February 16, 2025: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Sometimes it seems the scriptures assigned for reading on a given Sunday are so perfectly suited for the times in which we live – and today, that is most definitely so. Just this past Wednesday, some fellow who owns a company formally known as Twitter, re-posted a meme that went underreported considering how vile it was. This unelected guy, who recently caused thousands of civil servants to lose their jobs, posted a meme on his social media platform that showed a young, white, blue-eyed, blond woman smiling up at a TV screen with the caption, “Watching [the POTUS] slash federal programs because it doesn’t affect you because you’re not a member of the ‘Parasite Class.’”
“Parasite Class?”
This is the same guy who rakes in billions in taxpayer funds to his businesses and yet he is saying that the poor, the vulnerable, the needy, our veterans– they are parasites? While referring to whole groups of people in non-human terms is fascist at its core, it clearly also shows that this guy has never read the bible, because Lordy, he wouldn’t like what he heard today, now would he?
And yet, these texts not only give a warning to him and others like him, it is also good news for the rest of us.
Starting with the gospel, we are hearing the Lukan version of the beatitudes – but you may have noticed a few things that are different from the more familiar Matthew version. Right off the bat, the setting is different, right? This is NOT the sermon on the mount. Jesus has come down to a level place where a great crowd had gathered. They were from all over – and had traveled there to be healed.
While we get the familiar structure – calling people blessed who many would consider cursed, there are a few other differences here from what we get in Matthew. First, Jesus speaks directly about the people gathered. He says Blessed are you, … He doesn’t speak as he does in Matthew – “Blessed are the poor in Spirit or those who mourn.” Just as he is now able to look the people straight in the eye, he also speaks about them – Blessed are YOU!
So, Jesus is keeping this sermon on the level place – rooted in the very real experience of the people gathered around him, and is speaking to them directly.
Jesus also doesn’t say “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Remember, this is the Jesus who proclaimed his mission when reading from the scroll of Isaiah – that he was there to bring good news to the poor. This is not a spiritual poverty, but a physical one. And as he continues, he says that you who hunger and who weep will be fed and will laugh. That when people revile you on account of him, you will be rewarded by God.
Then…Jesus takes a turn. Something he does not do in the Matthean Sermon on the Mount. He issues warnings – what are called the “woes,” and speaking about those who are rich, are full, and are laughing.
And there is also this. Jesus says “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” So, if people hate you on account of your living out the gospel, you are blessed, but if they speak well of you, look out.
The problem we can have when we hear the beatitudes – on a plain or on a mount – is that it can sometimes seem like Jesus is saying “Don’t worry, be happy,” when terrible things are happening to you. That is not at all the message he is giving here. Nor is he saying that if you have money, or you are blessed enough to have things to laugh about, or food on your table, that you are somehow cursed by God.
God doesn’t only love us when we are suffering. What Jesus is saying is that these, whom society often doesn’t see, are seen by God – they are not forgotten. And, Jesus is also issuing a warning to those who live in abundance, that all things come of God, and we are to see those in need, just as God does, stand with them as Jesus does, and love them as we are called to do.
But it would seem some either don’t know the gospel, or choose to ignore it.
So, Elon Musk, let me make this perfectly clear: The poor are not parasites – they are blessed by God! No child of God are parasites – believe it or not, not even you – even with your inhumane parasitic behavior.
To be clear, this fascist dehumanizing of whole groups of people is not isolated to just this one man, if only it were. We heard it from the POTUS and others in his movement when they talked about immigrants coming over the boarder as an infestation. We heard it from Hitler and the Nazi about Jews and scores of other groups, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo about the Bambuti, Hutus about the Tutsis, and in every single other of the many genocides committed throughout history.
This is what happens when people believe that somehow they are better than others – because of their gender, their skin color, their ethnicity, their faith, who they love, how they vote, or their economic status.
They begin to not only build gaps between people, they believe they are inevitable and just. Worse, they try to even make them wider – the rich become richer, the poor become poorer – and the world becomes numb to it all. That is the goal of those who profit on the backs of others – to make us so numb we just give up.
That is why we need to remember the other texts we heard today from Jeremiah and the Psalm. In Jeremiah, “those who trust in God are compared to a well-watered and deeply rooted tree, while those who depend upon human powers are like a shrub languishing in a dry desert. A similar comparison is made in Psalm 1, in which those who choose the path of life are “trees planted by streams of water” …and the wicked are “chaff that the wind blows away.”[1]
Basically – trust in God and you are a well-watered, deeply rooted, plant able to withstand the harshness of life. Trust in yourself, and well…you are like a plant in my house – you are likely to end up dried out and dead in no time.
Whether you are rich or poor, happy or grieving, persecuted or well regarded, what truly makes you blessed or cursed is where your heart is grounded, where you put your trust – in God or in yourself. Those who root themselves in the knowledge of God, have a spiritual foundation that will nourish them in difficult times, and will guide them in moments of abundance. Those who do not, will fall victim to their own self-deceit of greatness. Trusting only in themselves, they will eventually be like a plant in the desert, unable to withstand what life throws at them.
Folks, in this time of great anxiety, fear, and harshness toward the least of these, this is as important for us to hear as it was for all those gathered on that plain with Jesus. We are called to be on a level place seeing the ones God sees, the ones some try to ignore or push aside. And we must stand beside them when others try to demean, deny, or devalue them.
It couldn’t be plainer – Blessed are the poor.
That is our life – to see them, love them, and stand with them.
We will not turn away.
We will not become numb.
Because we know that God has a vision that runs counter to that of those who put their trust in human power.
The late Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of our church’s own, put it this way: “I have a dream, God says. Please help Me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, My family.”[2]
This is true, but this work, this laboring in the vineyards of God’s dream will also wear us down. That is the intent anyway. To wear those who resist down with an avalanche of horror against humanity and creation that is so overwhelming we just give up.
And so that is why we must, as these texts tell us, be rooted in God, not in earthly empires.
Because if we try to fight on our own – trusting in ourselves – we may succeed for a time, but eventually we will wither away. We must instead put our trust in God – allowing Christ to strengthen and renew us here at this table as we follow the Holy Spirit wherever she leads us.
So, in this time most especially, we need to draw near to one another, and most especially here to be nourished in Christ.
For here we are reminded that we are not alone, because we are rooted in the knowledge and love of God.
Here we are given strength for the journey ahead – one that will bring near daily news of the horrors humanity inflicts on one another and on God’s creation. So, while we may grow weary, we will not fade away.
So let us put our trust in Christ Jesus as we stand alongside those most blessed by God.
And when the drought of humanity’s cruelty comes at us, we will not be anxious, instead we will draw on the water of our faith, and bear fruit that will feed the souls of many, including our own.
Amen.
For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here (also available on Audible):
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/sixth-sunday-after-epiphany-3/commentary-on-jeremiah-175-10-3[2] Desmond Tutu, “God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope of Our Time”
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
February 16, 2025
Epiphany 6 – Year C
1st Reading – Jeremiah 17:5-10
2nd Reading – 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Gospel – Luke 6:17-26
