What Jesus Taught

Matthew and Luke have two versions of Jesus' great sermon.  Matthew's is the most famous version, called the Sermon on the Mount, (found in chapters 5-7) and Luke's is called the Sermon on the Plain (in chapter 6, beginning at verse 19).  Although they have slightly different content, they have the same outline and are basically the sermon that Jesus taught all throughout his ministry.  Matthew added much more, and gave a different sense to the sermon.  He gives the sense that Jesus is a new Moses, standing at the mountain, giving a new law.

There is no question as to this is exactly what Jesus was doing, giving a new law.  But in a sense, Jesus was giving a commentary on every law book that ever existed.  Matthew's version gives us a specific look at Moses' law, with Jesus contrasting his interpretation of Moses with other teachers of Moses.  But every law book is commented on by Jesus' sermon, every church manual, every policy book for every government or corporation.

There are a few basic themes in the sermon:

First, that God is on the side of the outcast and poor, not the powerful.  Jesus emphasizes in both sermons that it is the poor, the hungry, the persecuted, the meek that are granted God's blessings, not the wildly religious or those well-off.  Thus, if we are to gain God's favor, we are better off to be lowly than to be great and religious.

Second, Jesus emphasizes that all laws are to be marginalized by love.  Mercy, love, compassion, forgiveness are going to survive to the next age, while judgment and vengeance will not.  If we want to survive, we must focus on love, not on our limited notions of "justice".

Finally, Jesus emphasizes obedience.  Not obedience to the specific laws of men, but obedience to the higher law that He is teaching.  If we do not follow the higher law, then being a good citizen, a good mother, a good employee on earth will mean nothing in the long run.

In the end, the whole of what Jesus said can be summarized like this:

If you want to be on the in track with God, be a rebel for love.  Be punished for loving too much.  Get rejected because you had compassion.  In the end, you will benefit, because God is a God of justice for the unfairly harmed.

Community of Dependence (Poverty of Spirit 6)

The community of God is begun by a woman or man, alone in faith, committed to the burden and shame of poverty, in complete dependence on God.  They have desperately sought God and are given from the mouth of God a work to do.  Their work is not professional, but an act of love for love, for God’s work is always founded on love.

It may be working for the poor, it may be raising children through difficult circumstances, it may be assisting the disabled or elderly, it may be offering compassion and a listening ear to those who are lonely, it may be healing the sick, it may be supporting the dying... there are unlimited lifestyles of love.  But it is always among those who have been rejected and so have an empty hole which only love can fill.

This work doesn’t pay well.  They may not gain much personal reward at all, but are sometimes mocked or hated because of the work of love.  Their bodies deteriorate, they can’t pay their bills, they struggle with depression.  Many people look at the cost of the work and honestly say, “You need to find a different line of work.”

They work not for reward but because they are called.  They work because it is an honor to work for the King of the universe, and because love is the most noble of all tasks.  At times the work is head, but they trust that it is worth it for the sake of the world and they trust that it will be worth it for them.  Eventually.

This is the life of faith.

These are among the most lonely of people, and they surround themselves with the lonely, the outcasts of society.  Yet this ragtag group have something that the society around them doesn’t value—they have dependence. 

At first they depend on the central figure of faith who seems to have such abundance of love that it stretches the boundary of humanity.  Around this saint there is healing.  The hungry are fed.  The depressed find joy. The grieving find encouragement.

As the central personage enters deeper into their personal poverty, being eaten by sickness or depression, love flowers in the Spirit of the community.  It isn’t just one Lover, but a group and finally a multitude of lovers, all dependent on each other for support, for food, for housing, for relief, for restoration, for welcome.

Poverty together is not poverty.  To be truly poor is to be in community with the poor and in that community poverty melts away like butter in a campfire. To be poor is to see the poorer, and to share what little one has with the needy. It is the poor who see the hungry and give their food.  It is the poor who see the naked and give them an extra coat.  It is the poor who see the homeless and give them their last inch of space in their tent.  For the foundational moral truth of poverty is to be the one who sees, and the one who shares. 

Poverty of spirit embraces the poverty of one’s community and gives what little one has into that poverty in the hopes that there is enough for all.  Individual poverty is lessened by sharing with community.  A single stick is too poor to carry the weight of a human being.  But a multitude of sticks can carry a fully grown human over a river.  Even so, an individual poor person is helpless.  A group of poor people can withstand a great burden.

This is the community of God.  It is the community of mercy, the community of sacrifice, the community of fellowship.  The community of God is the community that takes joy in depending on one another, as well as depending on the God who gives them all.

A wealthy person may also enter into this community and take part in the joy, but only if they give all.  For no one is really a part of this community unless they are dependent on each other and dependent on God.  And that can only happen when the crutches of power, of riches, of income, of importance is all cast aside into that black hole of deep poverty.

This is the community of Jesus who cast aside all his riches, becoming poor, so that we might all participate in His wealth.  His dependence becomes our participation in the fulfilling, joyful community of dependence. 

