.

But along comes Jesus and what he says shocks us. He says "blessed are you who are poor ... you who are hungry ... you who weep ... blessed are you when people hate you ..." What are we to make of this?

The poor are not like orchids, living in hot-houses with regulated temperature and humidity. They live in cardboard boxes and tin-roofed shacks, in rundown apartments and overcrowded houses. How can Jesus say they are blessed?

The hungry are not like bougainvillea with a special soil mix and exact watering. They depend on soup kitchens and food pantries; they sort through garbage cans and miss meals; they have distended bellies and become too weak to swat away the flies. How can Jesus say they are blessed?

The grieving are more like tumbleweeds - blown from one spot to the next by every wave of weeping. How can Jesus say they are blessed?

The reviled are more like cactuses - developing thick skin and spines to protect themselves from the onslaught of slander and abuse. How can Jesus say they are blessed?

How can Jesus look these people in the eye - these country folk from all across Judea, residents of the capitol city, and gentiles who have traveled from the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon; this desperate multitude of the diseased and the spiritually troubled, the hungry and the desperately poor, those who have cried a river of tears and those who will be hounded for their faith; the footsore and the heartbroken, the expectant and the curious, the hopeful and the hesitant - How can Jesus look them in the eye and say, "you are blessed"?

He can do it because he is determined to make himself a blessing to such people by taking them seriously and tending to their needs. Remember how his ministry began in chapter 4 with words from Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

He can call them blessed because he is convinced that God has the power and the intention to change their lot. Even before he could read the prophets, he heard his mother sing phrases from the Magnificat while she baked bread or swept the floor: "the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation ...
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."

Jesus can call them blessed because he knows that he will be training disciples for a ministry that will help the poor, feed the hungry, comfort the grieving, and give courage to those persecuted for their faith. Even today that is what congregations like this one do.

And Jesus can call them blessed because it is true.

You may remember that our family lived in Panama before moving to Fairfax County. One day we were driving through the poor section of town and I spotted a boy about my age who had made a toy out of a scrap of wood, flattened tin cans, and mismatched tires. He had a smile on his face that made me ache with envy, despite my erector set and matchbox cars. Weigh that scene in the scales and tell me who was blessed.

But don't take my word for it. Pulitzer Prize winning author Dr. Robert Coles, writes about Jesus' blessed people, in his five volume series Children of Crisis. He was struck by the ironies when he compared the lives of the rich and poor. It was true the poor were cursed: he had treated miners with black lung disease, and the malnourished children, like little Annie who died at age three. Yet in a strange but undeniable way, the poor were also blessed with qualities such as courage and love and a willing dependence on God. [from Soul Survivor by Philip Yancy, p. 111]

"There is a worldview," writes Coles, "which says that anxiety, pain, and fear are part of what life is meant to be, that God himself assumed such a life, that he lived under continual anxiety, pain, and fear, and ended up as a common criminal strung up on a cross and killed. Now if you take that kind of existence as a very important one and as a model of sorts, then you're going to have a difficult time becoming as 'successful' as you may have been told you ought to be if you come from a middle-class family." [Sojourners]

So which of us is blessed and which is cursed. Are we who live in hot-houses truly blessed or do the glass panes and growing lights give us a false sense of security and cut us off from some of what God has provided so that we might grow to be like him?

"Blessed are the poor ..." Jesus says, "but woe to the rich ..." What are we supposed to do in response to these challenging words? Give away all that we have? Skip meals until our stomachs
growl? Sit down and manufacture some tears?

Ruin our own reputation in hopes that we can move from one list to the other?
No. Blessings cannot be manipulated like that. Besides, there is nothing in this passage that suggests Jesus was telling anyone what he thought they should do. Beatitudes and woes are not advice.

Barbara Brown Taylor writes, "When Jesus gives advice, it is hard to miss. 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.' Now that is advice - love, do, bless, pray - one imperative after the other, with no distinction between rich and poor, hungry or well-fed. It is the same list for all of them, whether they happen to be weeping or bent over with laughter.

The beatitudes are not like that. In them Jesus does not tell anyone to do anything. Instead, he describes different kinds of people, hoping that his listeners will recognize themselves. Then he makes the same promise to all of them; that the way things are is not the way they will always be. The Ferris wheel will go around, so that those who are swaying at the top, with the wind in their hair and all the world's lights at their feet, will have their turn at the bottom, while those who are down there right now, where all they can see are candy wrappers in the sawdust, will have their chance to touch the stars." [from Home by Another Way, p. 55]

So friends, remember this: You are not loved more if all your petals are perfect and calamity is not a sign that God has turned his back on you. Blessings from God can come in unexpected packages and whether a thing is a blessing or a curse often depends on how we receive it. And finally, it is good news that God will not leave things alone. In the kingdom of God, the needy will know abundance
and those who have had more than enough will have what they really need. Amen.

 

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