“Turning Things Upside Down”

February 13, 2022

Luke 6:17–26

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then he 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. “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. ***

This week of February carries especially sad and poignant memories for my family. Five years ago, we surrounded our elderly father as he peacefully died after a very brief illness. Blessed to have accompanied him to his final breath, we still feel the absence of his love, wisdom and stature in our family.

Last year at this time we were anxiously trying to locate my 22 year old nephew Ben who had gone missing. His last whereabouts were out in the fish shack on the lake in front of our family property on an especially cold evening. For six consecutive days that followed, the temperature did not rise above zero and the windchills were deadly.

After eight days of an intensive regional search by county and DNR investigators, Ben was found deceased in the snow outside his stranded pick-up truck across the lake in a small thicket of brush along the shoreline. It appeared that after getting stuck, he got out of the truck to assess the situation and the doors locked behind him. Unable to get back inside, he was overcome by the frigid air.

When I read in today’s text: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh,” I want to look Jesus in the eye and say, “That sounds great, but what about when the sorrow is so strong, the loss so severe, the grief so deep? When the world turned upside down for our family last February, the last thing that seemed possible was laughter.

This passage is known as the Beatitudes or Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain.” It continues Luke’s account of Jesus who turns people’s expectations of God, indeed the entire world upside down.

It began when Jesus returned to his hometown. He was in the synagogue and asked to read from Isaiah. He chose this passage:

“‘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.’

Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” Luke 4:18–21

It was the prophecy of a world turned upside down. In short order, the crowd around Jesus that day turned ugly. They tried toss him off a cliff but he escaped.

In today’s reading, it is a different day and vastly different crowd. The people following after Jesus are living with diseases and burdened spirits. It is a teachable moment and Jesus wants his young disciples to learn something important.

Luke tells us Jesus “looks up” to see his disciples before he can teach them. This seems odd. The disciples must have been standing apart, away from this crowd of the wearied and needy people around Jesus.

“Don’t you realize,” he says to his disciples, “these are the blessed of God. I have come to bring a new order and show you what it looks like for realm of God to be established on earth.” In this scene we meet a God who sees all of creation as beloved and blessed and calls us to be in a community that models such a perspective.

“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.”

One week after Ben was found, following a family service at the church where Ben was baptized and confirmed, we gathered at a lakeside cemetery, when nothing really seemed to matter in the midst of grief.

How good it would have been last February, in the midst of a world turned upside down, to move quickly past the weeping and get to the laughing part that Jesus promises. There are so many good times and laughter our family enjoyed with Ben.

Today, in remembering this personal loss, the grace of this “sermon on the plain” reminds me that Jesus is among us when life turns upside down, when weeping and mourning come out of nowhere. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”

Jesus promises a world turned upside down, and that can sound like unwelcome news, depending upon your position.

Look again at this passage. The impact of Jesus’ words of blessing and woe has everything to do with who you are. If you happen to be one of the hungry people, then what Jesus is saying sounds like rather good news. If you happen to be one of the well-fed or laughing people, then it sounds like unwelcome news. The words themselves do not change. They simply sound different depending on who happens to be hearing them.

For the most part, throughout my life, and perhaps yours too, I have heard the beatitudes from the comfortable, included, respected and well-fed end of the spectrum. None of us slept on a sidewalk last night and our stomachs are not growling because of empty cupboards. We are not struggling to be respected or striving to overcome exclusion. All of us are rich, by global standards, and some of us are fabulously so.

In describing various kinds of people, Jesus hopes his listeners will recognize themselves as one kind or another, and then he makes the same promise to all of them: that the ways things are is not the way they will be because the kingdom of God has come into their midst.

Isn’t that good news? In the midst of the events of this life over which people grieve, the losses and hardships, Jesus promises that the kingdom of God has come and the way things are is not the way they will remain. For me, reflecting upon last year, this is particularly good news.

So, knowing that Jesus’ words of blessing and woe has everything to do with you who are, what if one way we follow Jesus and point others to Him is by looking at everyone as both blessed and broken. Would we see others with a bit more grace?

There is a memorable video I recall from some years ago that comes to mind. It begins with a businessman going about his usual day, except the day is not going very well. It seems with each minute the day gets worse and his frustration level rises. He starts to pull out of the driveway, and almost runs over a kid on a bike. As he pulls into his favorite coffee stop, a woman cuts him of and steals the parking spot. Inside the man in front of him places a huge order for the entire office. When he finally gets to the counter, the barista tells him that it will be a while because he has to brew a fresh batch of coffee.

Waiting in the corner and seething in frustration, a man walks up and hands him a pair of sunglasses and then disappears. Confused, he puts on the glasses and all of sudden little bubbles, like in a comics strip, appear above everyone’s head. Instead of dialog however, he can read what is really going on in everyone’s life.

The woman who cut him off in the parking lot is distracted because her child is sick. The man who placed the huge coffee order is worried about a recent medical diagnosis. The barista is struggling with addiction. And finally, returning home a bit shaken, he sees the child again with a bubble above his head which says, “Just need someone who cares.”

As the video ends the man gets out of his car and walks over to help the boy fix his bike.

How might our views about others be different if we saw what was in their “bubble”? I know this would turn upside down my views.

Jesus brings the Kingdom of God to this world. The good news is that the way things are is not the way they will remain.

It seems this opens an opportunity to let others know that when things turn upside down, there is clearly good news. How do we do that? By bearing blessings — feeding, providing, comforting, and excluding no one. In short, we are called to bear witness in word, attitude and action to the truth that the kingdom of God is here right now. And this changes everything.

Blessed are you.

Image credit: Vanderbilt University Library.

*****

The blessing is not in being poor.

The blessing is that the realm of God is yours.

Your poverty, your hunger, your mourning

are circumstances.

The presence, the fulfillment, joy of God

are yours no matter what.

Your failures are mere passing breezes.

But the grace given you is eternal as the stars.

Your riches, your fullness, your merriment,

they, too, are passing.

But your belovedness is eternal.

Let the winds blow. Let them.

You remain in the Beloved. -Steven Garnaas-Holmes