Woe to Us?

Are you on the mark? Is your life headed in the right direction? Or are you missing the point? Is your life headed nowhere, or worse yet, in the wrong direction? In other words, are you among the “blessed,” or are you among the “woe to yous”?

In today’s gospel we hear Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. They are much more direct that Matthew’s version. (For this reason, many Scripture scholars believe Luke’s version may be closer to the original and that Matthew “softened” Jesus’ words a bit.) And those “woes”!  They can be shocking; they can throw us off balance.

And that, of course, is exactly Jesus’ point. As Jesus teaches the crowd, he clearly shows the dramatic contrast between the Kingdom way and the worldly way. The “Beatitudes” or “Blessing” belong to those who embrace the value system of the Kingdom of God. They are on the mark. They are headed in the right direction.  And the “woes” speak of condemnation for those who embrace the value system of the world. They are headed in the wrong direction and so condemn themselves to living in a never-ending circle of self-destruction. Unfortunately, they can often take the world with them, down the path to chaos and disintegration.

As John MacArthur explains, “The teaching of Jesus then and now shatters all man’s basic foundational thinking. It turns man’s world upside down. It turns his thinking on its head. This is not conventional wisdom. It runs counter to everything. It is the antithesis of human ideas. It is the antithesis of human motivation.”

As Jesus speaks, he is inviting his listeners to make a fundamental choice: do you want to be part of the status quo, that keeps the world as it is, or do you want to be a part of the Reign of God that transforms the world into all it can be? Do you want to maintain a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?; where power is increasingly held by fewer and fewer people who hold all the strings?; where all social structures are ordered to keep one self-appointed privileged group above all others, hoarding all earthly resources for their own good while deciding what scraps to dole out to the rest?; where the value of certain human lives is valued more than others and the dignity of vast numbers of people is ignored or even deliberately debased? This is the worldly way. This is how things presently are.

Or, do you want to help create a world where every person and all peoples have enough to live safely and comfortably; where power is seen as the capacity to serve and to freely contribute one’s gifts for the building up of the world for all—and everyone is given a share in this power?; where society is ordered in such a way the Earth’s resources are shared by all the Earth’s people?; where every life is seen and treated as valuable and recognized as the image and likeness of God? This is the Kingdom way. This is how God intends things to be.

Now I can just hear the voices of so many who live out of their kindergarten Christianity (thank you Richard Rohr!) saying, “Wait! Why does this sound so political? What does this have to do with religion? Religion is for getting us into heaven after we die. This talk here is all politics; it has no place in religion, in the life of faith!”  We hear that over and over again from Trumpers and MAGA fools and others whose faith has never grown beyond their third-grade religion class.

(As I’ve said before, I’m not being uncharitable. But we live in a time where pussyfooting won’t do; evil and immature faith and prejudice-status quo-nationalism disguised as faith must be called out over and over again.)

But for the serious Christian, for the one who has decided to take the words of Jesus seriously and try to live them, it is obvious that religion, faith, Christianity affects and pervades every aspect of life, including the political.  As N T Wright points out “For the early church, the kingdom of God was never about going to heaven. It was a way of summarizing what God had embryonically establish in Jesus, the spirit-led work that God was doing among them in the present, and what God would establish in the fullness of time. It was this sense of God’s kingdom as something already anticipated, being carried forward, yet still hoped for, that defined the early church as a ‘kingdom’ movement.”

Yes friends, to be an authentic Christian is to be a part of the Kingdom movement. And as NT Wright states, “If we are to participate in and promote God’s Kingdom on earth, then we must refocus and redouble our efforts to enact this kingdom project.”

All that we do is (or is not) building for the kingdom! It is enacting (or impeding) the kingdom project!

And how do we know if we are building or impeding the kingdom project? Well, back to the Beatitudes and Woes. Back to all the teachings of Jesus. Back to the entire life of Jesus as model and pattern for the life of everyone involved in the kingdom project:

• Am I only concerned about myself and my family and my “tribe” or do I care about and reach out to the hungry and thirst, the homeless and downtrodden, the rejected and despised, the ones “othered” by a society bent on keeping an “us-against-them” mentality?
• Do I have compassion for those who weep for justice, for enough to eat, for a safe place to live, for a sense of belonging?
• Do I exclude others so that I can belong to the “in” group? How long is my table and who is invited to have a seat at it?

My answers to these questions let me know if I am on the mark. They reveal to me in what direction my life is truly headed.

Peace and every good,

Father Liam

Are you on the mark? Is your life headed in the right direction? Or are you missing the point? Is your life headed nowhere, or worse yet, in the wrong direction? In other words, are you among the “blessed,” or are you among the “woe to yous”?

In today’s gospel we hear Luke’s version of the Beatitudes. They are much more direct that Matthew’s version. (For this reason, many Scripture scholars believe Luke’s version may be closer to the original and that Matthew “softened” Jesus’ words a bit.) And those “woes”!  They can be shocking; they can throw us off balance.

And that, of course, is exactly Jesus’ point. As Jesus teaches the crowd, he clearly shows the dramatic contrast between the Kingdom way and the worldly way. The “Beatitudes” or “Blessing” belong to those who embrace the value system of the Kingdom of God. They are on the mark. They are headed in the right direction.  And the “woes” speak of condemnation for those who embrace the value system of the world. They are headed in the wrong direction and so condemn themselves to living in a never-ending circle of self-destruction. Unfortunately, they can often take the world with them, down the path to chaos and disintegration.

As John MacArthur explains, “The teaching of Jesus then and now shatters all man’s basic foundational thinking. It turns man’s world upside down. It turns his thinking on its head. This is not conventional wisdom. It runs counter to everything. It is the antithesis of human ideas. It is the antithesis of human motivation.”

Yes friends, to be an authentic Christian is to be a part of the Kingdom movement. And as NT Wright states, “If we are to participate in and promote God’s Kingdom on earth, then we must refocus and redouble our efforts to enact this kingdom project.”

All that we do is (or is not) building for the kingdom! It is enacting (or impeding) the kingdom project!

And how do we know if we are building or impeding the kingdom project? Well, back to the Beatitudes and Woes. Back to all the teachings of Jesus. Back to the entire life of Jesus as model and pattern for the life of everyone involved in the kingdom project:

Am I only concerned about myself and my family and my “tribe” or do I care about and reach out to the hungry and thirst, the homeless and downtrodden, the rejected and despised, the ones “othered” by a society bent on keeping an “us-against-them” mentality?

Do I have compassion for those who weep for justice, for enough to eat, for a safe place to live, for a sense of belonging?

Do I exclude others so that I can belong to the “in” group? How long is my table and who is invited to have a seat at it?

My answers to these questions let me know if I am on the mark. They reveal to me in what direction my life is truly headed.

Peace and every good,

Father Liam