Set Apart to Wear Plaid Pants
Experience tells us that Jesus’ sales pitch is a lie
by Mike Baughman
Gospel Reading: Matthew 5:1-12
For Sunday, January 30, 2011: Year A – Epiphany 4
“I’ve been really blessed, so I’m glad that I can provide good cars for everyone in my family.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard statements like these from gas-guzzling SUV drivers in the churches I’ve served. My favorite was the Hummer with the “Free Tibet” bumper sticker. You have a Hummer! No one is going to seriously believe that you have a social conscious.
Really Blessed?
There’s also this one: “I’ve been really blessed with good health, so I still get out and play a lot of golf.” I hear these statements from “strong Christians” and then I read the lectionary text for this week. I find it hard to imagine Jesus, standing atop Mt. Beatitude, saying “blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you. Oh, and BTW, blessed are those who are healthy for they shall wear silly pants whilst whacking their balls across the grass.” I get the impression that Jesus uses the word “blessed” a little differently from the average American Christian.
Yes, Master . . .
As a Master, Reverend, Master (yes, that’s two Masters degrees), I pulled upon my extensive knowledge, resources and library to discover the true meaning of the word “blessed.” That’s right, I logged onto dictionary.com. While the third definition does allow for the way that most Americans interpret the word “blessed” (“divinely or supremely favored; fortunate”), the first definition seems to be much more in line with what Jesus was talking about. It uses words like “consecrated; sacred; holy.”
A blessing from God is more about being used by God than it is about getting cool stuff. Abraham was blessed with descendants—yeah they’re cool to have but God planned on using them. David asked for his soul to be blessed—not because his soul would look better with some God bling, but because David wanted it to be used by God…consecrated, holy, sanctified.
Do You Really Want It?
It’s not hard to imagine someone who is merciful to be set apart for God’s work. It’s not hard to imagine someone who truly “hungers and thirsts for righteousness” to be more a citizen of the Kingdom of God than a citizen of the kingdoms of the world. The text challenges us to ask ourselves, “do I want to be blessed?”
This isn’t just a question for the golfers out there…it’s a question for pastors too. Are we willing to be persecuted for righteousness’s sake? Are we willing to be merciful to the lady in our congregation who snoops around our lives to find things that will make people upset? Are we willing to be meek when we’re the ones with the seminary education who have been called by God to lead a congregation?
Sales Pitch?
My guess is that far too often we don’t want to be blessed as Jesus defines it, but I don’t think it’s for the obvious reason. I don’t think it’s the persecution that scares us away. I think we hesitate to embrace being blessed because the hardest question we have for the text haunts us: “why does Jesus lie?” Jesus offers this simple formula − be like this and this other nifty God thing will happen.
I’m not that old, but I’ve been around enough to see the merciful get trampled, the mourners commit suicide, the pure in heart walk away from God, and people who hunger and thirst for righteousness sometimes die of hunger and thirst. Yes, sometimes karma works and the merciful receive mercy, but that’s only sometimes. Our experience tells us that Jesus’s sales pitch is a lie.
The Hardest Question
And so I ask again: Why does Jesus lie?
The Rev. Mike Baughman is a United Methodist pastor, pastor’s husband, blogger, writer, dad, fencing coach and Duke Basketball fan. He serves as Associate Pastor for Young Adults at Custer Road United Methodist Church in Plano, TX. He wishes he was an avid golfer so that he’d come across as a bit more self-critical in this THQ. He has plenty of frivolous hobbies that don’t require him to wear funny pants or spikey shoes. His blog can be found at www.ireverant.wordpress.com and can be followed on Twitter @ireverant. [THQEditorial Note: Check out Mike's funny pants at http://www.facebook.com/thehardestquestion. We couldn't resist.]
Jesus didn’t lie. I read this commentary yesterday, so had time to chew on my response. The sermon on the mount is special for me in that it is my foundation for leadership. Not Tom Peters, not Lee Iacoca, not Bill Gates, but Jesus. The beautitudes allow us to strip down to our naked souls and receive those blessings not because we want them, but because they are revealed to us.
Most Christian Clergy I know leading a church today either have sold out or never understood in the first place. You by the way Mike are in the minority. Case in point, in one of your sermons you told the congregation they didn’t need a building on the 17 acres, they could all go out and be many churches on their own.
I’ve been humble and poor in spirit over the last 2 years through life changes and witness. That journey didn’t start with striving to follow a Bible verse, but because God placed me in positions to grow. Don’t think it was a lie what Jesus revealed.
Doug
January 25th, 2011 at 12:26 pmThanks for getting the conversation started, Doug!
I totally agree with everything that you’re saying. Yes, there are tons of examples of people (like you…and I really do mean that) who live out the beatitudes by pursuing a life that reflects these characteristics lifted up by Jesus. And, yes, a lot of the times those who do so receive these positive things listed by Jesus (mercy, the earth…whatever that means).
