February 13, 2022: Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 17:5-8 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20 Luke 6:17, 20-26 What Am I Doing with what I Have Been Given? A reflection by Marianne Seggerman Today’s gospel is the well-known passage often referred to as the Beatitudes. Actually, there are two versions this passage – this one is from the Gospel of Luke. The other passage referred to as the Beatitudes comes from the Gospel of Matthew – there are slight but significant differences in wording. I read commentaries about both versions and learned a further variation occurs in both due to linguistics – the word that is translated into English as “blessed” could just as faithfully be translated as “happy.” So, “Happy are the poor in spirit,”– or in Luke, “Happy are the poor.” In the chapter, “The Partiality of God” in Beyond Cynicism, David Woodyard lays out how God through the ministry of Jesus sides with the poor, the oppressed, “the useless little people of the world,” to use a phrase from Carl Braaten. Professor Woodward was chaplain of the chapel at my university, and I regret that I only encountered his teachings long after I graduated. This week’s Gospel drives home this explicit partiality to which he refers. There is a theology called the prosperity gospel which basically asserts that material wealth is evidence that God has blessed you. In Luke’s gospel particularly, Jesus was having none of it. It is a great temptation to mention here the clerics who live in opulence. Does anyone remember the Bishop of Bling? One of the first things Pope Francis did after ordination was to discipline the head of the See of Limburg Germany, who had built for himself a 40 million Euro residence. A line in Pippin (a Stephen Schwartz musical) goes like this: “the [Catholic] Church isn’t saving souls it’s investing in real estate.” Then there are those televangelists with lavish lifestyles whose massive churches shutter their doors to those in need during natural disasters. It is tempting to scorn the church leaders enriching themselves materially – but the focus should be on what these readings mean for us. How many of us fall in the categories offered in the last 3 lines of the gospel – we are fell-wed, laughing, and people speak highly of us – and Jesus says woe to us? Thanks. … But because God’s salvation is open to all – poor, and yes, rich – I want to think that the readings from Jeremiah and First Corinthians temper the rather alarming message to those of us who are not currently suffering for the sake of the Gospel: do not chase fortune, fame, or any other earthly prize; do not put our trust in earthly treasures. For some of us, fortune arrives after a gentle stroll because a path of privilege has been laid out before us. Still, we may seek our God, and when troubles come, we will be like a plant with deep roots in a drought. The real message of the Beatitudes to those of us with comfortable lives is to never for a moment think ourselves the ones to whom God is partial. Material comfort is not a sign of blessing so much as an opportunity for generosity. So, we shouldn’t act like God thinks we’re special. Jesus was raised from the dead for all of us. He may have shown partiality to the poor, the poor in spirit, those living with hunger, oppression, but Jesus associated with people of wealth and standing as well – Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, just to name two. The question for Jesus seems not to have been how much anyone had, but rather how they were using what they had been given. |
