March 23, 2003
Contradicting the Human Assumption
The Rev. Dr. Riley E. Jensen

The Yiddish word “Schlemiel” has been interpreted as “the kind of person who is always going around spilling soup on people”; and a “Schlimazel” is “the kind of person who is always being spilled upon”.  Our Beatitude this morning is “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.”  In the minds of most of us, the meek do not necessarily display the ineptness of the Schlemiel; they are more likely to have the doormat temperament of the Schlimazel, for they are constantly getting spilled upon and walked all over.

More years ago than I would like to remember (because it seems like yesterday) an actor named Wally Cox made famous a television character, Mr. Peepers.  Mr. Peepers was all that this society thinks of when it thinks of meekness.  He was a small man who always walked around with his hands in his pockets in a tight defensive posture.  He was soft-spoken, with a shrill, high-pitched voice.  And he wore thick, horn-rimmed glasses with his beady eyes looking apprehensively through them.

You want meekness?  Well, Mr. Peepers was all that most of us think of when we think of meekness.  For meek in our world is usually synonymous with weak.  In a world where only the fit flourish and the strong survive, Jesus had to be crazy to say, “Blessed are the meek”.  The meek are those who don’t have enough get-up-and-go to get out there and get what they want.  If anything, meekness has been our problem.  We have been too nice.  We have let others trample our rights.  What we need is more assertiveness, not meekness.

There is a cartoon that has some young children on a playground playing football.  One of the boys was tackled roughly and skinned his knee.  A teacher rushed over and said, “Remember, boys don’t cry.”  To which the little guy retorted, “No, we sue!”  The human assumption is definitely not that the meek will inherit the earth.  The message that surrounds us and is continually grilled into us is “get a little assertiveness training under your belt lest you become one of the Schlimazels of the world”.  If you have to make a choice between being the spiller and the spillee, it’s always better to be the spiller.

I.  The meek are those who are able to accept control and so be

     God-controlled.

However, as Christians, accepting the human assumption at face value can get us into trouble for God’s ways are not our ways.  There is a story about the little girl who had an audience with God, and therefore had the opportunity to ask God some questions that had been on her mind for a long time.  So she said to God, “I understand that you don’t think of time in the same way we do.  For you, a second might be like a 1,000 years.”  And God replied, “That’s right.  Time means something different to me than it does to you.”  The girl went on,  “I suppose money means something different to you also.  A penny of your money would be like a million dollars of our money.”  God replied, “That’s right.  A penny of my money would be like a million dollars of your money.”  Then the little girl said, “Well, God, I have just one more question.  Could I have a penny?”  And God said, “Just a sec!”

God’s ways are certainly not our ways, and with that as our inspiration, let’s look a little deeper into this word, “meek”.  The Greek word “praus” (meaning meek) is the regular word for an animal which has been domesticated, trained to obey the word of command, and learned to answer the reins.  It is the word for an animal that has learned to accept control.

So being meek has something to do with being under control.  Some have tried to translate this beatitude, “Blessed is the person who has every instinct, every impulse, and every passion under control.  Blessed is the one who is entirely self-controlled.”  If it weren’t Jesus who is giving us this beatitude, it might be easy to view it that way.  For so many of our natural reactions are conditioned by the godfather approach, “Always present an inscrutable exterior.  Never let the other person know what you’re thinking or feeling.  Be entirely self-controlled.”

Yet we have learned haven’t we that such a measure of control does awful things to our insides.  The latest word for the enemy within is stress, the point being that self-control in the extreme is not good for us either physically or spiritually.  But Jesus is obviously talking about a different kind of meekness, a different kind of self-control.

This whole idea of control is bothersome to us from the time we are children and even through adulthood.  To mature and develop as a child through adolescence is to stretch and strain for every measure of independence we can get.  The older we get the more we want to be free of the control of others (especially our parents) and be in charge of our own choices.  That’s what the teenage years are all about and that is why they are a constant battle between parents who set boundaries and kids who try to press the limits.

There is a sense that our culture tells us that when you are truly a mature person, you are no longer under anyone else’s control.  I struggled with that word in preparing this sermon because I knew you wouldn’t like it.  We don’t like the idea of being under anyone’s control -- even God’s.  Maybe that is why the word “meek” has such negative connotations for us.

However, please understand that being under God’s control doesn’t mean that everything we do is dictated from a higher power or that the ideal of meekness is some kind of robotic response to divine programming.  That’s the rub!  Meekness is simply the admission that we are not God, that we ultimately are not in control, that we need the guidance of one who sees the big picture, like a pilot moving through air-space constantly in touch with ground control to get his bearings.

II.  The meek are those who are able to accept their own ignorance

      and so take the first step toward learning.

Another way in which we can come to terms with this word “meek” is by contrast.  The Greeks always contrasted the quality which they called “meekness” with the quality that meant “lofty-heartedness” -- the thought being that when one is meek, all arrogant pride is swept away.  You and I can think of it this way – the meek are those who don’t pretend to know it all.

