For the last couple weeks I've used an analogy for a condition called vertigo. For those who missed it, vertigo is a condition which Pilot's of airplanes sometimes find themselves in.
Vertigo is a life-threatening condition that alters a pilots' perception of reality. It was vertigo that most likely lead to the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in July of 1999 when his single engine plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard.
Vertigo messes with ones sense of gravity. And while in the dark in the state of vertigo, the pilot cannot tell up from down, left from right. Even while they are flying dangerously, with the nose of the plane pointed down and the wings tilted drastically, this misperception of reality will leave them feeling like they are right-side-up and flying level.
They even ignore the flight instruments which scream out the really real, that they are in peril.
Reality is not always as it seems.
When Jesus began his ministry, his message was exactly that. There is more going on than meets the eye. You are flying up-side-down, he said to us. And then he pointed to the reality that he lives in: He said, the Kingdom of the Heavens is an alternative reality (the really real) for you - one in which you would no longer be flying up-side-down. and it's open to all.
Turn, he said, and put your weight on this good news.
And last week we took a look at Jesus' introduction to this reality - we looked at life in Heaven on earth.
He explained what it would look like if the Kingdom of God broke into someone's life. The description is found in the first 8 statements of his famous Sermon on the Mount - these statements are called the Beatitudes.
Read Matt. 5:3-10.
As I said last week, these characteristics are not natural human characteristics. We could strive to live as described here but that would be like hitting a nickel on a fence post a mile away. Jesus knew we couldn't and he wasn't saying we should try.
Rather, he was describing the result of our encounter with him. We get in trouble and become legalistic when we try to live this way on our own.
When we encounter Jesus and trust the good news of the Kingdom as one of our options, our lives are transformed from up-side-down to right side up.
And we are no longer experiencing spiritual vertigo - we see things as they really are.
When this transformation takes place, Jesus says to us, Blessed are you, which has nothing to do with how we feel, but means, "congratulations on your condition" or "you lucky bum" or "you are now right-side-up".
Today, we're gonna look at the second Beatitude of Jesus: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
This is a confusing statement to say the least. Why would God congratulate us as mourners? Do we want to be congratulated for this? Is this the life we can look forward to in his kingdom? What about laughter and joy?
Last July, before moving back here from Vancouver, my family and I, along with my friend and his family were walking in downtown Vancouver, on Robson Street. The sidewalk on Robson is one of Canada's busiest sidewalks as this street is lined with shops, restaurants and clubs. On this hot afternoon in July it was no exception.
It was impossible to stay together since the sidewalk was packed 6 people wide with a dozen right in front of you and a dozen behind. My friend and I were pushing strollers and the ladies were behind us - each with a child.
Engrossed in a conversation about sports - I'm sure, my friend and I walked past a volatile situation without noticing. My wife, keen observer she is, did notice. She was walking with our baby girl Ella riding in a baby-back-pack on her back when she noticed this situation ahead of her.
There was a man, 6 feet tall, shirtless and standing at the edge of the sidewalk intensely but quietly cursing people as they walked past him. He was clearly unstable. Alyson, fearing for Ella on her back quickly shifted away from him as she approached, ensuring that there was a man between her and this guy.
Just as she was passing him, the volatile guy jumped forward and mercilessly beat the man between him and Alyson. All the while I'm far ahead debating whether or not Ichiro Suzuki is gonna bat 400 this year.
Then I hear my name being called in a way that, as a husband and father, you don't want your name being called. By the time I got back there Alyson and Ella were fine and the volatile guy was no longer beating the innocent guy. The innocent guy looked bad but he was gonna be ok.
The volatile guy resumed his place at the edge of the sidewalk while pretty much everyone else resumed life walking down the sidewalk. Alyson and our friends went on ahead while I spoke with the guy who got beat up - he and his girlfriend called the police and waited in a storefront for them to arrive.
I stood in the storefront 10' from the volatile guy to see if he was gonna unleash on someone else. Turns out, there was also a fellow standing beside me doing the same thing and this guy was at least 6'6" and 300lbs. You wouldn't believe how tough I can be when I have a guy that size standing beside me. We agreed that we needed to stick around and keep an eye on him. Ok, I agreed that he should keep an eye on him while I played the part. The volatile guy turned it up a notch taking his t-shirt from his back pocket and wrapping it around his neck, turning his face red while he shouted out obscenities at me and anyone else who'd listen.
