"The he looked up"-A Sermon for Epiphany 6, Luke 6:17-26
I remember an experience I had in my early 20’s…in some of my earliest days in ministry. It was following a teaching I had led for a women’s group at the Episcopal Church where I was serving at the time in Houston. As the gathering where I had just spoken ended, a leader in the group approached me to offer words of appreciation. I remember her saying something simple and kind…like, “Thank you for taking the time to be with us…your words were meaningful to me” …or some such. And I responded to her by sort of staring down at my shoes, shuffling my feet, and murmuring back…something like, “Oh it was nothing really…no problem…glad to be here” …or some such. And, I am glad to say the woman was not particularly impressed with my response, so she gently laid a hand on my shoulder and said, “Just look up…look up into my eyes and say your welcome.” And so, I did. I looked up into her eyes and said your welcome, and what I saw filled me up in some special way…for her face was full of warmth and grace and gratitude. I felt, in that moment, connected to this person standing before me. I saw in her eyes her own loveliness, and I saw reflected in her face back to me something of who I really was and who I could really be.
This encounter was a small thing…a little moment in time. Perhaps it would understandably be an almost forgettable moment in my 45 plus years of living, but it actually hasn’t been a little thing to me. I haven’t forgotten about it. It has stuck with me for the past two decades or so. And, I actually think about it often. For this generous woman was trying to remind me that the time we spent together, the community that we shared, the work that I had done to thoughtfully prepare my teaching, the vulnerability I showed to stand up and speak a word on God’s behalf before a crowd of people much older and more experienced than I was…all of this was not…really nothing. And she wanted me to know that. This thoughtful and lovely person wanted me to know that I mattered…that what I was offering to her and the others gathered mattered…that the time and relationship we shared through the church and the connection she was trying to make in that moment…mattered. She rightfully and wisely and caringly wanted me to acknowledge her gratitude and presence and in doing so acknowledge myself…the gifts God has given me…the goodness I am capable of bringing into the lives of others. She really saw me…and wanted me to really see her…through words of affection shared and received and some good old-fashion eye contact. For we find ourselves…we discover what we are truly capable of and made for…we discover our greatest opportunity for growth and our greatest source of encouragement…in the very midst of the loving connections we forge with one another. For God’s Spirit exists in human lives and God’s love is fired up and made manifest, as two humans are conjoined in a moment of authentic connection…spirit to spirit…deep to deep…a connection made when we look up and really see and hear each other. For in doing so, our humanity, our beloved-ness is found and affirmed in one another.
Thus, I believe it is with great intention that Luke mentions that just before Jesus delivers his teaching in today’s gospel lesson, which is often called the Sermon on the Plains, that Jesus looked up. Luke writes, “Then [Jesus] looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are…’”. And, of course, the teaching continues from there. And, if those words…“blessed are”…sound familiar that is probably because today’s gospel lesson from Luke is a parallel to…or said a bit differently…Luke’s version of…Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in the 5###sup/sup###chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, which begins with the beatitudes and these same words, “blessed are”. And one of the areas in this particular moment and teaching that Luke emphasizes differently than Matthew is that Luke describes Jesus coming down from a high place…rather than ascending to a high place…to share this teaching. Thus, we call it the Sermon on the Plains in Luke, rather than, the Sermon on the Mount, like in Matthew. Luke writes, “Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood at a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people.” So, according to Luke, Jesus stands shoulder to shoulder, side to side with the people he loves and heals and is teaching…and then before he begins speaking…he, again, looks up at them.
Which is to say, that I believe Luke is emphasizing Jesus’ desire for authentic connection with the people he loves and serves and heals and teaches. Jesus wants to be able to look those who have come to him in the eye…to be able to touch those he heals…to be able to see and reflect back in his own face both the tears and joy…the fears and hope…the gratitude and love…that exists in the lives of all those surrounding him. Jesus is not God above us or God below us…Jesus is God with us…side by side, shoulder to shoulder, both fully divine and fully human. Jesus standing with and among those he loves, friends and strangers alike, demonstrates for us how we are to be together…to be a family…to affirm one another’s humanity…and how to become with and through each other the meaning-making, lovers and life-givers that God has created us to both be and become. And it all begins by following the descending path from any sense of aloofness or superiority to stand directly before one another as equals…so that we can look up and see into the eyes of the other…which says even before a word is uttered…I see you and you see me…and we become be fully alive, fully human in that most simple and glorious moment of connection…finding ourselves in each other.
And this sort of authentic connection between Jesus and those who surround him is also important for Jesus’ teaching that follows. For before we can really hear one another…and when I say hear I don’t mean the recognition of audible noises…I mean really hearing in our heart spaces someone else’s truth…we have to first acknowledge their presence…their humanity…we must believe that our own wisdom and well-being is connected to their own…so we must look up to see and be seen. And Jesus looking up into the eyes of all those gathered around him has truth to tell…to each and every one of them…however different from one another they may be. For I imagine around Jesus are those who are poor and rich, hungry and full, sad and joyful, both those praised and despised, and he has something to say to each and all.
And, if I can sum it all up, what Jesus says to each of them is that where you are today…is different from where you will be tomorrow. If you are thought well of now, the time will come when the tide of popularity turns. If you are despised now, you will know what it is like to be appreciated. If you are laughing now, all lives will eventually know suffering. If you are weeping now, like each new morning, joy will rise again. If you are full now, when hunger in body or spirit comes, as it inevitably will, you will experience it profoundly for you will remember what it was like to be full. If you are hungry now, you will rejoice heartedly when you are filled up, and you will be, for you will remember what it was like to know emptiness. If you are rich now, you will learn that wealth can be a cruel master and none of it can go with you into the grave. And if you are poor now, you will eventually know that the riches you desire will never be found in dollars in cents, but it will be found in the never ending well of God’s love, which cannot be bought and is entirely free. And I for one think that this is good…all good…that we will not be tomorrow where we are today. For I know, I am not fully realized as a human. I am a gigantic work in progress. I have so much more to learn from both my own and other’s experiences of having too much and having far too little. I am grateful to be on the journey together and not yet arrived at our destination.
And here is the thing…as Jesus is telling those gathered around him and really us, as well, both the challenging and hopeful truth about ourselves…in that very same moment…he is, also, demonstrating for us where we find the courage we need to continue the life journey we are on…to move forward into the next experience of growth that lies ahead…wherever we find ourselves on Jesus’ list today…and wherever we will find ourselves tomorrow…and that courage and strength is found in each other’s faces. We become the people God is calling us to be…fully alive, wholehearted humans with each other…only when we see and are seen by each other. Like that generous woman so many years ago in my life, who reminded me to look up and receive the words of grace offered to me…to look up and acknowledge the gift she was offering me in that moment of beautiful connection…to look up and see God’s love dwelling in the midst of two humans sharing a brief moment in time…seeing and being seen. For therein, I found both who I really was and who I really could be…through the eyes of another.
God’s own grace and gratitude is found in the words and faces of each other…in the gift of authentic human connection…which provides the strength and courage to both be and become…to take the very next step on our conjoined journey into what awaits us tomorrow…into the highs and lows…the laughter and tears…until God’s kingdom comes…which we enter together…at the very end of our shared journey. Amen.