Zephaniah was a best seller about the time the New Testament was being written. People were studying its message, for it spoke of humiliation and suffering, and Israel had just suffered defeat at the hands of the Romans in the year 70. Now, there were no printing presses, and no books, as we know them. But in the shuls and synagogues throughout the world, where the religious literature of Judaism was valued and treasured, people were literally combing this scroll for insights into how to move forward after such an appalling experience as had been dealt them by Rome. Jerusalem's temple had been destroyed, its walls pulled down, its streets plowed up, and new ones laid going in different directions from the old. Where the Temple had been in all its glory, Rome had chosen to place its trash dump as an insult to the conquered. The message of Zephaniah was simple: When you find yourself brought low, hurt or shamed, consider it as if it were God's own castigation. It may not be that, it may be just the world's injustice, but who cares? USE IT. Use it, NOT as a time to plan vengeance, but as a time for repairing your own soul. Do the next right thing in all humility, and make yourselves worthy of greater things, for in the end, God will bring you to good things again, and it's best to be ready for the blessing when it comes….otherwise, you'll only lose it, again, and quickly.
Non-Jewish Christians were listening to this message, too. Many of our Jerusalem members had been killed, and all the sites that had had importance to us were now "off limits," and we weren't allowed in to look at them, to pray there. St. Paul, too, was studied at this time. He had been dead, now, for over a decade and his writings were being collected, edited and in some cases added to. The words we read in today's lesson were especially loved and treasured: "Not many of you are powerful, but remember, God chooses the weak of the world to shame the wise." In other words, "It's your job, as the broken, conquered people that you are, now, to bring an example of Gospel living to the earth. It was easy when we had everything. Now, we don't, and we have to give respect out of our lack of self-respect. We are giving from our want. But it will transform the world!!!"
Do you see what was being asked of the earliest Christians? They were living as defeated people, in a world conquered by Rome. Rome eventually conquered the entire known world—every city Paul ever visited, every kilometer Christ ever walked—the entire known world was in Roman hands by the end of the first century. And Romans didn't like Christians very much! A decade earlier, about the time of Paul's death, Nero, whom many think the Book of Revelation is referring to as the Anti-Christ, began a series of official crackdowns with brutal persecutions of the Christian faith—and both Peter and Paul were killed in Rome during his reign. It was to these people who were studying Zephaniah's message of humility and fidelity that the Beatitudes were addressed as the words of Christ, too, were collected and presented to His followers in Gospel form.
The teaching was clear: Live gently on the earth, that the earth may be blessed because you were here. If you truly love and serve your enemies, they will imitate some of your goodness, and God will be glorified in that way. It's not your job to bring them down, and teach them a lesson; God will see to that. It's your job to model what a blessed life is like. Who is the blessed human being? Is it the rich? No. And we, today, know that, too. Most of them are in some sort of treatment center, drying out or if they escape that fate, they end up chasing material stuff and destroying the earth and stepping all over other people in the process. NOW, don't get the idea that Jesus or the Beatitudes exclude the rich from God's Kingdom; they don't. They just point out how hard it is for one with money to "get" the humility piece. Is the blessed person the powerful of the earth? No. Most of them get so caught up in trying to remember what they've promised to whom that they lose sight of who they are. Now, again, neither Jesus nor the Sermon on the Mount excludes the powerful from the Kingdom; they don't. Again, they just point out how hard it is for them to "get" the humility piece! AND WE ALL KNOW THAT…WE KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO BE HUMBLE WITH THE LITTLE WEALTH AND POWER THAT "WE" HAVE…WE FIND OURSELVES OPERATING OUT OF OUR EGO MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, DON'T WE?? Even a little wealth and power, like a little yeast…can puff us up P .R .E. T. T. Y B. I .G!
The Beatitudes tell us who is blessed, and how to be a blessing in the world. If you would be a blessing then LOVE EXTRAVAGANTLY………..love enough people DEEPLY ENOUGH that you are forever in mourning over someone! The perpetual mourner is an exquisite lover of other souls. Their consolation is obvious—it's in the great number of people who will surround them with care, and love them back!
If you would be a blessing on the earth, then learn the Grace of Silence. Shut up, so others can unburden themselves. The world needs someone to listen. That's what the "meek" do. We all have plenty to say, but we need someone to listen. Christians should be wonderful listeners. We should be hearing the pain of the earth, because as we hear another's burden, we take on half his care. His load is lighter for WE were here to listen.
If you would be a blessing on the earth, know YOURSELF and your own vices—so that you can have compassion on others who lose their way in the world, and need compassion and mercy, not judgment and condemnation. No one needs your condemnation. No one! They are in desperate need of your understanding of their weakness, of their make-up. We aren't here to judge them; we are here to love them into God. That's what the merciful do, and it is to them that mercy is promised.
And if you can do that, you might even become the next to the highest blessing the world can know. You might even become a PEACEMAKER. That job is reserved for the highest souls. Those who care deeply, who no longer judge and condemn, and those who can listen well enough to see both sides of a dispute can, with Grace, become those who heal the earth of its horrid divisions. These are called God's children.
And, those will also probably graduate to the highest level of discipleship: those who suffer persecution for being able to see two sides to an argument, who don't spout the party-line, but keep silence, those who don't make their condemnations public, and those who DO love and have deep friendships with people on all sides of all arguments. These are the ones who are suspect by everyone who hasn't benefitted directly from them, so they will suffer. But, even then, they will be a blessing.
I don't know about you, but I have a long way to go before I'm much of a blessing on the earth, at least by this strict standard. Yet, the strictness belies the gentleness of the teaching. The teaching calls each one of us to a gentle peacefulness in life and in our world. We may not get it right every time, but let's commit ourselves, this week, to using the Grace we receive in the Holy Sacrament, today, to make our lives benedictions of peace and goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +
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