There’s a puzzle I recently learned about a cat and a piece of toast. We all know that cats always land on their feet when they fall. It’s so amazing and complex that even Physicists have studied it, and discovered that cats have survived falls even from the 23rd story of high-rise buildings. We also know that toast that falls off the plate falls butter side down, and if there’s any dust on the floor, it will stick to the toast. Scientists tested to find out why the buttered side ends up on the floor so often. It turns out that 81% of the time, the toast will land butter side down thanks to physics and the aerodynamic properties of bread smeared with oil. So the puzzle is what happens when you tie a piece of buttered toast onto the back of a cat and toss them both out the window? Which will happen, the cat land on its feet or the butter land on the sidewalk? People want to know!
Cats perform a complex gymnastics feat to land on their
feet. They twist their bodies to make sure their feet are under them before
they land. You can’t see it happen unless you have a stop motion camera
recording it in slow motion. It’s worthy of an Olympic gymnast at their peak
performance. For those of us who can’t even do a cartwheel, it’s miraculous!
The beatitudes are just as much of a miraculous cartwheel
as a falling cat. Think about the people in your life that seem successful to
most people. Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, Elliot Page, Connor McDavid and numerous
others are measured in terms of their assets, their fame, their talents and
their relationships. They are successful by all measures, they have landed on
their feet and millions of people idolize and respect them.
All except Jesus. The measuring stick that Jesus used was
upside down to anything anyone had heard. It was more twisted than a cat with a
piece of toast tied on its back. It upended the idea that the biggest,
strongest, richest or most famous people are the ones that are successful. If
we look at what the word blessed means, it means fortunate, happy, lucky.
Seems like a pretty big twist in what we think of people
who are happy or blessed. And it’s not just any kind of feeling of happiness,
it’s supposed to be a deep-seated sense of contentment with one’s self and
their place in the world. “You are fortunate when others insult you and
persecute you, and utter every kind of slander against you because of me. Be
glad and rejoice.”
We’ve seen a lot of persecutions over the years in our
world, but it’s been especially vivid to watch the protests in Minnesota the
last couple of weeks. People are feeling blessed when they stand watch
over daycares or protect teens on their way out of school or drive around
following ICE trucks ready to honk, whistle and record any cases of arrest they
might witness. They are feeling energized and full of purpose. They are feeling
in their bones the kind of blessedness that Jesus was getting at. Jesus was
mindful of Micah's teaching on living a blessed life. It’s not about getting a
Nobel prize, or an Oscar or a Stanley Cup. It’s not about great sacrifices or
huge gifts or deep financial generosity. Micah, writing in the midst of
economic chaos, military powers and leaders who bullied their people into
states of fear and apathy, said that the reason for wars and political uncertainty
was not that we had to treat God like a king or emperor with an appetite that
can never be satisfied. It’s not about stuff. It’s not about bribes. It’s not
about bankrupting ourselves to keep a heavenly bully from looking our way. It’s
not about groveling in front of a warlord in hopes that he will protect us.
Jesus says it’s not about following rules, it’s about
twisting expectations. Seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly in
relationship with God. Seeing the people we meet differently than the world
does. The happy ones, the lucky ones, the fortunate ones are not who we think.
Jesus was pointing out that the people whom we love to look
down on are the ones that God cares about. The ones who need kindness. The ones
that may have no more energy for pretending. The ones who survive from hour to
hour, living precariously for reasons that we don’t know. The people who we
think are the last and least. The people we think don’t deserve compassion. The
ones who are so fragile that they don’t care who sees their suffering.
Sometimes we are the suffering, we are the ones who are starving for hope or
purpose or courage or direction. The last line in these upside-down beatitudes
are for us today. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because
great is your reward in heaven.” When we take these words seriously like the
people in Minnesota do, we will find ourselves speaking in truth against
oppression. Against the lies that try to undermine democracy, the lies that
attack our human rights and demonize the meek and the poor and the sick and the
grieving. The petitions that pit neighbor against neighbor, that try to make
people feel oppressed when they are living in one of the most tolerant
democratic countries in the world. God sees us as blessed when we speak up for
those who don’t have the skills or abilities to speak out. When we take the
sign out of the window that tries to pretend everything is okay when it’s
not. When we speak up against bullying
attitudes and people twisting the truth because they are feeling entitled to
rage and fearmonger. And God helps us, when we seek justice, love kindness and
walk humbly, to land like a cat, lightly, on our feet, with grace and love and joy
as we follow in the footsteps of our Jesus, the leader of our upside-down
kingdom.
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