The Lectionary
Have to look them up
The Sermon
If [Trinity senior pastor] Jim [Lindus] were here he'd work a joke into this somehow. I'm not going to try to work it in, I think I'll just tell it.
There was a Georgia farmer, and though he was a hard working and honest man, he was also prideful and stubborn. There were excesses in his youth and temptations that he had succumbed to, but he was too proud and stubborn to ask forgiveness of his friends, his family, or his God. So when he died, he found himself at the gates of Hell.
Satan looked at this big strapping specimen and saw the pride, and knew he had to beat him down. So he put him in a small room with a pile of rocks and sledgehammer, and told the farmer to make sand. As he left he turned the temperature up to 100 and let the humidity rise to 90%. The next day he came back, and the farmer was swinging his hammer and singing at the top of his lungs. The Devil demanded to know why he was so happy, and the farmer said it felt just like a summer day on the farm.
The Devil said, this won't do! He cranked the heat up to 150 and the humidity up to 100, and let in a few thousand mosquitoes. The next day he came back, and the farmer was swinging that hammer and singing those songs. The devil again demanded to know what was going on, and the farmer said "Shucks, I've been on a lot of fishing trips that were worse than this, and I enjoyed every minute of them!"
Without a word the Devil stormed out and slapped the thermostat down to 20 below zero. He knew it would kill the mosquitoes in seconds, but he didn't think a Georgia farmer knew how to be comfortable in that cold.
But the next day he returned, and there was the farmer having a great old time, singing at the top of his lungs, swinging that hammer. The Devil was frustrated, "How can you be happy in these conditions?"
The farmer said, "We've always known it would be a cold day down here when the Atlanta Falcons went to the Super Bowl, so I guess I'm about as happy as a Georgia boy can get!"
I thought it was funny, and I didn't even know that, indeed, the Falcons are
in tomorrow's Super Bowl.
Our lessons leave me at sea, not sure if I'm insignificant beyond description, or the most important person in the world. I think I'm wise, at least at moments, but Paul tells us "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. I guess I know where I stand.
I read the lessons over and over in preparation for tonight, but every time I sought to discern the kernel of truth that I was supposed to bring forward for the fourth Sunday in Epiphany I was faced with Paul telling me that God "will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning" will be thwarted. Thanks a lot.
At the pastors' study group session last week pondered these texts, we were staring at the words, looking for wisdom. And we noticed that in the beatitudes there were six phrases with "will be" in them, and only three with "is." One of the pastors said, "Well, that all depends on what your definition of the word "is" is." After we stopped laughing I still wanted to know why some were set in the future, and a few in the now, but I didn't know.
I take my wisdom and discernment very seriously. I like to play tricks with the language, and choose the best possible word for things. I don't reply in a conversation, I engage in airy persiflage. When I fear that a sentence is too complex, when I should say "Keep it simple," I am the first one to suggest instead that we "eschew obfuscation."
Proud of my wit and erudition, I find in God's word that my alleged strengths count for nothing.
I'm not a scientist, but I long for understanding. What makes things work? My daughter is something of a pain to be around at times, her father taught her to say "Why" and "How" in every situation, and she is getting over that only slowly. I am one with the Greeks who demanded wisdom and understanding, and perhaps among the front row of those whose wisdom will be "brought to nothing." It's not only the Greeks for which these things are stumbling blocks.
But I persevere in trying to understand. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." What on earth is "poor in spirit." Driving down highway 525, my tricky brain is off in search of alliteration: Depressed and oppressed, abused, abandoned, and addicted. Even I can see that I'm trying too hard.
Reminded that this is not the only version of the beatitudes, I went off to read the Gospel of Luke. But Luke has distilled this sermon in a way that is hardly recognizable after reading Matthew. It is just a matter of time in Luke, no matter what your status now, "you'll get yours later." If you're hungry now you will later be filled. If you're laughing now, you will mourn and weep." That doesn't help our discernment of these texts much, does it?
So I started in to read the same text in other translations. The lessons we read most of the time come from the New Revised Standard Version, which is clear and trustworthy, but I've always like the words of the Authorized Version, which we normally refer to by the name of Kink James I who authorized it in 1604. It is music to the ears, even if we miss a few of the words. "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." It makes you proud, doesn't it?
But pride is clearly not what we should feel!
With a new appreciation, I turned to the World English translation. Liberia is a nation in Africa, populated by the descendants of American slaves freed after the War Between the States. The people are mostly not educated, but they have a great tradition of story telling and a great faith. Annie Cressman, a Canadian missionary teaching there, tired of struggling to get past the nuances of English in the bibles available, and translated the New Testament in words that are clear, perhaps even simple. But it suited her purpose in Liberia, and it spoke to me, getting past my linguistic cleverness. The Corinthian passage starts "I will fool the wise people. I will bring to nothing the understanding of the clever people."
So let us put aside our pride for a moment. Let us put our cleverness on the shelf. Let us put aside our self-congratulation that we are on the winning side, for it was by God's hand that we are here rather than by good sense on our part. Let us not worry about tense – is vs will be – but be satisfied with the certainty in both. Let us hear the good news in these clear words:
When Jesus saw the many people, he went up on a hill. He sat down and his disciples came to him. He began to teach the people.
He said, `God makes happy those who know that they need him. The kingdom of heaven is for them.
God makes happy those who are sad. They will have comfort.
God makes happy those who quietly trust him and do not try to get their own way. The world will belong to them.
God makes happy those who are hungry and thirsty for what is right and good. They will be filled.
God makes happy those who are kind. He will be kind to them.
God makes happy those who have clean hearts. They will see God.
God makes happy those who make peace between people. They will be called God's sons.
God makes happy those who have trouble for doing what is right. The kingdom of heaven is for them.
God makes you happy when people say wrong things about you, when they trouble you, and when they say all kinds of lies about you. God makes you happy when it is for my sake.
Be happy and glad because God will be good to you in heaven. In the same way people troubled the prophets before your time.'
And that's how He treats those of us who are nothing in the eyes of the world.
May our lives be changed. Amen.