Does anyone know what this symbol on
the forehead stands for (The “L” on the forehead); and do you know what the “L”
stood for? That’s right, LOSER! We have winners and losers in sports, if you
don’t get your way you are called a “poor Loser,” and then there is the general
term LOSER as in “oh, so and so is such a loser.”
Listen to this portion of today’s Gospel
reading, “Blessed are you who are poor, blessed are you who are hungry. It
surely does not sound like us, because we are dressed nicely, we have these
visitors with us today who are doing good work in this world and trying to make
their lives better so this could not possibly mean us, right?
Listen to these words a little
closer. “Blessed are YOU who ARE POOR. Blessed are you who are hungry.” You may
have heard something like these words before. There is one difference in what
you remember and what you hear today; and that difference is that Matthew’s
Gospel says “blessed are those that are poor in spirit.” This is Luke’s Gospel.
Luke is not talking about people who are poor in spirit. Luke is talking about
those who are physically poor. Luke goes on to write “blessed are those who are
hungry NOW.” That is not in Matthew’s Gospel either. Luke is talking about
people who do not have food; people who are going hungry. It may not sound like
our situation.
Yet, here is Jesus telling them that
they are blessed. That does not make a whole lot of sense, does it? Why are
they the blessed ones? I mean you and I have worked hard to get where we are.
Many of us have struggled and had some lean years. Many of us have had the
Ramen noodles as a main staple, lived off hot dogs for a while, or made tomato
soup with ketchup and hot water just to make ends meet. Does that mean we may
have been blessed then but are blessed no longer? Have we lost our blessing?
Did we do something wrong?
The truth is that “no,” we have not
lost any blessings. This reading is about those who are poor and hungry. Jesus
is showing us who God speaks to and for; God lifts up those who are the
underdog of society. God lifts up those people that may be considered “losers”
in society during Jesus’ time. Jesus tells us that God gives God’s love and
blessings to those who do not have a voice in the world and those whom society
just brushes to the side. God lifts up people who need food to survive one more
day; they are the people looking for one more place to find food and shelter.
They are the people wondering where their next meal will come from. They have
to compete against one another for everything they have got in hopes that they
can get just a little more because their lives depend on it.
Our society tells us who these
people are. If you believe what you see on television and read in the news and
hear on the radio, you know these people. These people are referred to as lazy,
worthless, bums, freeloaders, and those are just a few names.
The reality of our Gospel reading
tells us something very different about these people. Jesus tells us that ALL
God’s children are worthy of God’s love and God’s grace. God’s love is not only
for the comfortable; that it is also for those who struggle, for those who are
physically hungry, for those who worry about their jobs, families,
shelter…God’s love does not know ethnic, economic, or social bounds. God’s love
and grace is for all of us.
While this reading can make us all
uncomfortable, and I hope it does, it also points out one important thing that makes
this even more uncomfortable is that Jesus says woe to those who are rich and
who are full. Jesus is telling us that it is what we do with the blessings that
we have been given that makes a difference. While we may not be wealthy as we
would like, some of us may not have to worry about our next meal, we might live
comfortably paying our bills; Jesus is talking about the people who are
struggling to get by; where their lives depend on the next meal. Where just
having a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and band-aids means that a child will miss
less days of school; where a meal once a month means the family will have
enough to eat for a few extra days.
Friends in Christ, we know what
Jesus means in his blessings of the poor and hungry. We see it in our own
community. Through the blessings of Community Partners and our ministries with
Glade Valley, we know that people are in need of help and that need is growing
with the reduction in the Food Stamp program. People will need more help with
getting food and the answer that I hear repeatedly in the media is “let the
churches step up to the plate,” as if the churches aren’t doing anything. The
beauty of Jesus’ blessings this morning is that Jesus knows that we who are not
the poor or hungry are, literally, the hands and feet of God’s blessings in
giving back what was not ours but Gods; and that, brothers and sisters, is
where the blessings of the cross comes together.
The Good News of Jesus’ words is to
hold onto and share with others God’s teachings of love and compassion. We are
called to share with one another all of God’s blessings that we all have been
given. God teaches us through these words of Jesus that it is God’s love that
will sustain us through good times and through struggles. It is God who puts us
on this earth to help one another because we are all in need of God’s love. It
is God’s call to us that when there is someone without food or shelter or
clothing, we are called to help God’s children.
So what does this all have to do
with All Saints Day? This is the day we celebrate all who have gone on in the
faith before us. We celebrate those who began Jesus’ Church, we celebrate the
leaders who brought us the creeds, and we celebrate our loved ones who taught us
of God’s love; the ones who showed us God’s love by being loved; and we commit
to helping the youngest of God’s children know Christ and God’s love. God calls
us to be the saints of God’s love, mercy, and compassion in this community and
to God’s creation: AMEN
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