IN LUKE 6, we read that “Jesus looked up at his disciples and said:
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh […]”
A variant on what we call the Sermon on the Mount (in Luke, this passage takes place on a plain), Luke tells his readers, and us, that those who are othered, the poor, the hungry, those who weep, that all evil outcomes, in time, will be reversed, turned over and fixed in the best sense of all: restored. This passage serves as one of the readings for All Saints’ Day, which my parish celebrated on Nov. 6.
The reversal of fortune is the expectation not only of Christianity but of Judaism as well. If anything, it is even stronger in the Hebrew Scriptures: the poor won’t be poor always, they will be rich; the hungry fed; those who weep will laugh. God be praised, all wrongs will be righted by the action of God. (I assume that this expectation exists in Islam as well since we all worship the same God, though in different ways.)
I believe and wait and work for the restoration of the marginalized with all my heart, but it’s important to note that this expectation is not without cost. Just the opposite.
While God will do this, God’s hands are our hands, God’s heart is our hearts, God’s actions, our actions.
Those of us in the Judeo-Christian tradition are called to do more than just go to church or synagogue, but to go into the world not for salvation, but because of God’s love for us, a love which flows into and is the source of our love and action for others. If we step back, if we choose not to act in the world, then God will still act, not just to redeem humanity in the next life (though, in Christian belief, that too), but also on God’s own, a pattern Christians see in our Gospels.
Story after story in the Christian Gospels boils down to “God sent the Son.” With or without us, God will reshape Creation.
Christ’s coming for those in the Christian tradition is more than just redemption, and goes beyond salvation. It is also to shape us into tools, to repair this world, to seek justice, a theme we share will all the People of the Book, those who read the Scriptures that come out of our various traditions.
We see this emphasis on justice and the reversal of fortune in many places in our Bible. In Luke, it is a central theme.
Mary cries it out in the song we know as the Magnificat: “The poor shall be filled and the rich shall go away empty.”
That cry comes out of Mary’s earthly poverty. It is a cry that God will answer, with or without our help, but God willing, we step up to the task of reshaping our world.
My faith community is currently thinking through the issues — the many, many issues that surround homelessness and the unhoused. All should be safely housed. That part is easy. But how do we do that when NIMBY (“Not in my backyard”) too often rules the day?
It’s important to get our hands messy, to dig into the earth, to raise up new housing.
In the famous phrase from Game of Thrones, “winter is coming.” Yes. It is.
The snow has already begun to fall. We must not wait. It is past time to act.
As Jesus told us at the end of this Sunday’s Gospel reading, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. [… ] Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. The Rev. Dr. Keith Dorwick is a Deacon at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Port Angeles/St. Swithin’s Episcopal Church, Forks.
