Embracing Our Poverty of Spirit
- davidwperk
- May 13
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, May 13, 2025
The week of the fourth Sunday of Easter
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you* on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings: AM Psalm 45 PM Psalm 47, 48 Wisdom 3:1-9; Col. 1:15-23; Luke 6:12-26
Today we celebrate the Feast of Frances Perkins. (See below.)
David's Reflections
Our Bible was divided into chapters in the twelfth century by Stephen Langton, later to become Archbishop of Canterbury. The division of the Old Testament into verses came about in 1448; Rabbi Nathan did it to assist in the debates with Christians. A French printer, Robert Etienne, divided the New Testament into verses in 1551. While those divisions assist in finding particular passages, they are not always reflective of the flow of the text and actually can hinder and distract the reader.
Matthew's version of the Sermon on the Mount begins at 5:1, which obscures the nature of the audience for the reader, because Matthew describes the audience in the verses immediately preceding the chapter number. We avoid the distraction of that large number 5 here in Luke. The make-up of Jesus' audience stands immediately prior to Luke's version of the sermon (as in Matthew, but without the chapter division severing it from the audience context)--the Twelve, the sick, and those troubled by evil spirits (See Lk. 6:17-18 above).
It is to that diverse group that Jesus utters the Beatitudes: blessed are the hungry, those who weep, and those who are oppressed by others. How counterintuitive for Jesus to say that the poor, the grieving, and the hungry are blessed. The powerless and the afflicted hear these words of blessing. And, Luke alone contains the corresponding woes--woe to the rich, the full, the laughing, the popular. These deprived people will be blessed by their fortunes being reversed; so will the fortunes of the gluttonous, the rich, the constantly celebrating and the popular be reversed as well.
Luke's parables carry forward this theme of reversal and salvation for the powerless and those desperate for God's mercy. Of course, the wealthy also can become poor if they let go of finding security in possessions and acknowledge their desperate need for God. And the poor also can be gripped by the greed and the desire for security that drives the prosperous and resist the merciful salvation that comes only by letting go into faith.
It may well be that we fear our poverty more than anything else, because that poverty resists all our attempts at solution. We are forced into absolute dependence on God's saving love. If we can embrace that poverty and reframe our relationship with God accordingly, we will marvel at God’s infinite riches and love as our true riches. As Ann and Barry Ulanov have so powerfully reminded us:
The poverty we so fear becomes the entrance to our inner riches: we own nothing, we possess no one, not even our children who display the face of human dependence so vividly to us. To take this vow of poverty wakes us up to the plenitude that daily is given us. We breathe easily and eat well, we think, a friend, speaks to us, we are loved. We have only to lose our ease in any one of these things to know their priceless value. The poor in spirit are indeed filled. All we have is given us, and given (we will see if we look hard enough) in abundance.*
*Ann and Barry Ulanov, Primary Speech: A Psychology of Prayer, (Atlanta: John Knox, 1985), pp. 60-61.
Collect of the Day, The Fourth Sunday of Easter
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 225)
Collect of the Weekdays of Easter
Almighty and everlasting God, you have given your Church the great joy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Give us also the greater joy of the kingdom of your elect, when the flock of your Son will share in the final victory of its Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Weekday Eucharistic Propers, p. 63)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Frances Perkins, public servant and prophetic witness (died 14 May 1965 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Frances Perkins
Loving God, we bless your Name for Frances Perkins who in faithfulness to her baptism envisioned a society in which all may live in health and decency: Help us, following her example and in union with her prayers, to contend tirelessly for justice and for the protection of all, that we may be faithful followers of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Peace
Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen. (BCP, 123)
For the Departed
Almighty God, we remember before you today your faithful servant N.; and we pray that, having opened to him the gates of larger life, you will receive him more and more into your joyful service, that, with all who have faithfully served you in the past, he may share in the eternal victory of Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 253)
A Prayer for Light
Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Daily Office Gospel, Luke 6:12-21
12 Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles: 14Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
17 He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said:‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you* on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24 ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.
26 ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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