“Happy are they who are empty of self, because God rules with full power in their lives.”
(this paraphrase as well as several points in the following sermon are attributed to Finding Meaning in the Beatitudes, written by Jack Redhead, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro NC)
This past Thursday evening, I was standing under a pavilion around a broad stone fire pit with Jim and Dana Keith and Jack and Karen Brooks. About 9:30 pm, the pavilion began to shake. My first response was to look around to see if Jim Keith was up to one of his tricks, because I thought someone was pushing on the supports and shaking the terracotta roof. Then suddenly, the earth began to move under my feet. Though I was standing on a concrete floor, my feet felt like I was riding a wave on a surfboard. A subtle roaring could be heard all around us, and doors in the nearby dormitory suddenly sprung open. Those who had been asleep were rocked awake by the unexpected sound and motion.
This strange sensation was one that I had never before experienced. The epicenter of this Central American earthquake, ranked 6.1 on the Richter scale, was less than 150 miles from us, near the Nicaragua/Honduras border.
Though the sensation lasted only 5 or 6 seconds, it was one I will not soon forget.
When the earth moves under your feet, whether literally from an earthquake or figuratively from some significant life event, we remember how dependent we are. We are reminded that we as human beings are fragile creatures.
We are dependent – dependent on the sun to rise another day, dependent upon the storm not to destroy our homes.
We are dependent upon a vast supply network for daily food and clean water and, for most of us, the manner in which we earn our livelihood.
Imagine if that earthquake had been worse or had hit closer to our location. There is only one dirt road into the village of Los Robles. If that road had been destroyed or if the few airport runways in Nicaragua had been damaged,
our lives would have changed dramatically, at least for a while. If the electricity and Internet had been shut down, and transportation cut off, we could have found ourselves on far more common ground with the local villagers than we ever had imagined.
In some ways, our lives are very different from the villagers of Los Robles, Nicaragua. But it would not take a very unusual geologic event, either here or elsewhere, for our lives to change dramatically, for the networks and systems that we take for granted each day to be destroyed or to fail.
When the internet goes down or the power is off for a few hours, our church staff hardly know what to do. We have become dependent upon electricity and computers to do our daily work. We are not self-made nor are we self-sustaining creatures. We rely upon the natural world to be predictable and safe. We rely upon global networks and systems in order to communicate, in order to do our banking, in order to eat and drink and obtain access to health care. With all our modern distractions and conveniences, it is easy to forget how dependent we are, how interconnected we are, how quickly we North Americans, who tend to be full of ego and rich in things,
could quickly become poor and in need of emergency aid.
Over the coming weeks, we will explore Jesus’ gift of the Beatitudes. When he gathered his disciples on the hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee, he spoke truths to them that would stand the test of time. He shared with them and the local villagers a new way of looking at the world. Jesus forever overturned the way we understand human life and how we view other people. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Blessed are the ones who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are you when you are persecuted. Rejoice and be glad”?
The word “blessed” has been translated as “happy”, which is probably not a sufficient translation. In the English language, we tend to associate “happiness” with a temporary state of being based on circumstances. Another way of saying “blessed” is to say “how fortunate are they”, or even better, “open to God’s gracious power” are they. Those who know they are poor in spirit are blessed because they are open to receiving God’s power; they have room in their lives for the Spirit of God to enter.
The poor in spirit are not to be understood as “poor spirited”. They are not helpless nor dejected. They are not those who allow circumstances to get the better of them or who allow others to run over them. They are not easily defeated nor are they cowardly. That is not what Jesus meant by poor in spirit. That is not who Jesus and his disciples were.
“Poor” can be translated here as “humble”, or even “empty”. Those who are humble in spirit know that they have need, know that their spirit is in need of sustenance.
“Spirit” in this context could be translated as “ego”. Ego means self. To be rich in “ego” is to have too much focus on self, to be proud, haughty, conceited, sure of one’s own importance. Someone who is rich in spirit would be considered self-centered, with a selfish outlook on life. To be full of ego could also be those who are overly self-conscious or overly sensitive. The ego can also be full of self-pity, when there is too much importance placed on the self. A person full of ego can begin to think the whole world revolves around what happens to them and how they feel about it. I don’t follow twitter accounts, but it seems that some of those with many followers are full of ego and not at all poor in spirit.
After being in Nicaragua for a week, I cannot think of one person we met in the village of Los Robles who would fit the description of being rich in ego. We spent the last week among humble villagers who make 80 percent of their meager income during the three months of coffee picking season. The rest of the year, they do what they can to get by, to keep food on the table. They cut firewood, care for farm animals, hand wash their neighbors laundry, or bake breads in simple outdoor ovens to sell in the marketplace.
