Epiphany 5C – George Yandell
Janet was in my classes from 1st to 5th grade. Even so young, I knew she was poor. She wore the same thread-bare dress every day; in cold weather, she had a thin jacket, no coat, and her legs were bare to the weather. I used to think on the playground- “Her legs must be awful cold.” Janet shrank from attention- she rarely spoke, except when the teacher called on her. One January, just after Christmas break, Janet had on a new dress. Then she was wearing it every day. Soon it was wearing out. One of the girls who sat with Janet at lunch told me that the dress was her Christmas present. That third grade Christmas I’d gotten a shiny new bike with built-in horn and lights, plus sweaters and gloves and cowboy boots and hat. I remember feeling guilty, tho’ I probably wouldn’t have called it that at the time. I think Janet was so embarrassed at being poor that she wanted to fade away from us middle-class kids in the new suburbs. I don’t know where she went after 5th grade.
When we hear blessed are the poor, what do we make of it? The first people to hear Luke’s gospel would immediately have heard it as destitute– Blessed are the destitute. That’s what the Greek word means. They would have thought of two separate groups of destitute people and poor people– the nameless poor peasants all around them who lived from hand to mouth each day were destitute. Maybe even some poor folk they knew who followed the Way of Jesus were destitute. AND they would have thought of a legendary community of people who were called “The Poor Ones” or simply, “The Poor” in Jerusalem. This group of followers of Jesus grew up soon after his resurrection, and included Peter, John, and James the brother of Jesus. James was the hub of that group. These disciples shared all their goods, possessions and salaries and did what they’d seen Jesus doing- they tended the sick, no matter their background or religious practice. They fed the hungry who were the destitute. They told the good news of Jesus in small groups, and they preached it in the marketplace. They lived in joy, in spite of their elected poverty. They prayed, gathered in new disciples who found their way of living compelling, and each Sunday morning, shared the common meal, the Eucharist, knowing the resurrected Jesus was present with them.
So when those early Christians heard ‘Blessed are you poor’, or better translated, “Congratulations you destitute, yours is the kingdom of God,” what they knew Luke meant was, the destitute were the ones for whom the Poor Ones’ community existed. The destitute were blessed, because the community of Poor Ones was reaching out to them, embracing them with God’s love and care.
The Son of Man lived in their midst, and they understood that for them, resurrection life had begun in the here and now. And in their community, the Poor Ones knew they were living in God’s kingdom since they were doing the work of Jesus. Do you hear how the destitute and the Poor Ones depended on one another to be followers of Jesus?
We stumble when we of means come up against the Janets of our days, and so we should. The discomfort, even embarrassment we feel because of the wealth we control just may be the Spirit of Christ nudging us, getting our attention, prompting us to change. Why might that be? Because the Spirit of Christ wishes us to experience the joy of living fully the Way of Jesus, as the Poor Ones did in Jerusalem.
The Poor Ones were respected even by those Jews who collaborated with the Roman Empire. Those Jews, Pharisees and Saducess who’d worked to have Jesus crucified by Rome- they respected the Poor Ones. The enemies of Jesus respected them because the Poor Ones lived God’s justice the way the prophets and the psalms had foretold time and time again. Their living, no, their being Jesus together was a witness to God’s righteousness- witness to God’s justice opening up to all. What a compelling Way to live! The gospel suggests our days are to be lived the same way.
When Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome during the peasant revolts 40 years after the resurrection of Jesus, many of the Poor Ones were crucified with thousands of their fellow Jews. The remaining Poor Ones dispersed across the Empire. Some of their descendents are here with us today.
Those are followers of Jesus who’ve lived the woeful existence of receiving their rewards now, and finding those rewards to be hollow and self-serving. Woe is living comfortably, wondering what to do regarding our discomfort at not being poor. Some of the woeful have turned toward the community of faith, eaten the common meal at the Holy Table, and begun to pool their resources with others, giving freely of themselves, and finding holy joy in this community/ joy they can find no where else. I am humbled to be in their company. They know deep within them the church is itself to be a blessing. You can be one of them. The tug of the Spirit may mean that today, you are standing on the threshold of God’s kingdom. I hope you will enter it. I wonder about Janet. I hope she found a community where she was welcomed, and she was set free, no longer embarrassed by her poverty. Maybe she is the emblem for me of my discomfort. If so, I thank you Janet. You offer me the nudge of the Spirit to change. I pray we all will come to live fully the Way of Jesus with the Poor Ones as our guides.