it was the same old me

with the same old blues

oh, then you touched my life

A sermon on Jesus' unique therapy

With these words, Jesus lays out the course of the Christian life. And with these words, he couldn’t be more clear. Jesus doesn’t equivocate in this sermon. And neither is he subtle. 

In fact, that’s one of the things I like about this translation we’re using. The word choices shock us into actually hearing what Jesus is preaching. This translation aims to peel away the religious sentiment these words have so often been wrapped in. Hopefully, this translation will make Jesus’ words zing with a newfound potency for you today. Ideally, it will even jolt you with what Jesus is doing in this upside-down sermon of his!

Take, for instance, the first beatitude. You’re used to hearing this outrageous pronouncement as, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” A very fine translation, all in all. The trouble, though, is how we hear these words. 

When we hear “poor in spirit,” we tend to presume Jesus is talking about some kind of spiritual disposition we ought to cultivate. One that’s humble, or poor, as it were.

The thing about humility is, either you have it or you don’t. And no amount of jerry-rigging your spirit can change that, either. In fact, if you’re humble, it’s probably not because you chose to be. No, if you’re humble, more than likely, it’s because something in life has humbled you.

And the same goes for being poor in spirit, too. After all, if you’re really poor in spirit, you won’t have enough spirit to nurture one kind of temperament or another! No, if you’re really poor in spirit, you just don’t have enough spirit to get by. Or, to say it another way, you’re just at the end of your rope.

And that’s why we like to say God’s office is at the end of your rope around here, by the way! Because it’s those of us who don’t have enough spirit of our own to get our act together that Jesus blesses first of all in this unorthodox sermon of his! And, paradoxically, it’s everything that’s so extraordinary about this sermon that also makes it so darn down-to-earth!

When Jesus blesses the poor in spirit, those at the end of their rope, he starts his sermon where we all actually live! The Sermon on the Mount doesn’t start high. No, it starts low! It begins where we all find ourselves much of the time, not the summit but the middle of the valley! Jesus doesn’t begin his sermon with how life could be. No, he begins his sermon with how it really is!

The Sermon on the Mount is not with some grand theory about how life ought  to be. No, it’s a sermon for how life really is! Because life isn’t so much a perpetual ascent as it is a string of unpredictable ups and downs. Isn’t it? So often, at least in my life, the ups have come in the middle of a down! And just as often, the downs have struck whenever everything else seemed to be on the up and up! 

That’s why we say, “true spirituality is life,” where? That’s right, in reality! True spirituality is life in reality because Jesus doesn’t bless theoretical people who have made it to some hypothetical ideal. No, he blesses real people! Real people who are really at the end of their rope. Real people whose spirit really has come up short. 

In a word, Jesus blesses us all. And blesses us all right now. Not in a distant future, at a faraway goal we might never reach.

And this blessing of Jesus’ is no consolation prize, either! No, this is a blessing that does what it says! Jesus’ words are words that work! Jesus’ sermon makes us into the kind of people he blesses! Jesus’ words are none other than the very ones God spoke at creation! And just like that first day, when God spoke light into existence out of nothing, so Jesus speaks a blessing for you out of the nothing but the end of your rope! 

One of the wildest and most fun depictions of this kind of unlikely blessing is the film Everything Everywhere All At Once. This movie is almost too crazy to describe. But essentially, it’s the story of Evelyn, who runs a struggling laundromat with her spouse and their daughter. And like all challenges, their failure to make something out of that little laundromat represents more than just a bad break. No, their floundering operation is a judgment upon Evelyn herself and, seemingly, every choice she’s ever made.

This all comes to a head with an audit. An audit that doesn’t promise to be pleasant. However, on their way to this grim fate, Evelyn is abducted and told she’s the only one who can save not just the world, but all the worlds that have ever or could ever exist!

Ironically, the reason Evelyn is the hero the multiverse needs is due to all her failures! Evelyn could have been so much more. But because she’s never followed through on any of those pursuits, she can now access all those lost potentials. And the skills that would have come with them. 