Shame (Poverty of Spirit 5)

It could be rightly said that the theology of Christianity is the management of guilt.  Yet the theology of the New Testament has less to do with guilt than with shame.  Guilt is the personal experience of wrongs we have done.  Shame is the pointing of the finger, the rejection of our community and the judgment of those who do not consider us worthy.  The New Testament divides the judgment of God and the judgment of the community, which is unique among ancient writings.

The modern depictions of Jesus on the cross go into agonizing detail as to the pain of Jesus’ torture and crucifixion.  But pain was never the point of the gospel writers. Rather, they focused on the tremendous shame and rejection that Jesus’ experienced. We read not about blood and crushed bone, but rather betrayal, mocking, denial, false accusation, judgment, proclaimed worse than a murderer, hung on a tree outside the city of God, associated with bandits, misunderstood, forced to accept what he did not want, and finally surrendering long before his hung companions. 

Yet this flood of shame parted within his own will.  Despite all appearances, Jesus affirmed his right place with God, his ability to sway God’s forgiveness and quoting Scripture that declared God’s ultimate approval.  The power of Jesus’ death is that the truly righteous before God are denied that very place before men.

Jesus best experienced poverty when he was in this sorry state, receiving the greatest measure of rejection.  For truest poverty is not simply hunger, nakedness and homelessness.  Poverty of spirit knows not only economic loss, but is the reception of repudiation due to that loss. 

Poverty is the shame of not having what the average person seems to obtain without effort.  It is the recognition that one is an economic failure in a world in which economic gain is the only measure that truly counts.  When one’s worth is determined by income and one’s status by neighborhood and home, where does that leave the one who has no income or home? 

Poverty is the shame of having to admit one’s poverty.  To call a social service, to fill out a form requesting utility assistance, to discuss one’s situation with a social worker, to have one’s children go to school with holes in their clothes—it is freely admitting one’s failure.  It is an exposition of unworthiness, and the sidelong glance, the distrust, the assumption that the poor are trying to get something for nothing, just adds to one’s disrepute.

But perhaps the greater depth than this admission is the response.  If they say “yes” then the social worker is in agreement with our failure, and admits that we are truly pitiful, truly pathetic, among the least of the earth.  If they say “no”, despite our desperate need, then we are lower than pitiful, we are among the unworthy poor.  We are a failure, but we are undeserving of assistance.  We are only worthy to die on the street, cast within the stocks of public poverty.

Should Jesus come today, his cross might be to live on the streets, treated as a criminal by the police, having his spare bedding and clothing stolen by public servants, beaten by ruffians, and dying of hypothermia after having stumbled in exhaustion through a stream and falling into a gutter.  Perhaps Jesus’ cross today would to be committed in a state facility, declared incompetent, forced to take medication, forcibly bathed and stripped naked before nurses, mocked by other inmates who declare him more insane than they, dying isolated in a room with an IV pumping into an arm, declaring again and again “It is finished” until it finally is.

Yet shame need not end in shame.  For shame can be exchanged for peace, when experienced in community.  The community that is rejected together is not fully outcast.  Shame in loneliness is sorrow, but when that sorrow is shared and empathized, then shame evaporates into true mourning. And mourning, when accompanied with welcome hugs and support, can be transformed into full joy.

Love Hurts

Researchers put a group of random college students (poor college students!) through a game, which was a test:     (You can read about this study at ars technica)

The first stage of the game, the students are placed in groups (with some of the players being computer players, unknown to the humans). The goal of the game is to be one of three participants that end up with the most points, and they get an Amazon gift card. Each individual is given 100 points. These points can be kept or put into a group fund. If all the points in a group go into the fund, everyone gets double the points.

After that, everyone sees the other's points. If you don't like what someone did, you can take points away from them. But for every three points you take away from someone else, you get one point deducted from your own kitty.

After that, each participant ranks the other players from 1 (hated them) to 9 (loved them).

The researchers had one computer player which was the "stingy" player. This player gave 10 percent or less of their points. Needless to say, they were punished heavily. 70 percent of human players punished the stingy computer player at least one point and he was ranked low.

The strange thing is this: they also created an overly generous player who placed at least 90 percent or more of his points in the group fund. This player was also punished severely! Not only did more than 50 percent of the players take away points from the generous, but they also only ranked him a 3 (firm dislike)!

What does this mean? That generally, we don't like people to be too nice, even as we don't like them to be mean. If we are too generous, then we are likely to be dissuaded or even mildly punished by people around us.

However, Jesus warned us that if we acted in love, we would be hurt by those around us. Jesus wants us to surrender ourselves to love. But he also wants us to be realistic. If we pour ourselves out for those in need, then we will be punished, occasionally by those whom we help! That doesn't mean we shouldn't act selflessly, but we shouldn't expect rewards for it.

Poverty and Power (Poverty of Spirit 4)

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:11

God is not opposed to the self-sufficient.  He does not hate those who rely on their own strength to make their lives what they are.  God has blessed them with a created world which he called “good” and set them in it to make their way.  They make their lives, they create their comfort, they establish all they are on their own and God blesses them.

