09/02/2017

Good morning

I’ve often been puzzled by one of the phrases Jesus uses in his “Sermon on the Mount”. “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? It can mean those who don’t have much faith – something I’ve wrestled with, even though I’m a minister. But I don’t think of myself as particularly blessed because I’m someone of “little faith” and occasionally have my doubts!

A lot of my time as a minister over the years has been spent alongside people who have experienced poverty, injustice or some other kinds of difficulty. Over the years I have been struck again and again by the wisdom I hear from people who have known hard times.

Sometimes, it’s gone as far as to make me think that I am no expert in life at all. Instead, I think I have spent most of my time learning from others. And, especially, I’ve found that people who have been at the very bottom, know with great clarity what is important and speak words of wisdom that make sense of faith and Jesus’s message.

So, when I heard someone recently suggest that what Jesus was really saying was, “Blessed is the spirit of the poor”, that really made sense! He spent so much time with the poor and those who were left behind – not just in order to end the scandal of poverty – but also to highlight the wisdom that so many people who have experienced hardship have to offer the world.

Living Christ, your life was spent so often amongst the suffering and the forgotten. For many of us, we simply do not know what that’s like. But those who have seen darkness can help us grope towards the light. Make us more ready then, to listen to the voice of the poorest in our world, and learn from their wisdom that we may live better, more just and compassionate lives. Amen.