A sermon given by the Revd Tessa Stephens
"Poverty of Spirit"
A couple of weeks ago, our boiler broke, just as the weather was starting to get really cold. After two rather unpleasant days it was fixed, although the engineer warned us that the fix wouldn’t last for long and we’d soon need a new one. This wasn’t good news, especially as it lead to lots of phone calls and emails trying to convince the agency that we really did have a problem. The boiler did finally give up the ghost last weekend, although thankfully the weather has been milder and we’ve now got a collection of heaters from all over the parish.
So there have been a few upsides to the experience. It’s comforting to know that there are people around who will lend me their heaters and Ellie has now got over her fear of showers and enjoyed being washed at the swimming pool rather than at home. But overall the experience has made me realise how dependent I am on physical comfort to remain cheerful (or in other words I may well have been grumpy!) and also how easy it is for me to take things that were once luxuries for granted. So as we come to celebrate this festival of All Saints, I realise that I’m a long way from saintliness. And it was in that context that I first read Jesus’ words in this week’s reading about what it means to be blessed.
In the reading that we’ve heard today, Jesus says “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”. So what kind of poverty are we talking about here? Well it certainly has something to do with the absence of possessions. But it can also be interpreted more widely than that. For example, if we look at the equivalent passage in Matthew’s Gospel, we find, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. So this suggests that we might be talking about a kind of poverty which is not just about a lack of possessions but also about a poverty of spirit which enables us to realise how much we need God.
So does being poor make it easy to be holy? Well not necessarily. Many of us will know of people for whom poverty has lead to being ground down by worries and being so focussed on physical survival that there is no time for anything else and certainly no time for God.
On the other hand, when we have all that we need and more it is easy to become complacent and to forget about God.
So, perhaps Jesus is inviting us into a kind of holy discontent? As long as we live in this world we can never be entirely satisfied because for all the good gifts that it offers it is spoilt by injustice and can only be a foretaste of the heavenly banquet which is to come.
And it isn’t difficult to know something of that dissatisfaction. We all have areas of our lives which feel out of balance. We all feel pain, whether physical, emotional or spiritual. Pain is hard to endure and there is a danger that instead of a holy discontent which leads us towards God we fall into an unholy discontent. This might lead us to avoid difficult things in ways which are not useful or healthy, perhaps through some form of addiction.
We live in a society which encourages us to want more and more. Even if money is tight, there are promises of no hassle credit, low repayments and no deposit as soon as you turn on the TV or open a magazine. Discontent is a part of what keeps the wheels of business turning.
In that context, there is also a danger that we fail to notice the blessings that we have received because the world we live in encourages us to focus on what we haven’t got.
In contrast to the world’s emphasis on having more as the root to happiness, Jesus turns conventional ideas of what it means to be happy upside down. He doesn’t think that being poor is a virtue in itself but as long as injustice reigns in this world, it is only by turning conventional values upside down that God’s kingdom can truly come.
Jesus also has four woes or warnings in this passage. These are difficult words. Do we really need to give away all we have, fast all the time and stop laughing?
Well, elsewhere in Luke’s gospel, Jesus has plenty to say about the stewardship of resources and how those who are blessed with good things can use them to the benefit of others. But these words do act as a shock to make us stop and think about the dangers of becoming complacent.
It is right not to be content with the world as it is and to strive to change it. That is a part of our task as Christians. In each of the small things that we do for each other, for our friends and our neighbours, we are helping to bring the kingdom of God to birth. God’s call on our lives is, above all, a call into love.
The promises of God are so immense that they can seem distant from our daily lives. Part of the reason that we celebrate festivals such as All Saints, is to remind ourselves of those promises. The collect prayer for today reminds us of the great joy that God has prepared for those who love him.
All Saints is a day when the church celebrates the memory of those who have gone before us. It’s also the day when we remember that we are part of a bigger church, one which does not just have an earthly reality but which exists in heaven too.
I know that in my life I will always feel an element of discontent. It’s simply part of living in a world which is beautiful but also broken. My prayer today is that we might be able to enjoy the blessings that God gives us as a foretaste of the kingdom that is to come and that we might also share those blessings with others. As we receive Christ in bread and wine, so we are sent out to love and serve the Lord, full of joy in the name of our risen and living Lord and able, in our own small way, to become a part of his risen life.
Amen
(Note: Previous sermons by Revd Jan Kearton, Revd Tessa Stephens and Reader Peter Kane are held in the 'Archives' folder - accessible from the Main Menu or CLICK HERE)