[To see the video which preceeded the sermon, go to http://www.sermonspice.com and click on the one called, “True Love”. I think you will enjoy this candid interview of several young folks.]
The Holy Gospel according to Luke 6:17-26
Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”
Dear God, help us to find your blessings. Amen.
One of my quirky sermonizing friends said that if St. Valentine knew his beheading in the year AD 290 was going to lead to one the most popular holidays in America he would have died with a smile on his face.
What is true love?
What universal principal did God have in mind when God instituted the second greatest commandment–to love one's neighbor as oneself?
In this universe of bumps and collisions, bumps and collisions generally cause troubles. When the meteor hit earth, the dinosaurs became extinct due to the huge dust cloud that was formed over the entire earth millennia ago. When some unknown massive body came close to or "bumped" our sun billions of years ago, pieces flew off and became planets, 90 percent of which cannot support life of any kind. When an enormous object came into Earth's orbit, a huge chunk of Earth was torn off and became the moon. Bumps and collisions cause trouble. Love is the universal antidote to bumps and collisions. When we love one another, we don't bump or collide with each other. When we love one another we won't go to war with one another. When we love our enemies, we won't try to kill them. When we love each other intensely, babies often result. When we don't pattern our lives according to the universal game of intersections and collisions, we become separated from the resultant violence and destruction. Love is the antidote for the universal condition of bumps and collisions.
I saw a map depicting all the countries of the world in shades of yellow, brown, and dark brown. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPA/Resources/429966-1145551875018/Levy_PovertyMaps_051106.pdf The light yellow colored countries on that map have the lowest infant mortality, and that of course includes the United States, Japan, Europe, and Australia. The brown countries have a medium high level of infant mortality. And the dark brown countries as shown on that map have the highest levels of infant mortality. Included in the five countries with the highest levels of infant mortality, Afghanistan, we find the most seriously impoverished foe of America, where Al Qaeda planned and carried out an attack on the richest country of the world, the United States. The intense feelings of poor against rich were expressed in the suicide bombing using commercial jet liners. Hatred was palpable, as one phrase has it, hatred was real, hatred was violent, hatred caused a major war, two major wars. And the hatred has yet to stop. I also noted in the world poverty map, that included in the second highest level of infant mortality were ten countries, one of whom is Iraq, where we are still at war.
Today's gospel speaks of a criterion of blessedness–poverty. I believe the poverty spoken of as being blessed is poverty that does not strike back, that waits on the Lord for retribution, that forswears vengeance and puts it aside for God to take care of.
There was a report in the Queens (New York) Tribune Friday that told of a man who allegedly attacked a police officer with a baseball bat from behind, crushing the officer's skull, and potentially maiming him for life. The assailant's reason was that he needed the officer's gun to do robberies in order to settle a nearly $20,000 debt he owed. The alleged perpetrator took vengeance in his own hands, and now will probably be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. His poverty, presumably self-imposed poverty, would not be the poverty that is associated with a blessing. He was acting in the opposite way love would have acted–he collided, he bumped violently, he did not love, but thought only of himself.
So we need to be careful how casually we think that poverty is blessed.
The poverty study also mapped poverty versus distance from a port, and lo and behold, districts near but not quite at a port often find themselves mired in poverty. Why? Perhaps because the valuable goods are transported away from the near neighborhoods and on to elsewhere where the goods can be sold for much more profit. That seems to be one reason why our particular zip code in Elizabeth, New Jersey 07201, is so much poorer than all the other zip codes of Elizabeth. The goods come in to the port, the goods go out to be sold, the profit stays outside our area, and we do not benefit from the value added that simply is transported through our streets and on out to elsewhere that gains the benefit of the profitable items. If the profit of the port itself were shared with our area that supports that port, things would be different. Similarly for the airport, whose cargo does not enrich our area which bears all the burden of the airport's air pollution and noise. Our median income in Zip Code 07201 is about $40,000 per family, when the rest of the city has median incomes of about $65,000. No wonder we have so many impoverished folks coming here to St. John's for desperately needed food and meals. We have almost always had thriving food distributions here at St. John's since I have been the Rector, and with good reason since there are so many hungry. A similar finding is also true for St. Mary's Church and St. Joseph's Social Center, both in relatively nearby neighborhoods.
