“Long-haired preachers come out every night,

Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;

But when asked how 'bout something to eat

They will answer with voices so sweet:

You will eat, by and by,

In that glorious land above the sky;

Work and pray, live on hay,

You'll get pie in the sky when you die.”1

Joe Hill, Swedish immigrant, labor activist and agitator, coined the phrase “pie in the sky” in this song called The Preacher and the Slave” in 1911.2  A factory worker since the age of 9 in a rope factory in Sweden, Hill came to the US at the age of 15 where he worked wherever he could.  Hill was pretty much a wandering hobo, and wrote songs about the full range of experiences of any migrant worker.  Those experiences were true struggles within a system not yet developed and pretty much lacking in anything resembling fairness.  The struggles of the working class have been the source of many a folk music tradition.

As the Church made its way through the US at the turn of the century, Jesus' messages were spread through the streets to reach those who struggled.  While it is true that the Church is a great and life giving institution at its best, the failures and power struggles because of the Church have been fodder for many wars.  It is the lived experience of some of these failures that leads people to write song lyrics like “You will eat by and by, in that glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay, you'll get pie in the sky when you die.”  

Misrepresentations of scripture, or selecting just a piece of a longer scripture story directly leads to this type of failure from the Church.  It is not wrong to say that Scripture says, “…surely your reward will be great in heaven.”  But it is wrong to say that what Scripture means is that those who suffer will get their reward in heaven instead of while they are on earth.   It is wrong to say that Scripture means “Lucky you, you are suffering.  Best you stay that way!”  For example, Scripture also says “There is no God.” Psalm 14:1 does say that.  But what the psalm says in full is, “The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'.” (Psalms 14:1 and 53:1).  If you don't get the whole text you don't get the whole story, and therein lies the harm.

“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. “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.”

During his travels with his disciples, Jesus often went off to pray.  One time, after praying Jesus came down from the mountain and was with his disciples, and many others who had been following him in order to be healed, and to learn from him, and many others from many regions.  At the start of this Sermon on the Plain (Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew), these are Jesus' first words to everyone there.

“Blessed are you.”  You who are hungry, who weep, are hated, excluded and reviled – because your fortunes will turn around.  It's a promise, it's a statement of hope.  You will be filled, you will laugh.  Those in the crowd who are looking to Jesus to heal them would have been uplifted by these words.  In Luke, who is always for the downtrodden, always speaking about overturning power structures, whose birth of Jesus story has shepherds greeting the babe, not kings – Luke offers Jesus' words first to those who are underneath.  Under the view of society; under the weight of poverty; under the feet of others.  Those who are so often neglected, because if you are poor and hungry and despised just getting by day by day is a leap of faith, a place from which one can only rely on God.

“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.”  Jesus knows about prophets who do the work of God and suffer.  Not just Jesus, but his ancestors, and the ancestors of those in the crowd.  Ancestors who had prophets like Jeremiah, Amos, Micah and Isaiah, whose lives were told and retold throughout their holy books.  The hearers knew what Jesus was talking about.

In Matthew's gospel, the beatitudes include nine blessings and no woe's.  Here in Luke though, we get both sides of humanity.  One commentator suggested that maybe Jesus raised his head to speak to the larger crowd when he then said, “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”  In the first chapter of Luke, Mary's Magnificat told us the same thing.  What is high will be made low and what is low will be raised up.  If you are well fed, are laughing, and all the world loves you, take a lesson from your ancestors and remember – things that looked and felt so good didn't last.  

Maybe Jesus lifted his head again and spoke to everyone, not just the disciples, not just the religious authorities, not just the broken and lost, but to everyone there when he spoke more generally, “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 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.”

When's the last time we did any of these things?  As written this last more general section of Jesus' words, I would have to decide how much was being asked of me, and I'd have to decide which part was relevant.  Love your enemies: “What do you mean by love?  Do I have to be near them or care about them?  Do good to those who hate you:  Umm.  Bless those who curse you:  “I'm not around a lot of blessing or cursing.”  Pray for those who abuse you. “Sorry, nope. Well, not until and unless there's been lots of healing.”  But the last sentence, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Well, there's nothing irrelevant or ambiguous about that.  

From one's own perspective, I think we all do an appropriate amount of wrestling with this last command and mostly come out okay.  But when we don't succeed, what is it that has gone wrong?  Why do we sometimes do to others, nothing like we would have them do to us?  Here are a few reasons, as well as those reasons that you can come up with for yourselves.

·     I was wronged and I'm angry.  I don't care about doing the right thing.  I'm tired.  Why do I have to be the one to do the right thing.  People have to take care of themselves.

·     I have had life struggles that lead me to protect myself at all costs and that sometimes hurts people.  I'm not aware of my impact on those around me.  It takes too much energy to figure it out.

·     I am so used to my life this way that I can't imagine that I need to do anything differently.

·     This is the way people treat me, so isn't that what this command says?  Do to others as they do to me?

·     I'm so angry all the time and don't have any restraint.

Well meaning people fit into all of these explanations and more.  We are all broken and beautiful.  We are all full of woe and blessed.  We are people in progress, followers of Christ who have not yet arrived.  We can't imagine the life that is in front of us.  As we put one foot in front of the other, we know what we have to reach for.  

Today we will celebrate our ancestors, the saints that have gone before us.  These are people we loved, people we miss for who they were, how they loved us, the joy they brought, how they were an example to others by the decisions they made, the struggles they survived, the changes they went through and the ways in which they grew.  

The world has always been beautiful and difficult.  Today is a good time to ask our ancestors what they did when their world seemed difficult.  63% of Americans, according to a recent poll, are worried about increased politically motivated violence in the days surrounding the election this week.3  Our world feels difficult right now.  Most of think we have reached our peak worry and stress levels, and then something even worse happens.  

The trick is to not fall into the trap. The downward spiral is not a foregone conclusion.  Remember, those who are hungry will be filled.  Remember, those who are weeping will laugh.  Most people are overwhelmed right now – the best lesson we can get from this scripture, and from the examples from our ancestors, is that the world is going to be turned on its head and those who seek to destroy will not prevail.  Remember too, that we are going to be someone else's ancestors some day.  What will they look to us and remember?  That we provided a place for a frightened world to land solid.  That the Church welcomed them and provided a place of rest in the midst of a chaotic world.  That the Church worked for justice and opportunity and love.  That the Church provided a source of love and courage.  That the Church was a place where we helped Christ stop the direction of hate, stop the inertia of violence that threatens to swallow us whole.  That the Church was made up of people who lived their lives as if they had just shared a meal given to the whole world.  That the Church gave Joe Hill a run for his money.

Amen.

_____________________________

1 Taken from commentary by Laura S. Sugg in Feasting on the Word Commentary, Year C, Vol. 4, p.238, who originally notes the lines from: Joe Hill, “The Preacher and the Slave,” Songs to Fan the Flame of Discontent: The Little Red Songbook (Columbia, SC: Harbinger Publications, 1995), 39.

2 Joe Hill (October 7, 1879 – November 19, 1915), born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund and also known as Joseph Hillström, was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, familiarly called the "Wobblies")

3 A Wide Majority of Americans are Concerned About Politically Motivated Violence