Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 70

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.
Not many of you were wise by human standards,
not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth.

With these words, Saint Paul echoed a familiar refrain of the Old and New Testaments. Moses insisted in the Book of Deuteronomy, 

It was not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you; for you are really the smallest of all peoples. It was because the LORD loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn to your ancestors, that the LORD brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7: 5-8)

Moses, the great prophet, gives two reasons for God's choice of Israel: 1) because the Lord loves you, and 2) because of his fidelity to the oath he swore to Abraham, our father in faith. 

Anyone who believes they're chosen for their intelligence, beauty, strength, or social standing commits a sin worse than pride. They insult the freedom and majesty of God who chooses as he chooses without regard to human worth or usefulness. In fact, the LORD has not changed his assessment of humans in general since the Garden of Eden and the biting remark, "You are dirt and to dirt you will return!" 

But -- God be praised! -- he loves dirt! 

We might also suppose the LORD chooses us to demonstrate his sovereign freedom, a freedom which we share through grace. God owes no one anything but prefers the least among us to demonstrate his mercy and to show us how we should live. 

Today's gospel -- the Beatitudes -- also demonstrates God's sovereign freedom as we learn more about the divine predilection for the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, and those who long for justice. Those who demonstrate God's humility are also given favor, and the merciful, peacemakers, pure of heart, and those persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Neither God nor his people will belong to this world's owners. 

With his Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes Jesus describes the coming Kingdom of Heaven. Some people like to have some sense of the future so that they can invest in The Next Big Thing. They want to flourish as the future unfolds. They also flee from doomed projects, no matter how successful they might now appear. 

Jesus comes to us with all the confidence of a Ponzi Scheme but without its razzle-dazzle. He is meek and humble of heart as he explains the obvious to those who know God. With the experience of centuries behind them, his Jewish disciples know he speaks the truth.

Moses had explained the LORD's ways to them; Isaiah had seen the supreme, heavenly majesty of God residing in an earthly temple; Ezekiel found the same God of Heaven and Earth traveling with his exiles to Babylon; Jeremiah saw the Lord gathering his dispersed refugees from all corners of the world. Jewish sages like Solomon and Qoheleth had created a philosophy which included God's plan of mercy. 

The LORD had always loved them for their littleness and spoken fondly to them in their simplicity. Only a fool would invest in the fortunes of a Roman, Spanish, British, or American empire when God's Kingdom is dawning upon the earth. 

When Corinthian gentiles received the Holy Spirit, Saint Paul included them in this wonderful plan of salvation. It all made sense because, "Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth." And yet they had already experienced the extraordinary blessing of knowing the Lord. The Truth spoke to them in their hearts and they saw with God's own wisdom the doom of this world's elite. 

With the Beatitudes, Jesus explains The Way Things Are. Knowing he is neither a fool nor a flimflam man, we listen to him and follow his way.