First,
we do this because Jesus did. He touched people. He met people at the point of
their deepest need, and he healed them.
Second,
in the earliest Christian communities, a major sign of the Spirit’s presence
after Jesus’ resurrection was that they were a healing community.
So,
what is Christian Healing? Well, for one thing, healing is more than just fixing
broken bodies or lifting up broken spirits—although it certainly includes that!
Christ’s healing is for a broken world and that starts on the cross and is made
known in the resurrection. That means that when we undertake any ministry of
healing—laying on of hands, visiting the sick, ministering to the lonely, the
jailed, the outcast, feeding the hungry, working for a just world—we are taking
part in God’s reign, taking part in God breaking into our world, and witnessing
to the Risen Christ. Healing shakes things up!
In
today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus describing the blessed ones of God. He describes who
they are and what they do. And while there are many ways that God’s blessed
ones live, there is no question that God’s blessing is revealed when we reach
out to each other and heal.
Listen
again to the core of Jesus’ teaching: the beatitudes. Like Christian healing, the beatitudes are often
distorted and misunderstood. Some preachers and writers who want to turn Jesus’
powerful teaching into something like “positive thinking” or self-help. Some
try to convert Jesus’ healing into magic—you know, when you try to use the
right ritual or phrases to control events or manipulate the world to your preferences. Some preachers will equate "blessing" with worldly wealth. There are some leaders and some preachers who attempt to use Jesus’ teaching to
justify everything from the exclusion and expulsion of immigrants, to the rejection
and violence against gay, lesbian and transgender persons, or will use Jesus’
words to justify the persecution of people of other religions. Others want
Christians to be silent and submissive and just meekly give into whatever is
going on around us or whatever their leader says.
Needless
to say, we live in a time, as much as any time in the church’s history, when it
is essential that we listen again to the core of Jesus’ teaching.
So,
let us begin again.
The
beatitudes in Matthew come in three parts.
In
the first part, Jesus proclaims blessing to four kinds of people who are
suffering: (1) the poor who are without hope; (2) people who mourn; (3) people
who are “meek.” The word that we hear as “meek” does not refer to the shy but
rather to the downtrodden and oppressed. Finally, there are (4) the people who
thirst after righteousness—because they are desperate for justice!
Let’s be clear here—these are not qualities
anyone wants to have. There is
absolutely no virtue in being unintentionally poor. Healing though it might be,
mourning is a state of broken heartedness that no one wants. No one wants to be
downtrodden and disrespected (aka “meek”). People who experience any or all of
these know that this is not what God intends for creation!
Notice
that these first four beatitudes are beatitudes of reversal. People who are one
way will receive a blessing that will take them to some place new. The poor and
those without hope will belong
to the kingdom. People who mourn will
be comforted. People who are downtrodden will
inherit the earth. Everyone who is poor, who mourns, who is downtrodden, and
everyone who thirsts for righteousness will
be satisfied!
How
can this be? How can Jesus say that these permanent conditions of humanity will
be reversed? This leads us to the next part of the beatitudes.
The
next four blessings are directed to people who strive to live in the way God
intends: they are the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.
In
Jewish tradition, the heart of the law is mercy. Mercy is much more than a
legal thing—letting someone who is guilty go free—mercy is both the act and the
life of compassion to those who are in trouble, who are poor, or who are in
pain. Jesus says that people who live mercifully will also receive mercy.
Purity
of heart is not just good behavior and clean living, it is a heart tuned to God
and open to the working of the divine in the everyday. These are people who see
God.
People
who are peacemakers are people who work for justice—who work to see the poor
treated fairly and who speak truth to power on behalf of those who have no
voice. People who bring reconciliation to places of division will be called
children of God.
What
Jesus says in this second part of the beatitudes is that God blesses (and
others are blessed by) people who live their lives in tune with God.
So
how will the poor be welcomed into God’s reign? Because the merciful will show
then in!
And
how will the mourning be comforted? Because people tuned to God’s heart will
comfort them!
And
how will the downtrodden inherit the kingdom? Because people of peace will
bring justice to God’s children!
But all this comes with a price: When people begin to live God’s reign, there will be trouble. And when people care for people with compassion and justice and with hearts open to God, there will be trouble. That's because we live in a world that wallows in injustice, that is energized by grievance and anger, that exploits poverty, and thrives on disrespect! And people—even ones who claim the name “Christian”— who are steeped in these will fight back! They will call us names (like “woke” or “snowflake” and all that), and they will get on their talk radio and cable news shows and rant about how unrealistic—and, oddly, talk about how mean—we are! They will pass laws to tell us what not to teach in schools so that they don’t feel bad about the ugly parts of our history! And that is why in Jesus’ final blessing in the second part is a word of hope mingled with a word of warning: people who do right will be persecuted—this is a part of living in God’s kingdom right now!
That's because the values of a life of blessing are contrary to the values of the culture.
When
we take part in the ministry of Christian healing, it is not just about making
our bodies better, we are not doing magic and we are not simply being “nice.”
We are doing something much, much better: we are introducing and taking part in
God’s reign of justice, hope, and peace. When we open ourselves to God’s
healing, we place ourselves alongside people who are poor and without hope—we
are people in need of mercy, and when we show mercy, we are extending to others
what has been freely given to us by a loving God who loved us first!
Mercy
happens when we embrace people who grieve and those who give comfort. When we
take part in God’s mercy, we are lift up the downtrodden and the meek, offering
both justice and a welcome into God’s reign. And when we do this in the
sacraments of baptism, Eucharist, and healing then we are demonstrating God’s
mercy in our lives in real tangible ways.
All
of us have things in our hearts of which we are not proud. All of us have
things that grieve us. All of us, at some time, have struggled to have hope.
And all of us, every one of us, are blessed.
We
are blessed because God has given us people of blessing, and made us, in the
cross and resurrection and through our faith and baptisms, into a people of blessing.
Whether
you come forward for healing, or whether you stay and pray for those who do
hear again Jesus’ words: Blessed are the poor and those without hope—the
kingdom of heaven is here! Blessed are you who mourn—comfort is here! Blessed
are you are worn down and trampled upon—you have a home, the earth is yours! All
of you who thirst for God’s way—satisfaction is here!
God’s
mercy comes through merciful people. Compassion comes through hearts tuned to
God.
Justice
arrives through people who seek peace. And no matter what happens or what is
said about us, we are a people of mercy and hope and comfort and justice. And so, wounded though we are, we are healers
because we are being healed!
No comments:
Post a Comment