Who Wants the Meek Award?

Kate Thoresen March 7, 2010

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Luke 5:1-11

As we journey through Lent, we continue to explore the teachings of Jesus in the Beatitudes. This week let us listen to the Word of God as it comes from Matthew 5:5-6.

Gospel Lesson

⁵ "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. ⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

This is the Gospel of our Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.

Prayer: God of grace, thank you for revealing yourself through Jesus Christ and through your Word. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us understand and apply your message to us this day. Amen.

Who Wants the Meek Award?

If someone described you as meek, would you be flattered, or a bit offended? In this world of competition, who doesn't want to go for certain awards? These often signal a certain value and worth, a certain standing in the eyes of others.

I remember in high school we voted for the person whom we thought was the most intelligent, the most athletic, the most attractive, the friendliest, and the most likely to succeed. No one that I can think of would have wanted to be voted the meekest.

Today our English word meek suggests an idea of spinelessness, subservience, mean-spiritedness. It paints picture of a submissive and ineffective creature. Yet Jesus declared that this is a characteristic of meaningful, fruitful living.

As I pondered this apparent clash I kept asking myself, "Are there any examples of people I've known that have this characteristic? Maybe from their example I might get some clues on the more positive, life-giving meaning of this teaching of Jesus."

And memories began to dance of my friend, Sandra Edwards. Sandra was called to serve Grandale Church of the Master in northwest Detroit. She was the first African American clergywoman called to a city church in our presbytery. This had been a large congregation at one time, but the neighborhood had changed. The now meager congregation hung-on by a wing and a prayer. They now needed a social worker and a pastor. Sandra fit the bill. The facility itself was huge with a sanctuary that had paint peeling and a gymnasium that hosted local basketball teams.

Sandra's vision of what God wanted for the people in the neighborhood was bigger still. One day she and the handful of people on the church's session voted to host one of Wayne County's shelters for the homeless. They committed their facility for a week. That included providing overnight accommodations, breakfast, sack lunches, transportation for their guests to their drop off points as well as dinners. All for a week.

"How in the world will this handful of people accomplish all this?" people, including myself, asked.

Somehow word got out throughout the neighborhood and the presbytery. By the time the week arrived, the police chaplains came by and made the lunches for the 80 guests each day. A Roman Catholic Church down the street made two breakfasts. Even the motorcycle club across the street, the Soul Stars, provided a turkey dinner. Volunteers throughout the presbytery spent the night.

After this exhausting, yet exhilarating week, I marveled to Sandra, "Sandra, how in the world did you do this? This was amazing! All these people needing help, and all these people coming forward. How did you do it?"

Sandra grinned and simply said, "O Katie, don't you know? Only God could do something like this."

Only God could do something like this? Of course! How often I've been guilty of what Parker Palmer calls "functional atheism." That means I think a program or a sermon or a problem to be solved all depends on me. How many times do we as a church lapse into a kind of functional atheism in which we offer our prayers before meetings as nice bookends before we get to the "real business" we think we need to handle? At times people will lament to me, "Where is God in all this? Where is God while we're so busy doing God's business? Are we missing something here?"

Sandra exemplified living with a much larger picture than just herself and her own accomplishments. She put God in the center and did not seek center stage herself. Maybe that is what meekness is about: keeping God on center stage and living with a dependence upon God.

When my husband Tom and I were talking over breakfast last Monday, I mentioned that I was struggling with this sermon about being meek. I said that Sandra Edwards came as an example.

Tom raised his eyebrows, saying, "Sandra was pretty feisty, too."

And she sure was feisty on behalf of others. She also exemplified a person who was so hungry and thirsty for righteousness: for poor people to be fed, for the homeless to know warm, safe shelter. Sandra refused to get bogged down by our usual standard operating procedures.

