On this Juneteenth weekend and in the midst of this American reckoning over the systemic racial injustices that plague us, here’s an 18 minute sermon on Jesus’ final Beatitude, Matthew 5.10.
The Beatitudes of Jesus are eight wisdom sayings that stand at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. They are not moral teachings as much as they are soulful riddles that invite the hearer into a new way of being human. They are an invitation to see, from the inside of our lives—from our souls—what it could mean to be truly human. At this time of such a massive reassessment of human life on this planet, the Beatitudes, what I call, "Novel Attitudes," could point the way to a better way of life for our communities and our world.
1.
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus went throughout the land proclaiming the good news of God’s kin-dom, “curing every disease and sickness.” News of his ministry spread and great crowds came to him, “bringing with them all the sick and afflicted,” and he healed them all.
Then he “went up the mountain, sat down, and taught his followers how they could be healers too. With eight wise sayings, he taught eight novel attitudes, eight ways his followers could remake the world and make the world work for everyone.
“It is time now,” he said. “The kin-dom of God is at hand. God wants to reorganize life on the planet. God is on the move healing the diseases that afflict us, righting the wrongs that inhibit us, overturning the prejudices that inhabit us, bringing down systems that oppress us, and raising up those who, for too long, have suffered indignity, abuse, and dehumanization.
“It is time now,” Jesus announced, to change the world and reorganize it according to the Word and Wisdom of God.
The first Beatitude, the first “novel attitude,” the first way to reorganize and remake the world, expresses the focus of God’s concern: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kin-dom of heaven.”
The eighth and last Beatitude, the final “novel attitude,” the capstone way to reorganize and remake the world reiterates the focus of God’s concern: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kin-dom of heaven.”
In the first Beatitude, the focus is on the “poor.” In the eighth, it’s on the “persecuted.” Both marginalized by the systems and structures of power in the world. Both relegated to the margins. Both oppressed and dispossessed of their rights to experience full wonder and goodness of their humanity. Both are first in line for the “kin-dom of God.”
It’s little wonder that those without power and affluence adored Jesus.
It’s little wonder that those with power and affluence hated him.
Jesus was turning the world upside down, or better, he was turning the world righteous side up.
2.
“Poor” and “persecuted” don’t describe most of us in this congregation. Yet, while “affluent” and “powerful” don’t describe all of us either, most of us tilt in that direction rather than in the direction of oppression.
So, if the kin-dom of God belongs to them, does that mean we’re left out? No. God’s is a radically inclusive kin-dom. But according to Jesus, the poor and persecuted are closer to the kin-dom of God than many of the affluent and powerful are.
That may make you and I wince, but it is, frankly, the vision of Jesus.
This is one of the most distinctive features of the way Jesus speaks of the realm of the divine; it’s a topsy-turvy social and political structure. Those who believe they’re closest to God, may not be close at all. Those who think they’ve got it made, have got another “think” coming. Those who assume God’s on their side, may be surprised in the end.
The truth is, God is everywhere, with and in every thing and everyone. God is not with some and not with others. But here, Jesus is challenging the social structures of the day that kept people poor, that fostered persecution, that perpetuated generation after generation of suffering.
Jesus was saying, “don’t think that God will be on your side if you don’t get on the side of those who are being oppressed. Don’t assume you can live in your nice homes, hold your nice jobs, eat well, live well, send your kids to the best synagogue schools and so on and assume you are blessed by God. God does not and will not tolerate injustice that is ignored, unaddressed, and unhealed.”
“I’m blessing now,” God says, “all those who are not blessed by your systems and structures, powers and principalities. Because they are not the concern to your rulers, they are my chief concern. But here’s what you can do if you want to share in the blessing: join them, stand with them, suffer with and for them, struggle with and for them, until all of you, together, remake the world according to the vision and values of my kin-dom. This is what Jesus did. This is what I want you to do. Leverage whatever privilege and power you possess to ensure that no one dies because they have no access to the medical care they need, that no child goes hungry or falls asleep afraid, that no one is incarcerated unjustly, that no one is targeted because of the color of their skin, that no black, indigenous, or person of color is denied all the rights and opportunities of white people, that no one ever has a knee pressed down upon their neck again, that no one ever hangs from a tree again, and that America works for everyone and not just a few. Do that and you too will be blessed, and all will be blessed together.”
3.
