Texts: Micah 6: 1-8; Matthew 5: 1-12

“Those ghastly little traps … they were not meant for me,” sings Mordred in the musical Camelot concerning the virtues we have been taught to incorporate in our lives. Going on to outline why he does not want them to be part of his life, he continues, noting that, “humility means to be hurt. It’s not the earth the meek inherit; it’s the dirt.” The truth in his pithy comment is down deep most of the world agrees with that statement because meekness is equated with weakness. I suggest we look at this virtue and see why it is not so deadly.

The Greek word used for “meek” in Scripture is praus, meaning a gentle breeze, a soothing medicine, even a broken colt; our English word meek finds its origin in the Old Norse mjukr, meaning soft. Shakespeare uses it in this way when Antony has seen the dead body of Julius Caesar: “O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am meek and gentle with these butchers.” By that he means that at that time he will only be soft as a tactic to return to find justice later. The word took on the implication of submissiveness much later in its use in the language. I submit that Jesus is not telling us to be submissive but to control our strength, in a sense, to bide our time until it is time to strike.

This Beatitude in Matthew’s version flows from the previous one that the writer here has cast as “poor in spirit,” quite different from Luke’s version of just “the poor.” But let’s just look at Matthew’s poetry here and see how it speaks to us. The Argentinean poet Jorge Luis Borges gives us a hint in his paraphrase of this virtue when he writes: Blessed are the meek; for they stoop not to the conflict. That is, we don’t stoop to the level to which others go in conflict. Meekness means taking our inner desire to answer anger with anger and violence with violence and using a different way to resolve our own personal hurts and the hurts we experience in society.

A.W. Tozer, a pastor who was active during the 1940s and 50s, once wrote that the meek person is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of inferiority. Rather the meek may be in their moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but have stopped being fooled about themselves. The meek has accepted God's estimate of their lives. The meek know they are as weak and helpless as God declared them to be, but paradoxically, at the same time they know that in the sight of God they are of more importance than even the angels. In oneself, nothing; in God, everything.

The other Beatitudes reflect the same approach. If we find our strength in God, then we will not be conquered by the world and its values of “me first” and returning anger and violence with more of the same. We will become peacemakers, not by shoving stuff under the rug but by facing conflict directly and honestly but with love as the guide for how we actually address the real conflicts that exist within ourselves and society.

This past election season saw some of the most terrible vitriolic speech and we have reaped the whirlwind. It is too easy to blame the assault in Phoenix on the act of one crazy person. Over the past two years, indeed, for even longer, people have been whipped into a frenzy by the hyperbolic speech on right-wing talk radio, so-called news by the Bill O’Reillys of this world, and by politicians who know they are misrepresenting the facts. We’ve lost our sense of civility, of talking things through because people have been pushed into feeling threatened and fearful. We need more peacemakers, not warmongers. We need to act with self-control, with softness, with meekness in the original sense of the word.

That means accepting the fact that we really don’t have all the answers, but in community we can learn how to resolve many of the problems we face in our society. It also means we recognize our limits. Although in community we may be able to learn how to resolve certain problems, we will not resolve all of them. That’s just not the way it’s gonna be. There are limits to what we can do, individually and collectively. And there are limits to what we can hold onto. That’s something we don’t like to hear, but it’s true. Any of us who has lost someone dear to us knows that life can be cut short no matter what the doctors do. Thus community is important because that is where we find the comfort we need when we mourn.

The world will revile those of us who live by the values of softness, returning good for evil, softness for anger, and love for hate. Jesus knew that. But as a people of faith in community with each other, we can care for each other, share our strength, build a culture of peace, and point to a different way of living, a way that accepts all people as part of God’s wonderful creation, a way that is a model for the future.

Let us pray: Surprising One who calls us in ways we often do not understand, bring us into a deeper understanding of your special ways, so we are able to love and care for each other and to share your love with the world beyond these walls. Amen.