brick by brick,
section by section,
for years on end, decades
on end,
finally completing their
house around the same time as they retire, because only the rich and well
connected can receive building loans in that country.
Blessed are you.
On my right, I see the 10 year old
look-out-kid back in North West Baltimore, who risked police arrest and gang
violence,
because that corner’s drug
dealers gave him a chicken-box a day to take home for dinner, so that he
wouldn’t go hungry that night.
Blessed are you.
On my right, I see the 40 plus names
of all those people connected to St. Stephen who died since last All Saint’s
Sunday, and I see all those who mourn so profoundly.
Blessed are you.
On
my right, I see kidnapped Bishops in Syria,
Burnt Churches and Christians in Pakistan and Nigeria.
Blessed are you.
On my left, I see well off folk, with
easy access to liquidity and an ability to use their wealth to create more
wealth.
Woe to you.
On my left, I see a people well fed, healthy,
unworried about where their next meal will come from.
Woe to you.
On my left, I see those entertained,
enjoying being included, valued, and loved.
Woe to you.
On my left, I see super-star
preachers, mega-church attendees, successful religious entrepreneurs and the
kind of people invited to pray at prayer breakfasts.
Woe to you.
And, I wonder,
What is in
the space in between these two?
What makes hated Martyrs
and mourning widows blessed?
What makes healthy,
happy, well fed folk the target of woes?
In the deep place between
those two sides of things—the twin hills of woe and blessing, is a kingdom in
that valley.
The Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God.
Prayer
In today’s reading
from the book of Daniel, we read of Daniel’s disturbing dream—of beasts and
beastly kingdoms, and of one like a human
being and a holy, humane,
kingdom.
And the thrust of
this dream is that God’s kingdom transcends these other kingdoms,
these beastly kingdoms.
It transcends them
both morally and existentially—
the Kingdom of God is Humane, while the Beastly Kingdoms are monstrous.
The Kingdom of God is eternal, while the Beastly Kingdoms won’t last always.
This reality of the
Kingdom of God, its moral and existential superiority over and against
any and all kingdoms of this world, shapes Jesus’ blessings and woes.
Jesus says woe
to the rich, filled, laughing, and
respected
because they are doing
well in a system that is not the Kingdom
of God… if you do well in a monstrous system you yourself become monstrous…
you yourself have been morally compromised somehow—
we all have.
We have in a million
different ways, become adjusted to
injustices
small and large.
We don’t notice the little ones our culture is built off
of,
the variety of vulnerable people sacrificed in every
social structure.
Yes, woe to we who
have been co-opted by our respective cultures and become unconscious of the
ways we fall short of the Kingdom of God.
And for that matter,
woe to us, for the fall will be great.
The more we trust in
those things which make us rich, filled, joyful, and respected, the worse it
will be when those limited thing fall away.
Think quite simply
of the events of a year ago—when Hurricane Sandy stuck us and hobbled us.
We rely so heavily
on systems of transportation and electricity, that when it was pulled out from
under us, we fell quickly—
relying on gas in our
tanks, heat and light in our homes
failed us.
But imagine how
unchanged everything was for those in our society without homes, or cars, or
electricity. Their fall was small. The fall of those who rely on these things,
was great.
Now, please
understand I’m not condemning all structures equally or suggesting we need to
opt out of society—
In fact there are few greater dangers than people of good
will turning their back on the world in which they live.
No, I’m simply
saying it’s worth reflecting on how our
ways of life miss the mark of the Kingdom of God.
Similarly to his
woes, Jesus’ blessings find their
foundation in his proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
This reflection on—
this compare-and-contracts
with—
the Kingdom of God and
the Kingdoms of this World.
Faithful reflections on
the morality of the societies we live in—
these blessings and woes,
cause us to ask the question:
“What kind of Kingdom begins with the blessing of those
who are vulnerable?”
Let me repeat that, “What kind of Kingdom begins with the
blessing of those who are vulnerable?”
This question opens
up a window from which we can glimpse the Kingdom of God.
It points us to a foundation of the Faithful Rule of The
Righteous One.
The Kingdom of God,
this trans-historical kingdom—
this kingdom within time,
but also beyond time—
continually breaks in, in
every age—
within every kingdom that
claims to be totalizing,
claims to be the complete
package,
claims confidence and
control,
claims our trust and
reliance.
It breaks in and
reminds us that the King of the Kingdom of God is
One like a human being—
One like the Son of Man.
One who proclaims
good news to the poor,
fills the hungry with
good things,
wipes away every tear,
and rewards the faithful
with the faithfulness of the Ancient One.
It is such good news
to the poor, hungry, weeping, persecuted.
The times when the
Kingdom of God comes clearly near, are such a blessing to the vulnerable.
On my left I hear woes.
Woes which point to our moral compromises and insist that we become
freshly aware of, and maladjusted to, the injustices around us.
Woes warning of the inevitable fall that happens when we hitch our
wagon to a horse heading off a high hill.
On my right, I hear blessings.
Blessings that point to another kingdom—one that doesn’t begin by
sacrificing the vulnerable, but instead begins by blessing them.
Blessings that erupt from time to time, blessings from the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.
Between these
blessings and woes, we find the Kingdom of God.
Amen and Alleluia.