So in a way, this beatitude of our Lord, that blessed are the poor, becomes a truism for us who work to feed the hungry each week.
I mentioned the airport in passing. A friend of mine is struggling along with her ancient church and town in England against the addition of a third runway for Heathrow Airport. I was there week before last to see what is planned for that airport. A huge wildlife sanctuary and wetland will be destroyed, along with a very ancient English town, and the other ancient twelfth century town and church property nearby will be cut down to a small island with big jets landing right beside the old church, inn, and an historic barn where the original religious French settlers stored the grain harvested in their fields there in the twelfth century and sent the profits back to support the poor religious communities in France. The buildings and town itself are listed in the Doomsday book, one of the most ancient historical writings in England. The cause of this destruction is simply greed of course. More than two dozen communities around that airport and all the way out to Oxford will suffer enormously from the noise and pollution from that new planned runway, set in the midst of a very populous area near London. Can you imagine another runway being built here at the Newark Airport? Already our children in this area have the highest asthma rates of any city in New Jersey, and the kids in the port itself are nearly sound deaf due to the continuous landing and taking off of the big jets right over their heads. The benzene and other carcinogens and particulates from the jets continuously surround us, along with the diesel exhaust of all the trucks working their way back here from their freight pickups in the port itself and at the airport. Perhaps not astonishingly, our asthma and cancer rates are the highest of all the cities in New Jersey and New York. Even the City of Elizabeth itself has challenged our plan of putting a day care center here at St. John's because Broad Street has so much pollution; of course the whole area has enormous levels of pollution, not just Broad Street, which is about average for urban areas in the state, but the pollution levels are just as high in all the other day care centers nearby. We surely must be blessed, because we are poor, we are hungry, we are sad, and we are hated, excluded, reviled, and defamed.
The Greek word for "poor" used in our gospel for today is "ptochoi", P-T-O-C-H-O-I, "ptochoi", which actually means the destitute beggars, and we have them in spades right here on our doorstep. In fact you will probably encounter a "ptochoi" as you leave church today. Some are here sorshiping with us. The truly destitute are reduced to begging for their food, which is a sad commentary about what is happening in the richest nation of the world. The "ptochoi" in Semitic usage means not only those who are lacking in money, but, more comprehensively, the oppressed, miserable, dependent, humiliated. It is "the strongest available Greek word for social poverty."
St. John's has taken a creative tact in the reduction of hunger–we offer free food but only after and as a part of our religious services. We do not call our meals, a "soup kitchen", although we indeed do serve food much like a soup kitchen does; but we offer catered food, and the highest quality bread and pastries in the area, and a worship service tailored to the needs and sensitivities of the hungry and oppressed.
So in a very practical way we are following Jesus' teachings on the beatitudes. We bless those whom Jesus would bless, and we lift the curse of our plentitude a bit also, even though the rest of our diocese considers us poor.
We provide a venue for others to share in this particularly blessed ministry we offer here also. If you have warm clothing, coats and boots in particular, we certainly can use them. If you have extra canned goods or boxed food stuffs, we certainly can use them as well. There is each Sunday some who come here just to help serve the food. And right this very moment there is a crew of parishioners out in the kitchen preparing our potluck which will feed dozens of the hungry starving as well as those of us who are hopefully not starving.
We continue to garner God's particular blessings by helping those who are in need. In the world's eyes perhaps we here today are all rich. So it behooves us to rid ourselves of the unnecessary in all our clothes closets, our food pantries, and our pocketbooks. For as we can identify with and assist the "ptochoi", the most destitute and the "regular" poor as well, we too will find the blessedness that only God can give.
And let us love one another, as God's Spirit is well pleased with those who love.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Amen.