Imagine you have just learned that your great Uncle Festus has left you an inheritance and you are invited to come to his attorney’s office with the other family members as his last will and testament is read…. And you got there and the attorney starts reading the will and says that there are a few conditions placed upon your inheritance….. Hmmm… what would those be??? Sounds like a good start to a book or movie, right?
It also sounds like this morning’s verse from the Beatitudes…. we shall inherit the earth; what a great thing! We might not have control now, own our own homes and be the masters of our worlds; but we can have the earth as our inheritance! However there are conditions placed on that promise.
Blessed are the meek, the humble, the non-violent, the unassuming, the gentle as they shall have the earth as inheritance.
Once again Jesus has thrown a zinger at us. Most of us would rather be strong than weak and bring our children up to face the world head on with their heads up and, well, not be wimpy, which is what meek sounds like. In our society, we live out the expression that ‘Blest be the proud, for they will grab control of the earth.’ It is what we have witnessed time and time again. Just listen to a list of self-help books that I found on Amazon. ‘Pulling Your Own Strings, Looking Out for Number One, Business Secrets of Attila The Hun, and Winning Through Intimidation’. These are extreme, of course, but they do speak to a culture that perhaps Jesus was fighting in this statement on meekness.
In Jesus’ day, no one possessed land except by violence, oppression, and by holding onto and making the peasants pay a portion of their harvest to the landed gentry. And Jesus turns around and says, no. It’s you, the little ones who are finally going to possess the land. Catholic mystic and theologian, Richard Rohr, reminds us that the view in this beatitude is not new. In verse 11 of Psalm 37 is says that the humble or meek shall have the land for their own. Hebrew scripture teaches that only God possesses the land and in many cultures land ownership is different than what we are accustomed. When Bo and I were hiking in Scotland, we thought it so interesting that people were able to walk on private land and the great hikes of Scotland took you through gates of fields that where sheep grazed but water access to rivers for fishing was denied to the general public. Native Americans understood the freedom of the land. Only God owns the land and we are the stewards of it with a duty and privilege of its care and maintenance.
I imagine God’s humor of our trying to own something which is not to be owned. Imagine claiming a cloud or an ocean wave as yours. God lives without time and space and God must smile at our need for ownership. Who will own our homes, our yards in 50 years? We see ownership in legal terms of which we have a divine right to possess. And God sees the universe in a timeless fashion with our limited time on earth and our drive to own possessions as if we were clutching and owning the air.
Franciscan monks and priests who follow the teaching of St. Francis, follow his model of non-ownership. As novices, they are encouraged to write ‘ad usum sipliem’ (which is Latin meaning: for the simple use of) on all that they have in their rooms. I imagine if we followed this practice, the Lenten discipline of giving away 40 things we have in our closets would be the easiest of practices. And the truth is that we enjoy so many things in life that we do not own and never shall. We enjoy the books, tapes, and community programs at our libraries. We enjoy the Miami skyline, the colors of a sunset, and the art in a museum. And none of these wonderful part of our lives are meant to be owned….
To need to own things… the difficulty of giving things away, is not an indication of what we own… it is actually more of an indication of that those things own us.
I am moderating a search committee for the Associate Presbyter of our Presbytery. This search, which seems to be going on forever, is nearing its completion. In the early stages we were working on the job description and thinking about what the Presbytery needs in order that its churches are vibrant communities of God. As we thought of the dynamic and energetic person we wanted, the description meek never crossed our minds or our lips. And it got me thinking, as we are now down to final candidates that we did indeed end up with people who possess the true characteristics of what strength meekness really is. Meekness is strength under control. A better translation might be, blessed are the gentle and we know that gentle is a strength as it is hard to show love and gentleness when you are dealing with difficult problems and situations.
To be meek means to show a reverence to God. Being meek means that you are not trying to be on your own but that you recognize your dependency on God. Being meek, kind, and gentle means you are programed to show good will toward all people and to be concerned about others and not just yourself. Think of the great people throughout history. They are indeed the people who were committed to the care and service of others. Whether they were the doctors and scientists who brought forth our modernity, the civil servants that fought for equality and freedom, those who were the voice for the voiceless, and those who gave of themselves so that others would have what we believe are human rights and necessities. These people are the meek ones that Jesus talked about. These will have the earth as their inheritance.
Being meek is not easy. It means breaking down our own emotional walls that we have built up and opening up and sharing our emotions with others. It means risking to say I love you to your friends. Being meek means celebrating not just your successes but the success of others. Congratulating your co-worker on their promotion when you did not get that promotion you felt you deserved. It means celebrating your friend making the top-ranking in the graduate class for which everyone was striving.
Being meek means being a part of a community and accepting others as they are, not just the ones that are like you. Being meek means enhancing caregiving by looking at the person next to you and thinking what it is that they may need. Being meek means to expand interpersonal small-group gatherings in a world where it is easy to hide in cyber space or in our multi-media homes. Being meek means experiencing the joy of bringing others into our community called Riviera.
We have been given a huge inheritance. But, alas…. it comes with conditions! Blessed are the meek as they shall inherit the earth. The conditions of our inheritance are simple.
- By Saying we are meek – we accept our relationship with others and our dependence on God and our life as a disciple of Christ.
- By saying we are meek – we affirm that there is a future and not just a future but a future filled with hope!
- By saying we are meek we are proclaiming the love of God which propels us into meaningful service of helping others and making sure that all others know the assurance of God’s unconditional love.
Yes, blessed are the meek, the gentle in spirit, the non-violent, the unassuming, and the humble as they will inherit the earth.
Amen.