January 29, 2022

A Facebook page called Mindful Christianity posted an image last week of Charlie Brown in bed, worrying, and his thoughts are like this: “Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask: “Is life a multiple-choice test or is it a true and false test?” Then a voice comes to me out of the dark and says: “We hate to tell you this, but life is a thousand word essay.” … How about you – did you prefer essays in school … or multiple choice?

Today we heard a beautiful set of writings – prophecy, poetry and essay. Let’s walk through them and observe. While the last verse of our Micah reading, about doing justice, and loving kindness, and walking humbly with God, is a pinnacle of wisdom; and has been called ‘biblical ethics in a nutshell’ let’s see what precedes it. We are told that God has a controversy with God’s people. That’s sort of an odd use of the word ‘controversy’ but here it basically means that God has a dispute with them, or a point of disagreement or complaint. We’re not really told what the disagreement is about, but God seems to feel unappreciated by the people. Perhaps it’s a case of ‘taking things for granted’ – things like God releasing them or their ancestors from slavery in Egypt. I must say that God here sounds like a lot of parents who feel that their adult children do not appreciate them enough. It’s a kind of ‘after all I’ve done for you, this is how you treat me?’ speech – a speech I’ve often heard in my head when thinking about my adult children. So, it can bring us comfort to see that God can also have such feelings.

Once the people realize that they should do more to show their appreciation and to make amends for their sins, they suggest some elaborate ritual sacrifices – elaborate and appalling for our times with the offer to even sacrifice one’s newborn child for God. And how does God respond to these extravagant offers? The prophet Micah tells us in that awesome last verse, which resonates down through the centuries: “God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Seemingly so simple, and yet we have far to go in terms of doing justice for so many in our world who’ve been harmed by empire, greed and lack of compassion, to name a few.

Speaking of controversial – our psalm poem seems to condemn all those who lend money at interest – there goes western capitalism down the drain. Context is always essential. Charging and paying interest has allowed a lot of people to do things like buy homes – at least way back when we were all much younger, and homes were ridiculously so much more affordable than they are today.

Then we heard our epistle from 1 Corinthians – probably the closest thing to an essay in today’s readings. Paul offers a thoughtful and thought-provoking little essay comparing foolishness and wisdom in God and in humans. It’s rather shocking how much disagreement there is on this differentiation today, especially with many online arguments as to what is true and what is false, or what is wisdom and what is foolishness. I think that in our epistle today, Paul is basically saying that God’s wisdom not only transcends human wisdom, but that even God’s foolishness transcends human wisdom. Isn’t that a shocking idea – the foolishness and weakness of God? I wonder how God could possibly be foolish or weak? But there’s verse 25 saying: “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” This is a clever essay with surprising twists and turns. Then verse 27 helps us out: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” Many of us have experienced the surprising ways that God chooses what or who seems weak in this world – to help bring about the ways of God’s reign on earth – ways of justice, peace and compassion.

And finally, we have the beloved Beatitudes in Matthew for our gospel. These are both poetry and prophecy I’d say. They seem to turn things upside down – God’s wisdom wiser than human ways. Our world does not usually see the poor, those in mourning, the weak or the hungry as ‘blessed’ and yet Jesus calls them ‘blessed’. They’re blessed since they’re more open to God because of the challenges in their lives. Blessed also are the merciful, the pure in heart and the peacemakers – easier to understand why. And in the last two Beatitudes, Jesus teaches us that there’s blessing in being persecuted for good causes; and we’ll likely be reviled if we follow him in pursuing justice for the oppressed and downtrodden. There are many good commentaries and even books on the meaning of these awesome Beatitudes; and the Working Preacher website this week provided one from a young professor of New Testament in Texas – Jillian Engelhardt – here's one sample of her wise comments:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Righteousness in the Hebrew Bible (for example, Isaiah 51) refers to a total societal restructuring that includes the equitable distribution of resources. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, then, are those that Rome’s unjust distribution keeps at the margins of subsistence. In a reimagined society, all will have enough. And Jesus says that in God’s kingdom, these folks will be filled.”

I’ll email that link to you soon in case you wish to read her fine comments on the other Beatitudes we heard today.

Going back to Charlie Brown lying in bed worrying – we see that he views life as a test or exam, and he’s uncertain whether he can get a passing grade. Poor Charlie Brown! To think of life as a true or false test reflects some the immense polarizations in our world – it’s too black and white. Multiple choice offers a better reflection of our multi-cultural world, especially if some of the answers are ‘all of the above’. But essays allow for the most nuance and complexity since, let’s face it, our world and its people are infinitely complex. As we finish the first month of 2023, may God’s Holy Spirit of Wisdom guard and guide us towards ever-greater capacity and tolerance for the rich complexities that the Creator has built into all of Creation, Amen.