I preached at St. John’s this morning. I really should have preached about the Ugandan martyr David Kato since the Beatitudes lend themselves to talking about such a meek and gentle man. But, to my shame, I preached something else instead.
However, the odd thing was that after the sermon was finished, the ministers on the altar (including me) lined up to proclaim the Peace. Father John started out, “Christ is our peace ” and then stopped dead. He’d dried up (he doesn’t use a book for this). Afterwards he said that the story I told at the end of the sermon was so deep for him that he was thinking of that instead of what he was supposed to be saying.
I am not boasting, as it’s not honourable to boast that your sermon knocked the words right out of a priest’s mouth. But this is the first time anything like that has ever happened to me.
In addition, there was an Asian couple (may have been Chinese but more likely to be Japanese) in the congregation, so I had to be careful to pronounce feng shui correctly (sounds like “fung shway”). The husband thanked me for the sermon afterward with many bows and handshakes.
30th January 2011 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sermon delivered at St. John the Evangelist, 10 AM.
First Reading: Zephaniah 2:3;3:12-13; Ps. 145; Epistle: I Cor 1:26-31; Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12
In the name of God, the one, the Undivided Trinity. AMEN.
A major cultural mark of Chinese society is the practice of feng shui. You may have heard of it before, but in brief its the belief that the placement of items in your house or office must harmonise with the energies of the earth in that location. So, for example, Chinese houses often have entrances which twist and turn so that there is no direct path to the street. Or, if youve ever seen a Chinese movie, youll note that there is often a courtyard with a wall and a door in it in front of the actual house. This is to ensure that the luck of your family will not take a direct path out of the house.
There are feng shui experts not only in Chinese towns and cities, but even here in London and many other Western cities. These people, for a fee, examine your house and make recommendations on where to place your potted plants or your furniture in order to make your house more harmonious with the earth and more conducive to your familys wealth and status.
We may think that this practice is harmless at best. Our Western (and, dare I say it) Christian sensibilities say that the placement of items in our homes and offices have nothing to do with the success of our businesses or the happiness of our home life.
At worst, we may find this practice to be superstition, and foolish in the extreme. After all, the feng shui master makes quite a good living by seeming to be wise and advising people on where to put the sofa and the spider plants.
Its interesting that Paul talks about wise things being accounted as foolish by the world. His take on the followers of Christ at that time in Christian life was that the wise of the worldthose who were powerful, important, and learnedwere shamed by those who were unimportant in worldly eyes. Christians of those days were largely what Leona Helmsley in the United States used to call the little people.
Leona Helmsley was jailed for tax evasion in the US in the 1990s, and famously said that only the little people pay taxes. The government helped her to understand that, in the matter of taxes, everyone is a little person.
For Paul, God did not choose the rich and famous as the people whom he favoured. He chose the poor, the penniless, the indigent as his special care. The Beatitudes put this in a particular light. The translation we use says that those who are favoured by God are happy, whereas the traditional word used in English is blessed, thus the Beatitudes.
Whether we are blessed or happy, the contrast that Jesus wishes to draw is the same one that Paul draws (and, you may recall, Paul wrote before Matthew). Those who are unfortunate in some way here on Earth will find that the tables are later reversed.
Jesus could easily have reversed the Beatitudes into something much darker. How unhappy are the rich, for they shall not see the kingdom of heaven. Unhappy are those who are proud, for they shall lose all that they have. He might have ended, Unhappy are the persecutors of the righteous, for Heaven will never be theirs.
Jesus chose to be positive. He does not want us to dwell on negativity, he would prefer to bring his message to those who are most despised in society. Poor people are not valued in societythat is why when times are tight they are the first to suffer. When you are gentle (I really prefer the traditional word meek to gentle but what can one do?) you get ridden over roughshod by the strong, the proud, and the rich.
Jesus is fond of reversals. When the wine ran low at the wedding feast at Cana, jars of water suddenly become wine. And not only wine, but the finest vintage. He might have turned the water into plonk; after all, why waste your power to help a host who was so negligent that he didnt bother to buy enough wine for the wedding feast? But Jesus provides the best wine, and reverses the usual practice of starting out with the best wine, then providing rotgut later on when the guests are too sodden to care.
During his ministry, Jesus sometimes associates with the rich. A young man asks what to do to have eternal life, and Jesus reverses the usual order of things by telling him to sell all he has and follow him. The young man went away very sad, as he had many possessions.
However they are arranged in our life, possessions are not what makes us happy. What makes us happy is doing those things that Jesus mentions in the Beatitudes. Be poor in spirit, be gentle, mourn those whom you have loved, be avid to ensure that righteousness triumphs, be merciful, make peace, stand with those who are persecuted. Do these things, and you will be happy, even if the world around you conspires to do you in.
These are wise words, but the world believes them to be foolish.
I said at the beginning that many think that feng shui is foolish. While the world may think it foolish, some wisdom can be found in almost every philosophy, even though the philosophy, taken as a whole, isnt productive of happiness or a good society.
A feng shui master set up shop in Chinatown. For a fee he would advise people on how to arrange their houses or offices so that they would become prosperous.
A rich woman came to his office and asked for a consultation. Master, she said, I want to build an altar to the Buddha in my house, and Id like you to advise me on the best place to put it.
The feng shui master sat in his chair and looked at her. After a long pause he replied, Madam, the best place for an altar to the Buddha is in your heart.
He did not want any fee, so she went away thinking he was a fool. AMEN.
I told a friend in Australia the story about the master and the rich woman, and he asked, “Did you change the Buddha to something else?” I said that the Buddha is centuries older than Jesus and his teachings can be very valuable to usI felt no compulsion to omit him from the story and the end results bore me out.