Blessings and Woes 2

It was a turning point. I had just climbed to the plateaued peak of a mountain in central Ethiopia. Fears and insecurities had been pierced for the moment, and the cold air of elevation was fuel in my lungs, powering the countless microscopic pistons of my brain. My mind's eye focussed for a moment on the few verses I had read in the Bible the night before, from Luke, chapter six.

"Blessed are you who are poor," Jesus had said, "for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets."

These were blessed, I had always heard, because the poor and the hungry and the weeping will listen to Jesus, become his disciples, and go to heaven.

Jesus goes on, but the message seems to change. "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets." These poor souls, I had been taught, were being read their sentence. Jesus was saying that those who are rich, who are eating and laughing, they won't heed his message, won't become his disciples. They will go to hell.

A simple juxtaposition it seemed: the saved and the damned, Jesus' disciples vs. Jesus' ignorers. But as I had read those verses the night before I had seen something rather curious. Just before Jesus launches into the blessings and the woes, Luke reports that he is speaking to his disciples. The whole unbroken monologue was spoken to the people who were already following Jesus, who were heeding his message. Blessed are some, woe to others. They are all his disciples.

The night before I had put down my Bible in puzzlement, and as I descended this Ethiopian mountaintop a new synthetic understanding of this passage crystalized in my mind. It wasn't about heaven and hell. Jesus is telling his disciples what it feels like to continue on the path that they have begun.

The bulk of Jesus' teachings are about how people ought to live, about loving their neighbors and praying for their enemies and walking an extra mile. And a big part of this was how to live together in community, even saying that his disciples' love for each other was the greatest proof to the world that they were his disciples.

I stopped in my tracks on the mountain. I'm pretty sure I spoke aloud, my voice falling over a nearby cliff. "It's not about salvation and damnation, it's about now. It's about now. It's about a great leveling."

Track with me for a minute. Jesus' was teaching a radical new way of life in which the first were last and the last first. When he says that the poor are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of God, he's saying that their needs will be taken care of by this amazing new community. And to the rich entering the community, woe to them, it's going to hurt. Their money is needed to care for the poor, they are going to have to do without the luxuries and comforts to which they've accustomed themselves. They've "received their comfort in full."

And blessed are those who are chronically hungry because their new community will feed them, but it means that those who are used to having all they need might have to go without every once in a while, so woe to them.

And for you who are mourning, you are blessed because your new community is going to take on that suffering with you. They are going to bring you back to a place where you can laugh again. But for those who laugh through life, it's going to be tough because you are going to have to embrace the mourning of your new brothers and sisters.

Can you see it? It's a way of life. It's the great leveling of community, where the troubles and successes of each are the troubles and successes of all. The good news is that this is how it was always meant to be. But need and greed, capitalism and communism, life and death taught us a new and primal way of living, one in which our own survival and success is our only concern, in which sweatshops and oil wars and predatory lending are not only acceptable, but expedient.

Jesus showed us, and continues to show us through the four written accounts of his life, how to live like we are sons and daughters of God. It is deep community, a great leveling, an association so thorough it's as if we are a single organism. For some it will be a relief to enter it, for others it will be a test of their commitment. For everyone who chooses it, it will be an abundant life.

As I wound my way down the mountain I descended into a world whose flaws were more plain, and whose hope was as great as the mountain.

Blessings and Woes

Those who have been around me lately have probably heard a bit about Luke 6, when Jesus says that some are blessed, but says 'woe to' others.

"Blessed are you who mourn now, for you will laugh... Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn," said Jesus.

Then, from an address given by Gareth Higgins at the memorial service for the late writer John O'Donohue, quoting O'Donohue:

"If you need to be in your own space to be depressed, I totally understand, but if all you’re going to do is be depressed, then come and spend the day with me, and we can be depressed together. Because I love you today, and I will love you forever."

It's about now my friends. The kingdom of God is full of blessings and woes. Sometimes it will hurt to be a part of it, like taking up a cross; sometimes it will be a joy, like when your cares are cured. Most of all, it will be abundant. And it starts now.

Thanks Mike.

The Problem of Security

We really want to know, as a carved in the stone fact, that tomorrow we are going to be at least as comfortable as today. And anything that threatens that knowledge has a mighty mountain to climb if it's going to gain our acceptance.

But somewhere under our layers of assurances we are already know that our lives are tenuous. There is always flux, disaster, surprise. We will never know what tomorrow holds until it becomes yesterday. And if we are expecting homogeneous comfort, we're going to get rocked.

James, the New Testament writer, tells his readers to face unexpected problems with joy, because once they push through enough of them they will be able to handle anything that this precarious life throws at them. Perseverance will have finished its work.

It seems to me that the best way to live is not to build a life that blocks out trouble, because trouble will find a way in. Instead, embrace insecurity. Don't back away from a challenge. Push through all the troubles in your way. Eventually they won't look so big.

Faith Alone

The faith of James – not me, but the one who wrote part of the New Testament – was a faith of praxis. It was a faith of action. It was a faith of doing what Jesus said, changing everything in the ways Jesus extolled. Because Jesus’ message was a message of action. It was a description of the right way to live. Right then. And right now.

Faith without works is dead. Because if someone says you have to jump, and you don't jump, you don't believe him.