“Monkeys, Bananas and Blessings”

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany  – February 3, 2002

Lectionary Texts: Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, Mattthew 5:1-12

 

I’ve got an experiment for you that you might want to try at home. First, you get a bunch of monkeys. Any brand of monkeys will do. Start off with five monkeys. Hang a bunch of bananas on a string and place a stepladder under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the steps and start to climb towards the bananas. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. Soon, another monkey will make an attempt. Immediately you must spray all the other monkeys with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it. 

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey and replace it with a new one, who doesn’t know anything about the cold water spraying. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and the others tackle him. Now the previous newcomer also takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Again, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

            Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he pays for it. And eventually, the monkeys will go after any of their group who attempts to climb the stairs, even though now, none of them really know why. All the original monkeys have been replaced, and none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. They have never seen a monkey sprayed with cold water. Yet no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.  Why not? Because as far as they know, that’s the way it’s always been done around here!

            Now, here’s an interesting thought? What if, we have been living like those monkeys all these years? You knew there has to be a catch to this story, didn’t you? What if, the values and assumptions we live by, the conventional wisdom that we operate with is not the way things really are? And what if, like the monkeys we go on looking at the bananas, looking at the prize, and not doing anything about it, because that’s how we’ve always done it around here?

            You probably hear often that we are living not only in a post-modern society, but a post-Christian society. The signs are all over the place, aren’t they? Here are a couple of true stories: The pastoral team from a church went down to Indianapolis to see a Pacers game. And there under the goal posts was the man with the ubiquitous “John 3:16” sign which he held up every time the ball got towards that goal. The people in the row behind the pastors were trying to figure out what that meant. One thought that it was a sign for John to come to section 3 row 16. Another thought no, it was sign for somebody to meet them at the john in section 3 stall 16!

            Then in the mid 1990s in the Religious Right’s hey day, this conversation was heard at a Washington gathering of politicos and socialites. A younger and naïve politician asked, “So, what is this Born Again, thing.” And the older and wiser one replied, “Oh, that’s just a phrase Jimmy Carter coined when he was President!”

            The signs are all over that we are in a post-Christian society. But you know, many observant Christians are coming to consider these as pre-Christian times. G.K. Chesterton, a noted British author, said a generation ago, “Its not that Christianity has been tried and found hard. It is that Christianity has been found to be too hard and therefore not been tried!

            What if that’s true -- that Christianity has been found to be too hard and therefore not tried? And what if we are not in post-Christian times, but in pre-Christian times? What if we like the monkeys, we are looking at the bananas but unable to claim the prize because we are living with a wrong set of values and assumptions? That brings me to the Sermon on the Mount.  What if you sent in another monkey who would go and tell the five monkeys who are fighting with each other and putting each other down, that they cold water times are over, that they can change their values and assumptions and work together, rather than putting each other down and to go ahead and get the prize. And what if, that monkey tried to make a serious attempt to get to the bananas, and all the other monkeys got so afraid that this would change their cherished way of thinking, and banded themselves together and killed him? Enter Jesus. He gathers some disciples and with a group of followers goes to hillside, and on that picturesque site, sits down to teach.

             A couple of years ago, for a whole fall quarter we focused solely on the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapters 5-7. That was a Knowing Christ segment. In later quarters we had Growing in Christ, Serving Christ and Sharing Christ. We did that because if you want to know Christ, there is no better place to begin than at the Sermon on the Mount  -- this is one place where Jesus’ teachings are most clearly and succinctly written down. And here we are at the beginning of that Sermon. 

Jesus speaks a word of blessing to the crowds who have gathered, and we have to admit – can we be honest here?  -- Jesus is way off base, here. I mean, blessed are the poor in spirit? The meek? Those who mourn? You’ve got to be kidding! We all know what blessing looks like, and Jesus isn’t even close.

            In that landmark theological documentary, Monty Python’s “Life of Brian,” a group is at the fringes of the crowd when Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount. From where they are, it’s a bit difficult to hear. “What did he say?” someone asks. Someone closer to Jesus replies, “He said, ‘Blessed are the cheese makers.’” “So, what makes them so special?” asks the first guy. In the world we live in, “blessed are the cheese makers” makes at least as much sense as “Blessed are the peacemakers,” wouldn’t it? Just try suggesting that there are better alternatives to fighting evil than war, and the monkeys will come after you!