To be poor in spirit means to be humble about one’s own importance. To be poor in spirit means that one is humble about one’s own needs or desires. A person poor in spirit is the one who does not care who gets the credit as long as the common goal is accomplished. The one who is poor in spirit is the one who helps others, who reaches out in concern, who puts the needs of others before their own.
Later in Jesus’ teachings, he contrasts the publican who prays loudly before others versus the poor in spirit one who silently cries for mercy as he confesses his sins. Jesus revealed humility of spirit in the Garden of Gethsemane when he cried out with great passion, “Not my will, O God, but thy will be done.” As Jack Redhead wrote about this beatitude, “The only way to get rid of too much ego is to make room for God.”
Blessed are those who are humble in spirit, who are not full of their own ego, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
In the New Testament, the kingdom of heaven is the same as the kingdom of God. Hebrews were reticent to speak the name of God so they spoke of the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is where God is. Those who dwell in the kingdom of heaven live in harmony with God and with God’s good intentions for the world. In the kingdom of heaven, in the presence of God, we find well-being, joy, shalom.
Melanie and others were leading Bible school for the children of the village this past week. These children have very limited resources and so were very excited to be able to use crayons, which could be considered a luxury. They absolutely loved the simple crafts that Heather Beaubien provided. They were literally overjoyed at dancing the piñata on Thursday. At one point during the week, when Melanie was teaching a young boy to use scissors for the first time, he laughed out loud, excited and pleased with himself and this new revelation. His reaction made Melanie and others nearby smile with joy. Melanie said that she picked her head up, looked around, and everyone within her sight was smiling. Larry Fossett was throwing frisbees with three children. Heather was helping young girls put together a craft. Jack Brooks and Jim Keith were teaching Nicaraguan boys how to throw an American football.
Nicaraguan grandparents were sitting just beyond the group, smiling proudly at their grandchildren. This must be what heaven is like, she said. Everyone, young and old, rich and poor, smiling and laughing and sharing pure joy.
Jack Redhead, a well-known North Carolina preacher, wrote in reference to this Beatitude that “Poverty of spirit is absolutely essential for any kind of happiness…” “With God on the throne, life finds its true center and begins to swing with that grace and rhythm which are free from friction and frustration.” Friction and frustration result from the wrong person being on the throne of our lives, with the wrong person being at the center. When life is so centered on self that there is no room for God, ultimately a person’s joy or pleasure will diminish and true happiness, true blessedness, will never be found.
I do not want to romanticize the poverty of the villagers in Central America. Their conditions are difficult. Their history includes many people from outside taking the profits of their resources. But I do want to recognize that the people we worked alongside this week live in closer harmony with nature and with each other than many in our culture. Nicaragua may be the third poorest country in the western hemisphere, but it is the second safest, behind Canada. Security, well-being, and peacefulness can be found among the rural villages, despite their lack of modern conveniences and the multitude of “stuff” that we take for granted.
Someone once said that people can be divided into two groups – those for whom life is a mirror and those for whom life is a window. Mirror people are full of ego. For the self-centered person, the world is a mirror. Wherever they look, they see themselves. Whenever they talk, they talk about themselves. They are like the person walking down a city street looking at the windows but never seeing what is inside, because they only see themselves in the reflection.
But for the poor, the humble in spirit, the world is a window. The one who is humble in ego looks at the window and sees through to what is on the other side. Whenever they have conversations, they ask about others. Whenever they pray, they listen. There is room in their spirit for receiving from God and from others.
In the Nicaraguan villages, there are very few mirrors, but there are many open windows. As our Toyota microbus would slowly bump its way down the dirt roads, village children would run to smile and wave through open windows and doors. Happy are they who are open to receiving from God and others. Unhappy are they who are full of ego for the kingdom of heaven is not available to them. They have too much selfish concern and anxiety to be present for others. They have so much focus on their belly buttons that they cannot receive grace from God or neighbor.
Last week, Allysen kicked off our series on the beatitudes. She mentioned that this first Beatitude “reminds us that we are fully dependent on God’s grace and we must take this to heart before we can ever go out to be peacemakers or stand up to persecution, lest we think that we can do any of this by our own strength.” Allysen also asserted that we cannot “skip ahead to being peacemakers or find comfort in mourning…if we think we can do this all on our own.”
The good news of the gospel is that we are not all on our own. The truth is that our spirits need the grace that is available in Jesus Christ. When we empty ourselves of our ego and selfish concerns, of self-consciousness or self-pity,
we begin to have access to the gracious power of God. When this power is at work within us, even though we grieve,
even though we seek justice or face persecution, we will know the presence of God’s kingdom. And we will be blessed indeed. “Blessed are they who are empty of self, because God rules with full power in their lives.”
To God be the glory, now and forever. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
June 12, 2016