Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen!
Happiness and good times! That’s what we’re all after, isn’t it? Let’s make life as happy as humanly possible. Sure, there are some people who want to be grumpy and like being miserable all the time. But by and large, I’d reckon that most people would pursue happiness above all things. The issue with “happiness” is that it’s a different thing for everyone. Think about introverts and extroverts. They tend to marry each other which makes for interesting times! The extrovert is charged up and happy to be in a big crowd of people, visiting and talking and surrounded by lots of fun and exciting stuff! The introvert would rather chew tinfoil whilst listening to fingernails on a chalkboard! The extrovert happiness is anything but happiness to the introvert. Let’s stay home and read a book quietly or watch a movie on the couch by ourselves. Maybe have some cinnamon toast and hot chocolate! That’s enough excitement for one day! You get the drift. My idea of happiness and yours might be totally different. Then there’s all the destructive stuff that people confuse with happiness like drugs and alcohol and addictions of various kinds, consumerism and buying stuff, all of which we think will make us happy but it’s a fleeting feeling.
We quickly come to learn in life that there’s never enough stuff or people or whatever to make us happy for very long. The pot of gold at the end of the happiness rainbow isn’t a box of cheap chocolates, it’s a bunch of expensive credit card statements, and they’re probably overdue! You look back at your high school trophies or appreciation awards and you’re reminded of how great you used to be. You move from one relationship to the next like a butterfly to a blossom but the happiness remains on hiatus. People even try this with religion. Go to a lively church with the jumpin’ and the clappin’ where they’re upright, downright, in-right, outright happy all the time! But what if your tambourine has a hole in it?? Can you praise the Lord when you’re not happy and life has knocked the stuffin’ out of you?
When I think about the majority of Lutheran pastors I know, I don’t consider them happy people! The majority of them are grumpy. They seek to live out the T-shirt that says “Never trust a happy theologian!” When you study Martin Luther, you certainly don’t discover a grinning Joel Osteen type person. Instead, you find a guy vexed in conscience over his sins. Bowel and gut problems. He’s cursing the devil in anger and throwing pots of ink. He’s nearly having a mental break down after watching what the princes did to put down the peasant’s revolt at his endorsement!
Likewise for St. Paul. When you read his letters, there is this dissonance about them. An odd mixture of happiness passages like “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Phil 4:4) and then also ones like our reading from 2 Corinthians this morning: “a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. … I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (12:7,10). He often speaks about the fretting and anxiety that he has for the churches, hoping they stay with the truth of the Gospel that he delivered to them. Then there are his frequent beat downs and imprisonments and the clashes with the false teachers on top of all this.
Now, lest we think that St. Paul was all doom and gloom and a wet blanket, we see the light shining in a dark place. All of this kind of suffering and unhappiness is truly transfigured by Christ Jesus. The Lord of life, Who was crucified for the life of the world, is risen. And His resurrection brings an exciting promise that stands the test of time. If you aren’t happy now, you will be. And this happiness doesn’t come from chasing after feelings, or people or possessions. Rather, it’s just the opposite. This happiness pursues you. The happiness and blessedness of the Kingdom of God comes to you like a shepherd chasing after the sheep.
We see it in our Gospel reading today. Our Lord Jesus is doing all kinds of Messiah type stuff. He’s preaching to all the flatlanders on the plain. He’s healing the sick. He’s casting out demons. Capacity crowds are flocking around to cash in on the healing power that is radiating from Him. I guarantee there were myriads of happy people that day! People received healing and freedom from spiritual oppression, possibly after a long time of illness and vexation, just from simply touching this Jesus of Nazareth! And our Lord could have used this as a grand opportunity to preach a prosperity Gospel. “God wants you to be happy, healthy, wealthy and ridiculously good looking! Here’s how to name it and claim in only 4 easy steps!” The music ramps up and the spotlight shifts over to Bobby McFerrin as “Don’t worry be happy” is sung a cappella as the hymn of the day!
Of course, He doesn’t do this. Instead, His divine gaze fixes on His disciples as He says: “Happy (blessed) are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Happy are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Happy are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Happy are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!” (12:20-22). It sounds familiar because it’s much the same content as our Lord’s BC Sermon on the Mount. This one is better though because it’s the Saskatchewan Sermon on the Plain … and it’s much cheaper!
And this sermon kind of seems like a bit of a scam at first glance. How can you be happy if you’re poor, starving, sad and hated!?! Well it’s because the true blessedness and happiness for the Christian isn’t found in earthly conditions or circumstances. Rather, our happiness comes from trust in Jesus as the Messiah. He has come to work in, with and under the good, the bad and the ugly of this world. Faith sees that the shepherd seeks us, to give us this heavenly happiness that surpasses all understanding. Jesus isn’t some kind of amulet that magically takes away all suffering, pain and sorrow if you stand on one leg and face north on the first full moon after Ground Hog day. Instead we see that He Himself is the way through all of these things. He shows us this blessedness and happiness is all the worldly struggles with a great big cross embossed over top of all of them.
You may be poor right now, but in Christ you own a Kingdom. You may be hungry now, but happy are those who see the Saviour Who multiplied bread and fish in the desert is the same One Who gives His own body and blood for the fullness of life in food and drink. You may be sad and mournful now, but they will be turned into eternal joy and gladness because the tomb is empty and life has conquered the grave. You might be hated now for your trust in Jesus. The people may mock you and make fun of you. They might believe you’re an irrelevant relic of a bygone set of ideas that no longer apply to life and society in the current year! Regardless, our Lord’s promise is clear.
Blessed are you - poor, hungry, weeping, despised, and or persecuted disciples! You look just like your Messiah Jesus Who was rich but became poor, so that out of His poverty we might become rich in the kingdom of God. He was hungry, fasting for forty days in the wilderness, so that out of His emptiness we might be fed with the Bread of Life and live forever. He wept, a man of sorrows and affliction, familiar with suffering. He wept over the hardness of heart people routinely have, so that by His tears you might have eternal joy. He was hated, despised, beaten, rejected by the religious and the powerful and crucified on an old rugged cross for the life of the world. And that poor, hungry, weeping, despised Man on the cross is your acceptance, your justification before God, your righteousness and your salvation.
Conversely though there is the “woe.” Woe to the disciples who are rich and well fed and laughing, livin’ large with all of life’s creature comforts! They all look good on the surface. Hollywood. Money. Fortune. Bright and shiny. But none of these things can save you. Woe to all the popular prophets with their fleeting and fickle fame! That popularity will fizzle out quick, fast and in a hurry. Jeremiah warns us sternly about where all this leads: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord” (17:5). All these thing in life we usually equate with bringing us happiness can quickly become idols and false gods that lead us astray. Jeremiah says this is like a shrub trying to grow in an alkali desert! Not even our stalwart Saskatchewan rhubarb could live through that! Opposite this is the blessed and happy goal for us as God’s people: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit” (17:7-8). Now that’s happiness worth pursuing! But the best part of all is you don’t have to pursue it. For Christ Jesus has pursued you and you already possess it in Him. Happy are you, blessed are you, in Christ our Lord. In His Name, Amen!
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