What can we do with this man Jesus? He is always turning the world upside down. Last week we had the story of  the religious man – the Pharisee – and a sinner, the tax collector, and by the end of the story, we saw the religious person discredited, and the sinner, uplifted?

This week things are turned upside down again. The man who has done well, and who we think should be happy is in trouble; but the poor, those with nothing, are blessed?

And when people hate you and insult you, you should be happy, while those who are popular, will definitely not be blessed. When people hate you, you should jump for joy, and when people think highly of you, you are in trouble.

No wonder the leaders of the day were upset about this man Jesus. Here was a man who seemingly wanted to turn everything upside down. Including how society functioned.

And what does Jesus mean by  ‘Woe to you rich?’ 

He is saying that if you set your heart and bend your whole will to obtain the things this world values, you will get them, but that is all you will get. 

If on the other hand you set your heart and bend all your energies to be utterly loyal to God and true to Christ, you will run into all kinds of trouble.  You may by the world’s standards look poor and unhappy, but your payment is still to come, and it will be joy eternal.

You see the problem is that concentrating on the world’s rewards may cause you to abandon the ways of Christ.

We have seen this, haven’t we, in the news accounts of those who have taken huge salaries of millions of dollars a year, only to be revealed as cheats, or thieves.  The point is well taken, that If you follow the way of the world it is hard to follow the way of Jesus.

To take Christ’s way means abandoning the values of the world.

And going against the world can be dangerous; very dangerous indeed. 

The history books are full of the names of martyrs, those who resisted doing what their world wanted them to do.  People who stood up against tyranny, against cruelty. People who refused to go with the flow.

One such was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a protestant pastor, and theologian living and working in Germany before and during the Second World War. Bonhoeffer found himself not only in opposition to the nazi government, but also to his church which had adopted a resolution that those with Jewish blood be excluded from positions of leadership within the church, and also that non-Aryans would be denied membership in the church. Even if baptised.

Instead of campaigning against the nazi government’s actions  – which had forbidden non-Aryans from working in the civil service – the church instead, copied  what the nazi government did – consciously choosing the values of the world as it was at that time and in that place.  

The church aligned itself with the Nazi government.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer left his church over its action, and was one of the few church leaders who stood in courageous opposition to the Fuehrer and his policies. 

He was executed by the nazis in April 1945

It takes courage to take the hard road. It is easier to take the road the world wants you to take.

You might save your life if you take the easier road. 

But Jesus said, “ He who seeks to keep his life will lose it and he who gives up his life will save it. “  Some more upside-down sounding stuff. 

But with real meaning when applied to Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

No one would deny the man was a saint. He surely found eternal life.

How do such people find the strength to go against the flow – even under the threat of death? 

How do such people get the courage to turn the other cheek.

Because in this world, turn the other cheek and you will get that slapped too.  

We are all faced with the choice of which way to go – the easy way which we know is wrong, and the hard way we know to be right.  The hard way may bring  hardship, or ridicule, or ostracism, but we have the examples of many  who have taken that road, and somehow have won through.

But they were ‘saints’, weren’t they?

How do ‘ordinary’ people like us cope under such severe conditions?

Paul tells us how!

In this week’s epistle to the church in Ephesus. He tells us about a great and mighty power that God has reserved, for us His followers.  He says that  ‘It is the same wonderful power he used when he raised Christ from death and let him sit on his right side in heaven.’

God will give us some of that same power to bring us through any hardship that may come because we are following Jesus.   

It isn’t the power to strike people dead. It isn’t a power that makes us physically stronger than others. It isn’t like being a karate expert, or a good shot with a pistol, or being expert in any of the other ways we might fantasize about when threatened.

It is a quiet power. The power of love.

And it works. With ordinary people like you and me.

It even works with children.

As you are about to hear.

I was about six or seven years old and my aunt Dora was  three or four years older than I. She was, at ten or eleven years old, more like a big sister.

