Sunday Readings: Jeremiah 17.5-8, 1 Corinthians 15.12, 16-20, Luke 6.17, 20-26
Jesus came down the mountain and stood on a level place where a crowd of his disciples and a large crowd of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coast of Tyre and Sidon were gathered. He looked at his disciples. “Blessed are you poor because yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungering now, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who are weeping now because you will laugh.”
Jesus reminds us what heeding his words and including the poor in our lives will cost. He invites us to care for and lift up those who are poor, hungering, and weeping now. In the beatitudes Jesus envisions everyday life transformed. He challenges us to remake our world, to live out the promise of his love through re-thinking how we understand security, comfort, charity, and justice.
Jesus’ words are not gentle and subdued. In no uncertain terms Jesus declares that abundance is not blessedness, a shocking idea then and now. Jesus overturns the popular and comfortable idea that poor people somehow bring on their own circumstances and that rich people deserve their abundance.
Jesus challenges us to leave the world of complacency. Such a life requires great hope in the promise of God’s strength and abiding love. Such a life requires openness to God’s grace, reshaping our priorities. Such a life requires a belief that in Christ the world will be made new and in this new world, no person will lack adequate food, shelter, and comfort. Such a life requires the belief that in this new world, every thing, every person, and every experience will be useful. Nothing and no one will be wasted.
- When have people with less felt a burden to you? When have people who are poor, hungering, or weeping blessed you?
- What concrete actions can you do this week to share what you have with those who have less?