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Trinity Episcopal Church Hattiesburg, Mississippi Epiphany 6 February 11, 2006 Go To Trinity's Home Page

Jeremiah 17:5-10
Psalm 1:1-6
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Luke 6:17-26
Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he 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. “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. “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. (Luke 6:17-26)

Spiritual DNA
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop

     In 1859 at the age of 50, a man who had in his youth gone to university to study medicine, theology, and then geology, published a book that would revolutionize the world. That book of course was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, and the author was Charles Darwin. His book put forth the theory that diversity within a given population of a species was what allowed that species to adapt and survive climactic or other environmental changes; given genetic and therefore physical attributes would give some individuals within that population an advantage under stressful conditions, and in time the offspring of that individual would become more numerous in the population having been naturally selected by the environment. Over time the combination of diversity and environmental pressures could ultimately cause a sufficient number of characteristics to evolve a new species.[1]

     Of course, one feature of the theory is just what makes for a different species? How different does one animal have to be from another to be labeled a different creature? While scientists do have criteria for making such distinctions – including the ability of individuals to interbreed – newer technologies are making it more difficult to precisely define what a species really is.

     Dog breeds are examples of individual animals that may look quite different, but in fact are members of the same canine species. And as we all know, all sorts of characteristics are used to distinguish one breed from another. The same is true of cats.

Archie, the 2006 Winner of the Ugliest Dog Competition

     While panels of expert breeders can provide us with the kinds of characteristics that distinguish a Maltese from a Havanese or a Pomeranian from a Pappillon, there is another panel of judges that has come up with a whole new set of criteria to judge dogs. These judges can be found each year at the Sonoma-Marin Fair, which for the past 18 years has sponsored the immensely popular, “Ugliest Dog” competition in Petaluma, California.[2] The winner of this competition is not a new species, but is simply an individual canine with a whole host of unfortunate attributes. In this contest, what is beautiful doesn’t win, and what is ugly takes the $1000 prize and the big trophy.

     Take for example Archie, this past June’s winner from Arizona; Archie is one ugly Chinese Crested dog. [3] Archie was deemed uglier than mohawked chihuahuas, slobbery bulldogs, and the other assorted unsightly critters with malformed snouts and grotesque amounts of folded-up skin that paraded before the panel of judges.

     When Jesus had called twelve of the disciples to become his apostles, Luke tells us that he came down from the mountain with them and began to preach and teach a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And in this teaching as it is described by Luke, Jesus delivers the beatitudes in his famous “Sermon on the Plain.”

     I think that many of us are most familiar with the version of this story we find in Matthew, where Jesus delivers the Sermon from the top of a mountain and tells them that God’s blessings are for all sorts and conditions of people. In that text, Matthew’s Jesus gives nine blessings. He says that God will bless the meek, the poor in spirit, the merciful, those who mourn, the peacemakers, the hungry, those who are pure in heart, those who live righteous lives, and the persecuted. Matthew‘s Jesus gives ten attributes that have godly value. These are a little like the characteristics that define the specie of a kingdom person.

     But when we look at Luke’s version, Jesus gives us four blessings and four woes. They too define what it is to be a kingdom person, but they do so in a very countercultural way. Jesus says woe to those who have too much money, too much to eat, too much laughter, and too much respect from one’s peers. Luke’s Jesus presents the kingdom of God as something that will result from a re-ordering of what our culture tells us is important and valuable. “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the hungry, for they will be filled. Blessed those who weep now, for they will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you on account of the Son of Man.” Because we are a culture of people-pleasing, performance driven, popularity seekers, we don’t see poverty and hunger and sorrow, and hatred as blessed things. Yet Jesus tells us that those are precisely the characteristics to be loved.

     In other words, what most of us would consider ugly, God sees as beautiful. And what we see as valuable and worth seeking, Jesus tells us to give up as undesirable characteristics.

     Our culture convinces us that we should seek comfort as a goal. We are told in advertising and literature that we should have not only our needs met, but all of our desires too. Why? Because we are entitled to these things. We want to be rich, well fed, happy, and always loved by everyone else. And we want to bask in eternal paradise with God to boot.

     While Luke’s Jesus preached at them from a level place, he spoke of an un-level place – an upside down kingdom. Through the mixture of blessings and woes, Jesus gave us a view of our spiritual DNA – the good spiritual genes and the not-so-good spiritual genes that we all carry within our souls. He told us that our environment, our culture, can and does act upon us all the time, shaping us and affecting us like the environment exerted its effects and led to the production of the many species of finches Darwin discovered on the Galapagos Islands during his work on the HMS Beagle.

     But Luke’s presentation of blessings and woes tells us that spiritual development is not like biological development. We are not predestined to be woeful people or kingdom people. We have a choice. We can work to usher in a level kingdom where needs are met by those with met needs. We can truly live into a countercultural love that embraces what is ugly. And when we do this, there is an unexpected benefit. When we move from what is comfortable, familiar, and from where we feel at home to a place that is uncomfortable, we will also come face to face with our own brokenness, our own fears, and our own insecurities. That will also bring us into deeper solidarity with our fellow human beings. And the playing field will become a plane.

     The American dream speaks of 2.2 children, a stable, well-funded bank account, and venito Starbucks latte available on every corner, beautiful wrinkle-free bodies, and living happily ever after. Jesus commends something different. He asks us to live dreams different from that. He asks us to love dogs uglier than that.

     He asks us to evolve; he asks us to evolve into Kingdom people.

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Jeremiah 17:5-10

Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse-- who can understand it? I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Psalm 1:1-6

1 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, *
nor lingered in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the seats of the scornful!

2 Their delight is in the law of the LORD, *
and they meditate on his law day and night.

3 They are like trees planted by streams of water,
bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; *
everything they do shall prosper.

4 It is not so with the wicked; *
they are like chaff which the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, *
nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.

6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, *
but the way of the wicked is doomed.

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ--whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Luke 6:17-26

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he 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. “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. “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.

Collect of the Day

O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

[1] Darwin stated his theory this way in the introduction to The Orgin of Species, “ As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.”
[2]This sermon was inspired and adapted from Timothy F. Merrill. “Dof Ugly!” Homiletics. 19(1):52-54, 2007. .
[3] Pictures of Archie can be found at http://www.sonoma-marinfair.org/uglydogvote.shtml

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Copyright © 2007, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
8 February 2007

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