I take my responsibilities as a voter very seriously; but that doesn’t mean I enjoy the election season. I’ve begun to see it as a broken system; a system which gives a disproportionate voice to the rich and powerful. Campaigning is designed for people who have no problem looking you in the eye and lying; promising the moon and the stars, if only you’ll vote for them. Of course they’ll only bother campaigning for your vote if you have a certain amount of money or represent a coveted demographic. One fact about the electoral process is that no one ever runs to represent those people on the fringes of society – the poor, the weak, the lonely, the outcast. We may hear promises made to Joe the plumber, but no politicians promise anything to Marge the homeless woman, Eddie the schizophrenic, Alice the unpopular, or Jim the drunk.
These people have no voice in our society. And it’s easy to justify our decision to keep them on the outside. We stay away from the mentally ill guy who roams the streets because he could be dangerous. We don’t invite the unpopular girl to our party because we might get made fun of by our friends. We fail to reach out to the abuse victim because the abuser happens to be a very prominent member of the community, or even the church. We stay away from the widow because there’s just too much sadness there to deal with. We criticize the war protesters and claim they are not patriotic. I’m not standing here condemning our behavior; nor could I say that I would act (or have acted) any differently. I am standing here to proclaim the good news – Jesus has looked at the outsiders and chosen them to be recipients of his amazing grace; they are blessed.
Jesus pronounces blessings on the marginalized in the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. A blessing is an announcement of God’s favor; something we often talk about by another name – grace. It is a grace that contains promises for the present and the future. Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit; that’s present tense. The poor in spirit already possess the kingdom. But there are plenty of future-oriented promises (they will be comforted; they will inherit the earth; they will be satisfied; they will be shown mercy; they will see God; they will be called the children of God).
By looking with favor on the outcasts, Jesus gives them honor. In those days, honor equaled power. The Roman Empire bestowed honor to a certain caliber of man; what some today would call “manly men.” They valued men who were powerful, who conquered others in battle, who were able to take revenge into their own hands when they were wronged; they valued confidence, arrogance, wealth, and even promiscuity. The outsiders whom Jesus blesses do not meet any of these criteria; their manhood was in question and consequently they held no honor. But Jesus takes the normal social customs and turns them on them upside down. He treats the powerless as if they were the most important people in the world. He gives the outsiders a position of honor in God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven.
This has drastic consequences for how we, as a church, are to treat the outsiders. “What would it mean if we honored those whom God honors? What would happen if we stopped playing all of our culture's games for status and power and privilege? What would it cost us if we lived more deeply into justice, and mercy, and humility? And more importantly, what blessings await us on that journey?”
I had a professor in seminary that lived in a suburb of St. Paul, MN. It wasn’t a fancy suburb, but like most suburban areas over the last three decades it saw incredible growth both in population and in home prices. This professor, as he himself admits, often gets caught up with the goals of status and prestige (as is a common pitfall for those in academia). An unwritten, but widely assumed indicator of status is where the professors live. The big guns live near campus, in the affluent and charming area called St. Anthony Park.
After years of serving on staff, this professor was ready to sell his home in the suburbs and take the step towards “greatness” by buying a place in St. Anthony Park. Shortly before he was to list the home, the neighbor’s house, which had been on and off the market for a few years, was sold. The next day a man knocked on his door, introduced himself as the buyer of the house next door, and then dropped a bombshell – the man had bought the property with the intention of turning it into a halfway house.
My professor was furious. Here he had built up all this equity in his home and in once instant the value of his property was cut in half. Can you imagine the real estate listing?
“1984 split-level 3 bedroom 2 ½ bath ranch with updated appliances, granite countertops, and charming patio where you can sit and watch the recovering drug addicts and convicted sex offenders coming and going next door.”
After slamming the door on his new neighbor, the professor did what many of us might do – he rallied the other neighbors to help him file an injunction against the proposed halfway house.
While the paperwork was being prepared, the neighbor stopped by to have a face-to-face conversation. He explained his rationale for creating the halfway house, assured him that it would be well-staffed, clean, and safe, and he invited the seminary professor to stop by and see for himself. Reluctantly, the professor took the man up on his offer. He met some of the men and listened to their stories. A few days later the professor stopped by again, this time with communion supplies in hand. A few more visits meant listening to more stories, offering more prayers, and celebrating communion, again and again. Thanks to the miracle of an extremely slow court system and the thawing effect the troubled men had on his hardened heart, the injunction was revoked before it came before a judge.
My professor has suffered by worldly standards; after all, he did lose many thousands of dollars in equity, and he incurred the wrath of his neighbors when he stopped supporting the injunction. But none of these inconveniences prevent him from continuing to volunteer at the halfway house, spending hours listening and sharing with his neighbors – neighbors he has grown to love; neighbors who are truly blessed by God because they now have people in their lives who are modeling the love and acceptance which God has for them.
Modeling God’s love and acceptance is the hardest thing we can do because the world in which we live is messy. We try to make sense of our world by creating categories and labels. Some people are a success, some are a failure; some people are blessed, some are cursed;
Perhaps more than any other structure or institution, the church has embraced these categories. Throughout its history (and well into its Jewish heritage) the church has dedicated its best and brightest minds to drafting up statements which declare who is in and who is out; who is worthy, and who is not; who can take communion, who cannot; who can get married, who cannot; all the while ignoring the fundamental tenant of God’s grace – that God’s grace exists for everyone, including those we so easily toss aside.
The church must be a place that acts out the grace that God has toward all people, especially
• the poor
• the meek
• the hungry
• the peacemakers
• the unemployed
• the drug addict
• the abused
• the nerd
• the child with Autism
• the homosexual
• the single parent
• the AIDS patient.
We are called to enter into relationship with those people whom society looks down on. God has already declared his allegiance with the marginalized; God looks on them with favor and honor; they are a part of His family; they are already recipients of God’s grace. It’s time for the church to accept its role in God’s expansive family by showing respect, tolerance, and honor to the outcasts, the losers, the chosen people of God.
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