Reflection on the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Beatitudes offer words of comfort. It’s reassuring to know that God is with us in our grief and that suffering won’t have the last word. But what if Jesus wasn’t only providing personal comfort but also articulating a vision for a new society? I want to explore that question by looking first at our context and then at the context that led to Jesus’ message on the mountainside that day.

Over the past weeks, we have been confronted with powerful contrasting images in the news. 

• Heavily armed ICE agents wearing army fatigues, helmets and gas masks on one side with protestors bundled against the cold holding signs, phones and, sometimes candles, on the other. 
• An ICE agent dressed in black with his hand on 5-year-old Liam’s Spiderman backpack as Liam, bunny cap ears dangling, seemingly looks right through us with his haunted dark eyes. 
• This contrast might not be quite as well known. After Alex Pretti was murdered, 1400 people gathered in solidarity to sing in a Minneapolis church. Meanwhile, a conservative Christian influencer warned her followers to stand strong against the danger of compassion which could make them lose their way. 

Flashback 2000 years ago and we also see stark contrasts. 

• The Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus was called “Son of God” and “Savior of the World.” Jesus was called “Son of God” and “Savior of the World.”
• The birth of Caesar Augustus was proclaimed to be the “beginning of the gospel of the world.” Jesus proclaimed the “gospel of the Kingdom of God.” 
• Caesar wielded the cruelly oppressive power of domination. Jesus taught his followers the power love.

Jesus’ messaging was deliberate and provocative. The title he chose, the gospel he proclaimed and the power he promoted were all direct affronts to Rome.

In the Old Testament reading this morning, we heard Zephaniah describe the faithful remnant. I wonder if Jesus’ perspective on power and social change was influenced by Zephaniah. A study by Harvard professor Erica Chenoweth certainly highlights the role of a small group in bringing about change. Her study of social movements shows that authoritarian regimes topple when only a remnant of 3.5% of a population actively join a peaceful protest movement. There is power in a small group, a faithful remnant who persistently and peacefully live the reality of an alternative vision. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described who would be at the center of the new society which he called the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven. The center would not be the powerful elites. The center would be the poor and humble, the merciful and just, those who were grieving, the persecuted and peacemakers.

Our New Testament reading names the reversal. “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world.” Can you imagine how comforting that would be to those who were oppressed and how threatening to those in power?

As I thought this week about the Beatitudes expressing the heart of Jesus’ vision for society, I pondered how that vision might be expressed today. Here are some ideas:

• Blessed are the immigrants, for they will be welcome in their new home.
• Blessed are those with black and brown skin, for they will flourish.
• Blessed are those whose love is so deep and wide that they see even ICE agents as their neighbors, for love will multiply through them.

Maybe some of you will want to write your own Beatitudes as a prayer this week.

Authoritarian leaders today are removing history displays that reveal the horrors of slavery and brutality against Native Americans. In the same way, throughout history, church leaders have tried to remove the Kingdom of God from the context of an alternative vision for society. The kingdom which Jesus proclaimed as a direct contrast to empire has been reframed as a reward in the afterlife. And, Jesus, a brown-skinned indigenous Palestinian, has been remade into a soft-spoken white man who doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable.

Following the Way of Jesus is a radical call to transformation. His Way challenges us to set aside efforts to force our views on others and compels us to see the humanity of all, even those who are pawns of an empire. As we live through the upheaval of our times, may our resolve be strengthened by Jesus’ powerful vision of a loving world where peace reigns and everything and everyone can flourish.