I have some Valentine stories for you today that have nothing to do with my sermon.

When I talked to my parents yesterday I learned that Ethel, a good friend of our family, had died. It was fitting that she died on Valentine’s Day.  Ethyl’s husband Weldon was called “Happy” because he whistled all the time.  He owned the local gas station. He was always happy.  Many, many years ago they secretly dated and, although they were in their mid-twenties, their parents thought they were too young to get married.  So they sneaked off one day and got married.  Then they went back to their separate homes and were married for a year and a half before they told anybody.  If that’s not love I don’t know what love is.  Weldon died a year ago and Ethel died yesterday.  I know they are in Heaven right now and I know that Happy is whistling. 

 I have been researching around the world to discover what people do on Valentine’s Day.  Valentine’s Day celebrates a saint named Valentine.  The first Valentine card was not between two people romantically involved.  The Romans had thrown Valentine in jail because he wouldn’t give up his faith.  The original Valentine was a note that was passed between him and his daughter.

On Valentine’s Day somewhere in the Philippines there are thousands of couples kissing, trying to set the world record for the number of people who can kiss.  In Indonesia, which is not known for its liberal views toward people who break rules, a group of petty criminals were allowed to get married in prison. Even the strictest of people can have a heart on Valentine’s Day.  In Saudi Arabia a religious declaration forbids anyone to celebrate Valentine’s Day because it might lead to sin.

In West Virginia where I grew up there were a series of strikes in the coal fields. They were called wildcat strikes, people trying to interrupt the coal business.  People were out of work for no reason at all.  My Dad got pulled out one time because there wasn’t soap in the shower.  It wasn’t because the coal miner’s weren’t paid well enough to buy their own soap, but miners had to honor the picket line.   That was part of the union and it was wrecking havoc on the coal industry and on peoples’ personal lives.  In the community where I grew up some women decided they had had enough and they literally took their brooms to the picket line and beat up the men who were keeping their husbands from working.  Picket lines are very serious business.  I know people who got shot for trying to cross them.  But those men would not mess with those women.  They went home and those women’s husbands went to work! 

A few years ago a man in Zimbabwe who helped bring about that country’s revolution, taking them away from colonialism, took a turn for the worse.  He confiscated land, and became a dictator.  All semblances of democracy left Zimbabwe.  Anyone who happened to get in his way was killed.  Zimbabwe had been the breadbasket of Southern Africa and had exported food to other countries.   Now there is not enough food in that country.  They are not producing enough because of the hatred that this man had wielded upon his country.  I read in the newspaper that a group of women got together to have love protests all over Zimbabwe.  Of course the dictator said, “There will be no protests.  Anyone who protests will be either arrested or shot!”  The women went on with their protests.  They proclaimed that hate was no longer necessary in Zimbabwe and that love and caring for one another was the only way to get them through this mess.   I don’t know whether one day of protest will be enough, but I do know that the power of that message. Love is the ultimate answer.

Back to our gospel lesson.  I’ve really struggled with this text all week.  I spent about five hours searching through commentaries to find another way to express what I thought the text was saying.  Every commentary I read only reinforced my original ideas.  The Beatitudes in Matthew’s Gospel are very metaphorical.  Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”  It is possible to imagine the meaning of “poor in spirit”.  Luke is much more literal and much harsher with Jesus’ words.  Luke said, “Blessed are the poor and blessed are the hungry and woe to you who have full stomachs and have whatever you need in life.”  As we read this text, we think “All those rich people…wherever they are…they are not sitting here in our sanctuary…bless their hearts.”  Well, I hate to tell you this but, by Luke’s definition, ninety percent of us sitting here are rich. Luke warns us that our mortal souls are in danger because of that. Luke reminds us of this theme over and over again.  We often see Mary the mother of Jesus as a sweet little woman. That’s the image that most of us have of her because we haven’t read the Biblical text very closely.  Luke begins his gospel with Mary’s Magnificat.  Mary, the woman who stands in the grand tradition of the prophets, speaks to us and says in harsh words that those who are on top will be on the bottom and those who are on the bottom will be on the top when God’s Kingdom comes.  Later on Luke reminds us of how difficult it will be to get into the Kingdom of God if we are comfortable with our financial assets.  So what do we do with this text? What does it say to most of us who sit here today?  We have to struggle with this text and we have to understand that Jesus’ words aren’t there to comfort us.

Several theologians who have commented on this text have warned us against seeing people who are poor or who are starving as more spiritual than the rest of us.  Anyone who has worked at Open Door, the outreach ministry that operates from this church, would tell you that some people who come to the Open Door are really nice people and some of them are kind of grouchy and hard to get along with. Several major theologians, reflecting upon Luke’s text, have said that there is nothing virtuous about people who are poor, making them more spiritual.  The one thing that makes them different is that they are at a point in their lives where they are dependent upon something outside of themselves if they are to survive.  The truth is that you and I, no matter how comfortable our bank accounts may happen to be, are dependent on something outside of ourselves as well.  We live with the illusion that, because we live fairly comfortably; our good fortune is due to our own efforts, our hard work and our cleverness. What Luke understood in his day is something we need to understand in our own day.  He knew that those who are broken in life because of circumstances of poverty or grief had to give up the illusion that they are in control of their lives. They point us somewhere beyond our own self-sufficiency to remind us that we all depend upon God and God alone for what we have in life. 

So how do I pull this into a Valentine’s theme?  Believe it or not, it’s central to what Valentine’s Day is all about.  Following the Beatitudes we find the next section in which Jesus is preaching.  It seems disconnected until we look closer.  When Jesus says to us that we are to be followers of Jesus. God’s love is radical and runs deep.  God forgives even those who hate Him. God loves those who reject Him. God requires us to live that same radical love in our lives.  Luke says other difficult words to us.  “Don’t just love someone who loves you.”  God demands that you love those whom you hate. I want you to think of someone you don’t like.  Don’t be pious and tell me that there is not someone who gets on your nerves.  Have you thought of someone?  God says to love him!  That is how radical God’s love is and what a radical way of living that God has called us to.  When someone smacks you on the cheek, turn around and give him the other cheek to smack.  There is no room for vengeance in God’s Kingdom, only a self giving love that is so radical that we are called to show compassion even to those who would hurt us.  Whether we are a nation or an individual or a group of people, to be followers of Jesus is to live the example that God has given us.  John’s Gospel reminds us  “God so loved the world that He gave us His only son.”  To be followers of Jesus is to know that God loves even those who beat and killed Jesus.  God’s love is so unselfish that living within that love pulls our hearts to love even more than we could image, to love those who seem to us to be the least lovable.  As with many of the things Jesus teaches us, this radical love seems beyond human instinct or ability.  The message of the Gospels is that it can only be lived by allowing God to live it through us.

The challenge of this Valentine’s Day is to hear the words of Jesus and make them central to the way we live each day.  Let us pray.