I think what I wrestle with is how universal Jesus makes it sound. That’s why I feel like it’s sales pitchy (can I say “sales pitchy? I suppose it is American Idol season). it isn’t “usually the merciful receive mercy” or “my father in heaven wants the merciful to receive mercy” or “those who hunger and thirst for righteouseness will sometimes find satisfaction.” Jesus flat out says that “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied.” But I know a kid who was mistreated because he was gay and, as a result, commited suicide. It feels like the beatitudes didn’t apply to him. What gives?
Mike
January 25th, 2011 at 9:03 pmBeatitudes, blessed are the poor, love it I’m poor
January 26th, 2011 at 10:03 amBlessed are te cheese makers, what’s special about them? Lol lighten up people! Jesus died and rose again for us, be thankfull, be happy Jesus loves you!
I love this website. Please keep asking these questions. I haven’t flailed around this much in a long time.
Mike, I think I understand what you mean. You’re saying that if we apply basic common-sense-experience we will quickly observe that the Beatitudes don’t produce the stated effect of blessedness. Instead, they usually (though not always) yield various pains in our ***.
Well, if that’s what you mean, you really struck a nerve with me. The first thing that came to mind when I read your post was my “career” as a pastor. I’ve been at it for a while, if you include seminary and all the training and candidacy time. I can tell you I have sought many blessings. Unfortunately, all of them are blessings from people or institutions rather than Jesus. “Poor in Spirit?” No way. I’ve been on a quest to answer all my ordination questions, be visible to all the right people, and jump through all the ordination hoops in the most visible, egocentric way possible. “Mourn?” Well, I mourn only when I see other colleagues get bigger churches and better paying salaries (and more benefits) than me. “Meek?” And on I could go.
Something happened not too long ago that changed all that. I can’t really explain it other than to say I sought out a church and ministry situation that no one in their right mind wanted. You know, out in the middle of nowhere, a congregation focused on customs rather than being an engaged church, working for a salary that is about three times less than some of my colleagues.
All of this just sort of happened. There’s not a golf course around anywhere (though I never played golf in the first place). There’s no rotary club or other groups that pastors usually get involved in. The community, if you want to call it that, has been declining for a long, long time. My colleagues and “supervisors” don’t really line up to check on the status of the church and how things are going.
More unsettling than all of this, I don’t really have any evidence that my reluctant change of heart has yielded the formulaic blessings that you reference from the text. If anything, I struggle with a lot of resentment and wonder whether I’ve lost my mind. But…also what has happened is a certain edginess that I didn’t have before. Now, I really don’t care what happens to my “career.” I don’t care what the church folk think if I don’t play “resident chaplain” and instead spend my free time hanging around various so-called “lost causes.” I’m ready, should the opportunity present itself, to leave everything behind and do it all again somewhere else. And I have every expectation that I’ll be met with hostility, misunderstanding, resentment, and perhaps a bit of loathing thrown in for good measure.
Jesus didn’t lie. I woke up and realized I lied to myself (and bought a lot of other lies that Jesus didn’t tell).
I realize I didn’t exactly offer up an answer to an implied question, which I think goes something like, “If Jesus didn’t lie, where is the evidence that your so-called change of heart has yielded the promised blessings?” My answer: I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m trying desperately to break myself of the habit of looking for evidence of blessings. Why do we need evidence in the first place? Isn’t the cross enough?
So I guess this means I’ll be encouraging the fledgling congregation I serve to consider the same thing.
Well, back to my flailing. Cheers.
January 26th, 2011 at 11:17 amThe best I can make of it is that Jesus somehow had formed an understanding, which I agree with, that God’s heart goes out in the most powerful way to those who are mourning, persecuted, pure in spirit etc… Jesus is hoping that someone, like the kid you know, hears that through all the noise that is telling him the exact opposite thing. We’re called to do the same thing, but I agree, it doesn’t always get through. Hell, sometimes it doesn’t even get through to us and we’re the one’s trying to deliever the message.
Related to nothing: When I was a kid my grandfather bought a condo in the town where we were living to get close to family. Until that move he had never lived anywhere but the south side of Chicago. The condo complex had a beautiful course running through the middle of it. He invited me to meet him at the clubhouse for 18 holes. When I got there he was wearing blue/black plaid Bermuda shorts, black dress socks and black golf shoes. Between the shorts and the dress socks were four inches of the whitest skin you’ve ever seen in your life. We shared the round with a Johnny Miller look alike and my grandfather beat the pants off him. So sometimes plaid pants can be authentic! “Blessed are the fasion blind for kingdom of heaven.”
January 26th, 2011 at 11:19 amOOops. “Blessed are the fasion blind for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
January 26th, 2011 at 3:57 pmTerry: Go, Pack, Go! Blessed are they that play football the way it was meant to be played–in the snow–for they will taste victory and drink deeply from the cup.