Blessedly, you don’t even have to watch the whole movie to get the gist of what it’s about. There’s a line in the trailer! 

Toward the end of the trailer Evelyn is told what’s prepared her for her mission. She’s told, “Every rejection, every disappointment has led you here.” In the movie, Evelyn’s failures are the source of her power! And this is a really uplifting message. What’s more, it’s even one that proves true more often than we think. But this is only true in the movie because of the mechanics of the universe. 

In the kingdom of heaven, though, so says Jesus; it couldn’t be more different! Yes, your shortcomings are the source of your strength! But they aren’t the source of your strength because they provide entry to some other possibility. No, your shortcomings are the source of your strength because they are precisely the places Christ stands most tall for you! 

And not theoretically, either! But really! It’s where you actually fall short that Christ really stands most tall for you! Truly!

In Christianity, the symbol for this power made perfect in weakness is the cross. And I trust you have this symbol around the house. And I pray you might give this powerful symbol a second look this week. Today, though, for a little fun, I have something else…

You might have noticed the preponderance of googly eyes in the trailer. This is because, in the film, and I won’t spoil anything, googly eyes symbolize this power of embracing your powerlessness. And it’s a lovely scene when Evelyn finally wields her weakness, too. But I’ll entrust that to you for your own viewing. 

For now, I’ve got some googly eyes for us all! There should be enough for everyone to take two! What I’d suggest is you affix these little buggers to some object around the house. And then, when you catch a glimpse of that little creature pathetically staring back at you this week, let yourself enjoy the foolishness of it. 

Because, in the kingdom of heaven, it’s this kind of foolishness Jesus works with best! After all, only a foolish Savior would give his kingdom to those with nothing to offer in return! Only a foolish savior would give his blessing to those at the end of their rope and the poor in spirit, too. But, as Saint Paul tells us, “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” (1 Cor. 1:25)

Turns out, like Evelyn, you too live in a multiverse! Well, actually, a duo-verse! You live in this dying old world. But, on account of Christ, you also live in the kingdom of heaven! And on account of your baptism, you’ve ultimately been wrenched out of this fading empire into the everlasting kingdom of heaven! 

You are no longer doomed to place all your hope in this declining world! No, now you are free to live in this world, but not of it! You are free to live in this world but not of it because you belong to a different kingdom, the kingdom of heaven!

And that’s not all, either! You also get to exercise the freedom that comes with not having your fate sealed to this world! You get to go out there trusting that, in the cross, it’s all been taken care of! You get to go out there trusting that, in your baptism, there’s ultimately nothing this world can do to you!

What’s more, you also get to go out there and ply a little of this odd power of the cross, too! You get to go out there knowing your most powerful strength is the power to be vulnerable enough to love someone else. You get to go out there knowing your most powerful strength is the power to be unguarded enough to be honest with someone else about how tough this life can be!

In fact, that’s all Stephen Ministry is! Stephen Ministry is nothing more than going to another person, helpless. Totally aware you can’t fix their problem. As we say, you’re just the caregiver. Christ is the cure-giver.

By the upside-down power of God, it’s only those who have nothing to offer who will dare to take someone else’s hand and walk with them through that valley of the shadow of death. This is because it’s only those who have come to the end of their rope who have learned, the hard way, that there’s no valley too low to keep away the Good Shepherd! In fact, on the contrary, as Jesus preaches today, it’s precisely in those low points that the Good Shepherd comes every time! And comes with his best blessing in tow, too!

And this is true whether you sign up for Stephen Ministry or not. Thank God. But you might as well. Because, as it turns out, like Evelyn, all your hesitations are really the better part of your power. At least, by the power of Jesus’ incredible blessings, they are anyway!

And so, fellowed blessed sisters and brothers in Christ, let us sing for all the ways God is turning this old world on its head! 

Let's sing, "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me." 
Rock. Get it?