| By Esther C. Baird, as written for the Silver Bay Spiritual Life Center, Silver Bay, NY. To subscribe to the mailing please email: pastoralrespite@silverbay.org |
| If you’ve been to Lake George in the winter, perhaps snowshoeing at Silver Bay, or simply happy to stay inside by a roaring fire, you know that when the lake finally freezes over, the ice is strong and vast. When I was a little girl, logging trucks still drove down the frozen lake as a short cut around the twisting Tongue Mountain pass. Safety and sanity prevailed, and that’s illegal now, but to see the fully frozen lake is a thing of peace and beauty. However, it’s the same ice that, as it thaws, becomes chaotic and dangerous. We have bubblers at our family dock – but when the ice goes out, nothing much will stop it. The sheets of once solid lake water form razor sharp pieces that can undo a paltry wooden dock in no time flat. Peace and power. Two different extremes found in the same place. It’s a concept we understand when it comes to water, but it’s a little trickier when it comes to people. However, the third Beatitude asks us to do that – – to hold two different things in tension. Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” Meek isn’t a word we use often in our common every day language. Meek seems similar to shy, or quiet – – almost to the point of being trampled on. Sure we might think of it as a form of humility, but almost too humble. The English language does’t paint people who are meek in the most positive light. But while this word is not used very often in Scripture, when it is used, it is to describe two people. Care to guess who? You probably guessed the first one, it’s the classic Sunday School answer. Yes, good job, it’s Jesus. And the second? It’s Moses. Now if ever there were two people in the Bible who don’t fit the description I gave above, it’s them. Moses? The guy who stood up to Pharaoh, who led the Israelites out of Egypt, across the Red Sea and met God on Mount Sinai to receive the ten commandments? Yep. And Jesus? The King of this Kingdom of Heaven we’ve been looking at the past few months? The baby who was the Messiah, who commanded the waves and wind on the Sea of Galilee, who healed people, and stood up and proclaimed a new way, a new Kingdom, and a new heart for his people? Yep. Meekness isn’t weakness. Rather, what we see is power that chooses to be gentle, or to hold back. Jesus both healed a demon possessed man bound in chains, and also invited the little children to come sit on his lap. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus both miraculously healed a man’s ear that Peter cut off, and then calmly went away with the soldiers to certain death. Power that chooses to be gentle. But, power from where? I don’t know about you, but I can’t command the ice that forms around my dock at Lake George, let alone waves or men with swords. But if we belong to this Kingdom of Heaven, the King gives us his power. His power allows us to stand up for what is right, to be bold in the face of untruths, to help the poor, and to care for those who are marginalized. When we do the work of the King of the Kingdom, we do so under the power of the King. And yet, this power, allows us to be gentle when we might otherwise not be. Meekness means we can love those who hate us. Meekness means we can trust that in the end, this Kingdom will be true and real and whole. The wrongs will be righted. And ultimately, not by us. How do we know this? Well in this third Beatitude, Jesus is actually quoting Psalm 37:11 from the Old Testament, where God said the meek will inherit the earth. And if you go back and read Psalm 37 you’ll see it’s all about God promising to right the wrongs of the wicked and of this world. It’s a Psalm of hope and promise for those who follow this King, a certainty of justice and deliverance. A promise of a new creation, a whole earth to be inherited, that is fully at peace, fully restored and fully for the King and all in his kingdom who follow him. Today perhaps you don’t believe God will right the wrongs. Or perhaps you want to handle it yourself. Maybe you do think meekness is weakness. But if you’re honest, you know you can’t fix things on your own. But, the King of the Kingdom can. And he invites us into this kingdom to experience it, to work for him in both power and in peace. |
| Extra Reading: If you want to read more, I’d encourage you to read Psalm 37. Any translation will do, though I often find the New Living Translation to be an easy one to follow (you can use biblegateway.com to get quick free access to different translations). |