From Sampler to Sower

(Here’s another old sermon, this one delivered in our youth services during our first full sermon series here in Middletown in February of 2003.)

We started by playing a game.  The object of the game was to collect as many snack bar gift certificates as possible.  While the teens were searching for gift certificates, our volunteers quickly changed all the prices in the snack bar, inflating them exponentially such that the least expensive item cost more than the total number of gift certificates we hid.

What did you guys think when you were collecting gift certificates for the snack bar? Pretty cool? Pretty lame? Excited about what you could buy?

Who got the most?

What did you guys think when you walked into the snack bar and discovered that prices had risen dramatically? How much stock did you put in your gift certificates then?

I think that experience teaches us an important truth: Somehow when we realize how little our money can buy, we realize how little our money is worth. When we discover we can’t buy anything with it, we realize just how poor we really are.

And that brings us to the verse for tonight’s lesson. Last week we asked the question “Where can I find true happiness?” We talked about different kinds of happiness; the happiness that is earned as we achieve what we were destined to do, and the priceless happiness – the God-happiness – that we receive only as a gift as we stand in right relationship with him. Two kinds – happiness we earn, and happiness that we could never hope to afford. And we learned that in the beatitudes Jesus said this second type of happiness – this joy that was so valuable no price tag could ever be put on it – is available to us.

This week we’re going to begin to study the beatitudes of Jesus, nine sayings which describe the type of life that makes God smile and bring divines happiness into our lives.

As we talk about these beatitudes, we’re going to discover that they’re all ironic. In other words, the people Jesus calls divinely happy are not the type of people we’d expect to call happy or blessed. In fact, the people Jesus calls happy and blessed are the type of people we’d be inclined to feel sorry for.

If we were writing the beatitudes we’d be tempted to say “Man, I really feel sorry for you because you are . . .”

But instead Jesus says “Congratulations! You have a reason to celebrate because God is going to poor his happiness into you because you are . . .”

Take for example the first one of Jesus’ beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” That’s irony. We’d be tempted to say, “Man, I feel sorry for you because you are in spiritual poverty.” But Jesus calls those people divinely happy.

To understand what Jesus means here, though, we’ve got to realize that there are two words in Greek used to describe poor people: penes and ptochos.

Ptochos refers to a beggar. Someone who has nothing, and on top of that doesn’t have the skill or ability to earn anything, so they will always have nothing.

Penes on the other hand refers to someone that while they don’t have anything, they are hard workers and diligent, and by working hard they manage to survive.

Somehow when Jesus says blessed are the poor, and we understand what penes means, that saying makes a little more sense. Blessed are the penes doesn’t mean “Divinely happy is the guy who is so poor that not only does he have nothing, he’ll never even earn anything either . . .” Blessed are the penes means “Divinely happy is the person who knows the value of hard work” Or “Blessed is the person who doesn’t have everything in life handed to her on a silver platter.”

It makes sense because in America, these are the type of people we really respect. The type of people we look up to and admire. In Europe, people respect and admire royalty – Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses — people who come from long lines of wealthy and powerful people, people who inherit power. But in America we admire the self-made man, the hard working woman, the person who despite their humble beginnings works hard and makes something out of their life. Can you think of any American heroes who fit this description: They started with nothing but worked hard and made something out of themselves?

When I think of someone like that, I think of Abraham Lincoln. Abe was the son of a poor farmer from rural Kentucky – born in a tiny log cabin on a farm that could barely support the growing family. Abe Lincoln was penes – poor. Life wasn’t easy for him. Add up all the time he spent in a classroom and he had less than one year’s worth of school. But he studied hard on his own, reading everything he could get his hands on, and he became a man of great wisdom. Despite the fact that he started out life poor, uneducated and unknown, he later became one of the most powerful men on earth, the President of the United States of America, and the man that managed to keep the country from splitting in two. He had nothing, but he worked hard and made something out of his life.

Or someone like Oprah Winfrey – someone we all know from her influence in television and print media. Today she’s one of the most powerful people in Television. But she started out unloved, living in an abusive home, pregnant at 14 because an abuser had raped her.