It is never comfortable being around a know-it-all, but most of us have played that role at one time or another.  I remember those times (as you must when growing up); I was very sure that I was the only one who didn’t know everything.  I grew up in a neighborhood with older kids; they learned to read, write, spell, and count before I did and I worried if I would ever be able to learn that much.

When I got a little older and the guys started talking about sex, I was so sure they knew everything and I knew nothing.  Of course, I learned to bluff a lot.  The more I was sure I didn’t know, the more I pretended that I did.  The beautiful thing about the meek person whom Jesus is blessing is that the meek are able to admit that they don’t know it all.  Once they have done that, they have taken the first step toward learning.

None of us knows it all even though we run into some pretty good bluffers from time-to-time.  In fact the more we live and the more we learn, we realize how much we don’t know.  That is what makes our lives so much fun.  If we knew everything, it would be boring.  There would be no new things to discover, and no new adventures to experience.  If we knew everything, then we might see a sunset or smell a flower and shrug our shoulders failing to appreciate the greatness of a God who created it all.

Pope John XXIII was known for both his brilliance and his meekness.  When asked to explain his way of making decisions (decisions that could have wide ramifications for millions of people) he said, “I speak with God, but quite simply, quite simply.”  He went on to explain, “When a person speaks with God, that one is not looking for extraordinary revelations.  He knows that for himself as well as for others, the most important thing is peace.”

You see, even Popes talk to God just the way we do.  Wouldn’t it be odd for any of us to try to convince God that we know as much as God does?  The very thought is ridiculous, and yet most of us accept the human assumption that we should be ashamed of our own ignorance.  The meek are those who are able to accept their own ignorance, and in doing so, they take the first step toward real learning.

III.  The meek are those who are able to accept their own

       sinfulness and so take the first step to being forgiven.

Finally, because the meek do not have to know it all or be all, they have an easier time accepting their own sinfulness.  To do that is to take the first step toward being forgiven.  The human assumption is clearly that there can never be an admission of weakness or inadequacy, for to do that is to expose one to the destructive designs of another.  Maybe this is where the rubber-meets-the-road in the world of real politics, the world where we live, the world where exposing ourselves to terrible threats is real not imagined.  What does meekness have to do with such a world?

Actually our Hebrew scripture from Isaiah is speaking to this kind of situation.  For those who would argue that Jesus is just teaching an ideal individualistic ethic, we can point to Isaiah who introduces the concept of meekness into the world of international relations.  I will quickly add “without a great deal of success” but nevertheless deserving of our attention.

The eerie truth is that this is strangely contemporary because things haven’t changed much in the Middle East over the last 3,000 years.  Then as now Israel felt vulnerable in the face of hostile neighbors.  During Isaiah’s time in the eighth century B.C., it seemed that the world turned on a North-South axis rather than an East-West one.  The hoards of Assyria on the north presented a real and present threat to the security of Israel and other southern nations including Egypt.  Interestingly enough at the height of its power in 700 B.C. ancient Assyria included most of modern Iraq.

With this enormous threat coming from the world’s greatest military power at the time (sweeping down upon them like a tidal wave) Israel was desperate to shore up its defenses.  They opened secret negotiations with another archenemy -- Egypt.  We can imagine that Isaiah’s voice of protest was both lonely and ridiculed as he cried out that it is sinful to trust in anything but the Lord your God for your refuge and your strength.  We need to understand that Isaiah was a prophet which meant that he was a chaplain for the king.  Then (as now) Kings tend to frown upon chaplains who try to advise them on foreign policy. 

And we can imagine that Isaiah’s was certainly a voice falling upon deaf ears.  In Verse 19 he exalts the role of the meek, who shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord.  Of course nations are concerned with survival and not joy, and Isaiah’s call was ignored.

On February 3, 46 religious leaders sent a letter to the President requesting a face-to-face meeting in order to present their case against the war.  The letter addressed the President respectfully as the commander and chief of our nation’s military. Since the letter was signed by 20 Methodist Bishops, it also appealed to the President (who is a Methodist) on the basis of his Christian faith.  The letter urged the President to consider the prospect of war not only in military terms but as “a moral concern of the highest order”.

I don’t know how the President responded or if he responded.  We only know what has happened since – that the conquest of Iraq has indeed been primarily defined as a military objective, necessary for our national defense, which will involve euphemistically a “certain amount of collateral damage”.  It doesn’t take much to understand why Isaiah’s words would fall on deaf ears then and now.  Whoever the meek are, it is hard for us to imagine them inheriting the earth or anything else.

A sermon like this cannot be concluded with a tight summary of three points and a moral for the week.  I’m sorry but I will have to send you out with the continuing question of Christians who want to believe the one who said, “the meek will inherit the earth” and “those who would save their lives must first lose them”.  How can we learn to use the power of love and understanding to build a peaceful world?