A few years ago, Brittney and I became obsessed with the West Wing. The West Wing is an American political drama that takes place in the White House and follows the presidency of a fictional democrat named Jed Barlet.
Its great T.V.
One episode came to mind while I was preparing this message.
Every year in the White House, the president invited a handful of less powerful special interest groups to come in and make their pitch. This was their opportunity to be heard.
The White House staff always rolled their eyes on special interest day. They were all strapped for time as it was. But it was important to the president, so they went along with it.
One year, C.J., the president’s smart and witty press secretary, was scheduled to meet with the Cartographers for Social Equality.
C.J. thought the premise behind this group was strange. “Don’t maps just outline reality?” she asked sarcastically. “How could they create social inequality?”
The Cartographers began their presentation by noting the dominance of the Mercator Map. This map was created by a German to help Europeans sail their ships. Its an excellent map in some respects, by majorly flawed when it comes to proportions.
“Take a look at Greenland,” the cartographers said. “Now take a look at African.” They look about the same size? “Yes, C.J. responded.
Well what if we told you that, in reality, Africa is nearly 14 times larger than Greenland. And also, what if we told you that South America is nearly twice the size of mainland of Europe.
Here’s a more accurate representation of the way things actually are. (Peter’s Map)
For years, the Cartographers argued, the mercator map has helped to foster an imperialist attitude. Because of this map, European countries have thought of themselves as bigger and above the other countries. This has created a top and bottom mentality.
“But wait,” C.J. protested, “I get the size problem, but there is not much we can do about the top and the bottom. I mean, Europe and America are in the Northern Hemisphere. We can’t help but be above the southern hemisphere.”
“Not necessarily,” the cartographers concluded. And then they showed this picture.
What is top and what is bottom? Whose to say what we call North is actually North. We don’t have a God’s eye view of the universe.
After seeing this, C.J. was dumbstruck.
Perhaps some of you are surprised by this picture as well.
Could it be that what we thought was right side up, has actually always been upside-down? Could our perception of the way things are be 180 degrees off base?
In Luke 6, Jesus does to those with ears to hear, much what the cartographers did to C.J. in the White House. He turns their world upside down. Or maybe, to be more accurate, he turns the world right side up and it just looks funny, because we have grown accustomed to seeing things upside down.
Let’s face it, most of us, if given the chance, flee from poverty, hunger, tears, and from being hated. We’d prefer wealth, satisfaction, happiness, and to be liked.
This is why we do what do in life. This is why why we actively pursue better employment or a more comfortable place to live. This is why we relentlessly seek good grades in school and entrance into the best universities.
We spend most of our lives trying to climb the ladder of life.
We know what success looks like. He dresses tastefully and sports a rolex. The investing bank that he works for gave it to him after 20 years of faithful service. Success runs marathons on the weekend and can articulate the subtle differences between French and Californian Merlots. He is married to a lovely, well-connected wife. Together, they split their time between their tastefully renovated Point Grey character home and their country rancher in the Okanagan. They have 2.5 children. Their oldest just got accepted into Medical School.
Weath, satisfaction, happiness, and a good name. Blessed is he or she who has these things.
But which way are we all climbing? Up or down?
Jesus doesn’t join the rat race and he invites us to resist it too. He and his disciples will measure success with different instruments according to the values of a different kingdom.
After spending the night in prayer and choosing 12 from among his followers, Jesus descends into the world of impoverished sinners and success seekers.
He begins by driving out demons and healing the sick. Those things don’t belong in the Kingdom of his heavenly Father.
Next he tells the crowds which way is up and which way is down in this Kingdom.
Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping ones. Blessed are you when people hate you and exclude you.
But woe to you who are rich, and satisfied; to you who laugh now, for you will mourn later.
These reorienting statements are not so much moral commands as they are descriptions of reality. This is way things work in the world that God is turning right side up.
The Kingdom belongs to the poor. God is a protector of the poor; a rescuer of the poor. God made a powerless group or Hebrew slaves his people and liberated them from powerful Egypt. And one of the reasons that Israel was sent into exile after growing rich and powerful in the land, was because they were neglecting their responsibilities to the poor.
The gospel message has always found a home among the poor.
Historian Andrew Walls has noted that Christianity always migrates away from the centre of power. It started in Jerusalem, among the poor. From there, it quickly was accepted by the so called barbarians of the greater Mediterranean world. Then, Christianity spread to the barbarians of Northern Europe and England. After this, it took root in the poor, struggling, American colonies—especially among the African slaves. Now Christianity is on the move again. Its finding a home among the poor in South America, Africa, and Asia. In 50 years, we’ll be sending our candidates for ministry to seminaries in Nigeria and China. For that is where the centre of Christianity will be.
The new pope is from Argentina. There are a lot of Christians there. And good soccer players, apparently.
Those who build up treasures on earth don’t need God.
Spiritually speaking, it is more dangerous to raise a family in Victoria then it is to raise a family in the slums of Nairobi. For who cares about God’s Kingdom when your kingdom is having a good year. Many in the pacific north west have slowly walked away from the faith. Life is just too good.
Watch out rich people. For you have already received your comfort.
Blessed are the poor.
And the hungry. For they will be filled. A day is coming when the table of plenty will be set before the hungry, and they will be invited in. The hungry ache for this new day. When they pray “thy kingdom come” they do so with an ache in their belly.