This would have been fairly intimidating for me if my new giant friend weren't standing beside me. But wait, my new giant friend wasn't standing beside me anymore. For some reason, while I was staring down volatile guy, he joined the rest of the world in walking away from this situation. Just after that, a police cruiser pulled up across the street. The officer knew who the culprit was - didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes on this one - and approached him from behind. Since he was still pulling his intimidation move choking himself, she slammed one of the handcuffs onto his right hand.
From here on in, things happened in slow motion. Volatile guy ripped his hand free of her grip and began beating the officer with the handcuffs.
In that brief, slow-motion moment, I noticed two things: 1) no one was doing a thing to stop him and; 2) my feet were quickly moving me toward him. In a moment I had him in what my friend later called the Hammer-lock (some friend, he was watching from across the street with a starbucks in his hand). I was able to hold him in the Hammer-lock until several other officers arrived on the scene.
It hit me with force just after that how wrong it was that hundreds of people walked past that situation on that sidewalk - that I had to push through several people in order to get there - everyone was going the other way. It hit me with force that something was wrong. Things were up-side-down. There were signals everywhere but no one seemed to notice.
Something is wrong.
8000 to 10,000 children are killed or disabled by land mines every year. The World Health Organization says there are nearly 14,000 new cases of AIDS each day. 700,000 of these new cases are children. 70% of the world's HIV cases live in Sub-Saharan Africa yet we rarely hear about this crisis in our news these days.
Not that the news is encouraging: victims are being victimized everyday; abuse is rampant in our families; racism is far from dead. Something is wrong.
Even in the church. a study demonstrated that if all the churches in North America received a tithe (that is 10% of an income) from their parishioners that every church in North American would have its budget met and all AIDS programs in Africa would be covered and all the hungry in the world could be fed - and that's just from North American churches. Something is wrong.
Life is supposed to be getting more manageable and simpler with our excellence in science and technology. And we are going up and to the right in these areas - it's amazing the things people have thought up. But just as these things are steeply climbing up and to the right, others are as well: Depression is off the scale and stress sends an unprecedented number of people to the hospital each day. Something is wrong.
"Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted." What does it mean to mourn?
In short, it means that we notice that something is wrong and it stirs us up inside. Things are not right-side-up and we're not ok with that.
Before we look closer at that, let's clear up what it doesn't mean.
It doesn't mean moping. To mourn isn't to have a long face and a sullen demeanor. It doesn't have anything to do with self-pity.
Secondly, it doesn't mean being joy-less. My wife said this: "The opposite of mourning is not happiness, its apathy." In fact, real joy is a partner to real grief. Without grief (knowing what's wrong) there is no real joy (knowing what's good and right). We won't know the great joy of living right-side-up until we see things as they are and know and grieve the up-side-down.
Thirdly, while it doesn't exclude mourning the loss of a loved one, that kind of grief does not seem to be Jesus' main point.
Last week we concluded what it is to be poor in spirit - to be spiritually bankrupt and know it. Given that context, we can see how grieving that bankruptcy is the next step.
It is one thing to know that we are bankrupt, it is another thing to be sorry for it and do something with it. And, going back a step further to the first message of this series, mourning most likely includes mourning the way things could be in our world
- that Jesus has pointed out life in the Kingdom of God with healthy relationships and healing and restoration but we mostly see the world in terms of broken relationships, hurt and destruction.
We mourn because we have seen what could be.
I had laser surgery on my eyes a few years ago. After that kind of procedure, you are given drops that enlarge your pupils and keep them that way for a while. And then, because you are then vulnerable to light without being able to shrink your pupils, you are given sunglasses to keep out all harmful light. These sunglasses they gave me were huge - they covered half my head. My wife said I look liked a pathetic version of the terminator when I got home. My son was a toddler at the time and had never seen me wearing such a look so I reassured him by lifting them a little so he could see my eyes. It was sunny day that day but I had never seen sunshine as bright as that. After getting those drops, anything bright was overwhelmingly bright.
All of the Beatitudes are a result of encountering Jesus and the Kingdom he came to announce. And once we encounter Jesus, anything dark is overwhelmingly dark.
We see what it is to live right-side-up and we mourn that which is up-side-down - in ourselves and in the world.
Darrell Johnson says that mourning is passionate grief that leads to corresponding action.
Nikolas Walterstorf says the mourners are aching visionaries. They see what is against what could be.
Martin Luther King Jr was a mourner - he was an aching visionary. He saw the way things were against the way they should be. Listen to part of his famous speech..
I can't help but think that Martin Luther often heard Jesus saying, "Congratulations, you are right-side-up. keep going."
When the Kingdom of God breaks in, people experience passionate grief over their sin and the state of the world. Congratulations to those who mourn, they are no longer up-side-down - they see things as they really are. and aren't ok with it.