We were walking home from Sunday School this particular hot summer’s afternoon. The town was dead at that time on a Sunday. No stores were open. The pubs were allowed to open, but had to be closed by two, No-one was around as we turned into a long empty back street. 

It happened that there was a traveling fair in town, Rides, slot machines, coconut shies, swings, ice cream and hot dog sellers. It was closed that day, of course, being Sunday.

We always thought that the people who worked the fair were rough and tough. They looked it!  They were dirty. The men were muscular, as they had to be, to erect and take down all that equipment in one day to move to the next town.

The women too were tough. They ran the sideshows and knew how to get people to fork over their money.

I guess that fairground people were outsiders, and had to be tough to survive.

Anyway, this quiet Sunday as we walked up this deserted backstreet, we spied a fairground girl walking towards us.  She would be about fifteen, She had gypsy black hair, a spotted dress that had seen better days, and she walked with a swagger. Like she owned the place.

When she drew level with us, she stopped and asked where we were going. Dora said we were going home. The fairground girl started to walk with us.

She said she admired the ring Dora was wearing and asked if she could have it. Dora gave it to her. Then she admired the bangle that Dora was wearing and asked for it. Dora gave it to her.

Then she spied the little purse that Dora had and in which she had carried our Sunday School offering, and what little money she had of her own. “I’ll have that too,” she said, and Dora gave her the purse. She opened it and saw the sixpence and a threepenny bit in there and put the whole thing in her pocket.

I realised we were being robbed, but this girl frightened me and although I wanted to kick her in the shins I didn’t have my school boots on, just my Sunday shoes, so I didn’t figure I could hurt her enough to prevent her chasing and catching me.

The girl asked Dora where we had been. Dora said, “To Sunday School.”

“What is Sunday School?’ the girl asked, and Dora told her it was where we learned about Jesus.

“Jesus? Who is Jesus?” she enquired,  and my eyes nearly popped out at the notion that someone didn’t know who Jesus was.

Dora told her that Jesus was the Son of God and that he had died for our sins, and that we were to live as he told us.

“ How?”  the tough girl asked.

“We have to love our enemies. Do good to them that hurt us. Forgive those who use us badly,” Dora told her.

“Like me?” the girl asked, pointing to herself. “You are supposed to forgive me? Love someone like me?”

“ Yes.” Dora said.

“And do you?” she asked.

We try to show love to everyone,” Dora answered.

The conversation went on. I don’t remember what else was said, I was busy looking at her shins and wondering if I should still kick her and whether she would be able to run fast enough to catch, me with a sore leg. 

But by the time we got to the top of that street, the gypsy girl was smiling, and holding hands with Dora. Just like best friends. Then we stopped and she gave the ring and the bangle and the purse with the sixpence and the threepenny bit  in it, back to Dora.

“ Tarra,” she said, as she turned back toward town and Dora and I walked the other way home.

‘Give to everyone who asks, and don’t ask people to return what they have taken from you. Treat others as you would want to be treated.’

Why? Because that is how God is with us. He loves us even as we hurt him. He loves us even as we take the gifts he has given us and use them for reasons he wouldn’t approve of.

We have to be like God.

Because love disarms people better than hatred.  People respond to being loved better than to being hated.

If we are to bring people to know Jesus it has to be through love.

In his infinite mercy he gives us the power to be like that. Because he knows we can’t do it alone.  It’s hard to turn the cheek, hard to give freely, hard to forgive enemies, hard to trade love for hatred.

Because the world tells us: Tit for tat. Eye for an eye. Respond to violence with violence – just like in the Middle East, where each act of violence begets another act of violence and nothing is ever solved.  And the cancer of hate that began there is now a worldwide phenomenon. 

See, God loves even the ungodly, and the ungodly have been brought to know him through acts of love, not through acts of hatred.

And with the power he gives us, we can be like Him. We can love the unlovable.

We can be saints.        

Can’t we?