“Beats and Beatitudes”
1. “Challenging
“Sacred” Values”
Luke 6:20-26
First Presbyterian Church
Donald E. Ray
June 22, 2008
I was a teen when
“Beat” was making the scene as a literary movement with the post World War
II generation whose attitudes and life style were far removed from typical
The Beat and the beatnik, hippie culture that followed and
its images of Bohemian, long haired, disheveled flower children with no roots in
the earth were anathema in my father’s view. Though
growing up during the flowering of the beat generation, I missed it. My
cars were plain sedans and family station wagons. I
had no longing, at least not acknowledged, for a VW bus (show picture) to roam
the country. I say “not
acknowledged” because, as I think about it, my love for the natural setting of
camping and a three week mid-life family vacation in 1984 to roam the country
may be more akin to “Beat” than my ingrained Protestant hard work ethic
would like to admit.
Having said that about my history, this summer’s
theme—“Beats and Beatitudes” will be a stretch for me. If
I’ve learned anything across the years it is that to stretch is good.
Jack Kerouac at the roots of the Beat literary movement
used the term “beat” to describe both the negative of his world that he saw
as beating him down and the positives of his response to it. “Beat”
implies weariness and disinterest in social and political activity but also was
suggested as reminiscent of the Beatitudes of Jesus—the declaration of
blessedness and happiness.
In our initial discussions, Tom and I agreed these first
two weeks would be a kind of introduction to the theme. Still
playing catch-up with the “beat” after the influence of my father’s
disdain for that culture, I laid claim to the beatitude piece. If
you are more intrigued by the “beat,” you’ll need to wait for Tom’s part
next Sunday.
Tom sent me an e-mail Friday about another matter, closing
it writing; “Looking forward to the preaching series.” In
my reply, I considered the same closing but realized I couldn’t honestly write
it then at noontime. Living with the
work in progress while doing some “no-brainer” chores in the early
afternoon, four hours later I could say that I was—am looking forward to
living with the Beatitudes and discovering the beat movement from a different
point of view.
Looking at the Beatitudes through the filter of the
“Beat” movement, I find the similarities uncanny. From
what the Gospels describe of the life of Jesus, he was bohemian before his time.
Jesus roamed the country devoid of
baggage. Unlike the ascetic,
Wilderness John the Baptist, Jesus admittedly enjoyed a good taste of life: wine
and dinner at the local tax collector’s house. Along
with John, who called the crowds with their traditional ways a brood of vipers,
Jesus was altogether critical of the established values. Luke’s
version of the Beatitudes especially makes it evident that there are not only
blessing for those not afforded opportunity to revel in what has been considered
the good life. Luke adds a list of
woes by which the whole value culture is open to challenge.
When I was a child in
It was easy for me to dismiss altogether the beat culture. It’s
language excesses and promiscuous sexuality, its drop out from productive
society, its drug induced pursuit of a blissful reality, were all contrary to
the values I had absorbed. To me,
reality was in doing a better job at upholding those values.
I am beginning to realize how easy it has been for me to
dismiss the beatitudes as well. To
look at them as assurance that God sides with the outcast, the short changed,
those beat down by our culture and that favor means we will one day enjoy a fair
share of the benefits of creation is a misreading. Luke’s
version makes that clear.
Luke could be seen as a
precursor of the beat literary movement. Disillusioned
with the reigning social constraints, he finds blessing in a whole other way of
life. The blessing of the poor is
not that one day you will be rich or at least less poor. Blessing
for the hungry is not that one day you will banquet lavishly. The
blessing for those who weep isn’t that one day you will have the last laugh. If
you are shut out and persecuted, blessing is not finally getting recognition
considered deserved. Luke makes it
clear that the flip side for the disenfranchised is not finally getting a fair
share. Woe, he writes, to you who
are rich—now or in your dreams. Woe
to you who feast; who laugh heartily—too heartily; to you who claim the
awards. You already have all that
there is and there is no more to fill all the life that is yet to live.
Perhaps there was the beat movement in the mid 20th
century and how many others across the centuries between because the beat
movement of the first century was too easily dismissed. We
are still a culture locked into the pursuit of riches in spite of the
disillusionment associated with wealth and the hardship for those left behind. We
are still a culture that laughs, often to keep from crying. We
are still a culture that in spite of the horror and futility of it pursues war
instead of making peace. We are
still a people enslaved to image rather than living by integrity and value at
the core of our being.
Blessing say the beatitudes is in the
I am learning that there was a spirituality about the beat
literary movement of the mid 20th century that underlies what I was
conditioned to find repulsive. My
hope is that this summer can be such a quest with the beat movement and the
beatitudes providing a model. I
would hope that this might be an interactive journey across the realm of
spiritual discovery. I am not
suggesting we resurrect a VW bus to travel across… well to travel. Personally,
I categorically reject the use of drugs in the pursuit of happiness or some kind
of reality. I’m not sure I’d be
into standing on street corners handing out flowers. Though,
thinking about it, that could be far better than what is too often passed out on
street corners. Perhaps gathering on
I missed the beat movement the first time around. I
realize that I didn’t miss its disillusionment with the socio-economic
constraints of our culture. Memorizing
the Beatitudes almost a life time ago provided an acquaintance with the
literature of another beat movement. I
once thought that made me a part of that movement, but I’m realizing I, and I
hope we, can see there is still a long way to go.
Eugene Peterson writes that “We are only capable of
renouncing a false life when we are familiar with a real life. Those
years of association with Jesus for the disciples, years of ‘growing up,’
were years of realizing in sharp and precise detail that life is what God gives
us in Jesus: grace, healing, forgiveness,…” (1)
We hope this summer provides association with the beat
literary movement of the mid 20th century and the beat movement that preceded it
by two millenniums. There, in the
challenges to values long held, but values that really hold us, we may join in
the spiritual quest for beatitude—for blessing.
Amen.
(1) “Living the Message”, Eugene Peterson p. 176
© Copyright 2008 First Presbyterian Church