Jer 17:5-10; Psalm 1; 1 Cor 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26 Epiphany VI, Year C-February 11, 2007 Trinity Episcopal Church The Rev. Linda Spiers Recapturing Pentecost: BEING the Church of our Baptismal Covenant was the title of our clergy conference this week with the Rev. Jane Oasin as our facilitator. Jane works in the National Episcopal Church Office for Social Justice. She led us through amazing and insightful exercises about considering the other in our congregations and communities while looking more deeply into ourselves who we are as children of God. We reflected on the many isms that surround us: racism, classism, sexism, culturism, etc. She gave us a phrase that especially touched me: are all the children in? It was a custom of her grandparents who had eleven children to gather everyone around the table for prayer before eating. The question was always first asked: are all the children in? Is everyone here and included in our prayer and in our eating and in our family time? It s a wonderful question for us to ask each other as we continue to be about the work of God s reign in this place. Are all the children in? Jane Oasin had us thinking about all of the things that make us different from one another, for we each are different and yet we re each created in the image and likeness of God. Some of the differences are very visible among us our age, our gender, our skin color, our accents, and our physical abilities. Most of the differences are not so visible, and it s only in conversation and intentionally spending time together that we come to know each other better and to understand the differences that are not so visible. 1
A silly example of this is this little black duck that sits on my desk at home. It s a constant reminder of difference for me. This is like the little rubber duck that I played with as a child and that floated in the bath water. The difference is the duck I remember was yellow. In fact most of the rubber ducks like this today are still yellow, but a year or more ago I discovered this little black one and was very intrigued. My assumptions around this simple object were thrown out the window. Rubber ducks are not all yellow, just as real ducks are not all yellow! It s easy for us as humans to make assumptions. Are all the children in? No matter how visible or how invisible we are to one another, it s a provocative question to ask ourselves. Somehow I believe Luke s writer might have liked Jane Oasin s question. Luke s writer gave particular attention to the poor, the lame, the oppressed, the captive, the blind, the wounded (Luke 4:18-19, 4:12-14) many who may have been considered the invisible other. Today s Gospel is known as the Sermon on the Plain. Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place. A similar passage is found in the Gospel of Matthew. Luke s writer offers some interesting differences. In Luke Jesus calls the twelve disciples on the mountain and in prayer, and then they descend from the mountain and come to a level place to be among the people. In Matthew Jesus has called only four disciples before his Sermon on the Mount. In Luke the sermon is only _ the length of the one in Matthew. It was only after healing all that Jesus began his sermon in Luke. The 2
blessings apply to the deprived: the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those despised and rejected. A blessing in Luke would apply to someone like the disabled man who was dumped by a hospital van driver on a sidewalk Thursday in one of the worst parts of Los Angeles. An Associated Press article told the story of a paraplegic man in a soiled gown sliding along the sidewalk with his hands, clutching a plastic bag with his belongings between his teeth. The article went on to say that the man was dragging a broken colostomy bag behind him, and that this area was often a place where the homeless were dropped. With the van driver watching, the paraplegic struggled to get out of the van. His pants fell around his ankles. He fell onto the curb with his legs dangling onto the street. 1 We don t know the whole story, but the part we know cries out for the justice of God s reign. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. (Luke 6:20). Blessings are the ways in which Luke s writer proclaims what it s like to live in God s favor versus the woes that proclaim what it s like to live in God s disfavor. Jesus turns the world upside down with his words and his actions. The poor receive a kingdom. The hungry are not only fed but will be full. The rich and powerful will be less powerful and perhaps even powerless. In Luke woes are the opposite of the blessed the rich, the full, the laughing, those fully accepted by society. 1 Hospital Van Dumps Disabled Man on Skid Row, The Hartford Courant, February 10, 2007, A8. 3
Luke s writer would have had a field day in The Hartford Courant with the story of the homeless paraplegic as well as the Op Ed piece that appeared on Monday entitled Church s Hard Line on Gays Hurts Kids. It told of the Bishops in Tanzania breaking ties with anyone and any churches in the Episcopal Church over issues of human sexuality. Trinity Episcopal Church in Hartford had a companion relationship since the mid-1990 s with one of the Tanzanian Anglican churches and was providing much needed scholarships for children. Fees are required for all levels of schooling in Tanzania, and many are therefore unable to afford attending school beyond primary grades. Trinity parishioners set a goal to pay for five new students each year along with a strong commitment to pray for them. Twenty teens expected to start school in January could not because of the recent edict by the Tanzanian bishops. At Trinity Episcopal Church in Hartford all are welcomed, no matter who they are or what their circumstance of life, just as all are welcomed in this Trinity Episcopal Church in Collinsville. The children suffer because of a theological difference between cultures. 2 Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. We re called to ponder blessings and woes. We ll talk more about blessing and blessedness at our breakfasts following each service today. Jesus turned the world upside down and calls you and me to do the same, as challenging as that might be. He proclaims a reversal of the rich and poor, the powerful and the 2 Ellen Painter Dollar, Church s Hard Line on Gays Hurts Kids, The Hartford Courant, February 5, 2007, A7. 4
powerless, the full and the empty, the included and the excluded. He reminds us of how he brought the reign of God to us, how that might continue to shake us up, and how it will be at the end of time. Our differences will excite and challenge us at the same time, and yet together we serve this Jesus who reverses all our assumptions and loves us through our living into the reign of God today. As we continue the work of God s reign in this place, the question I received as gift this week seems quite natural: Are all the children in? Amen. 5