Real American heroes.

And when we think about stories like this – stories about people who by hard work made something out of themselves – those words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, those words which once sounded so ironic make a lot more sense. We understand exactly what “Blessed are the penes” means.

There’s only one problem.

Jesus didn’t say “Blessed are the penes.”

Jesus didn’t say “Divinely happy is the self-made man,” or “Blessed is the woman who inspite of humble beginnings managed to make something important and influential out of her life.”

No, Jesus didn’t say “Blessed are the penes.” Jesus said “Blessed are the ptochos.” Blessed are the beggars. Blessed are the ones who have nothing, and even lack the ability to earn anything. Blessed are the empty handed.

Kinda mean of him to throw us a screwball like that, isn’t it?

Just the time we figure out what “Blessed are the poor in spirit” means, Jesus says, “No, you have it all wrong. . .

“I wasn’t talking about that kind of poverty –

the kind of poverty that has to work hard for what it has

the kind of poverty that through diligence makes something out of nothing

the kind of poverty that pulls itself up by the bootstraps.

That’s not the kind of poverty I’m talking about at all.

I’m talking about the kind of poverty that has nothing,

And knows it . . .

The kind of poverty that is powerless to earn anything,

And knows it.

The kind of poverty that can only hope to survive by becoming a beggar – wholly reliant on the kindness of another.

The kind of poverty that can only become a beggar –

And does it.”

But why? Why bless the ptochos and not the penes? Why bless the guy who begs and not the guy who works hard to survive? Why is it better to be ptochos poor, than penes poor?

Well lets compare those two types of spiritually poor – penes poverty and ptochos poverty.

Penes poverty leads to self-sufficiency.

There’s nothing like seeing success after hard work to convince you that hard work is the answer to all of life’s problems.

Try telling someone who has built a multi-milllion dollar business from a start in poverty that there is something they can’t afford.

What do you think they’re going to say?

“Yeah right. If I can’t pay for it now, just give a couple of years and I can earn enough to buy anything.”

Try telling someone who has just succeeded in accomplishing a huge goal despite difficult odds that there is something they can’t do.

What do you think they’re going to say?

“Yeah right! They told me I couldn’t climb Mt Everest. But I did it. There’s nothing I can’t do if I try hard enough.”

The only problem is: some things can’t be bought. Some things can’t be earned.

You can’t earn life.

You can’t buy divine happiness.

You can’t earn a relationship with Jesus Christ.

You can’t buy friends.

Penes poverty leads to self-sufficiency, but what happens when the most important things in life really are out of my reach?

The ptochos man, on the other hand, knows that he has no hope of earning or buying what he needs most.

Remember what we said last week about makarios – God-happiness? It is available only as a gift. It cannot be bought or earned. It can only be received.

And your only chance of getting it is to ask.

To beg

To be ptochos poor.

We can only beg.

Penes poverty leads to delusion.

Sometimes, when we are penes poor, we don’t realize how poor we really are.

It’s too easy to compare ourselves with the person next to us.

“Hey, I’ve got more than she does – I must be doing okay.”

Kinda like the game tonight.

Many of you walked into the snack bar tonight with a fist full of gift certificates.

Before you stepped through that door you thought you were pretty well off.

Some of you even looked at the person next to you and compared yourselves.

“Hey, I’ve got more than she does – I must be doing okay.”

But what happened when you looked at the price tags of the things you wanted most?

Suddenly it hit you:

Maybe I’m not as rich as I thought I was.

It’s one thing to walk into the snack bar thinking you’re richer than you really are.  It’s another thing entirely to step before the throne of judgment with similar delusions.

“But God, I worked hard.

“I did good things.

“In fact, I did more than he did.

“I helped more people than she did.

“Surely I did okay, right?

“Surely I get in?

