Luke Woes

Today's sermon was about the blessings and woes in Luke, and about the commands to love your enemy that come afterward. As usual, my thoughts are halfway about the actual sermon and halfway about my own tangents that the readings and sermon sent me on.

The Beatitudes in Luke are much scarier than the ones in Matthew because of the woes. It's not just that you're blessed even if things are going badly right now because eventually your needs will be met, it's also that you're in trouble if things are going well right now because eventually that won't be the case. And as someone who is full and happy and able to get along in society, that means woe to me.

One interpretation of this that seemed to be indicated in the sermon is that the kingdom of God is about turning the social order upside-down. It's not just that the people who have power and material abundance commit or tolerate injustice in order to maintain their positions, though that does certainly happen. It's also that people who have their needs met have a tendency to see themselves as deserving what they get, and not just in the sense that all people deserve adequate food and shelter and love and respect, but that it's somehow cosmically more important that their needs are met than those of others. In psychology this is sometimes referred to as the just-world hypothesis, and I'm probably more guilty of it than I realize.

There doesn't seem to be in Luke any indication that the woes are escapable, except perhaps by a change in situation – to being hungry, rejected, etc. But it doesn't say anything like “Woe to you who are full now, unless you help to feed the hungry” - it's just woe. I wonder if that's maybe because the just-world thinking is so pervasive, and so much a part of human nature, that it's nearly impossible to truly give it up – or even fully see it – if you're in a situation where you're susceptible. In which case, maybe part of the woe is about the fact that eventually we'll have to really, truly see that we aren't special just because we're lucky – that we aren't more important, more valuable, more worthy, more anything. And I can write this, and think that it's true, but even then I don't think I truly understand and believe it on the deepest level. And I'm ashamed of that, but there it is. I expect that really experiencing that revelation will be painful – to have my self-centeredness and self-prioritizing exposed, even to myself since I think some of it is probably unknown and unquestioned. Of course, after that will be the deeper understanding of the fact that we are all loved and valued, regardless of what the world says about us, and that the fact that we are all loved doesn't lessen the degree to which any one of us is loved. And I also kind of think that's true but also kind of don't really understand and believe in in the way I think I ought to. But at any rate, this is one way that makes sense to me for the woe to be inescapable, necessary, and consistent with a just and loving God.