Y’all…… Like many of you, I’m struggling right now.  I am trying very, VERY hard to not be angry.  To not be afraid.  To not be accusatory.  But it’s not easy.  I know that most of the folks I know are good people.  I have to believe some of them are just way, way misguided.  But still…….  My father was a man of few words, and great wisdom.  When Daddy spoke, we listened.  And learned, which was his entire point.  And here in the past few days, one particular convo with my father has been on repeat in my mind.  Now, I have not the first clue as to what the particular situation was that caused this conversation, or even who Daddy was talking to, but someone had been killed/murdered, and whoever Daddy was talking to wasn’t particularly bothered/concerned about it and had actually made some off-hand comment about it being a good-not-necessarily-bad thing.  And here’s the kicker:  Daddy said, and I will never forget this, he said, “If you support this and agree with it, you are no better than the man who pulled the trigger and did the killin’.  And what do you think Jesus would say about that?”  Boom!  My Daddy knew how to make a point.

And so I can’t help but think about the folks whose votes and politics are supportive of what’s going on in our world today, and the things they’ve said.  From “I like what he says about immigration” to “Christian America belongs to white people.”  And yes, these are things that I have actually had said to me by people who are supposed to know and believe better.  Or at least I thought they knew and believed better than that.  I continue to hope and pray that hearts will be changed and these folks will actually realize how misguided they are.  I pray for their “light bulb moment.”

One of the greatest joys of any teacher is when their kids have a “light bulb moment,” and suddenly the kids understand whatever concept they’ve been struggling with.  You can actually see the change in the kids’ faces when they “get it.”.  It’s an awesome thing!  I had one of those lightbulb moments of my own recently.  For the biggest part of my life, one of the most mysteriously difficult things for me to understand in Jesus’s life was when He wept over Jerusalem.  I mean, intellectually, yeah, ok, but it never really hit me in the feels.  Ya see, Jesus had just ridden into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to the acclaim of the masses.  They had yelled their hosannas and waved their palm branches, and they still didn’t get just who Jesus was and what he represented.  And this bothered him.  So he popped up into the hills, as Jesus was wont to do when he needed a break, and as he looked over Jerusalem, he  foresaw the city’s impending destruction by Rome and mourned the spiritual blindness of the people who rejected him.  He cried.  His tears reflected deep compassion for their refusal to accept the peace and salvation he offered, and he knew that refusal  would lead to severe judgment.  He grieved over their consistent rejection of God’s prophets and, finally, the rejection of the Son of God.  It kinda broke his heart, ya know?

And I just didn’t quite understand.  Couldn’t identify…..until now.  Watching the news, listening to folks talk and say some really, really dreadfully misguided things…..   Well, I get it now. 

Long before Jesus was weeping over Jerusalem, he had kicked off his ministry with, perhaps, the wokest of the woke sermons Jesus ever preached;  The Sermon on the Mount, which brings us to the Gospel Reading appointed for today.  The Beatitudes:

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,

and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him.

He began to teach them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

Jesus called those folks, and is calling us, to be peacemakers, merciful,  honest, meek, and to love one another.  He called those folks, and is calling us, to be righteous, to stand up for what is right and true and good and loving.  Yes, here we are now, more than 2000 years later, still being called and still trying to get his message to the folks who need to hear it, still trying to convince folks that he meant what he said.  Still calling truth to power and believing that the world can be changed if folks just try.  Jimi Hendrix, one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time, William Ewart Gladstone, a 19^th century British Prime Minister, and Sri Chinmoy, the spiritual teacher, are all given credit in one place or another for the quote, “When the Power of Love overcomes the love of power, only then will there be peace on earth.”  Just because it’s kinda cliché doesn’t make it any less true.

Almost 40 years ago, that great musician, Billy Joel, was having a conversation with a friend and they were discussing the dumpster fire that was the world at the time.  He then later wrote the song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”  In it, he lists some of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things that have happened in the past hundred years or so, and the chorus goes like this:  “We didn’t start the fire, but the world’s been burnin’ since the world’s been turnin’.  We didn’t start the fire, No, we didn’t light it, but we tried to fight it.”

And we’re fighting it still.  Jesus has told us how to fight it.  Mercy.  Justice.  Peace.  Righteousness.  Acceptance.  Compassion.  Empathy.  Love.  If we are  truly the Jesus People we claim to be, can we be any less?  If we are to be the example for the rest of the world, can we be any less?  Can we DO any less?  Maybe, just maybe, if we listen to Jesus, and do as he has asked, no, commanded, us to do, we can make a difference.  YOU can make a difference. 

So the question remains, are you gonna be one of those who pulls the trigger, or are you gonna help  put  out that dumpster fire, and replace it with The Light of the World?  Amen.