Luke 6:20-26
“Blessed are the Poor”
By: Ken Sauer, Pastor of East Ridge United Methodist Church, Chattanooga, TN eastridgeumc.org
Right before our Gospel Lesson for this morning we are told, beginning in verse 17 that, “[Jesus] went…and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples were there and a great number of people from all over…”
And then a verse or two later Jesus addresses them beginning with, “Blessed are you who are poor…”
Looking out at the poor and diseased masses Jesus said to them… “Blessed are you…”
What are we, who live in 21st Century affluent America to make of this?
What are we, who live in a culture which is constantly telling us, in effect, “Blessed are you who are rich, you can afford to eat out in restaurants several days a week.
Blessed are you who are rich, you can afford a couple of cars and the price at the pump for your great big SUV!
Blessed are you who are rich you can buy a new plasma t-v…you can build McMansions for yourselves…
Blessed are you who are rich, you can go on lavish vacations and waste tons of dough on things you don’t need.
Blessed are you who are rich, you don’t have to live in the slums.
Blessed are you who are rich, you can pay for your own health care.
You don’t have to worry so much about gangs.
You can walk through your neighborhoods at night without the fear of being killed.
Your children can attend the best schools…blessed are you!
You will be served, rather than having to serve…blessed are you!”
What are we to make of what Jesus has to say to us this morning?
Blessed are the poor?
Blessed are the hungry?
To be envied are those who weep?
This makes little sense to us, does it not?
Happy are you when you are hated?
Excluded?
Reviled?
These kinds of blessings I think I can do without!
We Christians say that we love the teachings of Jesus.
But what about these teachings?
And when Jesus goes on to say “woe” to those who are rich, those who are full, those who laugh, and those who are spoken well of, do we hear Him speaking to us?
Here I suspect some of us are not so eager for a literal application of the Scriptures.
Here, perhaps, we are content to leave the teaching in its historical context, pointing at the Pharisees and other first-century hypocrites.
But the truth for most of us is that we are rich and we are full.
We probably don’t think of ourselves as rich, ‘cause we see the incomes and lifestyles of other people in our culture—professional athletes, entertainers, corporate CEO’s, among others—who have so very much more than any of us have.
But think about this…
…If we make only $10,000 a year, we are wealthier than 84 percent of the world, and if we make $50,000 a year, we are wealthier than 99 percent of the world.
The reality is, if you and I have running water, shelter over our heads, clothes to wear, food to eat, and some means of transportation (even if it’s public transportation), then we are in the top 15 percent of the world’s people for wealth!!!
In the time we gather for worship this morning, almost 1,000 children will die because they have no food.
More than 26,000 children today will breathe their last breath due to starvation or a preventable disease.
That’s 26,000 Mary Ellen’s or whatever your children or grandchildren are named.
We have been commanded to make disciples of all nations, and if poverty is rampant in the world to which God has called us, then we can’t ignore these realities.
Anyone wanting to proclaim the glory of Christ to the ends of the earth or just in a square mile radius of this church must consider how to demonstrate the Gospel visibly in a world where so many are so urgently hungry.
The book of Proverbs warns about curses that come upon those who ignore the poor.
The prophets warn of God’s judgment and devastation for those who neglect the poor.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning and elsewhere, Jesus pronounces woes upon the wealthy who trust in their riches, and James tells those who hoard their money and live in self-indulgence to “weep and wail because of the misery that is coming” upon them.
In a humbling passage, Jesus says to those who turn away from Him by ignoring the physical needs of His people, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Now, while caring for the poor is not the basis for our salvation, this doesn’t mean that our use of money is totally disconnected from our salvation.
Indeed, caring for the poor is evidence of our salvation!!!
According to Jesus, you can tell someone is a follower of Christ by the fruit of his or her life, and that fruit includes material concern for the poor.
So why does Jesus tell us that the poor are “blessed”?
Why are the hungry “blessed”?
A big part of the answer to that question is YOU!!!
You are the people who have turned to follow Jesus.
You are the Church!!!
You are the Body of Christ on this earth!!!
You are the Kingdom of God.
You are the light of the world!!!
You are the salt of the earth!!!
You are the blessing to the poor, the hungry, the hurting and the weeping!!!
Jesus Christ works through you!
And yet, as Christians in the United States, we spend more than $10 billion a year on church buildings.
In America alone, the amount of real estate owned by institutional churches is worth over $230 billion!!!
We have money and possessions, and we are building temples everywhere.
Empires, really.
Kingdoms.
But God has called us to be a people who spend our lives for the sake of God’s glory among the needy outside our gates.