Today, we stand at a crossroads, a moment of massive transformation, a Great Turning, a sacred season of our history on this planet. We feel its birth pains, and birth is never easy, never painless. To birth new life takes courage, and it takes community.
Of this moment, poet and songwriter, Karisha Longaker (a Chico native) writes: “We shall be known by the company we keep | By the ones who circle round to tend these fires | We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap | the seeds of change alive from deep within the Earth.”
Karisha’s words echo Saint Paul’s, who says the Earth itself “has waited with longing for this Great Turning, for the revealing of the children of God” (Romans 8.19). The Earth and all that’s in it are wounded, waiting for those who know the sacred healing arts, waiting for liberation from the oppression that holds down the Earth and all that dwells upon it.
“It is time now,” writes Karisha Longaker, “It is time now that we thrive | It is time now | And what a time to be alive | In this Great Turning we shall learn to lead in love | In this Great turning we shall learn to lead in love.”
This Great Turning needs God’s church to follow more faithfully the call of Jesus to walk with the poor and persecuted . . .
“We will be known by the company we keep.”
This Great Turning stirs us to stand with the oppressed . . .
“For we will be known by the ones who circle round to tend these fires.”
This Great Turning compels us to struggle for the justice of God’s kin-dom . . .
“We shall be known by the ones who sow and reap the seeds of change.”
It is time now.
4.
Last Friday was Juneteenth—a state holiday for most but not all of our fifty United States. Juneteenth commemorates the 19th of June, 1865, when the Union army general, Gordon Granger read Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on a plantation in Galveston, Texas, to the last remaining American slaves. Two and a half years earlier, the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed America’s slaves. The American Civil War had essentially ended in April of 1865. But in Texas, the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, was slow to enforce the law. Juneteenth commemorates the day the last of America’s slaves were freed and the law of emancipation was made the law of the land.
For Miranda York, an eighth-generation Texan, the holiday is a day celebrating liberation, but it is also a painful reminder of the fact that her home state of Texas was the last state to acknowledge her full humanity. Texas was the last state to stand with the “poor” and “persecuted” and recognize their full and free humanity.
This year, Juneteenth is a painful reminder that after all these years black Americans are still not truly emancipated. The promise of liberation has never been fully realized for black Americans, indigenous Americans, and Americans of color. The Constitutional contract guaranteeing “liberty and justice for all” is still a broken contract.
It is time to now to end the persecution of black Americans . . .
It is time now to end the persecution of indigenous Americans . . .
It is time now to end the persecution of Americans of color . . .
It is time now to end the persecution of any person not experiencing full equality and dignity . . .
5.
In the first Beatitude and the last, Jesus says the kin-dom of God is with those who are marginalized by the systems and structures of power. The fullness of God dwells among the oppressed, those dispossessed of their rights to full humanity. And if we’re not now among them, we are, according to Jesus, to go and stand among them, walk beside them, and struggle together with them for what is righteous and just for all God’s children.
We who follow Jesus will not stand by, not when the kin-dom of God is manifesting itself anew in our day, when the Spirit of God is saying, “It is time now.”
On Monday, Bill Lacy wrote and told me, “I’ve spent much of my career engaged in research, publishing, teaching, conducting workshops, developing educational materials, and protesting on issues of racism and sexism. I’m proud to be part of a community that’s willing to self-reflect on our role in not only perpetuating injustice but in healing it too. Now is the time.”
On Tuesday, Shelley Newman told me, “I can’t express my outrage and grief that Robert Fuller, a young black man, was found hanging near the court house in Palmdale. This has to end. It is time to end racial injustice once and for all. ”
On Wednesday, Emily Henderson wrote me and said, “I am energized about deprogramming our internal white supremacy assumptions and finding ways to explore individual things we can do. Alongside this inner soul-work, I feel it is time now for us to more fully engage the collective, structural work of dismantling racism.”
On Thursday, Gail Feenstra wrote me to say, “last Sunday you said that we need to get to the point where we can actually feel the frustration, anger and powerlessness of our colleagues, acquaintances and community members who are black, indigenous, and people of color; it is time for Rob and me to get more deeply involved in this transformative work.”
It is time now. And in the next month, I will be working with our leaders to develop plans to help each of you find ways “to get more deeply involved in this transformative, gospel work.”
It is time now; the Great Turning is upon us. It is time now. God is inviting each of us to do something to help turn the wheel of divine justice toward greater liberty and justice for all.