I then discovered that the Greek word for meek includes this sense of active battle for the good. William Barclay in his treasured commentaries claimed that the Greek word for meek is "praus." In Greek it is a great ethical word: the mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness. So Barclay translates this beatitude in part as, "Blessed is the one who is always angry at the right time, and never angry at the wrong time." He explains that selfish anger is sin; selfless anger is one of the great moral dynamics of the world. So we find great energy in meekness, especially as it seeks that righteousness for peace and justice. Barclay also translated "praus" as a "God-controlled" life. (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, Revised Edition, volume 1, Westminster Press, 96-97).

So many other people also come to mind now. I believe that we are surrounded by those who embody this kind of energetically seeking to be a conduit of God's blessings to others. A common characteristic is a quality of being conscious of God rather than just living for self.

Just this past Friday there was an article in The Upper Room that also showed this attitude. Here is what the author said:

My father's death changed my attitude about my life and how I depend on God. Before this, I had often worked by my plan. Now, each day, I pray for help to do God's work, rather than live by my own plan. Now I see that I am not the boss of my life. But God, who is my boss, is always faithful and always good. (From Pavel Serdyukov of Moscow, Russia, The Upper Room, March 5, 2010)

Finally, we look to Jesus as "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 11.37-12.7). Through him we also get a glimpse of the power of true meekness. He put God and the kingdom of God first. He urged us to repent from our self-centered ways and turn to God-centered ways. He surrendered his own agendas and his own life to God. He showed complete trust in God, even when it meant suffering and pain and loss of life. His love of God and obedience to God's will opened the doors for all of us to grow in healthy, life-living relationships with God.

Paul caught this God-centered perspective when he described the meekness of Jesus:

"Jesus Christ, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."( Philippians 2:5-8)

At the same time Jesus exhibited a strong backbone of steel in his hunger for right relationships with God. In his hunger and driving force for righteousness, he stood firmly. He spoke with authority to the powers that be. He was not intimidated by evil forces or spirits, but drove them out. In his righteous indignation, he cleansed the Temple of people exploiting God's house. In his humility he cleansed the feet of his disciples. In Jesus we see that meekness is not spineless but stands firmly to serve others.

So as I worked on this sermon, or, as it worked on me, it taught me several things about being meek. Meek is not the same as weak. Rather, it means putting God and God's realm first and foremost. It means living in awe with wonder of God at work. It is being attentive and grateful for those times when we sense, "Only God could do something like that."

It means becoming "liberated from ourselves, and getting ourselves out of the way."(Richard Rohr). And only God can do something like this. Much as we would like, we cannot transform ourselves.

It's at the foot of the Cross that we find that kind of transformation. Here we find our ground of being. Here we stand equal, not in our accomplishments, but in our desperate need for God. Here we nail our own prideful, ego-driven ways to the Cross. Here, standing on the humus of the earth, we find our humility. Here we nail our grudges and past wounds. Here we confess the ways that we have also wounded others and brought about suffering. Here we realize that we deserve no awards. No one will ever get a meek award here.

But here we also find God's amazing power at work. This power of the Cross puts to death all that separates us from God and others. Here we also find transformation of our sins into salvation. Our grudges dissolve into new attitudes of gratitude. We see a bigger picture. Our false selves are transformed into our true selves as God's beloved sons and daughters. Our miniscule self- centeredness becomes freed up into God-centeredness.

Here we find our ultimate rewards at the foot of Christ's cross and later at his empty tomb. We realize once again that God has already provided the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ.

Even though the immediate circumstances may seem dismal and we are hitting rock bottom, we find the Rock of Ages is there to see us through. Even though our hearts may be numbed by fear or anxiety, we can humbly stand at the foot of the Cross and ask for God's help. Even when we may find ourselves at the end of the rope, we can still look up at this Cross and receive God's lifeline.

And with that hope and promise, we can go forward in faith. During our journey through Lent let us remember how blessed are the meek who reach out to live into God's blessings. How blessed are those who are doing something for right relationships with God and others.

Truly, only God can do something like that!

Thanks be to God in whom we live and move and have our being. Amen.

Amen

[1] Eugenia Gamble, Christ Calls, We Respond from Presbyterianleader.com February, 2010

©Kate Thoresen 2010