But not all are able to establish themselves.  Some work all their lives and never escape suffering.  Some have established themselves, but through tragedy or disaster their well-made lives have crumbled.  Some are torn apart by others, seeking to establish themselves on the backs of those vulnerable to their power, leaving them nothing with which to establish themselves. There are some who have no choice but to recognize that they are poor and helpless.  They have done all they can, picked themselves up, stepped forward, only to find themselves fallen again. 

It is these whom God offers not just a casual blessing, but overwhelming support and real help. 

God is the judge who listens to the widow.  God is the healer who heals the bleeding woman whom the doctors cannot help.  God is the father who welcomes the starving prodigal home.  God is the one who feeds the hungry in the wilderness.  God is the one who grants the barren woman a child.

God is the power, the strength of the poor.  The self-sufficient do not need help, they are fine on their own.  But the sick who cannot be healed, the poor whose hunger left them weak, the sinner who can’t escape their shame, the immigrant who does not see a friendly face, the outcast who doesn't know why they can’t make it on their own, the mentally weak who cannot make decisions on their own… God is there to be their strength because they have no power.

What about those who do not do all they can to help themselves?  What if they are just dependent on God because they decided that it is better to rely on Him than on themselves?  These lazy religious fanatics, who think they can tempt God and get away without standing on their own, what does God give them?

He gives them all they need.

There are those who sell all they have and give it to the poor, at the command of God—God is there to provide for them.  There are those who surrender their well-paying jobs to help the weak for nothing—these fools are also supported by God.  The one who loves God’s ways, despite their family’s hatred and become homeless because they have no support, no help on earth—God is there for them.   Those who refuse judgment in God’s name and will not do violence even to those who do violence to them—God is there to support them.

This does not mean that they do not suffer.  They may hunger, they may be cold at times, they may be occasionally friendless, they may even die at the hand of their persecutors.  Yet, somehow, they know they can rely on God. 

The persecuted David, who faced death, was confident of God’s support.  “The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise the Lord… All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship, all those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive.”  Even when faced with death, even when one goes beyond death, God does not forget his promise of protection and life. 

In this is the resurrection.  The resurrection is not for those who are religious enough to prove their worth.  Rather, it is for those who suffered so much for good and for love that God determines that they must have a second chance on life.  Resurrection is for the hopeless suffering who deserve a life of comfort.  For those who have surrendered all comfort for the sake of Love.

God never forgets his promise to be the power of life for the poor.

A Prayer Journal by Flannery O'Connor

For a year and a half while the someday great author was in her early 20s, Flannery O'Connor had a private prayer journal.  Well, it is called a prayer journal, but they were really just notes to God, confessing her doubt, anxieties and personal struggles.  Don't expect any of these prayers to show up in collection of great prayers, because they are decidedly not devotional.  We might expect it of the author of A Good Man is Hard to Find and Wise Blood, but she is as brutally honest toward her own soul as she is later of her society at large.

Here are some quotes which give us a sense of her spiritual life:

"My thoughts are far away from God.  He might as well have not made me... Today I have proved myself a glutton-- for Scotch oatmeal cookies and erotic thought.  There is nothing left to say of me."

"Contrition in me is largely imperfect. I don't know if I've ever been sorry for a sin because it hurt You. That kind of contrition is better than none but it is selfish. To have the other kind, it is necessary to have knowledge, faith extraordinary.  All boils down to grace, I suppose."

"One thing I have seen this week-- it has been a peculiar week-- is my constant seeing of myself as what I want to be, but the right genre, the eternal embryo-- and eternal in no false sense.  I must grow."

"My dear God, how stupid we people are until You give us something.  Even in praying it is You who have to pray in us.  I would like to write a beautiful prayer but I have nothing to do it from. There is a whole sensible world around me that I should be able to turn to Your praise; but I cannot do it. Yet at some insipid moment when I may possibly be thinking of floor wax or pigeon eggs, the opening of a beautiful pray may come up from my subconscious and lead me to write something exalted."

"Sin is a great thing as long as it's recognized.  It leads a good many people to God who wouldn't get there otherwise."

"I do not want to be lonely all my life but people only make me lonelier by reminding me of God."

"Am I keeping my faith by laziness, dear God?"

A Prayer Journal is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013

Peacemaking Hands

Peacemaking is anger at injustice
   And choosing to heal instead of punish

Peacemaking is the war against hatred,

   Judgment and apathy, harming none.

Peacemaking is entering into another’s life
   By listening to their story

Peacemaking is welcoming the outcast
   And creating a safe place for them

Peacemaking comes from inner peace
   Inner peace comes from silence

Peacemaking is making a plan for the needy
   In order to help them thrive

Peacemaking is choosing the one-down
   In order to support others

Peacemaking is standing with the outcast
   By yourself

Peacemaking is creating a community
   Of the hated and the lovers

Peacemaking is confronting the wrongdoer
   And forgiving them

Peacemaking is living for oneself
   By living for others

Peacemaking is rejecting rejection,
   Judging judging and turning away from apathy.

Peacemaking is healing one’s own soul
   By restoring others

Peacemaking is Jesus on the cross
   Bringing God into this world through surrendering oneself