But in Isaiah 64, the prophet comes to the realization that even our best works aren’t all that good in God’s eyes.
“Our best efforts are like grease stained rags . . . (Isa 64:6, The Message)”

Paul says the same thing in Philippians 3:
“The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash – along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? . . . Compared to the high priveledge of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant – dog dung. (Philippians 3:7-8, The Message)”

The one who is penes poor thinks he’s rich when he isn’t.

The one who is ptochos poor knows what Isaiah and Paul knew – Even our best successes are nothing in the divine economy.

Even when we think we are rich, we are incredibly poor.

We cannot hope to earn or buy.

We can only beg.

Penes poverty leads to insecurity.

The tough thing to remember is that if we can earn something, we can also loose something.

If it’s something we get because we’re good enough – what happens when we aren’t so good?

If it’s something I get because I work hard enough, what happens if I ever relax?

The one who is penes poor knows this all too well.

And the result is a life of fear.

What happens if I lose what I’ve worked so hard to earn?

What happens if I’m not good enough?

Not smart enough?

What if people don’t like me?

The one who is ptochos poor knows that what she has doesn’t depend on her.

She didn’t earn it in the first place.

She couldn’t keep it if she tried.

Her only choice is to trust the one from whom she begged in the first place.

We can only beg.

Penes poverty leads to slavery.

The result of insecurity is slavery.

If I know the only reason I have what I do is because I earned it – I’d better keep working so I don’t lose it.

If I know the only reason I have what I do is because I worked hard enough – I’d better never stop, even for a moment.

If I know the only reason I have what I do is because I’m good enough – I’d better make sure I never mess up.

Suddenly we are enslaved by these things, forced by fear to work to keep what we have.

But Jesus didn’t come so that we could be slaves.

He came so we could have freedom – real freedom.

But perhaps worst of all, when talking about the spiritual life, penes poverty leads to failure:

Failure in finding happiness.

Fear and slavery have a way of stealing the joy out of life.

We do what we do because we have to, because we’re afraid not to,  because who knows what will happen if we don’t.

There’s no joy in that kind of life.

But the person who is ptochos poor doesn’t do things because he has to.

He does them because he wants to.

He doesn’t live a life of righteousness and service because he’s afraid if he doesn’t he’ll lose his salvation. (After all, he didn’t earn his salvation that way to begin with.)

Rather he lives a life of righteousness and service because he wants to say thanks.

It’s not an attempt to pay back a debt that he can never repay.

It’s an attempt to say thank you to the one who forgave his debt and set him free.

It is a willing sacrifice, not a fearful obligation.

And there is joy there.

But penes poverty also leads to failure in finding God.

No one can buy a place in his throne room.

No one can earn a ticket into heaven.

At the end of life the man who is penes poor finds himself standing in a snack bar with a fist full of money that’s not worth as much as he thought it was looking at things that are far more expensive than he expected.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that we don’t have to buy our relationship with God or earn our place in heaven.

Later on in this same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will tell the crowds “If you ask you will receive.”

Here he tells them from the start “Those who come to the Father as Spiritual beggars will not go away empty handed or empty hearted. No! Those who come as spiritual beggars — knowing how poor they really are, knowing how priceless a relationship with God really is, knowing that they have nothing to put their hope in but the kindness of God – those who come as spiritual beggars are the ones who are allowed a place in his Kingdom.

So, how about you?

How have you been approaching God?

Have you been trying to earn your way into heaven?

Have you been hoping that if you are good enough, if you work hard enough, if you show up at church enough he’s going to let you in?

Have you been assuming that you can make it on your own?

Have you been looking at the people around you and saying “You know, I’m not all that bad?”

Have you been dealing with the insecurity of wondering if what you have will be taken from you?

Have you been enslaved to a list of things you must do for fear you’ll lose your relationship with God?

Has the joy of obedience been stolen from you?

Are you penes poor, or ptochos poor?

The good news is it can all change tonight.

Hear Jesus’ promise for you – If you come to the father as a beggar, you will not go home empty handed or empty hearted. “God-happiness belongs to those who come to him as a beggar, for they are the ones who have a place in his Kingdom.”