The Way to the Kingdom of God

The 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s Readings: Jer 17: 5-8; Ps 1; 1 Cor 15: 12, 16-20; Lk 6: 17, 20-26

Most days, when I go up to the post office to pick up the mail, I find the letterbox stuffed. On the average day, most of the mail goes straight into the trash. There are catalogues—sometimes multiple copies of the same one; sales letters offering new credit cards or life insurance; appeals from religious orders to help support their good works around the world; even envelopes that look like personal letters until you open them up and find that they’re just computer imitations. Sometimes, I even find mail addressed to former pastors or secretaries or church volunteers.

My point is, lots of times, you can’t help but feel that you’re pretty unimportant in today’s computer-driven world. It’s like you’re just another consumer listed on somebody’s computer printout.

But happily, that’s not how God sees things. In spite of all the messages to the contrary that the world sends us, we are important. We are made in God’s image and likeness, and we are destined to live with God forever. And in the gospel today—the famous “Sermon on the Plain”—Jesus tells us this in a way totally different from what the world says.

The world tells us that people are like a box of tissues—disposable. Abort babies who get in the way; you can always have another kid when the timing is better. Put poor, sick Grandma out of her misery. It’s OK to hate people who are different; they’re only darkies, or queers, or cracker trash; we don’t need them; we can associate with a better kind.

A couple of weeks ago, we read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where he explained that we’re all vital parts in the Body of Christ. But the world tells us that we’re more like a spare part—expendable. I don’t need you; I can get another friend…or another employee… or another wife.

And after a while, we begin to believe all this.

There’s an old legend about a little Indian boy. You may have heard this—but it really illustrates the Lord’s point today in the Sermon on the Plain.

One day, an Indian boy found an eagle’s egg. He carefully placed it in a nest of chicken eggs. Before long, an eaglet hatched along with the brood of chicks.

The eaglet grew up with the chickens. It scratched in the dirt for seeds the way that the chickens did. It cackled the way the chickens did. And it thrashed its wings and flew a few feet off the ground the way the chickens did.

Then one day, the eaglet looked up into the clear blue sky and saw a most marvelous sight. It saw a magnificent bird soaring majestically through the sky on two big golden wings.

The little eagle’s breath was taken away. It was all excited and asked an older chicken, “What kind of bird is that?”

“That’s an eagle,” said the older chicken. “But forget about it! You could never soar like that in a million years!”

That’s the same depressing message that the world sends us today. It tells us: “Forget about Jesus Christ and his teachings. He’s the Son of God. His world was completely different from our world. You could never be like him. You could never soar the way he did—not in a million years… and do you really believe that UFO’s landed in Roswell, New Mexico?”

So most of us cast our eyes down rather sheepishly and figure, “Yeah, you’re right. What was I thinking? How could I be like Jesus? That’s crazy.”

But our Lord said, in the gospel of John, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.” (Jn 14: 12).

St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world… to reduce to nothing those who are something.” (1 Cor 1: 27–28).

All of this leads us back to the Sermon on the Plain in the gospel today.

Jesus stood among a huge crowd of poor people in a field—people that the world considered disgusting, worthless, disposable—and he said, “Blessed are you who are poor; for the kingdom of God is yours!”

He stood among the hungry—and Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied!”

He addressed the hundreds of sorrowing people sitting on that plain—folks that the world considered expendable—and he said, “Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh!”

To us, too, the world says: “You’re poor? Bummer! What a rotten break—but I’m going off to Disney World and really don’t have time to talk right now. See you around. You’re hungry? Oh, that’s a shame—maybe you should get a better job so you can support your family. You’re weeping? Gee, cheer up; I really can’t stand being around miserable people; it’s such a downer.”

But Christ, the Compassionate One, says, “Rejoice… the kingdom of God is yours.”

He reminds us in this startling message that he came among us as a poor soul… hungry… sorrowing… rejected and misunderstood… yet he conquered this world and has shown us the way to paradise… if we are willing to believe him and accept his teaching.

Open your heart and head, and ask God to fill you with his amazing blessings and wisdom. Yes—truly—the kingdom of God is yours…