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SERMONS

The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 11, 2007

By The Rev. Alston Johnson

Every three seconds someone dies of poverty, or poverty related illness or the forgotten world as I sometimes think of it.  You may have seen the ad of Hollywood luminaries snapping their fingers.

Do we find it a shocking fact?  Perhaps we find it no more shocking than hearing our Good Shepherd saying, “Woe to you who are rich . . . woe to you who are full now . . . Woe to you who are laughing now . . . Woe to you when all speak well of you . . .”

Not trying to be cute or disrespectful, I often find myself seeing Jesus a bit like Toto in the Wizard of Oz.  Jesus is the one pulling back the curtain upon the great and powerful Oz’s of this world, drawing it back to show us just what lies behind the curtain, to see the one pulling the levers and shouting in megaphones.  There are moments in the Gospels when Jesus fulfills the words of the prophets of Israel like Isaiah, who are constantly saying, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.”

Today Luke shows us how Jesus has come to stand shoulder to shoulder with his disciples on a plain - we might say he is leveling the playing field. It is in this level place, where Jesus stands eye to eye, shoulder to shoulder, face to face with his disciples, that he opens a window upon God’s view of this world.

Luke constantly hammers away at the theme of how God’s coming into the world will cause a reversal of fortunes, perhaps none more eloquent than the words of Jesus’ own mother in her Magnificat. Mary gives a glimpse of how God will turn the world upside down with the coming of this child,

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden. For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his Name.

And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations. He hath showed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.

Mary is looking behind the curtain of this world into the Kingdom, and telling the world what to expect from this son of hers.

The waters of all the rivers will flow backwards.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.”

In one statement Jesus is taking on centuries of religious thought in the ancient world that proclaimed wealth upon the righteous. Jesus turns it on its head. “It is not the wealthy who are close to the Kingdom, rather it is the poor, the forgotten.” And the blessing is not one of perpetuation . . . no, no, the blessing is that it will not always be this way, it will end, God will turn the balances, and all will be transformed. The Blessing is that their poverty, their hunger, their weeping will not go unnoticed or unattended.

“God helps those who help themselves,” we might find ourselves saying; perhaps trying to make ourselves feel better about our good fortune.

“No, no,” Jesus is saying. “God helps those whom no one else would bother to help.” It is the coming reversal of fortune that Luke would have us see. And who is it who receives the blessings of this Jesus?

Damare Garang was captured by Islamic soldiers when his Sudanese village was attacked. Only 7 at the time, he was sold as a slave to a Muslim family. He became a camel boy even though he knew nothing about caring for them. His master enforced his learning with beatings. One day a camel got away.

The master threatened to kill Damare for this mistake, but something restrained him. The next day when he found out that Damare had sneaked away to attend a Christian church in the village he became determined to punish this boy. The master found a large board, several rusty spikes and a hammer and dragged Damare out to the edge of his compound. He forced Damare’s legs over the board and drove the long nails through his knees and feet. Then he turned and walked away, leaving the boy laying in the field screaming from pain.

A man passing that way heard Damare’s screams and sneaked into the compound and carried this boy to the local hospital where the nails and board were removed. A year-and-a-half later, Damare and the man who saved him were in a village that came under attack, and they were separated. After the defense forces managed to drive away the Islamic soldiers, Damare was left standing alone. When the commander heard him speak, he realized that he was from the Dinka Tribe and took him back to their camp. After hearing his tragic story he tried to locate some of Damare’s relatives. When none could be found, the commander adopted the former camel boy and took him to his home.

Today Damare is 15 and lives in Mario Kong. He cannot run fast like the other boys, but he says he has forgiven the man who nailed his legs to the board. He knows that Jesus was nailed to a cross so all our sins could be forgiven. He asked the Christian children in America to remember to pray for the children of Sudan. (Voice of the Martyrs Newsletter, January 2004)

Every four minutes a Christian dies for their faith.

My friends, we too are followers of Christ. There is not one of us here today who might not become a significant source of blessing for someone who is poor now, hungry now, weeping now. There is not one of us here today who might not share in the woe’s that our Lord shares with us; by any measure, any measure in the world today, we are the ones who live with an embarrassment of riches. Every baptized Christian is called to help this water flow backwards.

Jesus has come leveling all of the playing fields, so that rich/poor, hungry/full, weeping/laughing all stand shoulder to shoulder to receive the words of God for this world. We turn away from these words of Jesus at our own peril, recalling that it is the proud whom he scatters in the imagination of their hearts.

In the time that it has taken me to preach this sermon, no less than thirty children have died in Africa. No less than three brothers and sisters in Christ have died at the hands of persecutors, not all being as fortunate as Damare.

And yes they will continue to be born, and yes they will continue to be persecuted, and yes there will never seem to be enough food, enough peace, enough power, enough simple kindness to help the forgotten ones.

And yes, these words of our Lord will continue to be read and called the Gospel; the question is, do we have the courage and greatheartedness to also call these words “Good News”?