11052022 – Luke 6. 20-31
Do you SPIT?
I know, it’s a VERY STRANGE WAY to start out “an All Saints Weekend sermon.”
(But I have an inquiring mind.)
Hopefully, prayerfully, you would never spit on or at another human being…
I mean like NEVER…
Hello!
Every once in a while, you hear a report about someone “spitting at POLICE.”
I don’t know about you, but…ejecting SALIVA forcibly from one’s mouth, sometimes as a gesture of CONTEMPT or of ANGER – just seems pretty disgusting…to me.
Why would a person do that?
Why would you SPIT AT or ON another human being, EVER?
All Saints’ Sunday invites each of us to recognize and to affirm “our COMMON BOND” and “our UNION” with “ALL Christians” of “ALL places and times.”
We simply are ONE with all of them. Spitters included.
We are talking WOMEN and MEN, RICH and POOR, ALL ETHNICITIES, and RACES, joined together as one BODY, not because of WHO WE ARE, or WHAT WE HAVE, or WHAT WE HAVE DONE, but because Jesus called us HOLY and BLESSED and has set us APART to be witnesses of God’s GRACE, GLORY, and GOODNESS in our lives.
Poor old doc LUKE (if that indeed was his name) has the MISFORTUNE of writing the “LESS FAMOUS” version of the Beatitudes.
The gospel we call MATTHEW has always been “the MOST POPULAR version” – hands down. It just seems so more polished, less awkward.
While MATTHEW mentions eight beatitudes, LUKE comes up with half that many.
Another difference is the audience: MATTHEW makes us understand that Jesus is speaking to both the disciples and a larger crowd.
LUKE is way MORE DIRECT and WAY MORE PERSONAL.
Matthew speaks of blessings, Luke speaks of happiness and woes.
Matthew is on a mountain top and Luke is on a plain…bringing Jesus down to the level of every day folks, like us.
Jesus looks UP at his disciples, because in those days, you SAT DOWN TO TEACH and his students would all be standing and gathered around him.
Jesus is NOT SAYING that poverty and hunger, weeping, and being hated, are GOOD THINGS, or things, that we should LONG for…or strive for…
It is more of a REMINDER – that hunger and poverty, weeping, and hatred, are sometimes UNAVOIDABLE, but no matter what happens to us in this life, God is STILL present in our midst.
WHATEVER STATE you find yourself in, (except maybe for Illinois) God IS WITH YOU! (You are not alone!) Just kidding Illinois!
It was with interest that I ran across the Greek word for “poor.” It is PTOCHOI. It means “poor people.” But more than that, it means those who are “spit upon.”
It is from the root word Ptochoi that we get the English cartoon sound, “ptooey!”
There are MANY that the world – our world still SPITS upon…and regularly!
Then, I found out that Greek word (ptuo) also shows up in a superstitious practice of SPITTING to ward off “evil spirits and/or evil outcomes…”
It also shows up in a old HEBRAIC practice, whenever a Jewish person from Eastern Europe, heard about MISFORTUNE befalling someone, they would automatically spit three times, to protect their CHILDREN, to protect their WORLD from danger, and from THE EVIL that may stalk US.
Ptooey! You have to love words…and their hidden meanings…and their histories…and nuances…
So according to the third gospel to be written, the poor includes the “hungry,” the “sorrowful,” and the “hated”…those who are actually SPIT upon…
Nice, right?
Whereas the rich are “full,” “laughing,” and “honored,” and ARE NOT SPIT UPON.
THEY would be “the powerful ones.”
And then, the good TEACHER talks about loving even our ENEMIES…by doing good, blessing, and even praying for them.
Just so you know, all of the teachings of Jesus can be found somewhere in the prophets—with one exception: LOVE FOR ENEMIES. This was NEW and UNIQUE, something completely different.
And then, Jesus concludes with a SUBVERSION of the “accepted social practice” in the ancient world.
Don’t get even. Don’t strike back. Do not do harm. Doing to OTHERS, as YOU yourself, would like to be treated, whether friend or enemy, is another radical re-interpretation of the common social practice. So, what about the saints?
They have seen it all. They have been through it all. They have heard it all. And they are the ones who are attempting to do better. They are the forgiven ones…
They may not always get it right, but they are in their trying…
Their heads are held high…
And at the end say,
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have LONGED for his appearing.”
Those would be the saints…spit on or not…and the surprising endnote is: the saints most likely includes those “former spitters,” as well.
Amen.