Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
The Rev. Candice B. Frazer
Our stewardship campaign this year is dedicated to Mary—Tell Out My Soul—and the Magnificat. Many of us know this song of Mary and the beautiful message of humility and grace it proclaims: a rejoicing spirit, favor upon the lowly, all generations calling her blessed, the Mighty One doing great things, and the God’s mercy shown to those who reverence him.
But after these beautiful words of praise, the Magnificat takes a turn. It shifts to a more challenging understanding of Jesus’ mission—one that inverts the world’s values. The Messiah that Mary will bear will scatter the proud, bring down the powerful from their thrones, lift up the lowly, fill the hungry, and send the rich away empty. These are radical words from the lips of a young, unwed mother-to-be.
It shouldn’t surprise us then, that in one of Jesus’ first public sermons, he echoes his mother’s song in his own radical words. We read a portion of that sermon this morning in the blessings and woes—the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor…the hungry,,,the sorrowful… and the hated. Woe to the rich..the full..the happy…and the well thought of. Like Mary’s song, Jesus’ Beatitudes invert what the world prizes. It is almost as if God is trying to tell us something.
Yet these blessings and woes are not the end of the story. After listing them, Jesus turns to instruction: love your enemies, do good, bless, pray, be humble, give freely, and live by the Golden Rule. The message is not that wealth or happiness are bad in themselves; rather, we must not let them become our final measure of worth. We are not condemned for having been blessed with more—more money, education, influence, or comfort. These become “woes” only when we use them for self-affirming gain, when they define us or inflate our egos.
Jesus invites us to a different understanding: that everything we have is gift—given to us by God. When we recognize that truth, we understand that our lives are grounded in grace. Yes, we have worked hard, but along the way God has opened doors and made paths for us in particular ways. That grace becomes even more abundant when we share it with others.
Loving one’s enemies is no small task. And yet love is the foundation of our identity as Christians. We love as God loves us—even to the point of giving his only Son for our salvation. When we do good to those who hate us, we free ourselves from their judgment and condemnation. When we bless those who curse us, they lose their power over us. When we pray for those who harm us, we embrace our shared humanity—acknowledging that, just like us, they long to be free from suffering and to know peace. When we turn the other cheek, we choose nonviolence over the world’s aggression and anger. When others take from us, we respond not with resentment but with generosity. Jesus calls us to live as we wish others would live toward us—always, regardless of circumstance. That is radical.
This way of life can seem impractical and even a little foolish. And maybe it is. Choosing to follow Jesus often looks a little crazy by the world’s standards. But perhaps Jesus’ teaching is not simply an impossible code of conduct—it is an invitation to examine our attachments and connections to one another.
The inversion of blessings and woes, followed by the call to love, suggests that life in God’s kingdom looks very different from life as we know it. The things we cling to most tightly—status, possessions, ego—are precisely what keep us from the liberating love of Jesus Christ. Following Christ means decentering the ego and re-centering on God. When we do that, we begin to see the world through a new lens.
Years ago, on a mission trip to Trinidad, I was riding in a van with a group of teenagers. As we left the airport, we drove through an economically depressed area. The houses were patched together from old pieces of corrugated tin and scrap wood. There was no electricity or running water. I overheard one teenager say to another, “You know, these houses don’t look that different from the ones in East Selma.” (East Selma is home to the poorest of those who live in Selma, Alabama.) His friend agreed and I noticed a change begin in the way they viewed those who live on the margins of society.
When we returned home, those two boys led the other teens in conversations about poverty in Selma and how they could help. They organized canned food drives, packed boxes at the Food Pantry, and volunteered to clean yards for the elderly. Most noticeably, their language changed. They no longer spoke about “the poor” as some distant “other.” They began to see their neighbors simply as fellow human beings—people who deserved care and compassion.I wonder if that isn’t the heart of Jesus’ message: to help us see and treat one another as fellow human beings, regardless of differences or circumstances.
Now more than ever, we have opportunities to live that truth. As the government shutdown continues, more and more people are affected. As of this weekend, SNAP benefits have ended, leaving roughly 15% of Alabama’s population—one in seven households—uncertain how they will buy groceries this month. Many agencies devoted to feeding the hungry have seen reductions in federal funding, making it even
harder for them to provide daily meals. Those affected face impossible choices—do they eat or pay their bills or buy their medicines or meet any of a number of other basic needs.
November ushers in a season of thanksgiving. Many of us will gather around tables on the fourth Thursday of the month to share a meal and give thanks. Though Thanksgiving is not a Christian feast, we sanctify it with prayer and gratitude. At Ascension, we do this through our annual Interfaith service with First United Methodist Church and Temple Beth Or. Together we will pray the Collect for Thanksgiving:
Almighty and gracious Father, we give thee thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we beseech thee, faithful stewards of thy grace and beauty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
In the spirit of that prayer, and in the light of this Feast of All Saints, I hope we turn our attention—as our ancestors did—to the relief of those in need. Our feeding ministries—Beans and Rice, Food Boxes, Angel Food and dinners for New Beginnings—have all been affected by rising costs. We continue to serve those in need and have seen an increase in the numbers of those who come to us for food. Our response in these times must be one of love, humility, and generosity. We will continue to meet the rising demands placed on our food ministries and we need your help to do so.
Your pledges and giving each year supports these ministries. Eating breakfast on Sunday mornings and dinner on Wednesday nights helps cover the costs of the meals for our New Beginnings students and their tutors. Participating in our in-gathering drives throughout the year makes a tangible difference. The crazy thing is that not only does it help those who have less than we, it matters to our own spiritual formation and health. It transforms us. Generosity shapes who we are and how we live in the kingdom of God. When we give from love, we receive in ways far deeper than we can imagine. In giving, we receive—especially when that giving is rooted in love.
Amen.