Take all that you have and be poor

 

Luke 6: 17-26
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
February 16, 2025

Photo of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland. In front is a sculpture of a homeless Jesus wrapped from head to toe in a blanket, lying on a bench. This 7-foot bronze sculpture by Canadian Tim Schmaltz was a gift to the city of Dublin in 2015 by an anonymous Episcopalian from North America, who also donated sculptures to 11 other European cities, including Vatican City in Rome.

The sermon title comes from the 1973 poem “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” by Wendell Berry. I’ve quoted from it many times over the years, especially my favorite phrase, “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”



Among other things, Wendell Berry is a corn, small grains, and sheep farmer in Henry County, Kentucky. Much of his wisdom, his activism, and his writing is informed and inspired by his relationship with the natural world around him. It is the land and her creatures that are at the root of his values rather than profit margins or material convenience. Investment returns look more like planting sequoias that we will never live to see or the two inches of dead leaves that rot and mold and feed earthworms.



And so the imagery in this poem appears to be topsy-turvy, much like the kin-dom of God that Jesus talks about so much.



“Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

“So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.”



In truth, what Berry and Jesus are trying to do is not turn the world upside down but to turn it right side up. It is human beings who have turned the natural order of this world on its head, by taking more than we give back, by living the lie that we are separate from each other and from the earth.



Even so, we may think it heartless for Jesus to say to those who have nothing, who are hungry, who are weeping, those who are hated that they are blessed, or in another translation, that they should be happy for theirs is the kin-dom of God. It goes against our traditional western American Christian values that God’s favor is for those who are excluded (“all lives matter”) or that suffering of any kind is a state of blessedness. Imagine receiving a sympathy card that reads “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”



And yet ask any recovering addict or person who has landed in the basement of their pain and they will tell you that is precisely where they found God or their power or their self-love. Remember too that the gospel of Luke was written after the destruction of the temple, mostly to gentile Christians, people of the Way, who aligned themselves and formed community with their Jewish counterparts. Luke’s audience were outcasts, people who had lost everything because they dared to live not according to the rules of empire but to the ways of God’s kin-dom. The promise of being filled and the joy of laughter would be good news indeed.



Similarly, Jesus denounces those who have wealth and security, laughter and status now because they’ve already got their blessing and thus think they have no need of God or liberation or love. People can read the Bible from beginning to end and still be on the woe side of Jesus’ sermon. Luke’s gospel condemns wealth more than any other book in the Christian scriptures. According to Luke, Jesus gets this from his mother. Before Jesus is born Mary sings of her hopes in which the mighty are cast down and the lowly are lifted up. The hungry are filled with good things and the rich are sent away empty.



Yet every day in our society we witness that the poor suffer the unjust consequences of being poor: food deserts, lack of healthcare, unequal education. When do the rich suffer the just consequences of being rich? This quote from Middle Collegiate Church in New York City still haunts me: “The most fundamental lie is that we can thrive while our neighbor suffers.” Another word for that is exploitation.



In Jesus’ time, the poor were not a permanent economic class but poor as a result of unfortunate circumstances like illness, debt, death of a loved one, or the occupation of a foreign power. Likewise, the rich were not just wealthy but greedy, those who achieved their status through unscrupulous means by cheating and exploiting others.



In an effort to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act our government has put forth a budget resolution that calls for $2 trillion in spending cuts. While not stating it outright, there is the strong likelihood that Medicaid and food stamps will be devastated by this proposal. Aid programs and livelihoods are being dismantled, meanwhile Tesla had been awarded a $400 million government contract now abandoned because of public outcry. Taking even more from those who are suffering and need help and giving it to those who have more than enough. Who are the real freeloaders.



The fate of the rich and the poor are connected. The rich are rich by making others poor because of cheap labor and outpriced education. Capitalism has become a classist fascism and it doesn't matter who's president or which party is dominant, the poor are always with us and no one has really done anything to lift that up or to change that. When the rich dictate the lives of the working class, that is a classist fascism.  Likewise, when the poor are liberated, so too are the rich liberated from the shackles of wealth and the sin of self-interest.



What makes Christian community and others like it revolutionary is when we join our fate to that of the oppressed. When we become like Jesus, take all that we have and be poor. Black liberation theologian James Cone wrote, “The Christian community, therefore, is that community that freely becomes oppressed, because they know that Jesus himself has defined humanity’s liberation in the context of what happens to the little ones.” And we have more in common with those who are marginalized because of unfortunate circumstances than we do with the rich.



This church has a history of living poor so that others may have life, having gone without a building for more than a decade in its early years. We’re researching, gathering information, and contemplating living temporarily without a building again so that others can have affordable housing. Our church life is literally shaped by our giving shelter to two non-profits whose work is vital to this community.



How else can we take all that we have and be poor? On February 28th we can refrain from purchasing anything we might need for 24 hours. We could also add up what we might have spent and consider donating that amount to Friendship House or the Food Bank of Delaware. We can reduce our household spending, buy second-hand, reuse and repair what we have, and if we have surplus, spend it on others who cannot pay us back.



These are frightening times. More people will suffer from injustice. So much is beyond our control, beyond our ability to help. I want to leave us with some reassurance but not false hope. What does give me hope is that we continue to be faithful to our mission of social justice for the most vulnerable in our communities and name them as not only worthy of dignity and respect but also in need of liberation.



The question is, are we willing to be blessed, to be liberated from our attachment to what we have in the process? In the words of Fr. Thomas Keating, “We are not our own; we belong to everyone else.” THIS is the good news. Amen.

Benediction

So, friends, this is the resistance,
the fast that we choose.
Every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
Practice resurrection.

Amen.