            No, that’s not the way things work. If we were to write a set of beatitudes they might be more along these lines -- a preacher named Stephen Portner came up with these:

Blessed are the rich, for they will always be catered to.

Blessed are those who laugh, for they have a good time at the expense of others.

Blessed are those who are strong, for they are able to fight their way out of difficult situations.

Blessed are those who have it made, for they will never be hungry or thirsty.

Blessed are those who are tough, for they will never let anyone else push them around.

Blessed are those who can shrewd, for they are self-made men and women.

Blessed are those who exact revenge, for they will show others who has the upper hand.

Blessed are those who don’t let themselves get pushed around, for theirs is the prize to claim.

Blessed are you when people revile you and spit your name in anger, for that means that you have stepped on them and ascended the corporate ladder and you are a success. 

This is the way things really are – aren’t they? Aren’t these the truths we hold to be pretty much self-evident?  Aren’t these the values we live by?

            And yet, what if we have been deceived all of this time? What if, Christianity has been found to be hard and never really been tried? What if we have been like those monkeys? What if we are really blind to the truth that is hanging before our eyes like a bunch of bananas?

            Jesus speaks blessing on those that seem to us to be anything but blessed. Notice to whom Jesus is speaking. It is not the cultural elite. It is not the wealthy. It is not the landowners.  It is not the religious and political leaders. Jesus’ message threatened to upset the status quo, and those who had power, wealth and status, were threatened by him. Many of those who were drawn to Jesus were ordinary, poor and struggling people. I mean, let’s face it: Jesus’ disciples were not exactly a Who’s Who list of 1st century Palestine. The crowds who came to hear him included people who knew struggle and heartache. They knew what it was to go hungry and to do without.  And to these people, Jesus speaks amazing words -- words of blessing. 

I’m not sure we quite understand this idea of blessing. It’s not a word we use a great deal. I know, some people, when you ask them how they are doing, would say, “I am blessed.” But just what does it mean?

            There are a number of words we might try to substitute for “blessing” -- lucky, perhaps.  That’s certainly a word in secular usage. Wayne Oates, a Baptist, an authority on pastoral counseling, wrote a book called “Luck: a secular faith.” When some good thing happens, or some evil is averted we say that we were lucky. But could you say, “Lucky are the merciful, or Lucky are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Somehow, that doesn’t seem to cut it, does it?” Or, how about “happy?” Robert Schuller wrote a book on the beatitudes called The Be-Happy Attitudes. But this seems a little lighter than what Jesus intended. It is one thing to say that a person is blessed in their mourning, but it is hard to see being happy in mourning.  It would be kind of like saying, “happy are the sad.” Some have translated this as “congratulations.” To those who work for peace, congratulations! To those who are hungering for what is right, congratulations! These may get close, but I think, don’t quite get at what it means to be blessed.

            How would you describe it? What is it to be blessed? Here’s a definition: “Blessing is grace, a way in which something holy and sacred is given that brings a feeling of well being, acceptance, and a quiet joy on a life.  When Jesus sat on the rock that day and spoke to his disciples his words were grace.”

            Do you remember words someone said to you, that touched you deeply, that perhaps even changed the course of your life, that challenged you to go out and get those bananas even if those who say, this is how its always been done around here stood against you in opposition? Do you remember what someone said when you weren’t feeling very good about yourself, depressed or lonely, that you are indeed beautiful, talented and valuable? Or do you remember a kind deed, a generous act that allowed you to soar beyond what you thought you were capable? Those often unexpected, unsolicited expressions of grace -- are blessings.

            Jesus blessed those whom no one else thought of blessing. He looked out at those who felt they were at the bottom of the heap, and told them, “Guess what? You are on the right track.  You are God’s people. You are blessed.”

