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+title: Blessed are the poor
+date: "2013-10-26 09:40:34"
+tags:
+  - sermon
+categories:
+  - faith
+  - sociology
+---
+
+    “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
+
+    -- Matthew 5:3
+
+Let me tell you yet another story of my failed legal career. For those
+fortunate enough not to hear my story many times, I will summarize that
+although I am from a lawyer’s family (my father was a professor in the
+school of law, my older brother and his wife are judges, and there are
+other members of my family who are lawyers as well) and even though
+I graduated from two law schools, I failed to enter a legal career and
+I am now very, very happy as a computer programmer.
+
+Back in a moment when I felt really down, at a time when my career was
+crumbling on my head, I was walking along Bartolomějská Street in Prague
+Old Town early one evening. I was surprised to find a mass in progress
+in a beautiful Baroque Catholic church. I was surprised because
+Bartolomějská Street is the last place most Praguers would expect
+anything spiritually uplifting, as this street was traditionally the
+headquarters of the Prague police (since at least the Austria-Hungary
+empire times). When people from Prague said that someone was in
+Bartolomějská, it meant he was being investigated. I discovered that in
+the middle of this street just opposite the main entry to the police
+headquarters was a small nunnery.  In Communist times the convent was
+shut down (of course) and the buildings were used by the police as
+temporary prisons and places of interrogation and torture. After 1989,
+the nuns returned and they are now praying to clean this place and the
+surrounding area of unclean spirits. If you don’t believe spiritual
+warfare is something real, just ask them!  So, I didn’t know it, but
+I entered a pretty dark place that evening. Some nuns were listening to
+a preacher whose sermon was based on the Biblical book of Job. This was
+the text:
+
+    After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
+
+    | And Job said:
+    | Let the day perish on which I was born,
+    | and the night that said,
+    | a man is conceived.
+    | Let that day be darkness!
+    | May God above not seek it,
+    | nor light shine upon it.
+    | Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
+    | Let clouds dwell upon it;
+    | let the blackness of the day terrify it.
+
+    -- Job 3:1-5, ESV
+
+My first thought was, “Oh right, that’s exactly the sermon I need to
+cheer me up.”  But I stayed. I don’t remember now exactly what the point
+of that sermon was, but it was interesting enough that later that day
+(more in the middle of the night), I sat down and read the whole book of
+Job in one setting.  I found to my surprise that this book was much
+different from what I thought it was and it actually spoke to my
+situation really well.
+
+It was not the first time I read the book of Job. I had already read
+whole Bible, so I wasn’t surprised by the content of the book alone
+(well, I don’t think there are many who would not know the brief story
+behind the book). However, this was the first time I read the book
+intentionally **from the position of Job**. Let me explain what I mean
+by talking about the Parable of the Prodigal Son:
+
+    And He said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his
+    father, ’Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So
+    he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger
+    son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant
+    country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. Now when
+    he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and
+    he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out to one of
+    the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed
+    swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that
+    the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. But when
+    he came to his senses, he said, ’How many of my father’s hired men have
+    more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! I will get
+    up and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned
+    against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called
+    your son; make me as one of your hired men.’ So he got up and came to
+    his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him
+    and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
+    And the son said to him, ’Father, I have sinned against heaven and in
+    your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father
+    said to his slaves, ’Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him,
+    and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the
+    fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of
+    mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been
+    found.’ And they began to celebrate.”
+
+    -- Luke 15:11-24, ESV
+
+It is no big surprise that generally most people study this Parable by
+reading it from the perspective of the younger son. This can lead us to
+admit we are sinners who are coming from our swine food to our Loving
+Father, who runs to us to meet us. After that we might think about the
+perspective or position of the older son, and perhaps (according to
+Henri Nouwen) we should strive to grow into being a loving father figure
+for others. I guess this initial “kneeling down” in the position of the
+younger son protects us against falling into self-righteousness and
+pride. We have to start from kneeling-down position.
+
+So, while it seems obvious to read this parable from the position of the
+younger son, it is surprisingly rare for people to read Job in the same
+way -- that is, from the position or perspective of Job. Whenever I read
+some commentary on Job, it always seems written from the outside. If the
+author of the commentary is present in the book at all, then mostly it
+is as the friends talking with Job. Mostly they would like to be Elihu,
+the younger friend who thinks he’s leading Job to God in the end. But
+mostly they seem to me like the other friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and
+Zophar, who were just talking to show how smart, right, and holy they
+are without the true ability to help their friend.
+
+When I was in that church listening to the reading from the book of Job,
+Job’s hopeless situation spoke to my situation quite clearly. The
+attachment to Job was so strong that when I was reading the whole book
+in one sitting, I was very careful not to put myself over Job, but to
+read from his lowly position.
+
+This exercise taught me a lot. When we get low down to the place of Job,
+we know that anything we get is just a pure mercy of God to us who are
+not worthy of anything. When we give up on our rights, suddenly the
+right priorities emerge. When one finds Job’s perspective, he finds how
+little value is in all those things he was fond of before.
+
+When we count all things as rubbish (Phil 3:8; literally “refuse” or
+“dung”) we suddenly find a new motivation for the following Christ. When
+we still hold on to some things of this world, we are very much limited
+by fear of loosing it, but when we leave everything behind, we suddenly
+find freedom. There is nothing we have to be afraid of loosing, because
+we know that God takes care of us. And then we can open to the love of
+God in a much more pure way, because then we can live our life **ONLY**
+for God.  Not because of any profit we may get, not because of the glory
+we may achieve, not because of any happiness it may give us, not because
+of our salvation, not because of fear of Hell, but just because of God.
+
+    “Do not look on God’s hands, what you get from them; do not look on
+    his crown, because you would be crushed by his majesty, but look
+    into his eyes, where you find love and deepest friendship.”
+
+So, my prayer for this day and this week is that you would be poorer and
+poorer in spirit and that you would experience more and more changes in
+your life truly done by Jesus the Christ himself.
+
+Amen.