Can you imagine how many people would come to Christ if all the churches would sell their buildings, give the money to the poor, and begin to meet in house churches or in fields instead!!!???
What a witness that would be!!!
That would be radical indeed!!!
But not only radical, biblical!!!
There is no verse, not a single one, in the New Testament where God’s people are ever commanded to build a majestic place of worship.
Instead, we are called to “be” the temple—the place of worship!!!
And our possessions are to be spent on building, not a place where people can come and see God’s glory, but a people who are taking God’s glory to the world!!!
So what are we to do?
How can we better follow Christ and bless the poor, the afflicted, the hungry and those who weep?
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, gives us an example of how to see our possessions in light of the needs around us.
Wesley had just finished buying some pictures for his room when a woman came to his door.
It was a cold winter day and Wesley noticed that this woman only had a thin linen gown to wear as protection against the cold.
Wesley reached in his pocket to give her some money for a coat, but found that he had little money left.
And then it struck him that the Lord was not pleased with how he had spent his money.
Wesley asked himself: “Will Thy Master say, “Well done, good and faithful steward?
Thou hast adorned thy walls with the money that might have screened this poor creature from the cold!
O Justice!
O mercy!
Are not these pictures the blood of this poor woman?”
Were the pictures hanging in Wesley’s room wrong in and of themselves?
Absolutely not!
And we need not feel guilty every time we buy something that is not a necessity.
But reality is that almost everything in our culture could be classified as a luxury rather than a necessity.
The computer I wrote this sermon on, the spoon and fork I will eat my dinner with tonight, and the bed and pillow I will sleep on tonight are all luxuries.
I think that one of the things we can learn from this situation in Wesley’s life is that our perspective on our possessions radically changes when we open our eyes to the needs of the world around us.
When we look in the faces of brothers and sisters whose bodies are malnourished and whose brains are deformed because they have no food, Christ will change our desires, and we will give more than the occasional $10 or $20 dollars many of us throw in the offering plate.
We might even set a cap on our lifestyles.
What if we got to the point where we could draw a line, saying, “This is enough, and I am giving away everything I have or earn above this line?”
This is what John Wesley did.
Every year his income increased, but he kept his standard of living the same.
At one point Wesley was making the equivalent of about $160,000 a year in today’s terms, but he was living as if he were making $20,000 a year.
As a result he had $140,000 to give away that year.
Just imagine what would happen if you and I decided that having a $50,000 a year salary doesn’t mean living a $50,000 a year lifestyle!!!
If we put a cap on our lifestyles we would be free to give the rest of our resources away for the glory of Christ, and the poor would be blessed because we were truly acting as the Church of Jesus Christ!!!
Scripture clearly teaches that this is what God intends for us to do.
Just across the street off of Ringgold Road there is a motel which is filled with hundreds of young families with children.
They have been displaced by the economic upheaval.
When you go over there, it looks like a war zone!!!
The people are literally starving.
What if we were to give to the church so that we as a church could give to them?
Would not this sanctuary be filled to overflowing with children and young people who have seen the Gospel in action and have thus been blessed beyond measure?
What would happen if we started giving not just what we are able to give, but beyond what we are able to give?
What if, like the widow in Luke 21 who gave all she had, we began to give what it hurt us to give?
What if we gave like this, not just because of the critical need around us, but because this kind of giving is actually what the heart of Christ in us both demands and desires?
In 1 Timothy 6, Paul tells Timothy to command the rich “to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”
This, Paul says, is the key to being free from the deadly nature of wealth and possessions.
Give.
Give generously, abundantly, and sacrificially.
Give not because your stuff is bad.
Give because Christ is in you.
Give because your heart has been captured by a Savior Who produced in you “overflowing joy,” welling up in “rich generosity.”
This is the kind of freedom that the first disciples experienced.
After Jesus had a conversation with a rich young man who was unwilling to give up his wealth, Peter turned to Jesus and exclaimed, “We have left everything to follow you!”
And in contrast to the rich man who walked away from Jesus sad, here was a disciple who was free from the slavery to money and stuff!!!
“Blessed are you who are poor,” Jesus said.
And that is because of YOU!!!
The way we use our money is a barometer of our spiritual condition.
“Where your treasure is,” Jesus says, “there your heart will be also.”
Could it be that the way we use our money is an indicator of our eternal destination?
Could it be that the mark of Christ’s followers is that their hearts are in heaven and their treasures are spent there?
As we prepare to approach the Communion Table, let us keep in mind Jesus, the One Who, for our salvation, though He was rich, He became poor.
Amen.