            Now Jesus is not giving us a list of “ought to”s: you ought to be peacemakers, you ought to be meek, you ought to seek righteousness. We are not to aspire to mourning. Jesus is simply telling it like it is, describing what really counts in God’s kingdom. Jesus is blessing the victims of society, not calling people to be victims. He is saying that those who give away their coat, who love the enemy, who turn the other cheek are no longer victims. They are God’s people.

            What Jesus says, essentially, is this: “In the kingdom of God, the things that are valued and the people that are valued are the ones that this world doesn’t give a rip about. When you live in the here and now of the kingdom, you will stick out like a sore thumb, because you will be living in a new way. You will be living by values that are the opposite of the values of the culture around you. Other people will not understand what or why you do and say what you do, so prepare for the worst. Don’t be surprised if people call you a liar and a fraud, or gossip about you and make your life totally miserable. Why, they might even kill you. But hang tough, Jesus says, because I am true, and what I tell you is true, and you are doing the right thing and God will know and give you grace and power to go through all of it.”

            Jesus gave his disciples and all who were in the crowd that day – those who were hurting, lonely, depressed, downtrodden and poor - a blessing of grace and then showed them an alternative lifestyle that turns the world’s wisdom on it’s head. Jesus is not saying that it is better to be poor than rich, or better to be lowly than powerful.  And he is not prescribing how we need to be as much as he is describing what it’s like in God’s kingdom.

            Episcopal priest and author Barbara Brown Taylor says, “In (the Beatitudes), Jesus does not tell anyone to do anything. Instead he describes different kinds of people, hoping that his listeners will recognize themselves as one kind or another, and then he makes the same promise to all of them: that the way things are is not the way they will always be. The Ferris wheel will go around, so that those who are swaying at the top, with the wind in their hair and all the world's lights at their feet, will have their turn at the bottom, while those who are down there right now, where all they can see are candy wrappers in the sawdust, will have their chance to touch the stars.  It is not advice at all.  It is not even judgment.  It is simply the truth about the way things work, pronounced by someone who loves everyone on that wheel.”

So, Jesus blessed those who seem to be more losers than winners -- those at the bottom of the Ferris wheel. But how does this blessing work out?

            Lets’ look again at what Jesus doesn’t say.  He doesn’t say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for suddenly they will win the lottery” or “Blessed are those who mourn for their loved ones will be resurrected,” or  “Blessed are the meek, for they will be given something to be proud of.” Jesus offers no promise that the voids in our life will be removed, only that they will be filled with the presence of God. To know deep in our hearts that no matter what comes our way, no matter what troubles the world may bring, no matter how bad present circumstances are, that through it all, God is present, that we are God’s beloved children, and that in God’s kingdom things will be different—that is blessing.

            And where is God’s presence if it is not the presence of God’s people? How can any one understand and appreciate that God is with them in their present circumstances, if the Body of Christ is not there? So, on the one hand, Jesus speaks a word of blessing to those who struggle, but the same time, Jesus also speaks a word of challenge to those of us who are like the monkeys. He is saying “Look again at these people. You may consider them, poor, incompetent, lazy, low life, riff raff, “I can’t stand them” kind of people, but, I tell you -- they are blessed. They are blessed because they are engaged in the work of my kingdom, and I am with them.”

            We’ve been like the monkeys, you see. We have learned a certain set of values from our culture that we think is how the world is. And so, we can’t get to the real prize – the big banana, because we are content with the little morsels that are thrown at us by our culture to keep us happy. What if Jesus came to tell us, that’s not how the world is supposed to be? That the poor and the mourning, the meek and merciful, the peacemakers and those who hunger for righteousness and the pure in heart, all those whom the world despises are indeed blessed. That the real way to live is give not only your coat but also your shirt to someone who asks and walk a second mile, turn the other cheek and love your enemies. What if Jesus came to say, you can get the banana, you kingdom people. Just consider all these people blessed. Then together you can reach for things you may never dream possible.

            I want to tell you, this discipleship is a joyful, risk-taking, out of the box, turn-conventional-wisdom-on-its-ears way of living. We don’t have to live like those monkeys. We need to know that we are blessed. And that God’s calls us to be a blessing.