Jesus said the mourners will be comforted. What does this comfort look like? What comfort did Martin Luther King receive? What comfort do we receive when everyone else is going the other way?
Honestly, I don't have a great answer for this. My answer is part faith and part experience. My answer is not scientific. And it wouldn't get me an A on a paper I'm sure.
The word comfort has to do with being exhorted, encouraged, emboldened. The latin words for comfort are com / forte and they mean "with" and "strength".
When we receive divine comfort, we have God with us. We have God with us and we have divine strength.
Many mourners grieving the loss of a loved one can testify to a strange strength they receive. I'm sure Martin Luther King Jr. would testify to this in the face of the opposition he encountered - how else did he display such strength?
There is a future aspect to this comfort as well. As we mourn our sin, we see the future through the cross - that Jesus ultimately dealt with our sin and eventually it will be no more. As we mourn the state of our world we look again through the cross and see that God's kingdom is invading our world and will one day stand unrivaled.
The poor in spirit are those who know they have nothing to bring to the table - they are bankrupt and know it. And they've seen the futility of human effort.
Those who mourn are those who are bothered by that condition and no longer trust human systems for a better way. The mourners are willing to respond in action. Divine comfort gives them the strength they need to respond.
In closing, here's a story from Brennan Manning of how a man's bankruptcy grieved him and drove him to action:
On a sweltering summer night in New Orleans, sixteen recovering alcoholics and drug addicts gather for their weekly AA meeting. Although several members attend other meetings during the week, this is their home group. They have been meeting on Tuesday nights for several years and know each other well. Some talk to each other daily on the telephone, others socialize outside the meetings. The personal investment in one another's sobriety is sizable. Nobody fools anybody else. Everyone is there because he or she made a slobbering mess of his or her life and is trying to put the pieces back together. Each meeting is marked by levity and seriousness. Some members are wealthy, others middle class or poor. Some smoke, others don't. Most drink coffee. Some have graduate degrees, others have not finished high school. For one small hour the high and mighty descend and the lowly rise. The result is fellowship.
The meeting opened with the Serenity Prayer followed
by a moment of silence. The prologue to Alcoholics Anonymous was read from the Big Book by Harry followed by the twelve steps of the program from Michelle. That night, Jack was the appointed leader. "The theme I would like to talk about tonight is gratitude," he began, "but if anyone wants to talk about something else, let's hear it."
Immediately, Phil's hand shot up. "As you all know, last week I went up to Pennsylvania to visit family and missed the meeting. You also know I have been sober for seven years. Last Monday I got drunk and stayed drunk for five days."
The only sound in the room was the drip of Mr. Coffee in the corner.
"You all know the buzz word H.A.L.T., in this program," he continued. "Don't let yourself get hungry, angry, lonely, or tired or you will be very vulnerable for the first drink. The last three got to me. I unplugged the jug and."
Phil's voice choked and he lowered his head. I glanced around the table - moist eyes, tears of compassion, soft sobbing the only sound in the room. (One by one we spoke up.)
"The same thing happened to me, Phil, but I stayed drunk for a year."
"Thank God you're back."
"Boy, that took a lot of guts."
"I'm so proud of you."
"Hell, I never made even close to seven years."
As the meeting ended, Phil stood up. He felt a hand on his shoulder, another on his face. Then kisses on his eyes, forehead, neck, and cheek. "You old ragamuffin," said Denise. "Let's go. I'm treating you to a banana split at Tastee-Freeze."
If Phil had been listening closely, he'd have heard Jesus saying, "Congratulations on your passionate grief, take this comfort."
Phil's condition was one of being poor in spirit when he got drunk. Mourning or grief would have been his condition when he acted and went to AA and confessed in search of help.
Something's wrong. Do you know it? Do you know it about yourself? Do you see how up-side-down the world is? Are you unsettled about this? Are you unwilling to sit on your hands? You lucky bum - yours is the kingdom of heaven.
In a moment we are going to invite you to come up and participate in communion. All are welcome but don't feel pressure to. This is a moment to remember what Jesus did to give us the option of living right-side-up. This is a moment to give thanks. This is a moment to grieve. This is a moment to anticipate the outcome of his work, to have great hope and joy.
As we go into communion today, take a few moments in your seat, or at the alter and acknowledge your condition. that something is wrong. Take a moment to see the world as it really is. that something's wrong. Let those realities sink in and then listen closely to hear Jesus say this to you:
"Congratulations - you lucky bum - yours is the kingdom - receive my comfort, my strength - you are not alone, I am with you. And you are no longer up-side-down." |
