Friday, February 1, 2013

Luke 6:20-26


Dear Luke,
You raised an interesting question in your letter about how I might spend a night in prayer.  To be honest, I’m not sure I could do it.  I’d like to do it—but I know myself well enough to know that I’d be asleep by eleven pm, and my mind would have spent the previous hour wandering all over the world, everywhere but where I intended it to rest.  I would like to be in love with God, to have the type of relationship with God that was life-giving and energizing.  I’d love to wake up every morning refreshed and excited to spend another day with God—but a life of faith is difficult.  Some days it’s easier than others.  I’m not going to pretend that I have it all together every day, or that it will be any easier for you, Luke, but I do believe that I grow a little each day, and that the struggle is worthwhile.  I am being formed as a disciple, and while I still have a long way to go, God is at work in me.  I think I am one of the disciples in the crowds to which Jesus addressed so much teaching.  He acknowledges their desire but continues to challenge them to grow.  None of us have it completely figured out, and while some hearts may be purer than others, we are each growing in faith. 
In so much of Jesus’ teaching, he is calling the disciples to a higher level of discipleship than we could have imagined.  He paints the kingdom of God as a place very different than this world.  It’s hard for us to imagine what that is like, even when Jesus brings his palette and brushes and paints us a picture.  We’re so accustomed to this world that we have trouble adjusting our vision to make room for such an outlandish view of life.  I think Jesus is describing heaven, but I also believe he’s encouraging us to live in such a way that makes earth similar to heaven.  I don’t think he expects us to do it perfectly, but we’re supposed to strive to live out his vision of life now, not simply sit back and wait for God to come and make all things right.  I think God is at work now, and we’re supposed to join in and help in everything we do.   Again, though—this takes a heart focused on Christ alone, and not many people have that.  The church does alright sometimes, but often we get wrapped up in things that don’t matter as much as loving others does.
I am glad to report that I have some of Jesus’ teachings from the plain that you were missing.  I will not promise that they are easy to deal with—they challenge much of what we would claim to be societal wisdom.  While this life seems to be about getting ahead, Jesus is busy teaching us that we need to be concerned with things of a different flavor.  He’s calling us to think completely differently about how we approach life, and I wonder how many wandered off not long after this sermon began, believing that the vision Jesus cast of society was impossible to fulfill.
For example, Jesus begins with telling the disciples that the poor are blessed, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.  Now, you or I would wonder what it is that makes the poor blessed.  We often look down on the poor and pass them by without giving them a second thought.  Even if we believed them to be blessed, we certainly wouldn’t be handing over the keys to God’s Kingdom to them.  We’d reserve that for those who live religiously exemplary lives, and perhaps those wealthy donors who make much of the church possible.  We’d wonder what the poor have done to earn their share!
But Jesus seems to continue to turn things upside-down, to challenge our conventional wisdom and make us examine the way that we are living.  Jesus doesn’t want us to wander into the church and close the door on the world—he wants the church to make us examine our lives and go out into the world and lead a life that proclaims a different type of ethics. 
For example, Jesus teaches that the ones who are hungry now are blessed, for they will be filled.  Jesus doesn’t explain exactly what this means, but he offers this piece of wisdom that goes completely against the grain.  We usually have a set of ideas about the hungry, if we bother to take the time to think about them at all, and it’s not necessarily a sympathetic one.  Often, we lay the blame at their feet, but Jesus doesn’t address root causes and blame; he merely offers the nugget that they will be filled, and leaves us to figure out how to live in light of that truth.
He does the same for people who are weeping, explaining that they will laugh later, just as people who are hated, excluded and reviled because of the Son of Man, will have a reward in heaven, just as the prophets who were hated did; there will be leaping for joy in their future.
You and I and all of society may say that this doesn’t make sense, but I think it does, Luke.  It makes sense to God and explains the way God sees the world.  God doesn’t look for the wealthiest and the highest in society to reward further, but rather rewards those with the purest hearts.  God judges the poor and the outcast based on the quality of riches in their hearts, rather than the quantity of money in their pocketbooks.  We should rejoice that God is so generous, but there is an element of warning in Jesus’ teaching, too, and I think many probably recoiled at the thought!
Just imagine what the rich, believing that all of life’s problems were fixable with enough money, though when Jesus promised them woe, for their consolation had already come to them.  Or picture the faces of the full, who are promised that they will be hungry.  Jesus said that those who laugh will one day weep, and those who have good reputations will suffer the fate of false prophets.  It’s not a pretty picture, Luke, but Jesus paints it for a reason—I believe it’s because God wants us to value different things than society does.  Jesus wants us to measure people by their heart, to know whether they are living a life that seeks Jesus in everything, rather than just judging one another by profits and wealth.  I won’t pretend to say that the church always does this in exemplary fashion, but we should strive to do so.  We should live by these standards that God elevates, rather than simply going along with what the world tells us is important.
I am sure this sermon of Jesus’ gives you plenty to think about for the moment, Luke.  The good news is that I am much more of this sermon in various sources, and I will be glad to relay it to you.  None of it is easy, honey for the ears, but I think it’s necessary for you to understand that Jesus didn’t come for himself.  If he’d come to lay claim to a role of power, he would have spoken very differently, but he has come to challenge the hearts and minds of people, and that is part of the reason I believe he is the Son of God and worship him as such—because he wasn’t in this for fame and renown, but rather to correct and guide the people for eternal life, life that begins not just after death, but rather starts now.
Look forward to my next letter, for it will follow this one soon.  I do not doubt this will give you plenty to think of between now and then.
Sincerely,
Theophilus

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