Emptied To Be Filled

Pr. Jasmine Waring

Epiphany 6 February 13, 2022

Jesus’ sermon on the plain according to the Gospel of Luke is as simple as it is challenging. In Matthew’s account, for example, Jesus speaks of the poor in spirit, or those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Luke, the former physician, uses Jesus’ words like a surgeon’s knife, cutting to the naked truth: Blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are hated. The inverse is just as blunt and challenging as the first: woe to the rich, full, those who are laughing, and those who are loved. I don’t know about you, but I feel especially uncomfortable with this passage because life is pretty good for me right now. I have an abundance of food in my kitchen (and in the drawers of my office), I have enough money to pay my bills and have some extra. Despite all the horrible things that are happening in our world today, I have joy and laugh often. From what I can tell, I am generally loved by the people around me (we’ll see how many valentines I get tomorrow). Is all of this wrong? For people with privilege, we have a hard time hearing passages like these because it sounds like God is judging us. These passages have also been used to justify redemptive suffering, believing that God wants us to be poor and hungry and sad and hated. Or worse, not caring for the poor and hungry, because Jesus said they’re blessed. Who are we to interrupt God’s blessing? The problem is, our interpretation of the words blessing and woe have been misunderstood. We have interpreted woe as cursed, or as a judgement. If we look at the original Greek, woe is an expression of grief, and it is meant to be an interjection like, “Woah! Woah! Woah! Slow down!” it is a warning, not a curse. It is like Jesus is saying, “Beware of the delicate balance your life is in when things are good.” The word blessing in this text does not only mean happy, but also means satisfied, envied, on-track, even respectable. This is contrary to a common understanding back then that has crept into our understanding today, which is if things are going wrong in your life, you are doing something wrong and God is punishing you. It is very clear that Jesus is pointing out that God has a preferential option for the poor. Not only are the poor and needy not being judge by God, but are in fact ought to be envied and respected. Why? Because when you have absolutely nothing to lose, you make room for God it act. Does this mean that we out to purposely seek out trouble and suffering in order to be close to God? No! We see at the beginning of the reading today that Jesus’ ministry is all about alleviating suffering, and challenges us to alleviate the suffering of others. Jesus came so that we would have an abundant life. We tend to put ourselves within this blessing and woe binary, and trying to scoot our way in the more favorable side. Notice that Jesus is not addressing two groups of people, nor is he making any judgements. Jesus is just stating the facts, naming what has always been true of the human experience: we all experience seasons of blessings and woes in our lives, and it is all temporary. There are seasons when we are poor, and seasons when we are rich. In a world with bust and boom economies, Bitcoins, and stock market fluctuations, we ought to ask ourselves, where is our source found? Or rather in whom is our resource found? The prophet in Jeremiah warns Israel not to put their trust in mere mortals. We need to beware of complacency and the belief that it is by solely our own efforts we have all that we do, and forget about the grace of God that allows us to obtain wealth. I find it interesting when Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor,” he doesn’t say, “for one day you will be rich”. Instead, he says, “for yours is the kingdom of God”. If the kingdom of God is a world within a world where we can experience abundance and liberation, then we are blessed, envied, even respectable in seasons of poverty because we experience God’s abundance found in beloved community. There is a beautiful and precious gift that comes when we are humbled, and receive the generosity from our loved ones and from the stranger. This gift is more valuable than any of the riches of the world. There are seasons when we are hungry, and seasons when we are full. Debie Thomas writes in Journey with Jesus, “We invite blessing every time we find ourselves empty and yearning for God, and we invite woe every time we retreat into smug and thoughtless self-satisfaction. When I am “full” of anything but God, God “empties” me. Not as punishment, but as grace. Not as condemnation, but as loving reorientation. When I am bereft, vulnerable, and empty in the world’s eyes, God blesses me with the fullness of divine mercy and kindness”. In seasons of fullness, we ought to ask ourselves, “What am I filled with?” We can be so easily distracted and filled with things that eventually lull us to sleep into complacency, having no need for God to move in my life for motivate me to serve my neighbor. When we are emptied, we are blessed, envied, even respectable because there is more room for us to be filled with God’s love, peace, and justice. There are seasons of weeping, and seasons of laughter. I think it’s safe to say, after we all have been through, we know that we don’t need to go out and look for trouble or suffering…life does a pretty good job doing that for us. I actually find this pairing very comforting. Somewhere along the way growing up, I got the message that sadness and anger were not acceptable emotions. In many Christian circles, weeping and being sad was nearly a sin because it shows that you are lacking in faith. This is what we call spiritual bypassing, when we use toxic positivity to dismiss people’s very painful reality and don’t do anything to change it. I felt that I always had to have a positive attitude and cheer people up. I had to be an emotional buoy for the people around me, at the expense of my own feelings. So when Jesus says that we are blessed, envied, even respectable when we are weeping, it gives me permission to go down into the depths of all my feelings. I can notice them, name them, let the feeling ride out it’s course throughout my body, and let it be my teacher. What a blessing it is to experience the depths of the human experience. There are seasons when we are hated, and seasons when we are loved. I think we all know by now that we can’t please everyone. Which is difficult for me, because I want everyone to like me! Jesus tells us to beware of when everyone speaks well of you, because that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets who told them what they wanted to hear, instead of telling them what God wanted them to hear. Sometimes doing or saying the right thing can lead to seasons of emptiness, weeping, and hate. February is Black History month, and I am also taking a Race and Protestantism class this term, so I have read a lot about the Civil Rights movement and especially about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King is an American hero now, politicians, activists and preachers quote him all the time, and in some ways tame him…using his “I have a dream” speech and calls to love and unity. What we tend to forget that he was called an extremist by many, even having his phone tapped by the FBI. His harshest criticisms were not pointed to the KKK but to the white moderate, to those who chose to be silent in the face of justice. At one point. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the most hated man in America. So much so, he was assassinated. Blessed, enviable, even respectable 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, for surely your reward is great in heaven. If blessings and woes happen to all of us in seasons, and it’s all temporary, then the real question is, what is your life grounded in? The apostle writes to the church in Philippi in Philippians chapter 4:11-13, “…for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and in need. I can do all things through him (Christ) who strengthens me.” It is the power of Christ, in his death and resurrection, we find strength in weakness. When we are vulnerable and at the end of our rope, the power of Christ kicks in and is his glory can shine through. As we enter into Lent in a couple of weeks, let us allow ourselves to be emptied so that we may be filled again, knowing that death is not the end. As seasons come and go… May you be aware of the delicate balance your life is in when things are going good, and enjoy it for all it is. May you be blessed, envied, even respected when you are poor, hungry, weeping, and hated, for Christ is near and made strong in your weakness. And may grace and peace be with you every step of the way. Amen.