The satisfied don’t ache for this new day. When God invites them to eat with him, they make excuses. “I just bought a field,” one says, “I must go and see it.” “I just bought five oxen,” another says. “I have to go try them out.” Another of the invited guests says, “I just got married, I’ll have to take a rain check.”
The satisfied are too distracted by their interesting lives to be interested in the feast of heaven and earth.
So the master of the banquet has no choice but to invite the hungry: ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ Invite the heroin addict, the prostitute and the couch surfing teenager. They will come. And of course, they do. (This the parable of the great banquet, found in Luke 14).
The hungry, like the poor, react quickly to the gospel message. For to them, it is the news that brings hope.
But not so with those who hoard and fill themselves up in this life. Like the Rich man who passed by poor Lazarus day after day after day, these people will not eat at God’s table. They’ve already had their fill already.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Jesus isn’t talking here about those who cry when they don’t get their own way. He’s talking about those whose heart breaks when confronted with the brokenness of the world.
Blessed is the person that cries when they hear that another bomb has exploded in the middle east. Blessed is the parent who mourns over the wayward direction of a son or daughter. Blessed is the aid worker whose heart groans when they come in contact with the poverty of the world. Because this is not the way the world is supposed to be.
When I was studying in Honduras, one of my teachers would frequently get teary eyed while lecturing. It wasn’t because he was a sentimental wimp. It was because he was so in tune with God ’s Kingdom that whenever he encountered something that didn’t line up, it broke his heart.
Don’t be embarrassed by your tears. A lot of us men were taught not to cry. But sometimes, according to Jesus, crying is exactly what the situation calls for.
The mourners are the ones who get. They see that things are not right, and they ache for the new day. And when it comes, their tears of sorrow will be replaced with tears of joy.
But woe to you who laugh now. To the masters of war. The bullies. The CEO’s who light up cigars after figuring out new ways to make more money while paying their employees less. Woe to those who laugh now, for they will be crying when Christ returns.
And finally, blessed are you when people hate you and exclude you and your reject your name as evil because of the son of Man.
Here, once again, Jesus isn’t talking about those who are hated merely because they are mean, nasty people.
Jesus is talking about the person who is hated because they stand firm in their relationship with the Son of Man. This person won’t bow to the gods of greed or power. This person drives other people nuts because they won’t cut corners or fudge the numbers. She stands up for the poor and hungry. He confronts his sibling who is on the wrong path.
Blessed is the person who relentlessly seeks the will of Jesus and takes the heat for it, for they are on the right path, and great is their reward in heaven.
But woe is the person who seeks to please humans instead of God. This person doesn’t have a core but is blown about by the winds of change. He changes the story to get the laughs. She shifts the truth so that the truth is more manageable.
You know, this is big problem among preachers. Believe me, it is easier to say “God loves everyone”, then it is bring a hard word about hell. But what we need more than anything today, are prophets who speak the full truth and leave the rest up to God.
So, who are the ones that are climbing the ladder in the right direction. Those who pursue happiness and satisfaction in this life; or those empty themselves now for the sake of the Kingdom. The blessed ones are they who, with Jesus, stand upright in a world that is upside-down. They look funny. But that is only because we’ve grown accustomed to viewing life upside-down.
Mrs. Beatitude’s life looks different than Mr. Success.
She worries more about how much she gives away than how much she makes. She spends her weekends and holidays mingling with the homeless and volunteering at the local food bank. Her table is always open to guests. Her freezer is never full for long.
Mrs. Beatitude has a hard time with small talk at parties. She’s always getting upset about this or that. You don’t want to watch the news with her, because she cries the whole time.
Mrs, Beatitude is so obviously Christian that you’d never have to guess her religious affiliation. When she cries, “O God,” or “Jesus Christ” she means what she says. Her life is a prayer. “Lord, come quickly” is always on her lips.
In essence, Mrs. Beatitude is not a ‘barrel of laughs’. “That lady’s so extreme,” people say. “She should really tone it down a little.” “A vacation would do her some good.”
But Mrs. Beatitude has a hard time vacationing in a world that is as upside down as the one she lives in. The only time she takes time to smell the roses in on Sundays. For that is the day she sets aside to remember and rest in the reality that one day God’s Kingdom will come and his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Though it may not look like it, Mrs. Beatitude is living the blessed life. She is living in tune with the Kingdom of God and one day her poverty will be replaced with riches, her hunger with satisfaction, her tears for laughter, and her exclusion for inclusion.
This is the way of life that Jesus invites his disciples into. This is also the way that he walked.
Jesus emptied himself for the sake of the Kingdom of God. He lived a poor, hungry life. He wept at the grave of Lazarus; he wept over Jerusalem and the inability of her inhabitants to recognize the things that make for peace. And because Jesus was so in tune with the ways of God, he was excluded, hated, rejected, crucified. Jesus descended right into the heart of this upside-down world, and through his faithfulness, God turned the world right side up. For Jesus walked out of the grave, the first fruits of the new world.
This world will one day be complete when Jesus returns. Are you climbing in the right direction?
Blessed is the one dies and rises with Jesus and joins him in living right-side up in an upside-down world.
Amen
Life in the Vine 