Amigo: Great stuff! Your vulnerability and honesty about the game that so many of us play is refreshing. We need more of it. I served as a transition pastor for a church in crisis once that nobody wanted. It was one of the best experiences of my life. Now I serve at a mega church with a $4 million dollar budget. Honestly, there are many times that I long for the small broken down country church because, man, did they know Jesus. They were certifiably crazy, but they knew Jesus.
I think that as you minister there, a lot of JEsus’ blessings will become apparent. It’s so freeing to have the freedom to be the kind of pastor you are called to. I hope you find joy!
Steve: I get that and totally agree. I just wonder sometimes if our common Christian answer “we receive those blessings in heaven” or “God’s heart aches for them even if they don’t know it” sounds like a cop-out to the unchurched / dechurched. I wonder if it sounds like a cop out to churchy people. Is it a cop out or is it a good enough answer?
Thanks for continued conversation, all!
January 26th, 2011 at 11:40 pmHere’s something else I’ve been wrestling with.
Like most other places right now, I serve a lot of anxious folks. They’ve been hit by the economic issues and are feeling the pinch. They get understandably defensive when someone brings up “sacrifice” or “give more” and so forth. While the text addresses sacrificial living, serving and being in the name of Jesus (wholly different than living, serving and being in the name of career, income, etc.), it’s still a tough message. And yes, Mike, I hear your struggles especially with people (gays, migrant workers, etc. etc.) that have already been served up a lot of crap already.
Perhaps church history provides some guidance. As bad as things are and as “persecuted” as people are in this age, it’s a theme that’s always been around. Accounts of the martyrs in the face of Roman amusement are among countless examples. An unsettling message I hear in this text is, “Yes, you will suffer even if you’ve lost your 401K, your job, your house, even if you’ve been beat up because you’re gay, or a migrant worker. Expect more of it if you’ve given yourself over to Jesus. Your blessings aren’t on the cheap.” And I also hear the same theme I seem to be living out: “Quit looking for evidence that you are blessed. Take it on faith that you are.”
I’m not at all comfortable with that message. But I can’t ignore that at least these are implications of this text and must be proclaimed. What does everyone else think?
January 27th, 2011 at 10:01 amBlessed are those who mourn. Well I’ve been there. After losing three babies in 5 years (miscarriage, still born, twin: at 4 months, crib death), then my husband, an alcoholic with 12 years of sobriety, relapsed and I learned the meaning of going from bad to worse. The next 5 years were more heartbreaking than the previous ones. Was I blessed? Absolutely. I learned the meaning of God’s strength being exercised in my weakness. I experienced the profound truth of the Spirit praying for me when I could not pray for myself. Have my hardships been transformed so that I may now be a blessing to others? I hope so. Those “lies” that Jesus tells? Perhaps it is our vision that makes them untrue. And indeed, reading the Beatitudes the temptation to ask God to bless someone else is strong. But the promise that God will be there come what may is stronger yet again.
January 27th, 2011 at 11:33 amMarianne: What a powerful testimony. Thank you. I hope and pray things are going better for you.
January 27th, 2011 at 4:40 pmAmigo:
“your blessings aren’t on the cheap” and “Quit looking for evidence that you are blessed. Take it on faith that you are” I like that. The first line could totally preach. I like the second, but I think in the sermon the question might need ot be asked, where do we find faith in blessedness if it isn’t in evidence. Is it in our story? is it in the nature of our calling that we step out without evidence?
Marianne: “perhaps its our vision of them that makes them untrue.” cool perspective (though I’m sorry for the pain it took to gain it). I need to chew on that one for a while. Thank you.
January 28th, 2011 at 5:20 pmThanks for this, Mike and all others who have posted. And thanks, Mike, for posting the link on your facebook. Otherwise, I never would have found this site and these ponderings/reflections.
I always have found the Beatitudes difficult to stomach, as I do many segments of the Bible. However, I do think that it is largely a matter of perspective. Surely, Jesus’ own life is an example that he couldn’t have been speaking solely literally, as I don’t think we would consider many of the events he endured as “blessed.”
In my work as a therapist with foster and adoptive families, I have been humbled and amazed at the various perspectives offered by children and youth, many of whom have been unspeakably abused and/or neglected. More than one of these children or youth have reached a point in their lives in which they end up telling me, in so many words, that foster care was the best thing that ever happened to them, or even that, had they not been mistreated, they wouldn’t be the people they are today. I’ll admit that I still struggle with this point of view, but who am I to judge their experiences? And while I will never allow myself to become complacent in accepting abuse or neglect in all its forms, I can no longer deny that there are those individuals who amazingly are able to make even those experiences into formative and positive ones.
I’m not quite sure how all of this relates, but those were the thoughts that came to mind as I read this post and the comments. Perhaps if we’re adopting the attitudes and behaviors that Jesus advocates in the Beatitudes in order to become blessed, then we will never reap the rewards because our hearts are not truly pure and our motives are mixed.
I wish I could speak to this more from first-hand experience, but I’m not there yet…
February 9th, 2011 at 7:52 pm